From the President by Dan Turkus
 
  Thanks to all who helped so much at the Sectional, setting up tables, cleaning up, etc.  And special thanks to Phyllis Vierra who organized the whole event and coordinated everyone from the caddies to the tables and cookies.  Our table count was up considerably from last year . . . we even beat the Spring Sectional by 24 tables!  Thanks for coming out in force.  It was also nice having USA Team 2 there as well.  I’m sure a good time was had by all.
  If you missed our individual Unit game, you missed seeing Jeff Hack (the defending champion) fail to recapture the title again this year.  This year the big prize money ($25) went to Lynn Yokel for 1st overall, 2nd was Jean Power, 3rd Alex Tampilang, and 4th was Chien Fan, each winning $10.  I must say I helped Lynn and Jean, and Alex and Chien were lucky enough to have not partnered with me.  We had 32 people show up for a very pleasant game, and I was able to watch the 49ers win in overtime on video.
  Our next Unit game is going to be a wine (not verbal about your partner’s bids or the cards you’re getting) and cheese event.  These will be quality wines (not that stuff that comes in a box or has a screw top).  
  We’ve got lots of other plans in the mill, such as a holiday party, which you’ll be hearing about in the near future.
  Is there anyone who knows about getting announcements in the local newspapers?  If this sounds like you, please give me a call, as we definitely have a need in this area.
  Our next board meeting is on November 7 at 5:30 PM.  Please feel free to stop by and input your ideas as to how our club could work better for you.
  See ya at the tables.

 Get to know your opponents

 

  Who are you?  Raymond (call me Ray) Yuenger, unit vice president, Di-rek’Tor editor, Forum columnist, co-director of the Tuesday night game with Lynn Yokel and Neal Webb.

  What do you do in your spare time?  Play bridge.  Work as a research attorney for a justice of a state court of appeal.

  How did you start bridge?  A friend taught three of us the summer after we all graduated from high school.  It was one of our legal pastimes, along with ping-pong.

  And you just kept on playing?  No.  Bridge addiction did not take hold for many years, though I played socially off and on.  I even presumed to teach bridge in college, though I could never get past the first lesson as new students kept dropping in. 

  Bridge was one interest I didn’t have in common with my second wife.  I rediscovered bridge when I went from a trial court researcher to the court of appeal, where I found colleagues who had also played in college and law school.  One of the justices, now retired, was also an avid bridge player.  We often played four lunch hours a week.

  You use the past tense?  Court personnel changed and I gradually lost interest in social bridge when I discovered duplicate. 

  How did you begin in duplicate?  An old high school friend found out about the novice game on Tuesday nights then run by Ralph and Mary Slick.  At that time in 1990, I was commuting about 75 miles to work from Marina to San Jose.  We’d meet for dinner before bridge on Tuesdays and after I’d stay over at his place in Menlo Park to shorten my commute and to keep up our friendship.

  Is he still a bridge partner?  Aren’t you nosy.  No, as time passed he had children who needed his attention.  Meanwhile I began to recognize how important bridge was to me as a competitive outlet.  I found other partners who could play more regularly and in tournaments on weekends.

  What about your own family?  To be brief, when my stepdaughter was a grown woman with a child, I was divorced.  I’m sure it’s a common story.  The bridge club gave me a place to go and something to focus my single mind on.

  So that’s how you became so single-minded about bridge?  Oh, please.  Well, there might be a grain of truth there.  I admit I got caught up in the cycle of nightly successes and failures.  Like falling off a bicycle, after a bad game I wanted to get up and prove I could ride.  After a good game, I wanted to repeat that experience.  But over time, it’s the friends I’ve made through bridge and the friendly people I meet who keep me going to the club and the tournaments.

  So you aren’t feeling as competitive?     No, I’m not saying that.  I still enjoy competing in bridge like I used to in  racquetball or sometimes even at my job.

  What else do you get out of bridge?  Every deal is a puzzle that I’m allowed no more than seven minutes to solve before I move on.  I like the intellectual challenge and the fact it is quickly over, unlike some legal research problems that last for days.  I suppose I enjoy the mathematics involved in bridge, since I started college as a math major before switching to philosophy of language. 

  I realize I still have a lot to learn about this game I enjoy.  There’s a lot involved in being a good partner.

