Mark your calendar for these events taking place in the next few months.

District 4 STaC

May 2-7

Grand National Teams (all flights)

May 21-22

Philadelphia Regional at Valley Forge

June 27-July3

ACBL Nationals (DC)

July 21-31

District 4 STaC

August 22-28

For those of you who found last month's "two letters" informative, here's another you might find interesting. Chris Compton -- bridge club owner, multiple Barry Crane award winner, and top U.S. player -- sent a letter to Ken Monzingo that found its way to the website Bridge Winners, where it garnered a lively response. The letter outlines issues related to recent changes in the ACBL fee structure that affect clubs as well as other large-scale issues in the organization.

It's a rare feat to become a Grand Life Master, requiring both a National win and 10,000 masterpoints. Philadelphia Regional chair, former Unit 141 Tournament Chair, and all-around great guy Meyer Kotkin has achieved that milestone. His National win came in the 2011 Wernher Pairs with his friend Howie Cohen. Meyer earned the 10,000th masterpoint at the Claymont Regional in March. Unit 141 celebrated the success at its Sectional at Bala in April with hearty congratulations and a giant cake. Thanks to District 4 Director Joann Glasson, who made a special trip in the snow to bring the cake and make the celebration possible.  

A Sectional Tournament at Clubs runs May 2-7 and provides an opportunity to earn silver points at your local club. Bonuses for top-scoring games across the clubs will also be awarded. Check with your local club to be sure it's participating in the STaC, or check the link below.

All flights of the District 4 GNTs run qualifiers on May 21 and 22. These qualifying games decide which teams will be eligible for the national competition at the DC Nationals in July. The event runs in four flights -- Open, A, B, and C. The competitions take place in Wilkes-Barre, PA. More information is available from the GNT flyer (link below) or from Tournament Chair George Mansour (570-335-8579 or [email protected]).

       

The morning lecture will start the day with a demonstration of Bridge Base Online (BBO), a terrific learning, playing, and practice website. During the afternoon lecture, you will be able to check out many online products, such as Fun Bridge, Bridgemaster 2000, Audrey Grant's online products, and www.bridgeclues.com.

Rui Marques, Assistant Chief Director for the European Bridge League and World Bridge Federation and Unit 141 resident, continues his series on bridge rulings and table irregularities.

 

Not Sufficient  

Law 27 deals with insufficient bids (designated in this article by IB) and is one of the hardest laws for TDs to apply correctly. Let´s go through it step by step. The major difficulty is to get all the information before giving the ruling, and for that it is very often necessary to remove the player that made the IB (the offender) away from the table in order to ask the right questions without giving extra information to the other players.

27A1: "Any IB may be accepted (treated as legal) at the option of offender's LHO. It is accepted if that player calls." This means also IBs out of rotation. The TD asks the player on offender´s left if he accepts the bid.

27A2: "If a player makes an IB out of rotation, Law 31 (bid out of rotation) applies." This applies if the IB was not accepted.

27B: The complicated part...When an IB in rotation is not accepted, (27B1a) the player can correct to the lowest sufficient bid in the same denomination if and only if the IB and the substituted bid are both not artificial. Or (27B1b), if the player can make a call (bid, pass, double or redouble) that has essentially the same or a more precise meaning than the one meant by the IB, he can make that call. In both cases the bidding continues without further rectification. If none of the above applies (27B2), the player can substitute the IB with a bid or a pass, in which case partner will have to pass for the rest of the auction. There may be lead penalties, and also Law 23 may apply if the TD judges that the offender might be aware that forcing his partner to pass could well damage the opponents.

 

The remainder paragraphs of Law 27 deal with the odd cases when a player tries to replace the IB with a double (27B3), or with another IB (27B4), and also with the case when the IB is replaced with another bid before the TD is called (27C).

Finally, 27D tells us that when the IB is substituted without further rectification as per 27B1 above, the TD can always adjust the score if he considers that the offender´s side gained an advantage because of the IB.

To correctly apply this law in the usual case of an IB in rotation and nothing else having happened afterwards, the TD takes the offender away from the table before ruling and checks if 27B1 applies. Q1: Was the IB intended as natural, and is the next sufficient bid in the same denomination natural? Q2: Is there a call available that has the same or a more precise meaning? Q3: Which call is it? The TD returns the player to the table. The TD says that he can (if answer to Q1 was "yes") replace the bid with the next sufficient bid in the same denomination and no further rectification, (if answer to Q2 was "yes") replace with a legal call with the same or a more precise meaning and no further rectification, or, in any case, replace with something else except double, in which case partner will pass for the rest of the auction and the lead penalties of Law 26 may apply. The TD should check the hand after play to see if Law 23 might apply.

The TD should not explain to the table what the intention of the player was when he made the IB, or what call is he going to make if the player next in rotation does not accept the IB. We will go through some examples in the next article. 

Monday, May 2: Pro-Am & Lunch (0-750 for Ams)

Tuesday, May 3: "Throw Back Tuesday" with a $4 card fee!

Wednesday, May 4:  Swiss Teams Game with Pizza
Thursday, May 5: Make-Your-Own-Sundae

Friday, May 6: Regular Open Game

Friday Evening (6:30 PM), May 6: Mixed Pairs & Dinner

Saturday, May 7: Brunch & Bridge

Link to Yorktown Bridge Club

   

Please note a few reminders and changes to the schedule at the Valley Forge Bridge Club in King of Prussia. It has removed the Sunday evening and Friday morning games from the schedule. Also note that the Beginner Bridge classes will resume after Labor Day.

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Please send club and unit news, ideas for future articles, comments, and feedback to Allison Brandt at [email protected].

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