About our Pizza Parties
Young bridge players enjoy challenging competition and good food at the monthly Silicon Valley Youth (SiVY) Bridge party.
Aspiring bridge players ages 10-25 are welcome – as long as they know just a little bit about bridge and want to learn more.
Upon arrival the kids play casually and enjoy snacks. After pizza is served many players enter a mini-tournament while others keep playing for fun. Brand new players are taught the basics of the game, learning as they play.
The pairs in the mini-tournament practice skills in bidding as well as play. Prizes are awarded to the winners.
Volunteers are available to help the kids who play for fun.
Near the end of each party, dessert is served, while tournament winners are announced and prizes are awarded
The SiVY monthly events are held to provide kids from our after school classes a chance to meet aspiring players from other schools and organizations. They are also a great way for kids who have learned from adult family to play bridge with other young people.
April 9, 2016
Our April pizza party took place at West Valley College in Saratoga as part of the Unit 507 ACBL Sectional tournament.
Forty-five ACBL Juniors (age 25 and Under) attended. Nine competed in both sessions of the tournament and joined the pizza party between them. Two competed in the 10:30 AM session, only, before attending the party and fourteen competed in the afternoon session, only, after attending the party. Twenty played casual bridge without playing in the Sectional.
SiVY players did well in the tournament, many winning masterpoints:
- Jonathan Yue and David Zheng won a Section Top with a 60% game in the OPEN pairs.
- Arthur Zhou playing in the morning Open game with his SiVY Mentor, Li-Chung Chen, had a whopping 64% game. Players serious about improving are encouraged to apply to our Mentor Program.
- Bryan Tan also teamed up with a SiVY mentor, Nate Munger. Nate is a math teacher at Bryan's school but still qualifies (barely) as a youth player. He and Nate were above average both sessions in the Silver Rush Pairs winning masterpoints in the afternoon. Bryan just started learning bridge a couple of months ago; He played his very first first duplicate on Friday, with high school student, Stella Wan.
- Cornelius Duffie and Sarah Youngquist won a Section top in the Silver Rush pairs.
- Olivia d'Arezzo won 3 masterpoints for the day, having high scores with two different partners (Kevin Huang, then Nathan Gennaro) in the 299'er games.
Some of the other highlights of the day were:
- World Champion Steve Weinstein, visiting the tournament from NY, reviewed deals with the youth players who had played in the morning session.
- Since there was no youth-only duplicate game, attendees filled out a simple bridge quiz and a drawing was held to distribute prizes.
- There were two first timers at the event, including Carey Chang. Carey and his dad have been playing honeymoon bridge (a game for two people) at home, and read about SiVY in a local newspaper story. This was the first time for either of them playing bridge at a table with four people!
- The 11 table afternoon 299'er game included eight SiVY youth pairs, and one pair of SiVY parents! For some of the youth pairs, it was their first time competing with adults.
- It was also the first tournament for SiVY mother Michelle Madansky (she'd played one SiVY parent child game with her son Ezra Mowbray). Michelle's older son, Harris Mowbray, played with Ariel Flaster at this event, while Michelle paired with Ariel's dad, Michael. Ariel and Harris will be competing on the Kehillah HS team at the High School Championships on April 17th.
Many thanks to Unit 507 for hosting the party, and to all the volunteers who helped out.
The bridge games at our parties are American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) sanctioned awarding masterpoints (MP) to high scorers. ACBL membership is not required for our games but is strongly suggested. You can join online or at the Bridge Center on the night of an event. Adult membership is $29 for the first year and junior membership only $15 per year. Both include a monthly print magazine and registration of masterpoints (start earning towards becoming a Life Master!).