Our 2010 Top Ten Tournaments:
 
1: BERMUDA. A wonderful mix of classic attitudes and elegance played at a great hotel on one of the most beautiful islands on Earth.   www.BermudaRegional.com
 
 2: PUERTO VALLARTA. Mexico in November, no bugs, perfect weather and a great schedule. PV is home for Thierry Blouet, owner and chef of four great restaurants: including Cafe des Artiste.
 
3: SACRAMENTO CA. Great weather and an excellent directing staff makes this tournament a GREAT AMERICAN BRIDGE TOUR favorite. An easy city to find inexpensive hotels and restaurants.
 
4: GATLINBURG TN. The world's largest tournament – over 10,000 tables over the seven days. While the local hotels are nothing special, the timeshares available all over the city are very nice and some are great.   www.GatlinburgRegional.org
 
5: PENTICTON BC. In the heart of the Okanagan Valley, great staff and the friendliest collection of competitors in North America.   www.d19.org/Penticton/
 
 6: OMAHA NE. Played at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs Iowa, the hospitality provided is unparalled anywhere. Free lunches are provided daily.
 
7: SANTA CLARA CA. Another metropolitan area where it is easy to find great hotels to bid out. Cheap to fly to, cheap to bid out cars. Great attendance, great schedule, great staff.
 
8: VIRGINIA BEACH VA. Sit by the ocean and watch the breakers as you enjoy your game. Superb hospitality and another great place to successfully bid out hotels.
 
9: MONTEREY CA. Good hotel in one of America's most beautiful places. It is no surprise that District 21 makes the GABT list 3 times. Jackie Matthews is the best tournament manager we know. The players always come first, they never run the player/director unfriendly 10, 3, amd 7:30 schedule, and the locations are always well selected.
 
10: LAS VEGAS NV. While the hotel is dated, it has been recently remodeled. And Vegas is still Vegas. Great attendance, lots of teams, tons of opportunity for fun.
 
Honorable Mentions: Lancaster PA, Denver CO, any tournament in Montana or Wyoming, any tournament in Alberta or Saskatchewan, and Victoria BC when not in conflict with Gatlinburg TN.
 
For clarification, only annual ACBL Regionals were considered. We love NABCs, but they rotate. Quality and size of field, hospitality, directing staff, comfort of the playing area, and general friendliness of the players were also included in our evaluation.
We also considered travel costs, opportunities for bidding hotels and rental cars, as well as local restaurants. As a side note, our selectors overwhelming chose AGAINST the 10, 3, and 7:30 schedule, citing it as too exhausting to play over the whole week and noting that at some tournaments that the evening session failed to have adequate attendance to run an event. The 9, 1, and 7:30 schedule was the favorite among the GABT staff.