North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 05/16/2022

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

May Events:

May 18 - Newcomers' game for players with 0-49 MPs. 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Our first 0-49 game is in the books and will continue every Wednesday at 9:30 am. This is a friendly way to experience the world of duplicate bridge with other newer players. Every player gets a “poker chip” good for one question on bidding or play-of-the-hand during the game. Every game with two and a half tables or more will award masterpoints if winners are members of ACBL! As an added incentive, North Penn will offer this game at the Shuffle and Deal price of $5 per player. Hope to see you there!

May 16-29 - STaC week. Silver and extra points are available.

May 23-27 extra points for Club Championship week. Please note the lawyers next door are having a picnic on Thursday, May 26. They will be setting up in the area next to Church Road so the parking lot will be blocked off. Parking is available in the back of the building.

May 30 - Memorial Day Party. Not only are we playing bridge we are having a party! Please come early and join us for lunch (even if you’re not playing.) Since it’s a SUPER Club Championship, you’ll get triple points! Please sign up in advance in the sign-up book, by calling the club at 215-699-4932 or emailing the club at [email protected].

May 30-June 3 extra, extra points for SUPER Club Championship week.

Be Courteous

Our club has a reputation for being a nice place to play. This is based upon our players being courteous to each other. I have received some complaints where this might not be the case. Please remember that if a player makes a mistake, such as leading from the wrong hand, it is not a big deal. Just remind them nicely.

Do You Need A Partner?

Let us know in advance and we’ll do our best to arrange one for you. Either send us an email at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at the Club’s number 215-699-4932. Both are monitored on a regular basis. Even if it’s the day of, our directors will check for messages when they arrive at the club an hour prior to the game starting. You can also place a partner request on North Penn’s website calendar.

Stand-by Partner's Needed

Do you live within 5-10 minutes of the club? Would you be willing to play at the last minute if we needed someone? Please contact the club by email at [email protected] or by phone at 215-699-4932 so we can put you on a stand-by list.

Covid

Montgomery County has ticked up into the Moderate Category. Our club policy is to require masks if it goes up to the High Category. Please monitor your email in case we have to make this change.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, June 22 - The Longest Day. The Day with the Most Light is the Day We Fight!

We will hold two Longest Day games in person at the Club on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Here is the schedule:

0-49 Newcomers game starts at 9:30 a.m.
Lunch at 11:30 a.m.
Open game starts at Noon

We are again urging our players to consider a tax-deductible donation toward the Club’s $1,600 fundraising goal for Alzheimer’s. Last year our generous players raised over $3,000 for this worthy cause. If you wish to donate, you have three options:

Online by clicking here: NP Longest Day Fundraiser
By check made out to the Alzheimer’s Association. Checks may be dropped off at the Club or mailed to Pat Andrews, 6624 Old Carversville Road, Lumberville, PA 18933.
By cash in the designated receptacle at the Club.

We hope you will play with us on June 22 and donate in support of this cause!

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

We update our Facebook page regularly so be sure to check it out. It’s a great way to stay in touch with all the happenings at North Penn.

Tidbits

“If partner opens 1NT and second hand intervenes, be prepared to bid 3NT with enough points for game and a no-trump hand type, even though you do not have a stopper in their suit.”

From 100 Winning Bridge Tips

by Ron Klinger

Deal of the Week

by Rex Saffer

After the Thrill of Opening 2N, What Next? MELONS

Picking up a hand with a cornucopia of honors can give a player an initial frisson, a French word usually translated as a physical “thrill”. It derives from the Latin frigere, meaning “to be cold”, thus auxiliary meanings can include “shiver” and “shudder”, with an undercurrent of delight or pleasure; or alternatively, disquiet or fear. Pleasure seems appropriate here, especially when we sort the hand and are thrilled to find we are looking at a balanced 20–21 HCP.

An opening bid of 1NT is arguably among the most useful in all of bridge. Besides tightly constraining the hand strength, it opens the door to a wide range of systematic treatments, principally various versions of Stayman and Transfers. There is vast literature on responses and subsequent rebids, and if the auction is left uncontested, competent players are very likely to find the optimal contract.

An opening bid of 2NT is similarly useful, but there can be complications. One such nuisance arises when responder holds a game–going 5–4 in the majors. Over 1NT, the Smolen convention serves well – after a 2♣ response and opener’s 2♦ rebid denying a 4–card major, responder rebids a major at the 3–level, showing four of that major and five of the other. Opener is then well positioned to place a final, right–sided contract. But there is no room for responder to make a jump rebid over an opening 2NT without blowing past 3NT. Enter MELONS, your author’s whimsical name for a treatment to address this issue, and about which there is precious little discussion in the literature.

