Pasadena Bridge Club Logo <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>
News from North Fair Oaks
Mojo
ABTA Master Teacher
649 N Fair Oaks Ave #201
Pasadena CA 91103
(626) 247-4457
pasadenabridgeclub.com <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>
This past Sunday the club hosted the North American Pairs District
Final. This game determines who will be invited to the Spring NABC in
St. Louis to represent District 23 (Los Angeles County).
In Flight C, two of our regular club partnerships placed in the overalls
and will get their invitation: *Peter Kavounas* with *Richard Parker
*from Upland and Claremont won the event, and *Hsing (Cindy) Fang* and
*Chris Sun* from San Gabriel and Pasadena took third.
*Peter Jager* and *Kim Ebner* placed fifth and become "first alternate"
to make the trip to St. Louis in Flight B.
Flight A was a special case, with only two pairs entered. Both pairs
will have a chance to play in St. Louis. *Gary Moore* and *Thompson Jin*
, along with *Sarah Deschenes* and *myself*. It just confirms what Woody
Allen said that "80% of life is just showing up." :)
Instant Matchpoint Game Wednesday
Wednesday October 29 our Open Pairs game will be the ACBL-wide Instant
Matchpoint Game. This is our third year to host this special game (and
it's good to have the practice!).
The game is played like any of our other Open Pairs games, but instead
of waiting to get your matchpoint score at the end of the game, you will
find your score on a traveling score slip immediately after playing it.
(The scores have already been determined, and I don't know how they do
that! Probably best that I don't!)
More special features: 1st place in each direction earns *one full gold
masterpoint*. The remaining awards will be a "royal" scattering of
black, red, silver, and gold. The top five pairs in each district will
be awarded additional points (first place gets 10.0 masterpoints!).
At the end of the game, everyone receives a printed booklet with expert
analysis of all 36 hands available for play. (We'll only play 24 of them.)
The game takes a little extra time, so plan to be finished closer to
2:30. We do have to clean and set up the room for the Bridge Basics 1
class that starts at 3:00! Card fees are $14 for this game.
Classes This Week
For all of our courses, you're welcome to join a single class for $25.
It's a great way to get a good bite of a subject without a six-week
commitment.
* Wednesday, 3:00 PM, /Bridge Basics 1 - Introduction/ "Minor Suit
Openings and Responses"
* Wednesday, 7:00 PM /Bridge Basics 3 - Popular Conventions/ "Strong
Opening Hands"
* Thursday, 7:00 PM /Intro to Defense/ "Third Hand Play"
Saturday morning is our *workshop and game* for novice/intermediate
players. We start with a free workshop at 9:30 featuring an entertaining
hand from Eddie Kantar's "Thinking Bridge" series. You're welcome to
come for the workshop even if you're not planning to play in the game.
Coming up ...
Our great friend of the club Jane Winer has been doing so much to help
students, new and continuing, to get opportunities to practice between
classes. She has been opening the bridge club on Sunday mornings at
10:00 or so and inviting folks to come practice hands from that week's
classes.
Jane is also taking on a great organizational duty by helping to arrange
for "seat filling" teaching assistants for each class. These are past
students from classes who volunteer to fill a three-player table to make
a fourth. They come attend a class with the possibility of not being needed!
It's a great luxury for the students (and the teacher!) for the quality
of the presentation — to have the maximum involvement in each of the
classes, with rarely a need for "5-player" tables.
If you are a current student or potential TA volunteer who would like to
join in, drop me a note (reply to this message) and I'll put you in
touch with Jane.
Best regards,
Mojo, Jane, Zachary, Lisa, Susan
Pasadena Bridge Club Logo <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>
News from North Fair Oaks
Mojo
ABTA Master Teacher
649 N Fair Oaks Ave #201
Pasadena CA 91103
(626) 247-4457
pasadenabridgeclub.com <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>
October is Club Appreciation Month. The ACBL expresses its appreciation
by awarding what are essentially "club championship" masterpoint levels
for two weeks with no extra charge.
This week and next all of our Open Pairs games will be Club Appreciation
games. Come play and rack up points!
We also have two dynamite courses starting up this week. On Wednesday
evening, Popular Conventions (Bridge Basics 3), and on Thursday evenings
Intro to Defense.
The Bridge Basics 1 course on Wednesday afternoon had 22 new students.
Our next Bridge Basics 1 will start in April on Thursday evenings.
We had a lot of big winners during the STaC week! You can see the
district-wide overall results for each session
<https://tournaments.acbl.org/schedule.php?sanction=2510502#schedule> at
this link.
NAP District Final
The Pasadena Bridge Club is hosting the North American Pairs District
Final on Sunday, October 26. You might recall that we held qualifier
games for this event during June, July, and August. Did you qualify?
<https://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/play/NAP_Qualifiers/NAP_D23.htm>
With the new A flight capped at 6,000 masterpoints, there are more
opportunities to qualify to a national game. Since I'm no longer NAP
coordinator, I'm looking forward to getting to play in the event. Maybe
I'll get to represent District 23 in St. Louis in March.
All of the NAP information is available here: https://nap.bridgemojo.com/
The October 26 event is a two-session matchpoint pairs game, with the
two sessions starting at 10:00 and 3:00. Be sure to get your reservation
in as soon as you can! Here's the reservation link
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/contact/reservation_for_nap_final>.
Start a bridge course!
Register at this link
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/contact/course_enrollment> to join
either Popular Conventions
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/course/popular-conventions> on Wednesday
evenings or Intro to Defense
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/course/intro-to-defense> on Thursday
evenings. (Click the links for full course descriptions.)
If you're not sure you want to take the full course, try the first
session for $25. If you decide to enroll, get credit for the single session.
