Happy Summer! I’m sure you are excited and ready to play next week at our largest tournament, the Firecracker, an Open Sectional & NLM Regional, held July 10-14. NLM players can earn gold/red points, and Open sectional players earn silver. Firecracker
The summer months continue with North American Pairs (NAP) club-qualifying games at the Bridge Center where you can win red and black points. Come and play at our daily Monday – Saturday club games at the Bridge Center PABC club games. A shout-out to Bob Horowitz for playing almost daily at the Bridge Center! Come and join Bob, if you have not played in-person bridge in a while. Sign up: SignUp
Gavin Wolpert, our next Celebrity Lecturer, will give a seminar on “Going for Overtricks” on August 10 via Zoom. Gavin is an excellent teacher with great insights for players of all levels.
Join us at our monthly Swiss teams game event, next held on Monday, August 12 at 11:30AM, where the boards are already shuffled and there are hand records of the game. If you need a partner, or help to be matched with another pair, let us know. 16 teams played on June 10 – congrats to the winning team: Lori Spaeth – Kip Kado – Jack Clinch – David Wheeler.
It was great to see so many of you – 26 tables – come and play on June 13 and to celebrate the 90th birthday of our beloved John Schwartz. We squeezed in everyone and managed to take a group photo – see our Facebook page. A huge thank you to Stephanie Youngquist and her volunteers Dianne Giancarlo, Kevin O’Leary, Kathy Wheeler, Dan Thatte, Mary Steele, and a generous donor, for making this an enjoyable and memorable occasion for John.
SiVY held its summer camp at the Bridge Center with great success last month with 17 and 24 kids over two weekends. Their volunteers were Amber Lin, Kevin Rosenberg, Will Watson, Ken Rosenfeld, Ed Lechner, Olivia Schireson, Brian Zhang, Brandon Ge, Kayden Ge, Max Krawzcyk, Anant Rathi, Florin Constantin, with special guests who brought their kids: Gavin and Jenny Wolpert from Florida and Rajath Shourie from Los Angeles.
Congrats to Palo Alto Bridge top masterpoint winners at the Sacramento Regional on May 27 to June 2, out of 662 players:
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Debbie Rosenberg, 57mps
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Edward Zuckerberg, 57mps
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Irene Hashfield, 53mps
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Alex Martelli, 50mps
We appreciate getting your feedback – and made an improvement to our club game reservations system. Thank you to all the club directors for assisting in making this more user-friendly. You no longer require a username and password to sign up.
Do you love bridge? We welcome everyone to get involved in our bridge community. Volunteerpositions are open for the marketing and publicity committee, coordinating our free lecture series, and help organize a bridge tournament. If you are interested, please contact either our Volunteer Chair, Gerry MacDonald (geraldinem@aol.com), or myself.
Highlighting some upcoming events for you:
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Palo Alto Unit Firecracker Open Sectional & Non Life Master Regional at the Bridge Center: Open players win silver points while NLMs win gold/red points during five days onWednesday, July 10 – Sunday, July 14. Firecracker
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NAP qualifying club games at the Bridge Center: win 50% red and 50% black points in a NAP qualifying club game this summer. Sign up: SignUp
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Celebrity seminar: Gavin Wolpert – via Zoom – Saturday, August 10 at 9:30AM: “Going for Overtricks” Wolpert seminar
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Monthly Swiss Team club games at the Bridge Center: upcoming Mondays, August 12, September 9, at 11:30AM. Swiss Team games Sign up: SignUp
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Kathy Harper’s summer classes at the Bridge Center: Bridge classes
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Silicon Valley Youth Bridge (SiVY): Casual Fridays for youth players at the Bridge Center; also check out their Summer programs: SiVY website
Newer Players: we have novice/0-50 masterpoint games at the Bridge Center on Tuesdays at 10:45AM and Wednesday evenings at 6:45PM. Gain experience and improve your game in a relaxed club game environment. Sign up: SignUp
Palo Alto Bridge has a Mentor Program where we match aspiring players with more advanced players to encourage our Unit’s newer and less experienced players to develop their skills and increase their enjoyment of the game. To apply as a mentee or to volunteer as a mentor, please contact our coordinator Sid Chen: Mentor Program
Congrats to the following Palo Alto Unit 503 members who achieved a new ACBL Rank in June:
Junior Master: Helena Liu, Birgit Shay.
Regional Master: Douglas Seifert.
Advanced NABC Master: Cathy Priest.
A very warm welcome to our new Palo Alto Unit 503 members: Robert Bell, Suzanne Bell, Vijeta Kashyap, Tomasz Pawlowski, Ken Rosenfeld.
Liz Koh
P.S. Feel free to forward this to others who play at Palo Alto Bridge Center but who are not members of Unit 503.