North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 05/09/2022

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

May Events:

May 11.

Newcomers game for players with 0-49 MPs.

9:30-11:30 a.m.

May 2-13 extra points for Grassroots Funds Month.

May 16-29 extra points for StaC week.

May 23-27 extra points for Club Championship week.

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.

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

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday, June 22 - The Longest Day is Back at NPDBC!

We are pleased to announce that North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club will once again participate in the ACBL’s Longest Day Campaign in support of the Alzheimer’s Association. This is the third year in a row for us and for the very first time, we will be playing our Longest Day games in person at the Club.

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

Please sign up in the book at the Club or email us.

We hope you will consider making a tax-deductible donation toward the Club’s $1,600 fundraising goal. 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.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Tournament Results

Our bridge club dominated the newcomer game in the Regional Tournament in Rehoboth, DE last week! Shuffle and Deal regulars Russ and Debbie Bumbry, Bob and Mary Ann Gorman, and Marcie Friedman bravely ventured down for their first tournament experience! Other (less regular but still devoted) shuffle and deal players, Nancy Adelman, Sue Ellen Masty, Jane Bonenberger, Carol Chiodo, Kathy Sullivan, Lillie Hord, Stacy Cannon, Susan Peck, LT Scheid, and Kristin Lawton also made it down, winning a combined total of 11.51 masterpoints! Great job, newcomers!

Also blowing the competition away with a first place win in the Open Pairs were Susan Morse and John Dickenson! Way to go!

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 declarer’s reentry to an established suit is in the trump suit, forcing the dummy to ruff could put this suit to sleep.”

“If the entry to what will soon be an established side suit can be removed early, the side suit is dead meat.”

From Defensive Tips

by Edwin B. Kantar

Deal of the Week

by Bruce Schwaidelson

West-side's Story:

The Rule of 11 Works Forwards & Backwards

Whenever we read about the Rule of 11, the pundits are always talking about how East should defend after doing some calculations. Once he leads, poor West is usually ignored. That all changed, however, when acclaimed film director Steven Spielberg decided to do an updated adaptation of the Broadway musical and movie all about the Jets and the Sharks, renaming it “West-side’s Story”.

Perhaps you got to see this Oscar-nominated film, and if you did, you know that Spielberg not only created a new role for the ageless Rita Morena but also took quite a few liberties with the original screenplay. His new production especially surprises everyone when the entire cast shows up at the school gym and instead of a big dance scene, there are 6 rows of tables, 10 tables per row, each complete with chairs, boards, guide cards and bidding boxes!

As Riff, Bernardo, and the rest of the gang members and their dates prepare for the evening ahead, you hear everyone singing (go ahead - join in): “Tonight, tonight, it’s the Common Game tonight; Tonight there will be slams and part-scores…” As luck would have it, Maria and Tony, who have never met, are the last to arrive and are paired with each other in order to fill out the final table.

Tony, a former Sharks warrior, tells Maria that the Sharks like to play any system that uses a “Big Club”. Maria, sister of Jets leader Bernardo but a pacifist at heart, proposes using the “Yellow Card”, although she usually plays “Standard Puertorriqueño”.

In the early rounds Maria, feeling “pretty, oh so pretty”, is a bit icy towards Tony as he bids erratically and muffs an easy game contract. Things really get heated up when the pair faces this defensive challenge against brother Bernardo and Chino, Maria’s fiancé due to an arranged marriage:

The auction was fairly straight-forward: Chino’s 2♣ bid was game forcing, the 2♠ rebid promised 6 or more, and when Bernardo bid spades for the 3^rd time, Chino should no doubt have raised to 4, as most in fact did. Instead Chino tried 3NT, upholding his well-known reputation as a “hand-hog”.

