Karen Barrett has been playing duplicate bridge since 1969. Like many young players, she struggled to find a balance between her passion for the game and the rest of life.  College waited for completion for 20 years and nearly every vacation was bridge related. In the early years, she played both duplicate and rubber bridge. Playing for money against some of the best players in California during the 1970s provided a very strong incentive to improve her declarer play.
 
The play of the hand is the only aspect of the game that does not depend on the quality or cooperation of one's partner. It is also an aspect of the game that has not appreciably advanced in 40+ years so the older books (like Watson's Play Of The Hand) are still timely. Karen read Watson voraciously (one copy fell into the bathtub) despite the dry style.
 
During the early 1980s, she developed long term partnerships that improved her bidding and defense and that began a long string of successes at the regional and national levels. Karen's first national title was in 1984, the Life Master Women's Pairs. After achieving this goal, she went back to college and got a degree in computer programming and a traditional job. In 1993, she met her husband GS Jade Barrett playing bridge online and they were married in 1995. In 2007 the Barretts moved from Vancouver, Washington (Karen's home for 30 years) to Elk Point, South Dakota where they live in a huge old house with Karen's sister LiLi, her niece Irene, and three very spoiled dogs. Karen now telecommutes to work in Oregon and also plays approximately 20 weeks of bridge most years.
 
 Since 1984 she has added two more titles (1998 Womens KO, 2000 Womens Swiss teams), been second twice (1992, 1998 Women's BAM), and has lost track of her top 10 finishes in national events. With 9,000+ masterpoints and 110+ Blue Ribbon qualifications, she ranks higher than 99.66% of the ACBL.