  Isn’t it a coincidence that you now run the Tuesday night game that started your duplicate career?  You took the words out of my mouth (or your mouth).  There’s even more serendipity at work.  My predecessors as Forum columnists were Lorraine Rodich and Paula Chernoff, both former bridge partners whom I met working as research attorneys at the court of appeal.  Several paths seem to have led me to the same spot.

  Would you rather play or direct?  Directing has furthered my education about the laws of our game and movement mechanics, but when a tournament comes, I want to play.  Directors work so others can play.  My goal as a director is an environment that is orderly, organized, fun, and friendly.

  (I encourage you to submit a similar interview of others or yourself so we can get to know each other better and so I can stop talking to myself.  Ed.)

 September winners

 

Sunday  5 p.m.  San Jose Bridge Center (SJBC)

9/9  Shih-Wei Lu - Gary Kao

  Shane De Zilwa - Faye Parsons

9/23  Bob Ward - Nancy Ward

  Phyllis Vierra - Hiram Shen

 

Monday  11 a.m.  SJBC

9/10  Ivan Rose - Mostafa Hafezi (A)

  Dolores Clinch - Jack Clinch (A)

  Ginger Herrick - Katherine Maxfield (B)

  Ray Crist - Leon W. Lee (B/C)

9/17  W Riester Jr - Ted Richmond (A) 67.66%

  Alan Becker - Albert Lyew (A)

  Sue Harrison - John Brown (B)

  Madie Horton - Billee Giansiracusa (B)

  David Chang - Donald Chang (C)

9/24  Robert Jonesi - Read Kitson (A)

  Charlie Dorn - Fran Dickman (A)

  Jeanne Becht - George Humphrey (B)

  Sally McLane - Barbara Marleau (B/C)

 

Monday  7:30 p.m.  SJBC

9/10  David Fotland - Wendy Fotland

  James Chung - Gary Kao

9/17  Mike Sullivan - Hiram Shen

  Joseph Poppo - Ron Laffe

9/24  Val Mason - Eryl Barker

  Irv Wentzien - Marion Wentzien

 

Tuesday  10:30 a.m.  SJBC

9/4  Virginia English - Doris Oelberg (A)

  N Hatfield - Mostafa Hafezi (A)

  Beverly Wright - Donna Lenihan (B)

9/11  Jyme Schmieder - Bill Langlois (A)

  Charlie Dorn - Diane Shannon

  Doris Oelberg - Harry Cuzner (B)

  Josephine Cooley - Art Fonda (B)

  Josephine Cooley - Art Fonda

9/18  Bill Langlois - Rose Meltzer (A)

  Tania Moalem - Jack Clinch (A)

  Bernard Bertonis - Jeanne Becht (B)

9/25  Anne Boboricken - Jim Hayashi (A)

  Carole Dietz - Tina Pearson (A)

  Katherine Maxfield - Mindy Foos (B/C)

 

Tuesday  7:30 p.m.  SJBC

9/4  Patricia Hannah - Read Kitson (A)

  Nagraj Alur - Mike Roney (A)

  Joan Rouse - Robert Rouse (B/C)

  Sabina Siem - Rita Tingley (B)

9/11  Patricia Hannah - Josephine Cooley (A)

  Nagraj Alur - Mike Roney (A)

  Stephen Tu - George Pledger (B)

  Michael Abrams - June McCullough (C)

9/18  Richard Reitman - Glenn Quinn (A)

  Mike Roney - Nagraj Alur (A)

  Sabina Siem - Rita Tingley (B)

  Cindy Gilbert - John Oswalt (B)

  Michael Abrams - June McCullough (C)

9/25  Elaine Erickson - Paul Chang (A)

  Don Nemiro - Annette Powers (A)

  Michael Migdol - Tony Staw (B/C)

  Derek Fiero - Teddi Fierro (B)

 

Wednesday  10:30 a.m.  SJBC

9/5  Bernard Bertonis - Peter Kao

9/12  Tania Moalem - Robert Friend

9/19  Jack Clinch - Tim White

9/26  David Chang - Gary Yang

  Wednesday  7:00 p.m.  SJBC

9/5  Tien-Chun Yang - Quin Yang (A)

  Faye Parsons - Dan Turkus (A)

  Derek Fiero - Teddi Fiero (B/C) (tie)

