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> When I first started attending tournaments, I was always fascinated by the planning and organization of the games, despite never really knowing who would show up to play. Would it be not enough, or would it be too many? I share this "director's dilemma" with Brenda Egeland from D.C. Like me, she was also fascinated by directing and organizing bridge games as a very new player. She told me she earned her club director certification when she had about 50 masterpoints. Brenda is also a talented software engineer. She addressed that perpetual anxiety by building RSVPBridge. I saw its value as a planning tool early on, and many other major clubs (Honors Bridge in Manhattan among others) have adopted it as well. The real value in having reservations for a game is that /I know you are coming/. If you're a couple of minutes late, I can still establish a movement and start the game, while keeping your seat available. If someone has an unintentional or forgotten reservation, it's not really a disaster. We might end up with a half table that wasn't expected, but that's not so bad. Sadly, last week I had a pair arrive about five minutes late who was not in the reservation list. With everyone present, the game had started right at 11:00, and the players were well into their first boards. The new pair thought they had a reservation, but for some unknown reason it didn't make it into RSVPBridge for the game. A more experienced director might have found a way to add a table to the movement, but it wasn't something that was part of my repertoire. Because of the reservation system, I haven't had to deal with that situation! (Studying up for next time!) The reservation system relies on email to remind players that they are (or are not) on the list for a game. The reminders are not sent automatically; I try to remember to send one the night before or at least several hours before a game. Email is notoriously unreliable. Often such generated emails are routed to junk or spam folders instead of the inbox, and many people just don't use email (I completely understand!). So I ask a couple of things: Watch out for those emails if you can. When the reminder email for each game arrives from RSVPBridge, look for "You are (or are not) signed up to play" in the email. If it's wrong, let me know! Secondly, if you're making a last minute reservation, or want to play on the spur of the moment, please try to make it to the bridge club at least 10 minutes before game time, or call (626) 247-4457 and leave a message. We can get you into the game and change the movement if we know you're coming! Club championships all week Each quarter the ACBL invites clubs to hold "Club Championships" for each of the club's weekly games. There's no extra sanction fee and no extra card fee. The point awards are significant! In addition, each game will have "overall" winners -- not just N/S and E/W winners. (This might be the week when you choose to play E/W instead of N/S if you can! If you're wondering why, ask me sometime.) Classes this coming week Individual classes are available to join for $25. No need to sign up for a full course! *Mojo's pick*: /Improving Your Judgement - Doubles/ on Wednesday evening. Add some precision to your bids after partner doubles. * Wednesday, 7:00 PM, /Improving Your Judgment - Doubles/, "Doubler's rebid and the subsequent auction" * Thursday, 7:00 PM, /Bridge Basics 2 - Competitive Bidding/ "The takeout double" In December, I'm going to hold four individual classes from the Eddie Kantar lesson series. I've picked four excellent topics on declarer play. More about that in a couple weeks. Coming up ... I was mistaken when I listed October 7-12 as a STaC silver point week, but we will get to have two weeks of double point games during October -- the Jane Johnson Club Appreciation games. I'll add them to the schedule soon. *Bridge Basics 1 - Introduction* will begin again on Wednesday evenings starting October 23. Enrollment is open now at PCC Extension <https://pasadena.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=67500&int_category_id=0&int_sub_category_id=0&int_catalog_id=0>! ** Best regards, Mojo, Jane, Zachary