Our monthly Swiss teams game is proving popular! We had 18 teams on March 11 – congrats to the winning team: Lynn Yokel – Jack Verson – Arif Janjua – Clark Millikan. Don’t forget to sign up for our next one – and let us know if you need to be matched with another pair to make a team.
Thank you to Stephanie Youngquist for organizing, and to all of you who attended, our St. Patrick’s Day+1 event at the Bridge Center on March 18. Congrats to the winning pairs: Bill Roman – Monica Bacon-Proctor in N/S section and Peggy Chen – Dianne Giancarlo in E/W section. Check out our Facebook page for the happy green pics!
We had good attendance and 4 fun days at our first NLM and Open Sectional for the year from March 21 – 24:
- 78% of participants won silver masterpoints; 806 masterpoints were awarded.
- 292 unique participants played in the tournament from 16 different District 21 units.
- 6 participants played in all 8 tournament sessions!
- Congrats to our Unit’s H. Paul Davis for being the top overall masterpoint winner!
Don’t miss our next sectional in May for another enjoyable tournament!
Congrats to the winning pairs at our NLM 1-session sectional on March 4: Jane Herman – Cathy Priest in N/S section and Ralph Griffin – Susan Griffin in E/W section. Following a recent change in ACBL rules, we will continue to look at creative ways to attract more NLM players to play in-person – please share your ideas with us!
Our celebrity lecture webinar with Michael Berkowitz had 85 attendees. His lecture on “How to Find Tricks: Card Combinations for Declarer Play” on March 30 was popular with beginner and intermediate players.
Congrats to our Unit member and ex-Unit Treasurer Susan Zhang on winning the inaugural Women’s Open Swiss team event at the Louisville 2024 Spring NABC: Louisville NABC Daily Bulletin
We also had some youth news published in ACBL’s March Bridge Bulletin (page 28): Olivia Schireson needed some silver points and became both a Life Master and Silver Life Master! SiVY’s model of hosting Casual Fridays game was promoted as a model for clubs across the country.
Highlighting some upcoming events for you:
- Grand National Teams (GNT): good luck to the Flight A and Flight B teams playing semi- and finals this weekend on April 6 & 7 at the Bridge Center.
- Monthly Swiss Team club games at the Bridge Center: upcoming Mondays, April 8, May 13, June 10 at 10:30AM. Swiss Team games Sign up: Unit503 SignUp
- Silicon Valley Spring Sectional at the Bridge Center: win silver points during three days on Friday, April 26 – Sunday, April 28. Silicon Valley Spring Sectional
- Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC) at the Bridge Center: win silver points in any club game during the week of Monday – Sunday, May 6 – 12.
- Barbara Seagram Celebrity Lecture – via Zoom – Saturday, May 11 at 9:30 AM: “Opening Leads”
Barbara Seagram webinar - Palo Alto Unit Open Sectional & Non Life Master Sectional at the Bridge Center: win more silver points during four days on Thursday, May 16 – Sunday, May 19. Separate NLM sections. Attached flyer. Palo Alto Unit 503 May Sectional
- 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. Mark your calendar! Attached flyer.
- Kathy Harper’s Spring classes at the Bridge Center: Bridge classes
- Silicon Valley Youth Bridge (SiVY): Casual Fridays for youth players at the Bridge Center; also check out their Spring/Summer programs: SiVY website
Newer Players: we have 0-20 masterpoint games at the Bridge Center on Tuesdays at 10:30AM and Wednesday evenings at 6:45PM. Gain experience and improve your game in a relaxed club game environment. Sign up: Unit503 SignUp
We are delighted to see some old friends and new faces at the Bridge Center. Face-to-faceattendance at the daily Monday to Friday Bridge Center club games is growing: PABC club games. If you have not played F2F bridge in a while, please join us! Sign up: Unit503 SignUp
A reminder we have 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: Unit 503 Mentor Program
Get more involved with our brilliant bridge community – we need volunteers for: marketing and publicity, coordinating our free lecture series, help organize a bridge tournament. Please contact either our Volunteer Chair, Gerry MacDonald (geraldinem@aol.com), or me.
Congrats to the following Unit 503 members who achieved a new ACBL Rank in March:
Junior Master: Jennifer Lu.
Club Master: Lina Reznik.
Sectional Master: Solveig Kjartansdottir.
Bronze Life Master: Dianne Giancarlo, Mary Steele.
Finally, a warm welcome to our new Unit 503 members: Robin J Cooke, Ken Gradiska, Gloria Halliday, Mike Halliday, Gwen Havern, Brahm A Levin, Deborah Levin, Helena Liu, Ilya Sherman.
Liz Koh
lizkoh4bridge@gmail.com
Palo Alto Unit 503 website
PABC Unit 503 Facebook
P.S. Feel free to forward this to others who play at PABC but who are not members of Unit 503.