  Ray Yuenger - Shih-Ming Shih (B) (tie)

9/12  Faye Parsons - Dan Turkus (A)

  Don Nemiro - Frances Dickman (A)

  Alex Stagner - John Rollin (B)

  Lynn Yokel - Gigi Spinazze (B)

9/19  Larry Wagner - Judy Fisher (A)

  Panette Talia - Ronald Siegrist (A/B)

  George Humphrey - Susan Zimmerman (B)

  Derek Fiero - Teddi Fiero(C)

9/26  Tony Staw - Ray Yuenger (A/B)

  Jim Hayashi - Victor Rivkin (A)

  Z Kadah - Walid Baroudi (B/C)

 

Wednesday  7:30 p.m.  Oakwood

9/5  Don Hayden - Florence Golden (A)

  Larry Miller - Abby Aldecoa (A)

  Ayan Banerjee - Ashok Vittal (B/C)

  Judi Carollo - George Pledger (B/C)

9/12  Elaine Erickson - Anne Struthers (A)

  Paul Amato - Jim Wulfhorst (A/B/C)

  Larry Miller - Abby Aldecoa (B/C)

9/19  Mostafa Hafezi - Bill Yetter (A)

  Ann Carlson - Fred Carlson (A/B/C)

  Connie Vasquez - Mario Vasquez (B)

9/26  Mostafa Hafezi - William Ahrens (A) 67.79%

  George Pledger - Mindy Foos (A/B/C)

  Rollin Cutts - Paul Chang (B)

 

Thursday  10:30 a.m.  SJBC

9/6  Charlie Dorn - Ted Richmond 67.82%

  Dolores Clinch - Jack Clinch

9/13  Carole Dietz - Barbara Harkleroad

  Kit Humphrey - Bill Langlois

9/20  Jim Hayashi - Richard Sarsfield 68.06%

  Bille Giansiracusa - Rose Meltzer

9/27  Carole Dietz - Tina Pearson 66.93%

  Kathleen Keener - Barbara Harkleroad

 

Thursday  7:30 p.m.  SJBC

9/6  Rosemary Roney - Elizabeth Strasen (A/B/C)

  Phyllis Vierra - Hiram Shen (A)

  Fung Bao - Mei Wu (B/C)

9/13  Shih-Wei Lu - Tom Coleman (A/B)

  Hiram Shen - Phyllis Vierra (A)

9/20  George Pledger - Mindy Foos (A) 65.87%

  Herb Jubin - Matt Moore (A/B/C)

  Beverly Nelson - Lucy Burke (B)

9/27  Richard Jacobs - Tom Coleman (A) 67.86%

  Andre Dermant - Alex Tampilang (A/B)

  Celso Ravelo - Consorcia Ravelo (B) 67.06%

  Shih-Wei Lu - Gary Kao (C)

 

Friday  11 a.m.  SJBC

9/7  Bernard Brown - Mildred Brown

  Maureen Ellenberg - Ruth Sporer

9/14  Gigi Spinazze - Ruth Sporer

  H Zoellner - Ron Laffen

9/21  Gerry Piaget - Joan Piaget

  Irv Wentzien - Marion Wentzien

 

Friday  7:30 p.m.  SJBC

9/7  Robert Ritz - Mike Cailean (A)

  Terry Hause - Rick Biedenweg (A)

  Kurt Siedenburg - Paul Cornelius (B/C)

  Robert Moen - John Preovolos (B/C)

9/14  Stephen Tu - Richard Willey (A/B)

  Susan Zimmerman - Ted Zimmerman (A/B)

9/21  Mindy Foos - Shih-Ming Shih (A/B)

  Barbara Luttrell - Bruce Luttrell (A)

  Robert Moen - John Preovolos (C)

  Steve Chen - Stephen Tu (B/C)

 

Saturday  12:45 p.m.  SJBC

9/8  H Zoellner - Gordon Ringer 69.64%

  Bill Traver - Leon W. Lee

9/15  Hiram Shen - Peter Kao

  Joan Piaget - Gerry Piaget

9/22  Ted Ujifusa- David Gambelin

  Alex Tampilang - Andre Dermant

 

Sunday September 16 NAOP Qualifier

  Don Rothschild - Diane  Shannon (A)

  Mike Abrams - June McCullough (B/C)