The Method

Why call it MELONS? Because, Dear Reader, your author is a language addict, and MELONS is an anagram of SMOLEN. How does it work? Let us begin with a 3♠ response over the opening 2NT. This asks opener to relay to 3NT. We note that 3♠ can also be used as Minor Suit Stayman (MSS), and while it is worth considering the statistics of a game–going major suit 5–4 vs. a strong hand with slam interest in the minors, we invite someone else to investigate.

Here is a complete summary of MELONS 3–level responses and rebids in an uncontested auction following an opening 2NT:

2NT – 3NT: Responder holds five spades with four hearts.

2NT – 3♠: Opener is asked to relay to 3NT.

2NT – 3♥ – 3♠ – 3NT: Responder holds five spades without four hearts.

2NT – 3♦ – 3♥ – 3♠: Responder holds five hearts without four spades.

2NT – 3♦ – 3♥ – 3NT: Responder holds five hearts with four spades.

2NT – 3♣: Puppet Stayman, left intact by MELONS and widely discussed elsewhere.

Regarding MSS, over 2NT – 3♠ – 3NT responder has several options if there is interest in a minor suit slam. This is beyond the scope of this article, requiring further discussion and partnership agreement.

As with any convention, one should have sufficient memory resources and a commitment to use them. And as usual, a benefit never comes without an accompanying liability, including the likelihood of a disaster or two the first few times a new convention is deployed.

The Deal

Far, far away and long, long ago, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa encountered this deal and these dastardly opponents on the very last board of a two–session Galactic Open Pairs contest:

The Auction

Luke picked up his balanced 20 HCP and opened a standard 2NT. Leia initiated MELONS with a 3♦ call, Luke announcing “Hearts” and completing the transfer. Leia continued MELONS, her 3NT rebid showing she also held four spades. Luke duly alerted then elected to play in the 4–4 fit, anticipating discards in the closed hand on long hearts, provided both majors behaved and he could get to dummy after unblocking. Leia, like any good partner should do, held the ♥K as well as the ♦A, an outside entry in the event of an adverse 4–1 heart split.

The Play

The play was routine, and although Darth Vader could have held Luke to 11 tricks with a diamond lead, The Force failed the usually prescient Dark Lord of the Sith. As he intoned, “Luuuke, I am your Faaather.”, he led a low spade, presenting Luke with the timing to knock out the trump ace. Vader returned a diamond to dummy’s ace – too late, Anakin – but Luke unblocked the ♥AQ, and upon finding the favorable 3–2 split, he overtook the ♥J in dummy. His losing diamond went on a long heart, and he ruffed dummy’s remaining diamond in hand, scoring 12 tricks for +680 and a Cosmic Top.

If the contract had been 4♥, as was the case for a substantial fraction of the Galactic Empire field, a spade and a diamond would have to be lost, holding the Resistance to +650 and prolonging the war. Finally, as the cards lie 3NT is doomed on a diamond lead, however unlikely that might be, provided The Chosen One carefully unblocks the ♦K.

Closing Thoughts

MELONS leaves Puppet Stayman intact. But there are other ways to handle a major suit 5–4 in the responding hand after a 2NT opener, provided we don’t mind modifying Puppet or giving it up altogether.

One option is Muppet Stayman, but it has several variants, and describing all the possible continuations can be tedious. The core of the method is to reverse the 3♥ and 3NT opener rebids after a 3♣ response, such that 3♥ by opener denies a 4– or a 5–card major, and 3NT shows a 5–card heart suit. A marginally tolerable summary can be found at Conventions: Muppet Stayman by La Confederación Sudamericana de Bridge, or scroll halfway down the page to Jeff Lehman’s post at Intelligible Muppet Stayman Summary? by Bridgewinners.

Another approach is to revert the 3♣ response to regular Stayman, then after a 3♦ rebid by opener, 3♥ and 3♠ are taken as game forcing Smolen, 5=4 and 4=5, respectively. This works well enough, but we judge that the cost of abandoning Puppet outweighs this narrow benefit. See Robert Todd’s uncharacteristically brief Responding to 2NT with the Majors for a relatively straightforward framework.

That said, and though there are sure to be contrary opinions, for its concise structure, minimal disruption of 3–level transfers, and retention of Puppet Stayman, we prefer MELONS.

All the best,

Rex

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Two guys play duplicate in the afternoon, go to a restaurant for dinner and discuss all the hands writing all over the tablecloth and napkins. They go back and play in the evening and return to the same restaurant and start going over the hands again. Finally Jim says: "Bill, don't we know anything but bridge? Can't we discuss something else, anything else, movies, politics, sports, sex? "Sex, says Bill, I had sex diamonds to the king-queen.."