Call your partners and play at the two sectionals this month at Palo Alto Bridge!
Upcoming events for you at Palo Alto Bridge Center:
- Daily Monday – Saturday club games: Bridge Center is open every weekday and some Saturdays. SignUp
- Silicon Valley Unit 3-day Sectional (Open & Silver Rush): Friday, April 4 – Sunday, April 6. U507 Spring Sectional
- Monthly Swiss Team club games: 2nd Mondays April 14, May 12, June 9 at 11:30AM. Swiss Team games SignUp
- Palo Alto Bridge 4-day Sectional (Open & Silver Rush): Thursday April 24 – Sunday April 27. U503 April Sectional – see attached flyer.
- Frank Smoot’s Intermediate Declaring & Defending classes: Thursday evenings – register: Frank Smoot’s class
- Kathy Harper’s classes: Monday evenings and Tuesday mornings – register: Bridge classes
- Cinco de Mayo game: join us at our new special event on Monday, May 5 – Save the date!
- Stardust Week at Clubs: earn 25% gold – Monday, May 5 – Sunday, May 11. SignUp
- Palo Alto Bridge 4-day Sectional (Open & Silver Rush): Thursday, May 15 – Sunday, May 18.
- District 21 Royal (Gold/Red/Silver/Black) Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC) week: Monday May 19 – Sunday May 25.
- Celebrity seminar by Barbara Seagram: “Defensive Magic” via Zoom on Saturday, May 24 – register: Seagram seminar
- Silicon Valley Youth Bridge (SiVY): Casual Fridays; Pizza Party on May 3; Summer Camp Weekends June 7-8 and June 14-15: SiVY website
Attached is a current list of planned events for the year, with more to come.
|
- Palo Alto Bridge’s 2025 tournament schedule kicks off with a 4-day Sectional from Thursday April 24 to Sunday April 27, where you can earn silver points. Call your partners, teammates and friends and come play! Separate Silver Rush (under 750mps) and Open sections. Special 0-99er game with 18 boards on Sensational Saturday morning. U503 April Sectional – see attached flyer.
- Team games! Before your next tournament, come practice your team play at our next monthly Swiss teams game event on Monday, April 14 at 11:30AM, where the boards are already shuffled with hand records. If you need a partner, or help to be matched with another pair, let us know. Swiss Team games SignUp
At last month’s game on March 10 – congrats to the winning team: Susan Zhang – Kip Kado – Lori Spaeth – Marolyn Imaoka.
|
Recent highlights:
Congrats to the top Palo Alto Bridge winners at San Mateo Unit’s Spring Sectional on March 8-9 held at the Bridge Center: U498 sectional winners
- Susan Zhang, 16mps – 3rd overall!
- Robert Brunkhorst, 9mps
- Phil Abrahamson, 8mps
- Dana Shelley, 8mps
- Bo Han Zhu, 8mps
|
68 (mostly green!) players had fun at our annual St. Patrick’s Day club game on March 17. 8 tables in the 499er limited section and 9 tables in the Open. Pre-game, many came to Phil Abrahamson‘s excellent lecture on slam bidding tools. Dave Joffe, dressed as a leprechaun, won the Best Green Garb prize! There was a drawing and 5 other players won prizes. As always, a huge thank-you to our volunteers who made this possible: Phil Abrahamson, Stephanie Youngquist, Marc Cervellino, Liz Koh – for climbing up ladders to decorate the Bridge Center in glorious green, baking and presenting green cookies, muffins, snacks, and organizing prizes for the drawings. Check out our Facebook page for more pics!
|
Congrats to the top Palo Alto Bridge winners at the recent NABC in Memphis: Memphis NABC winners
- Kevin Rosenberg, 292mps – coming 2nd overall!
- Olivia Schireson, 103mps
- Ming Sheng, 82mps
- Susan Zhang, 65mps
- Qing Lu, 62mps
- Ron Powell, 61mps
- Gary Sheerer, 56mps
- Debbie Rosenberg, 52mps
- Eusebio Menezes, 33mps
- Mukund Thapa, 30mps
- Amber Lin, 28mps
|
SiVY hosted a spring themed Pizza Party tournament on March 29. There were 3 tables in the “open” and 1 table in the 3rd grade and under. Both sections played an individual movement so everyone could play against each other. They all had a lot of fun! Thank-you to the SiVY team of volunteers: Amber Lin, Will Watson, Kevin Rosenberg.
Our winner was Jeremy Zhang, 2nd is Kai Eckert (a volunteer and junior), 3rd was Demian Li, and 4th was Kevin Wei (pictured from left to right).
In the 3rd grade and below section, Mihai Constantin won and Larry Wei was in 2nd.
|
You can purchase your own customized name badge with our colorful Palo Alto Bridge logo – order yours online for $14: Custom Name Badge Order
|
Volunteers
Join us and get involved in our community! Many of our events and activities are put together by our volunteers, and we need more of you to help us. Any little of your time would be appreciated! We are looking for volunteers for marketing and publicity (photo-takers, storytellers, email blaster), coordinating our free lecture series, and help organize a bridge tournament. Please contact either our Volunteer Chair, Gerry MacDonald(geraldinem@aol.com), or me.
|
Let’s all give a huge thank-you to Valerie Baldwin for her extensive volunteer contributions to our bridge community. She was President of Peninsula Bridge Education Foundation (PBEF) since its inception in 2016 until her recent retirement. Her many contributions include: on the Board of Directors for 4 years; initiated and ran the Celebrity Series; Chair of Palo Alto Bridge’s Education Committee; organized a very successful conventions classes; has managed and continues to manage the Library.
Stephanie Yoshikawa (Youngquist) is the new PBEF President.
|
Call to Intermediate Players: We would like to have more of you play in-person at Palo Alto Bridge Center. If all of you sign up to play, we can have a regular weekly 499er or 750er section for you. Please let us know which day of the week you prefer.
Newer Players: we have newcomer/0-49 masterpoint games at the Bridge Center on Tuesdays at 10:45AM, Wednesday evenings at 6:45PM, and Thursdays at 11:30AM. Gain experience and improve your game in a relaxed environment. SignUp
Sad news: Many of you may know long-time member, Alice Arnold, who recently passed away. We shall miss her. From her son Ken: “Bridge was an important part of her life.”
|
Congrats to the following Palo Alto Unit 503 members who achieved a new ACBL Rank in March:
Junior Master: Susan Moriconi, Barbara Poole, Bruce Winterhof.
Club Master: Melinda Byerley, Dave Greenberg, Keith Kitani, Barbra Wood.
Regional Master: Walter Zavoli.
NABC Master: Sharon Humphreys, Patricia Murray, Youfeng Wu.
Silver Life Master: Phil Abrahamson, Dave Leaver, Dana Shelley, Allen Simon.
A very warm welcome to our new Palo Alto Unit 503 members:
Suresh Gajwani, Phyllis Gravitz, Matt Jennings, Amber Lin, Kevin Rosenberg, Susan Schofield.
P.S. Feel free to forward this to others who play at Palo Alto Bridge but who are not members of Unit 503.
|
|
