Joan Eaton – Hall of Fame 2025

Joan discovered Duplicate Bridge in the final days of completing her BSc (Eng) at Queen’s University, and she was immediately in love with the game. She spent two more years in Kingston doing post graduate studies – and learning bridge from the Kingston Duplicate Bridge players, especially Noreen Sugarman and Doug McCorkell.

In 1977 she moved to Toronto to work in hydroelectric generation at Ontario Hydro. She knew no one in Toronto, so an early priority was finding bridge partners to continue her love affair with the game. She considers meeting her dear circle of bridge playing friends and her husband, Nader Hanna, a major benefit of her bridge playing addiction.

In her bridge career Joan’s achievements include:

  • Four wins and 1 second in North American Championship events (at the time of her induction in 2025, 2nd most NABC wins by a Canadian woman player).
  • Seven wins and 6 seconds in Canadian Championships
  • World Bridge Federation International Master, having represented Canada nine times in World Competition

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Here is a hand from the Bali Venice Cup in 2013. Karen Cumpstone and Joan were playing against two World Champions. Joan likes this hand because John Carruthers (the team’s NPC) was quite enthused about the defense Joan and Karen had found to beat a 4♠ contract and win 12 imps.

Joan led the ♦7 (third and fifth) to the 9, T and K. Declarer then cashed the ♠A, ♠K and played the ♣K. Joan won the ♣A and Karen played the ♣9 showing 3 (upside down count and attitude). Joan cashed the ♠J and Karen played the encouraging ♥5. To beat the contract, Joan knew that two heart tricks were needed if declarer has the ♣J, so she played the ♥8. Declarer had no way of knowing who had the ♥A and she eventually played low. Karen won the ♥Q and played back to Joan’s ♥A – down 1. Carruthers swore he was telepathically willing Joan to smoothly lead the ♥8😊.