Happy Spring! We have St. Pat’s and Easter this month.
Plenty of congratulations to Year 2023’s top winners of the Ace of Clubs and Mini-McKenneymasterpoints races (attached is the list of winners). The Ace of Clubs race recognizes the top masterpoint earners in F2F club games only. The Mini-McKenney race tracks masterpoints earned in club games, sectionals, regionals, nationals, etc.
There were many ‘firsts’ to note at our one-session NLM sectional on February 5. Congrats to overall 1st winners Mary Lou Zoback – Olivier Pieron earning almost 2 silver MPs, and also to new first partners Jennifer Lu – Krishnan Iyer for coming 1st in their section! Jennifer and Krishnan are newer players who got matched at our partnership desk. This was their first tournament, earning their first silver masterpoints. Our next NLM sectional is this coming Monday (below)!
On February 12, we had 16 Swiss teams at the first of several upcoming monthly Swiss Team events, with a good mix of expert, advanced, intermediate and newer players. Congrats to the winning teamIrene Hashfield – Philip Freiberger – Linda Rocha – Robert Allen! The newer players team Pearl Renaker – Sólveig Kjartansdottir – Ron Morris – Bob Whitaker had less than 100 MPs amongst them, and yet they placed 4th in B strat and 3rd in C strat beating 8 other teams with more experienced players! A shout-out to their volunteer mentors, Phil Abrahamson and Heather MacGregor, to take some credit as three teammates were mentees of our Unit’s Mentor Program (below).
Highlighting some upcoming fun, educational and social events we are planning for you:
- NLM Sectional at the Bridge Center: Monday, March 4 at 10:30AM. One-session Non Life Master sectional tournament, awarding 100% silver masterpoints. NLMs with fewer than 750 masterpoints are eligible to play. Sign up: Unit503 SignUp
- Monthly Swiss Team club games at the Bridge Center: upcoming Mondays, March 11 and April 8 at 10:30AM. Swiss Team games Sign up: Unit503 SignUp
- Grand National Teams (GNT): online registration closes today on March 1 (March 29 for Flight B). Details are on District 21’s website: D21 website and GNT Conditions. GNT semi/finals on April 6 & 7 will be held at the Bridge Center.
- 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! There will be a 0-20 section. 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
- Michael Berkowitz Celebrity Lecture – via Zoom – Saturday, March 20 at 9:30 AM: “How to Find Tricks: Card Combinations for Declarer Play”
Michael Berkowitz webinar - Kathy Harper’s Spring classes at the Bridge Center start this month: Details: Bridge classes
- 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!
- 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
Face-to-face attendance 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
Sid Chen is our new Mentor Program Coordinator. 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: Unit 503 Mentor Program
Interested in being more involved with our fabulous bridge community? We need volunteers for: marketing and publicity, coordinating our free lecture series, help organize a bridge tournament. Please reach out to either our Volunteer Chair, Gerry MacDonald (geraldinem@aol.com), or me.
Thank you also to JoAnne Matthews for being our new Cards and Flowers volunteer.
Thank you to Cynthia Yock for donating several air replacement filters last month; we appreciate her generosity and her thoughtful consideration of the health and comfort of our members who play at the Bridge Center.
Congrats to the following Unit 503 members who achieved a new ACBL Rank in February:
Advanced NABC Master: Yakov Feldman.
Life Master: Virginia Dare, Olivia Schireson.
Bronze Life Master: David Leaver, Reddy Raju.
Silver Life Master: Jana Cushman, Olivia Schireson, Michael Xu.
Sapphire Life Master: Susan Zhang.
Finally, a warm welcome to our new Unit 503 members: Paige Biorn, Vicki Delegeane, Krishnan R Iyer, Keith Kitani, Nancy Paxton, Mary R Theis.
Liz Koh
lizkoh4bridge@alantempleton
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.