On the weekend of February 19th and 20th, the Palo Alto Bridge Center hosted its second face-to-face (F2F) NLM Sectional since the initial closing of the Center in March 2020 due to Covid. Over the past two years our members have been cautious about coming back to the PABC to play F2F bridge, but the turnout at this Sectional indicates that people are eager to return to play bridge in-person. There were likely few participants who did not experience at least one bidding mistake or play out of turn during the event, but that and so much more is part of the beauty of being in a room at a table with your partner and opponents.
After two long Covid years, the PABC shines brightly with full bridge tables. Thank you to our members and friends for participating!
Newcomers bravely attend their first tournament (for most of them) through the encouragement of PABC’s cherished teacher, Kathy Harper.
We are happy to announce that we had 53 tables in total and 117 players. We are particularly proud we had 6 newcomer tables (for players with less than 5 masterpoints) on Saturday morning, to which we owe their teacher, Kathy Harper, a huge amount of thanks.
For ten of our newcomer players, it was their first time earning masterpoints. Like us, we suspect that many of our readers remember what it was like to start playing duplicate bridge, especially in a tournament setting. Fortunately for these folks, Kathy Harper and our Tournament Director Will Watson, were on hand to answer any (technical) questions and to keep the boards and pairs moving in the right direction. See the photo of Kathy and most of her newcomer students.
Solveig Kjartansdottir and Kathryn Riley, Newcomer N/S winning team.
A total of 55 silver masterpoints were awarded over the weekend to over 60% of the players. But whether or not a participant won masterpoints, 61 players who met the early sign-up deadline or who participated in all four sessions, won gifts in our raffles. We are most grateful for the enthusiastic response we received from almost every bridge group and professional that we reached out to make donations, resulting in over $2,300 in value of books and subscriptions and invaluable time from mentors and teachers. Our donors are listed on the back of our Sectional flier,
Kevin Babcock and Paul Melodia, Saturday morning Section A E/W winners.
Paul Melodia and Kevin Babcock, Saturday afternoon N/S winners.
Allen Simon and Roman Weil, Saturday morning Section A N/S winners, Sunday afternoon N/S winners.
Eric Faust and Richard Ross, Sunday morning N/S winners.
Liz Koh and Dianne Giancarlo, Sunday afternoon E/W winners.
David Merenbach and Bob Farkas, Saturday afternoon E/W winners.
Pete Goldsmith and Bob Farkas, Sunday morning E/W winners.
Finally, we are delighted that we were able to successfully pair up 12 partnership requests. We believe that for some of these partnerships, it may be the beginning of a lasting bridge friendship. Enjoying reuniting with friends in-person, meeting new ones, sharing successes and losses, and sharing postmortem discussions are all part of the reason we come back to F2F play. We hope to see many of our members at the PABC in the coming months.
Thank you to our Director and all of our volunteers: (from left) Will Watson, Jon Rayden, Liz Koh, Eli Wismer, Greg Gauthier, (front) Dianne Giancarlo and David Merenbach.