The Palo Alto Unit was well represented at the Monterey Regional in January, with these Unit members reaping lots of masterpoints, and Debbie Rosenberg leading all 883 tournament players:
- Debbie Rosenberg, 143mps – Tournament Leader!
- Ming Sheng, 87mps
- Edward Zuckerberg, 86mps
- Michael Xu, 69mps
- Vinita Gupta, 56mps
- Brenda Hatton, 47mps
- Ying Liu, 41mps
In January, Amber Lin gave a Zoom webinar as part of our Celebrity Lecture Series – topic “Declarer Play in Suit Contracts”. It was well received by the 64 participants. Our volunteer, Kathy Wheeler, is planning more celebrity lectures throughout 2024 – stay tuned.
This February marks the Lunar New Year of the Dragon, Valentine’s Day and the start of a couple of monthly events at the Palo Alto Bridge Center.
Highlighting some upcoming events we are planning for you:
- NLM Sectionals at the Bridge Center: upcoming Mondays, February 5 and March 4 at 10:30AM. One-session Non Life Master sectional tournaments, awarding 100% silver masterpoints. NLMs with fewer than 750 masterpoints are eligible to play. NLM 1-session sectionals Sign up: Unit503 SignUp
- Monthly Swiss Team club games at the Bridge Center: upcoming Mondays, February 12 and March 11 at 10:30AM. You can practice for the upcoming GNTs! Swiss Team games Sign up: Unit503 SignUp
- Grand National Teams (GNT) sign-up for preliminary rounds are now open: register your team before March 1 (March 29 for Flight B). Details are on District 21’s website: D21 website and GNT Conditions
- Silicon Valley Youth Bridge (SiVY) Lunar New Year Pizza Party on Saturday February 10 for youth players at the Bridge Center: SiVY website
- Kathy Harper’s Spring classes at the Bridge Center start in March: details: Bridge classes
- St. Patrick’s Day+1 club game at the Bridge Center on Monday, March 18 at 10:30AM: come and celebrate St. Pat’s with us! The Bridge Center will be festooned in green with green goodies for all. Wear green to participate in the prize drawing!
- Palo Alto Unit Open Sectional & Non Life Master Sectional at the Bridge Center: win silver points during four days on Thursday, March 21 – Sunday, March 24. Separate NLM sections. Details: March 2024 Open & NLM Sectional
- 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. Mark your calendar!
- 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 on Wednesday, July 10 – Sunday, July 14. Mark your calendar!
Attention 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
Our new Volunteer Chair, Gerry MacDonald (geraldinem@aol.com), has recruited some new volunteers – thank you! – to help with some of our upcoming events. We still need you! Please reach out to us, e.g. with fun and green ideas for our St. Pat’s club game, marketing and publicity suggestions, coordinating our free lecture series, help organize a bridge tournament.
In Fall of 2023, SiVY revived its in-person programs including Casual Fridays, Pizza Party Tournaments, and a new Winter Camp with much success at our Bridge Center. They welcomed over 40 young players, including 8 returning players and 10 former SiVY juniors who have become volunteers. All credit goes to the 22 volunteers (list in SiVY’s January newsletter), comprising a mix of new blood and experienced veterans, parents and youth.
Congrats to the following Unit 503 members who achieved a new ACBL Rank in January:
Junior Master: Myn Demmon, Bruce P Douglas, Karen Gibson, Carl A Thomsen.
Regional Master: Dimitry Goder, Debra Willrett.
NABC Master: Clover U Worland.
Life Master: Anne C Ward, Nick Ward.
Gold Life Master: Yu Chang.
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.