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Palo Alto Bridge continues to offer many activities to Bay Area bridge players. We could not do this without our many generous volunteers. I’m proud to recognize our volunteers’ hard work. Read on!
Upcoming events for you at Palo Alto Bridge Center:
Attached is a current list of planned events for the year, with more to come. |
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June marks the successful deployment of Allen Simon’s wonderful new club game reservations system – check it out: Reservations. You can also use it if you need a partner for a particular game. We believe it is very intuitive and works for our current games. Huge thank-you to its creator, Allen Simon, and our webmaster Alan Templeton for helping with the migration.
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Palo Alto Bridge’s annual super Firecracker tournament will run from Wednesday to Sunday, July 9-13, at the Bridge Center only. Due to space limitations, all players are required to pre-register online to guarantee your place in our tournament: Firecracker pre-register Allen Simon’s new reservation system could not have arrived at a better time! The system also has an online Partnership Desk to help players find partners and teammates. Call your partners and teammates and pre-register soon! Details online: Firecracker |
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Back by popular demand, Palo Alto Bridge is continuing two initiatives in June: |
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A common challenge of bridge is finding more compatible bridge partners. Find-a-Partner game is similar to “speed dating”, where players will play several hands and switch partners. ABTA Teacher of the Year, Phil Abrahamson, will give a free lecture before the game. Wednesday mornings on June 11 and 25. Details online and register in advance: Find-a-Partner games |
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Pro-Am game is where we match an aspiring (‘Am’) player with an experienced (‘Pro’) player to partner together to play in a relaxed club game environment. This is a great way for newer and intermediate players to learn from an experienced player, and for experienced players to share their knowledge with ‘Am’ players in our bridge community. Welcome all ‘Am’s and all ‘Pro’s! Thursday, June 19. Register in advance: Pro-Am game |
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Team games! Calling newer and intermediate players! You should play team games – as they are a lot of fun (and less stressful…) and could help you earn those masterpoints needed for your next ACBL rank. Palo Alto Bridge offers monthly Swiss teams games for you to practice! Next team club game is on Monday, June 9 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 May 12 – congrats to the winning team: Ron Powell – Ed Barlow – Marcia Dean – Robert Dean. |
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Palo Alto Bridge Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year at a special event club game on Tuesday, September 30 – Save the Date! Palo Alto Unit’s first dedicated bridge facility, the Bridge Center, opened in 1975 at Elwell Court in Palo Alto. Come and join us to celebrate this milestone and share your Bridge Center stories. |
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Recent highlights: |
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We were excited to see so many of you attend our first Cinco de Mayo game on May 5: there were 72 players – 7 tables in the 499er Limited section and 11 tables in the Open. Many attended Ed Lechner‘s lecture on managing trumps before the game. Five lucky players won bridge prizes from a drawing organized by Stephanie Youngquist. Thank you to our volunteers for making this a fun event! Stephanie Youngquist for her handmade colorful decorations and prize drawings; Gretchen Wyatt for her queso and other yummy themed snacks; Marc Cervellino, Dianne Giancarlo and Liz Koh assisting with decorations setup/takedown; Aster Wu for taking some photos. More pics on our Facebook page. |
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Palo Alto Bridge held its second sectional of the year on May 15-18 – Congrats to the top Palo Alto Bridge winners: May sectional results
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Thank YOU for coming to play at our tournament. Revenue from tournaments at the Bridge Center is crucial for our Unit’s financial health. Our volunteers are also our largest asset. Huge thank-you to our sectional tournament chair, Gerry MacDonald, and her team of volunteers: H Paul Davis, Liz Koh, Li Zhang, Jay Wang, Alex Narasin, Jian Fang, Jim Miller, Carla Hindie, Bill Somers, Dede Barsotti, Chris Chen. Li Zhang and Jay Wang (pictured) volunteered 3 of the 4 days! |
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District 21 Royal (Gold/Red/Silver/Black) Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC) was held in the week of May 19 –24. Results: May STaC results
If you missed Amber Lin’s great lecture on “Hold Up and Avoidance Plays” on May 22, which was the inaugural lecture of the Alan Cummings Free Lecture Series, you can access the slides from our website, which also has a great repository of handouts of other past lectures: Lecture Series
Many of you attended our Celebrity seminar by Barbara Seagram on “Defensive Magic” via Zoom on May 24. If you wish to purchase the recording and presentation materials of this seminar or any past celebrity seminars: Past Celebrity Seminars
It was great to see so many Palo Alto Bridge players play at District 21’s Sacramento Regional on May 26 – June 1 – congrats to the top Palo Alto Bridge winners: Sac Regional results
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The 70% Club at Palo Alto Bridge Ever wondered who are those players who got 70% or more in a club game? Let’s recognize their great achievement! Photo opportunity – please share your partnership photo with us! We have players in the Open section as well as newer players in EZ/49er section. Listed below are those players who played at a Palo Alto Bridge club game since January 1. Three names appear three times! Frank Xie and Yu Changpartnered together. Kip Kado partnered with three different partners.
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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 the Alan Cummings Free Lecture series, and help organize a bridge tournament. Please contact either our Volunteer Chair, Gerry MacDonald (geraldinem@aol.com), or me. |
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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 |
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Congrats to the following Palo Alto Unit 503 members who achieved a new ACBL Rank in May: Junior Master: Savita Aggarwal, Stanley Cai. Club Master: Yu-Shih Chen. Sectional Master: Ron Morris. Regional Master: Dede Barsotti, Suzy Papazian, Bill Somers, Lipika Sur. Bronze Life Master: Yakov Feldman. Ruby Life Master: Nersi Nazari.
A very warm welcome to our new Palo Alto Unit 503 members:
P.S. Feel free to forward this to others who play at Palo Alto Bridge but who are not members of Unit 503. |
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Play, Laugh & Learn!
Liz Koh |