President’s Newsletter January 2026

Happy New Year!  2025 was a truly successful year for Palo Alto Bridge.  In my upcoming third year as President, my expectation is that 2026, with your help, will be an even better year!

Some of Palo Alto Bridge’s goals for 2026 are:

• create a fun and welcoming environment for players at the Bridge Center
• offer Bridge Center events that allow players to improve their game
• advance the Unit’s financial viability
• grow participation at Bridge Center club games and tournaments
• recruit volunteers to expand and improve the Unit’s events
• increase Unit membership

As you consider your bridge goals for 2026, I welcome you to join our fabulous volunteer team to help with events for our bridge community.  Your input could help us create new events which help you and your partners (current and future!).

Upcoming events for you at Palo Alto Bridge Center:

• Daily Monday – Saturday club games: Bridge Center is generally open every weekday and some Saturdays.  SignUp  Free Post-mortem sessions for some Tuesday daytime and Wednesday evening club games.
• Monthly Swiss Team club games: upcoming Mondays January 19, February 9, March 9 at 11:30AM.  Swiss Team games  SignUp
• Kathy Harper’s classes: Monday evenings and Tuesday mornings – register: Bridge classes
• Frank Smoot’s 2 over 1 classes: Thursday evenings from January 15 – register: Smoot’s Winter 2/1 Classes
• Amber Lin celebrity seminar: Saturday, January 24, 2026 via Zoom – How to Defend against 3NT – register: Amber Lin celebrity Jan2026
• Valentine’s Day game: wear red and get romantic on [TBD-Friday, February 13].
• Find-a-Partner game: Wednesday, February 18.  Sign up: Find-a-Partner games
• Silicon Valley Youth Bridge (SiVY): Casual Friday evenings: SiVY website
• SAVE THE DATES – 6/24-6/28! Palo Alto Bridge’s annual Firecracker tournament will be held in June this year due to the Summer North American Bridge Championships being held earlier in July than usual.

Attached is a 1-pager current list of planned events – more will be added through the year.

At last month’s game on December 15 – congrats to the winning team: Denise Pitsch – H Paul Davis – Lucy Ballard – Stephanie Yoshikawa.  Honorable mention of the top strat C team (and overall 2^nd): ilya Sherman – Michael Callahan – Pearl Renaker – Solveig Kjartansdottir.

• Frank Smoot’s 2 over 1 classes start on January 15 – register: Smoot’s Winter 2/1 Classes
• Amber Lin will give a celebrity seminar on Saturday, January 24 via Zoom – How to Defend against 3NT, a common and challenging topic for intermediate and newcomer players – register: Amber Lin celebrity Jan2026
• Kathy Harper’s Beginning Bridge classes start on February 3 – register: Harper’s Classes

Highlights:

148 players attended our annual Holiday party on December 14, with many competing for the ugliest holiday sweater!  Check out the photos on our Facebook page to see if you can do better next year.  Some very lucky players won prizes during our prize drawings.

Thank-you to Will Watson for singlehandedly directing 37 tables with multiple Open, 749er and 99er sections.  Huge thank-you to our volunteers for organizing this special event with lots of holiday themed foods and decorating the Bridge Center into a Winter Wonderland: Alex Narasin, Stephanie Youngquist, Dana Bisconti, Marc Cervellino and Liz Koh.

Thank YOU all for your generosity with your donations to Community Services Agency (CSA), Second Harvest of Silicon Valley and Peninsula Bridge Education Foundation (PBEF).

As we do every year, we also recognize a super volunteer for their many contributions to our Unit.  Marc Cervellino and Dan Thatte proudly presented David Merenbach with the 2025 Palo Alto Bridge Service Award plaque for his leadership and strategic guidance when he served on our Unit Board as a director and President.  We are sorry that he has been poached by another unit and district in southern California, but hope to draw him back to play at our Bridge Center for some of our fun events.

Newer Players: we have newcomer/0-49 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 environment.  SignUp

Congrats to the following Palo Alto Unit 503 members who achieved a new ACBL Rank in December:

Junior Master: Ignatius Bezzam, Oren Scheer.

Regional Master: Renee Koury.

NABC Master: ilya Sherman.

Silver Life Master: Yakov Feldman.

Diamond Life Master (>5000mps): Susan Zhang.

A very warm welcome to our new Palo Alto Unit 503 members:
Laura Carcione Bezzam, Kathy Ormseth, Shames Panahi, Paul Seah, Ritesh Shah, Kathy Walker.

P.S.  Feel free to forward this to others who play at Palo Alto Bridge but who are not members of Unit 503.