Not surprisingly, Tony led his 4^th best ♥2 and Maria played her King, ducked by declarer Chino who played the 4. Even though spades are running, we can all see it is easy to take 5 defensive tricks (3 hearts plus 2 Aces). Or is it? Maria could have made things simple for Tony by returning the ♥J next, but, as the movie’s Vugraph analysts point out, that might not work out well if, for example, this had been the heart position:

Maria should fear that in this layout, South would cover the ♥J with the Queen and after Tony took his Ace he would likely continue the suit thinking Maria, rather than declarer, held the all-important ♥10. The analysts note that returning her “original 4^th best” ♥5 would enable the defense to collect 3 heart tricks no matter how South played the suit.

Maria may be new to “America” (we all know that song) but she did not just fall off the pineapple truck. She wisely returned the ♥5 and her fiancé Chino followed with the 9, hoping to make it look like he originally held AJ94 or A1094. Chino could deduce from Maria’s plays at tricks 1 & 2 that Tony held the Queen and either the Jack or 10. After winning his 10 (dummy discarding a low club), Tony went into huddle-mode: did South now hold AJ or merely Ax or perhaps even the bare Ace? What would you do if you were as love-struck as Tony and wanted to impress Maria in front of Chino? You can follow the movie script here.

Totally convinced that Maria would have returned the ♥J if she held it, Tony decided it would be best to try to get Maria in with a diamond so that his lovely partner could continue the heart suit before his ♣A was dislodged. He not so cleverly switched to the ♦J, followed quickly by the dummy’s Queen and Maria’s Ace. Tony had struck pay dirt – or so he thought!

Maria dutifully played another heart, declarer popping his Ace while pitching a 2nd club from dummy. Chino unblocked his ♠Q and led a diamond toward dummy’s 9, which of course was now a winner. When her partner played low, Maria was horrified. “WTF, partner? No ♦10?” she muttered aloud (en Español, naturalmente).

Moments later, when the spades behaved for declarer, Chino was able to pitch all his clubs and his remaining heart to garner 2 more diamonds at the end, losing just 2 hearts and the ♦A. Tony’s ♣A and high heart just withered away on the vine. Ironically Spielberg’s movie now shows Chino, rather than Tony and Maria, singing “One Hand, One Heart - plus 9 tricks more… please score it up making 4.” Chino really enjoyed rubbing it in!

Tony was pretty incensed that Maria had not returned the ♥J at trick 2, but he tried not to appear too irritated when he wagged his finger at her while asking why she hadn’t, conveying that he was sure he would be playing a heart into declarer’s AJ. Maria calmly asked Tony if he were familiar with the “Rule of 11”, and Tony – somewhat offended – advised that he most certainly was, mansplaining to her: “The Rule is basic to defensive bridge. Let me show you exactly how it works…”

Before he could finish, however, it was Maria’s turn to do some womansplaining: “Tony, do you know that the Rule of 11 works both forwards and backwards?” He looked at her blankly. “When I returned my 4^th best ♥5, you – the West-side of this story – must also apply the Rule. My math says 11 minus my ♥5 equals 6, so there are 6 hearts higher than the 5 held by you, declarer, and dummy. You had 3, dummy just 1, and Chino had just played his ♥9. How many more do you think that leaves him, Gringo?”

Now it was Tony’s turn to croon:

One Hand, One Heart, oh my…

that’s all that’s still higher than the 5;

If I had led one in fact -- we woulda beat their contract…”

Tony, now hopelessly in love, sang so sweetly that Maria joined him in the song. She too was smitten despite their 43% game. As you might guess, the rest was history: they lived happily ever after… or <Alert! Spoiler Alert!> at least almost until the end of the film.

“West-side’s Story” post-script: Many bridge players miss out on applying the Rule of 11 when partner returns the suit. Maria’s caution, however, is that you must recall all the spots played in both tricks when you do the math.

¡Buena suerte, todos mis amigos, y gracias Señor Spielberg!

Laughter is the Best Medicine

I am called over to a table by one of my students who tells me she only has 12 cards. Sure enough she is right. I look around and find the SA on the floor and give it to her. She was previously void in spades. Now she says to me: "You've ruined my entire hand."