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>
Early Tuesday morning Jane and I will be flying to St. Louis for the
spring North American Bridge Championships.
On Wednesday (and maybe Thursday!), Sarah Deschenes and I will play in
the North American Pairs Flight A tournament representing District 23.
We're definitely underdogs in the event. Neither of us has much
experience at playing in tournaments at this level. It isn't a national
championship, since the event is capped at 6,000 masterpoints.
As Woody Allen famously said, "90% of life is showing up." We're showing
up for this one, and open to all possibilities.
After the NAP event, we'll pick up teammates and play in more events for
a few days of intense bridge.
I'll be back a week from Tuesday, and Zachary and Susan Kane will be
filling in for me at the bridge club.
Robert Todd seminar
On *Sunday March 15* we're proud to host Robert Todd for his third year
in Pasadena. Robert is one of my mentors as a teacher. His background as
a former math professor seems to enables him to explain bridge concepts
in a way that makes complex things easier to understand. He truly
improves your ability to think about bridge, rather than memorizing rules.
Mojo, Robert, Jane
These seminars are "multi-level." His talks are accessible to newer
players, and valuable to experienced players as well. They're also fun
and entertaining!
The morning session topic is *Responder's Rebids*. As he says,
"Responder's Rebid is where things often start to fall apart."
The afternoon session is on *Doubles of Many Kinds*. "We'll discuss
several different types of doubles and see when and how they are used."
Attend the full day for $90, starting at 9:00 AM, and finishing up by
3:30, with a 90-minute lunch break.
Grab a copy of the seminar flier at this link
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/sites/default/files/fliers/RobertTodd2026-PB…>.
Drop me a note to reserve your seat as soon as you can!
Club championship week
Let's play some club championships! All Open Pairs games this week,
Monday through Friday at 11:00, Saturday at 1:00 PM, will be club
championships.
That means beaucoup extra masterpoints, and "overall" awards as well as
N/S and E/W awards. Still $12 card fee!
STaC week coming in March
In the second week of March, let's compete against the other clubs in
District 23 (LA County) for silver points. This is our first "Sectional
Tournament at Clubs" for 2026.
All masterpoint awards at the club will be the coveted silver
masterpoints, required for the Life Master rank. In addition, the
various club results will be combined for overall results that could be
huge.
More details in the next newsletter. Plan to play in an Open Pairs game
March 9 through 14.
Classes This Week
Our classes are best in the context of a full course, but they also
stand alone very nicely. If you can't take a full course, you can always
drop in for a single class on any topic for $25.
The Wednesday afternoon class "Popular Conventions" will be dark this
week and resume next week when I return from St. Louis.
Here are this week's individual classes:
* Wednesday 7:00 PM /Introduction to Defense /"Opening leads against
trump contracts"
* Thursday 7:00 PM /Two Over One Game Force/ "The 1NT Forcing Response"
The Saturday morning workshop is on as usual, with another great hand
from Eddie Kantar's /Thinking Bridge/ series.
Coming up ...
The next session of /Bridge Basics 1 - Introduction/ is scheduled for
Thursday evenings starting April 2. Here is the link to register
<https://pasadena.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&i…>
for the course through PCC Extension.
Best regards
Mojo, Jane, Zachary, Lisa, Susan
Pasadena Bridge Club Logo <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>
Learn and play bridge!
Mojo
ABTA Master Teacher
649 N Fair Oaks Ave #201
Pasadena CA 91103
(626) 247-4457
pasadenabridgeclub.com <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>
The Pasadena Bridge Club is growing!
Among face-to-face bridge clubs (the best kind!) in North America, we
currently rank #30 out of about 1,500 clubs that have held games so far
in 2026.
Our southern half of California is covered by two ACBL districts: 22,
and 23 (LA County). In the combined districts, the #1 club is the Duncan
Bridge Center in Palm Desert. Our club is #7 out of 67 or so clubs in
our two districts.
In Los Angeles County, the biggest club is Long Beach with 540 tables
through Feb 11. We've moved into #2 with 436 tables.
Those "table counts" are only for ACBL-sanctioned games paying
masterpoints. If they were able to count our classes, workshops, and
casual bridge sessions, the number would be quite a bit higher, and I'm
almost certain that our intermediate/novice program is rare among bridge
clubs!
That said, let's keep it going! We have three new courses starting next
week, in our three class sessions.
Here is the lineup of courses starting next week. Check out *Two Over
One Game Force* on Thursdays!
Bridge Basics 3 - Popular Conventions
There are really only a handful of conventions that most players need to
be competitive in a bridge tournament. You learned about "takeout
doubles" in Bridge Basics 2. In this class we'll add the Stayman
Convention, Jacoby Transfer Bids, strong hand bidding, and slam bidding.
* Six Wednesday afternoons, 3:00 - 5:00 PM, starting Feb. 18
* $120 includes text by Audrey Grant
* Full lesson plan here
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/course/popular-conventions>
* Register for the course here
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/contact/course_enrollment>
Introduction to Defense
Working from a delightful and readable book by Eddie Kantar and Barbara
Seagram, join us to study the fundamentals of bridge defense. Learn how
to visualize a complete deal, and communicate with your partner to take
as many tricks as possible.
Defense this period is taught by Zachary Vedro, a true wizard!
* Six Wednesday evenings, 7:00 - 9:00 PM, starting Feb. 18
* $120 includes textbook by Eddie Kantar
* Full lesson plan here
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/course/intro-to-defense>
* Register for the course here
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/contact/course_enrollment>
Two Over One Game Force
Take you bidding to the next level with this basic system that is by far
the most popular system played in tournaments and clubs. By making a
small tweak to Standard American, 2/1GF makes it easier to find the
right game contracts, and gives you more bidding room to find good slam
contracts (and stay out of bad ones!).
* Six Thursday evenings, 7:00 - 9:00 PM, starting Feb. 19
* $130 includes textbook by Audrey Grant
* Full lesson plan here
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/course/two_over_one_game_force>
* Register for the course here
<https://pasadenabridgeclub.com/contact/course_enrollment>
Robert Todd Seminar
Mojo, Robert, Jane
The bridge club will be hosting Robert Todd for a full day bridge
seminar on Sunday, March 15. This is our third year to host Robert, and
it's always an eye-opening and entertaining day!
We're currently taking reservations for the full day seminar. The cost
is $90 for the full day.
Specific topics will be announced soon. The morning session is usually a
bidding topic, and the afternoon is a play or defense topic.
Drop me a note and I'll save you a seat!
Looking for /Bridge Basics 1 - Introduction/?
Our next session of Bridge Basics 1 will start on Thursday evenings,
April 2, at 7:00 PM. The course is now open for registration at PCC
Extension (Pasadena City College). The class does meet at the bridge club.
Here's the link to register
<https://pasadena.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&i…>
with PCC for the course.
Hope to see you soon at the bridge club!
Best regards,
Mojo, Jane, Zachary, Lisa, Susan
