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Like Father Like Son

by Henry Francis

Contract Bridge Bulletin — May, 1983

Richard Pavlicek Jr. of Fort Lauderdale FL became a Life Master in Gatlinburg TN in April, just a little more than two months after his 13th birthday. Though this does not break Dougie Hsieh’s record as the youngest ever to become Life Master, it definitely makes Rich the youngest Life Master playing today. He was born January 26, 1970, and is two months younger than Dougie, who established the all-time “Youngest LM” record in 1981 at the age of 11 years, 10 months and 4 days.

Rich has been an ACBL member for two and a half years. His dad, Richard Sr., is a famous writer and teacher and is one of the top North American players, having just won the two most recent major team events — the Vanderbilt in Hawaii and the Reisinger in Minneapolis. His mother, Mabel, is a leading Florida player and teacher.

Rich is not just your average eighth-grader. He is interested in computer science and is enrolled strictly in classes for gifted children. For high school next year he has been accepted in the St. Thomas Aquinas honors program. Other sports and hobbies include white-water rafting, which he enjoyed just prior to the Gatlinburg tournament.

At the time Rich won his last required points in Gatlinburg playing in the Knockout Teams and Men’s Pairs with his father, he had 52 red points and 68 golds — considerably more than double the necessary colored points. The last two years he has won his category in the Little McKenney race, and he was tops statewide in 1982, leading all the National Masters in Florida.

Rich has two sectional titles to his credit, a Master Pairs and an Open Swiss. He won the Charity Open Swiss at the Baton Rouge Regional last July, and the Swiss Consolation in Albuquerque at the Summer North American Championships. His most recent accomplishment at the regional level was to finish second in the 0-1500 Swiss at the Tampa Regional in competition with 175 other teams.

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