[News] North American Pairs

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> June kicks off the club-level qualifying for the annual North American Pairs tournament. This is one of two "grass roots" tournaments held each year that culminate in champions in each of four different experience flights. (The other is the Grand National Teams.) The first round of the tournament begins at clubs. Clubs can designate games during June July and August to be NAP Qualifier games. The masterpoint awards for these games are really big, and are 50% black / 50% red masterpoints. Players who finish in the top 50% of their strat will be "qualified" to advance to the district final. (The district final date has not yet been announced.) The top players in each flight of the district final will be invited to represent District 23 at the Spring NABC in Dallas, and receive some reimbursement for travel expenses! At the Pasadena Bridge Club, we'll be holding three week-long opportunities to qualify for the District Final — one week each in June, July, and August. Our first opportunity is this coming week. All Open Pairs games the week of June 15-20 will be NAP Qualifier games. The strats for each game will be Open/3000/750 based on the highest masterpoint holder of the pair. Card fees for these games will be $13 (or a punch plus $1). If you're interested in competing in the North American Pairs, it's worth reading the "Conditions of Contest" at this link <https://web2.acbl.org/documentlibrary/play/NAP/CoC.pdf>. Sarah Deschenes and I represented District 23 in Flight A of the event earlier this year in St. Louis. It was a great time! 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. Here are this week's individual classes: * Wednesday 3:00 PM /Introduction to Defense /"Signals against notrump" * Wednesday 7:00 PM /Two Over One Game Force /"The choice between game and slam" * Thursday 7:00 PM /Bridge Basics 2 - Competitive Bidding /"The competitive auction" The Saturday morning 9:30 workshop is on as usual, with another great hand from Eddie Kantar's /Thinking Bridge/ series. (Attend the workshop for free, even if you don't play in that morning's game!) Coming up ... Registration is now open for the next /Bridge Basics 1 - Introduction/ session. It will meet on Wednesday evenings starting July 15. Click here to register for the session <https://pasadena.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=71634&int_category_id=0&int_sub_category_id=0&int_catalog_id=0> with PCC Extension. *Next week at the bridge club* all Open Pairs games will be Club Championships. Lots of points, no extra charge! Best regards Mojo, Jane, Zachary, Lisa, Susan