Classes This Week
For all of our courses, you're welcome to join a single class for $25.
It's a great way to get a good bite of a subject without a six-week
commitment.
* Wednesday, 3:00 PM, /Bridge Basics 1 - Introduction/ "One notrump
openings and responses"
* Wednesday, 7:00 PM /Bridge Basics 3 - Popular Conventions/ "The
Stayman Convention"
* Thursday, 7:00 PM /Intro to Defense/ "Opening leads against notrump"
Don't forget the Saturday morning *workshop and game* for
novice/intermediate players. We start with a free workshop at 9:30
featuring an entertaining hand from Eddie Kantar's "Thinking Bridge"
series. You're welcome to come for the workshop even if you're not
planning to play in the game.
Coming up ...
On Wednesday, October 29, we'll host a game in the *ACBL-wide Instant
Matchpoint Pairs*, a very special annual event! For every hand and
result, you get your matchpoint percentage immediately after playing the
hand. At the end of the session, there's a special booklet with analysis
from a guest expert on every board.
It's a unique way to play a club game, and our results will be compared
with other clubs in the district and the ACBL. Big games have the
potential for a big district or national point award! Card fees for the
Instant Matchpoint Game will be $14.
I do have a little update on my health situation, and it's all good
news. I have a surgery date of November 20. The lung mass has retreated
noticeably, and we're going to skip the third chemo. I have plenty of
time to recover from the side effects that sidelined me for a while, and
get to enjoy spending some time with you all at the bridge club for the
next month. I'm still not 100%, but getting closer! Thanks so much for
all the good wishes and support!
Best regards,
Mojo, Jane, Zachary, Lisa, Susan
Pasadena Bridge Club Logo <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>
News from North Fair Oaks
Mojo
ABTA Master Teacher
649 N Fair Oaks Ave #201
Pasadena CA 91103
(626) 247-4457
pasadenabridgeclub.com <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>
Silver point week! Lulu Minter! New courses! But first ...
I just finished the new novel /A Reluctant Spy/ by good friend of the
club Roselyn Teukolsky. (She and Saul won the Pasadena Unit Game today.)
It's a great adventure of a read. I loved getting to see Ithaca and
Cornell academia through the eyes of Roselyn and her characters. I
cringed through her heroine's many fumbles and missteps, and enjoyed the
twists and turns along the way to a crescendo of a climax. Well worth a
read!
Meanwhile we have new bridge courses starting up next week. I'm going to
follow up this newsletter with one to our "classes" email list with
details. You might get two emails from me today.
Silver Point Week
All Open Pairs games this week will pay silver points. Our games will be
combined with other clubs in LA County for potentially large payouts for
overall winners! It's a Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC).
Card fees for the open games will be $13 to cover the addtional sanction
fees. Stratification for all open STaC games will be Open/2500/750,
based on the average point holding of each pair.
Free Lulu Minter Seminars
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings Lulu Minter will be offering
free pre-game talks at 10:00 before the 11:00 Open Pairs games.
His topic for all three sessions will be "Bridge Problems, Thinking
Outside the Box"
No reservations required, doors will open at 9:45 on all three days.
Bridge Basics 1 - Introduction Oct 8
Our first weekday offering of Bridge Basics 1 has 19 students enrolled
as of this moment. We limit the course to 28, so it's a good time to
have your friends reserve their seats as soon as they can!
Here's the registration link at PCC Extension
<https://pasadena.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&i…>.
Popular Conventions Oct 15
Here's a six-week course to learn and practice the most useful bidding
conventions in bridge: Stayman, Jacoby Transfer Bids, strong Hand
openings, and slam bidding. This is Bridge Basics 3.
* Wednesday evenings, 7-9 PM
* Six sessions starting October 15
* $120 includes textbook by Audrey Grant
* Click here for the full description
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/course/popular-conventions>
* Click here to reserve your seat
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/contact/course_enrollment>
Intro to Defense Oct 16
This course may well have more positive impact on your game than any
other we offer. Come learn how to work with your partner to take as many
tricks as possible on defense. Learn to visualize the placement of key
cards and communicate with partner when you can't see each other's cards.
* Thursday evenings, 7-9 PM
* Six sessions starting October 16
* $120 includes textbook by Eddie Kantar
* Click here for the full description
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/course/intro-to-defense>
* Click here to reserve your seat
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/contact/course_enrollment>
Classes This Week
For all of our courses, you're welcome to join a single class for $25.
It's a great way to get a good bite of a subject without a six-week
commitment.
This week we really only have one session, but it's very worthy of a
drop-in! This is a makeup session for Bridge Basics 2, and it's a great
opportunity to learn and practice competitive bidding skills.
* Thursday, 7:00 PM, /Bridge Basics 2 - Competitive Bidding/ "Practice
Hands"
I am also planning a makeup session on Friday at 3:00 PM for practice
hands for Two Over One Game Force. If you'd like to drop in for that
session, drop me a note.
Coming up ...
Our next two weeks of games following the STaC will be Club Appreciation
games, with lots of extra masterpoints and overall awards for every open
game.
On Sunday October 26, the club will be hosting the North American Pairs
District Final. It's a full-day two-session event. If you qualified at a
club game, make your reservation to play and get information here:
https://nap.bridgemojo.com/
On Wednesday, October 29, we'll host a game in the ACBL-wide Instant
Matchpoint Pairs, a very special annual event! More about that in a
future newsletter.
Personal health wise, I'm in a little bit of a holding pattern for the
next two or three weeks, and expecting to use this time to be active at
the club teaching classes and directing.
Best regards,
Mojo, Jane, Zachary, Lisa, Susan
