North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 04/25/2022

From the President

Pat Andrews

Earlier this year five bridge clubs in our area (AMI, Hamilton, King of Prussia, North Penn and Hamilton) established an inter-club competition to honor the memory of an amazing bridge teacher who lost her battle with Covid in 2020.

Bobbie Gomer was not just a great teacher, but a kind and courteous presence at the table for partners and opponents alike. Many North Penn players honed their skills under Bobbie’s tutelage and our club is honored to be part of the effort to memorialize her. Two events in the Bobbie Gomer Competition have been held so far, with the next one hosted by the Hamilton Club at Bala Golf Club on Sunday June 5 at 12:30 pm. This is an “Eight is Enough” team event. Details can be found on our website at https://www.bridgewebs.com/northpenn/.

We encourage North Penn players to organize teams to represent us at the next challenge. If you are interested and need assistance finding partners and/or teammates, please talk to Pat Andrews, Dave Dodgson or Ken Salter or send an email to the club northpennbridge@gmail.com. If you have a team in place, please register with Ken Salter at kensalter@verizon.net.

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

April 26 - double points (1/4 gold) awarded for the 7:15 pm online open game courtesy of Stardust Week.

May Events. May is Grassroots Funds month. POINTS.. POINTS.. POINTS

Beginning May 4, and continuing every Wednesday morning at 9:30, there will be a 0-49 duplicate game.

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

Upcoming Tournaments:

April 29-May 1 - Sectional in Allentown.

May 2-6 - Regional in Rehoboth Beach.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Education

April 27 – 9:30-11:30 a.m. duplicate practice game.

May 4 – 9:30-11:30 a.m. first official 0-49 duplicate game.

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

“Notrump defense is inexorably tied to the number of tricks declarer’s or dummy’s long suit is likely to produce. Train yourself to guesstimate that number. You have your own holding plus the bidding to help you. However, if partner needs an honor (or a stopper) in the suit to defeat the contract, assume she has it.”

From Defensive Tips

by Edwin B. Kantar

Deal of the Week

by John Dickenson

RIP Eddie Kantar

Edwin “Eddie” Kantar was a giant among bridge players, authors, and teachers. The bridge world suffered a tremendous loss when he passed away this past April 8^th at the age of 89.

Before his passing, Eddie and his wife Yvonne made available a word document of one of his works, “Thinking Bridge” for bridge teachers to use so that his genius could live on through other dedicated bridge teachers. My friends Mike Giesler and Kelvin Raywood were able to parse the word document into PBN and LIN format for online teaching, and the files are available to all members of the American Bridge Teachers Association on their website.

The following is one of the deals from this work.

Thinking bridge, by Eddie Kantar

LEAD: ♥2.

BIDDING COMMENTARY: East's 2♥ weak jump overcall is comparable to a Weak Two: basically a reasonable six card suit with 6-9 HCP. It frequently serves as a good lead director. South's 2♠ 2 level major suit response guarantees at least 5 spades with at least 11 HCP. With 8-10 HCP, South is better placed to make a negative double.

LEAD COMMENTARY: Painfully obvious. Some players lead a singleton even when they don't have one!

DEFENSIVE COMMENTARY: East wins the first trick as cheaply as possible and continues with the king-ace of hearts. West anticipates making 2 discards. Why not discard the KQ of diamonds so a diamond can be ruffed at trick 4? After all, declarer may have a singleton diamond and no diamond trick may be forthcoming. This is not only the best defense; it is the only defense that sets 4♠.

When several discards can be envisioned, consider discarding from shortness putting yourself in a position to ruff the suit you are discarding. It will also get you in a newspaper column.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Student in class has xxx facing AQJ in dummy. She leads low and puts in the jack which holds. She plays the ace next. Teacher asks why she didn't take the finesse again? She says: "You told us that only one of two finesses work."