[News] New classes and afternoon offerings

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> We live and die by the elevator in our lobby. When it goes out of service, I'm always amazed at how many of our players who have a difficult time getting around manage to make their way up the stairs. Granted, they're good stairs, with excellent hand rail spacing for climbing and descending safely, but it's not ideal to have to use them every day! I'm told that we're dependent on a parts shipment that should arrive Wednesday or Thursday, and hopefully we'll elevating again soon. Change in course schedule Alas, the textbook for /Improving Your Judgment - Opening the Bidding/ has gone out of print, and new copies are no longer available. (I still have about four on the shelf.) I'm replacing IYJ - Opening in the schedule with another great class, /Improving Your Judgment - Doubles/. This is a fantastic class for new players who need more practice and refinement for takeout doubles in all kinds of situations. IYJ - Opening is still a really great class, with or without the textbook. It adds detail to the opening bid decision that you won't find in any other course, as well as having great hands for bidding and playing. Afternoons for novice players Zachary and I are not only making plans to revive the 3:00-5:00 PM time period at the club, we're planning to expand it. On Mondays, we want to offer a more intensive session we're calling the "Bridge Workshop with Zachary." It's an ideal session to take advantage of Zachary's unique style and insight to improve your partnership communication and card play. Tuesday and Friday will be a resumption of casual bridge targeted specifically to our student players. We want to provide a comfortable place for absolute n00bs to develop their bridge chops. The goal is not to make the /best/ bid or the /best/ play, but to discover the rhythms of the game and have fun playing it. We have Jon Fuhrman, Susan Kane, Melanie Moran, and others lined up to host. Wednesday is going to be a formal class session, from our regular course catalog. I plan to offer Popular Conventions (Bridge Basics 3), Play of the Deal (Bridge Basics 4), and Introduction to Defense as the first three courses offered on Wednesday afternoons. I think it will be a popular time for folks who don't want to be out at night. Thursday we're going to add an official duplicate bridge game specifically for new players with fewer than 20 masterpoints. It will be a short game of about 12 boards. The Monday and Thursday events will have reservations and pre-payments available on RSVP Bridge. Partnerships are encouraged, but friendly partners always available for those "looking." There are a lot of students of the game who would rather not attend evening classes. I gave up Saturday morning classes to offer the popular "workshop and game" on Saturday mornings. I'm considering offering a course series, perhaps on Wednesday afternoons. I dare say that this, along with the Saturday morning workshop and game, will be a more extensive program specifically for newer players than I know of at any other bridge club. We're still finalizing the starting schedule and fees for each of the offerings. In the next few days I will publish a starting schedule. We won't be able to start every session on March 3, but I'll let you know. Bridge Classes This Week Each week I'll post the topics for the Wednesday and Thursday classes. Anyone is welcome to join a single class for $25 without purchasing an entire course. This week's offerings are both "practice hand" sessions. They're a great opportunity to drop in and practice the class topic. This week's classes: * Wednesday, February 19, 7:00 PM /Bridge Basics 2 - Competitive Bidding/ "Practice Hands" * Thursday, February 20, 7:00 PM /Bridge Basics 4 - Play of the Deal/ "Practice Hands" The next /Bridge Basics 1 - Introduction/ class starts Thursday, April 3. It's open for registration at this link <https://pasadena.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=68489&int_category_id=0&int_sub_category_id=0&int_catalog_id=0>. If you get the PCC Extension catalog in your mailbox, you'll find our class listed! I'll send a separate email with information about our new classes starting next week, "Introduction to Defense" and "Improving Your Judgment - Doubles." *Save the date* for our next *Robert Todd* seminar: Sunday, March 30, all day. We're starting to take reservations for the event. This is a first class bridge seminar. Robert features a bidding topic in the mornings, and a card play topic in the afternoon. The seminar fee will be $90. Coming up ... March *Wednesday morning bridge talks* with Lulu Minter! Lulu will be offering a series of free Wednesday morning chalk talks at 10:00 AM before the Wednesday Open Pairs game at 11:00. He has a series of five seminars. I'll be sending an email with all the information about his talks and upcoming classes in the next day or two. Our next *Sectional Tournament at Clubs* will be the week of March 10-16. We'll be offering silver point games every day that week! Card fees will be $13 to cover extra sanction fees. Best regards, Mojo, Jane, Zachary