August was a busy month for tournaments! In the week of August 19-25, Palo Alto Bridge held Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC) games, awarding silver masterpoints. Congrats to Palo Alto Bridge’s top masterpoint winners: Aug STaC
- Charles Riffle, 21mps – coming 1st overall out of 6,312 participants
- Brenda Hatton, 16mps
- Josephine Ventura, 10mps
District 21 just hosted its week-long All Western Championships Regional in Santa Clara. Congrats to Palo Alto Bridge’s top masterpoint winners: Santa Clara Regional
- Geeske Joel, 79mps
- Max Schireson, 75mps
- Edward Zuckerberg, 53mps
- Debbie Rosenberg, 52mps
- Susan Zhang, 48mps
- Phil Abrahamson, 44mps
- Dana Shelley, 44mps
- Marc Cervellino, 42mps
Team games are another way of enjoying bridge with more than just your partner! Join us at our monthly Swiss teams game event, next held on Monday, September 9 at 11:30AM, where the boards are already shuffled and there are hand records of the game. Participating in these games is a great
way to keep your team game play sharp, allowing you to perform well at sectionals and regionals. For
intermediate players, these games are stratified and allow you to gain Swiss Team experience in a
relaxed club game environment. If you need a partner, or help to be matched with another pair, let us know. 10 teams played on August 12 – congrats to the winning team: Jung Hu – Jay Wang – Frank Xie – Ying Liu.
Our Celebrity Seminar organizer, Kathy Wheeler, has arranged for Adam Parrish to give our next seminar on “When Not to Draw Trump” on October 19 via Zoom. Parrish seminar
Your bridge community needs you. Palo Alto Bridge is run by a wonderful team of volunteers, and fully supports the Club Owners and Directors who tirelessly offer and run games every day of the week for us at the Bridge Center. We deeply appreciate their dedication over many years and for providing a welcoming environment for all of us to play bridge with each other. Thank you very much to: John Schwartz, Will Watson, Prue Saunders, Paul Davis, Lori Spaeth, Marolyn Imaoka, Kevin O’Leary. Some of them are looking to retire at the end of the year – Wednesday night and Friday morning club directors (Lori, Marolyn, Paul, Kevin) – so we shall need new people to help us run our club games at the Bridge Center. If you are interested in becoming certified to be a club director, please let us know. https://www.acbl.org/club-corner/#becomeacd
A huge thank-you to Stephanie Youngquist who has been doing a fabulous job organizing all our memorable and special events (holiday party, Halloween, special birthday parties) over recent years. Stephanie will be taking the lead for our two upcoming special events: Fall Equinox on Thursday, September 26, and our annual Halloween Fun on Thursday, October 31. Stephanie will retire from her role as Special Events Organizer, so please let us know if you are interested in this crucial role!
Another dedicated volunteer, Dave Wheeler, also deserves a big thank-you. For many years, he has helped ensure that the Bridge Center is stocked with sufficient supplies for our many bridge activities. Please welcome our new volunteer, Steve Cheng, who will be taking over from Dave.
I’m delighted to welcome 3 new Board members to our Palo Alto Unit Board: H. Paul Davis, Alex Narasin, and Dana Shelley. We welcome you to get involved in our bridge community. Volunteerpositions are open for the marketing and publicity committee, special events organizer, coordinating our free lecture series, and help organize a bridge tournament. If you are interested, please contact either our Volunteer Chair, Gerry MacDonald (geraldinem@aol.com), or myself.
Come and support your bridge community. Join us at our daily Monday – Saturday club games at the Bridge Center club games schedule, particularly if you have not played in-person bridge in a while. Sign up: SignUp
Highlighting some upcoming events for you:
- Daily club games at the Bridge Center: Sign up: SignUp
- Monthly Swiss Team club games at the Bridge Center: upcoming Mondays, September 9, October 14 at 11:30AM. Swiss Team games Sign up: SignUp
- Special club game celebrating the Fall Equinox on Thursday, September 26 at 11:30AM at the Bridge Center. We will hold a drawing for two free plays (one for day and one for night) and some fall treats along with some extra masterpoints. Sign up: SignUp
- Kathy Harper’s fall classes at the Bridge Center: Bridge classes
- Celebrity seminar: Adam Parrish – via Zoom – Saturday, October 19 at 9:30AM: “When Notto Draw Trump” Parrish seminar
- Palo Alto Open & Non Life Master Sectional at the Bridge Center: players win silver points during four days on Thursday, October 24 – Sunday, October 27. Save the dates!
- Halloween club game on Thursday, October 31st for some Halloween Fun including a costume contest to win free plays. Mark your calendar and prepare your costume!
- Silicon Valley Youth Bridge (SiVY): Casual Fridays for youth players at the Bridge Center; also check out their other programs: SiVY website
Newer Players: we have novice/0-50 masterpoint games at the Bridge Center on Tuesdays at 10:45AM and Wednesday evenings at 6:45PM. Gain experience and improve your game in a relaxed club game environment. Sign up: SignUp
A reminder that we have a wealth of bridge learnings for all ability levels on our website with materials such as handouts from our past free lecture series: PAB Free Lectures Reviewing these lessons is an easy and effective way to improve one’s bridge game.
For those who prefer printed books, we have a great Library at the Bridge Center – an index of all the books is available on our website. The check-out system requires the borrower to fill out a slip. For those who had not completed these slips, please return the books you have borrowed. PAB Library
Palo Alto Bridge has 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: Mentor Program
Congrats to the following Palo Alto Unit 503 members who achieved a new ACBL Rank in August:
Junior Master: Jason Degraaff, Dave Greenberg, Nancy Kirwan.
Club Master: Lewis Lorton, Shubha Tuljapurkar.
NABC Master: Dimitry Goder.
Life Master: Ming Sheng.
Bronze Life Master: Peter Kilner.
Silver Life Master: Yehudit Hasin-Brumshten, Ken Pelowski.
Sapphire Life Master (3500mps): Ming Sheng.
A very warm welcome to our new Palo Alto Unit 503 members: Mary Ruth Leen, Joelle Perkocha, Kent Perkocha, Ronald Perkocha, Elise Rossiter, Jay Rossiter, Shankar Rugge, Kapil Sabharwal.
Play, Laugh & Learn!
Liz Koh
lizkoh4bridge@gmail.com
Palo Alto Bridge website
Palo Alto Bridge Facebook
P.S. Feel free to forward this to others who play at Palo Alto Bridge but who are not members of Unit 503.