North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 09/04/2023

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

Shuffle & Deal--.Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m.

Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. NOTE: There will be a lesson series on 9/19, 9/26, 10/3 and 10/10 so there will be no Shuffle and Deal on those dates.

September 13 - 0-50 game.

September 13 - Bobbie Gomer Team Challenge. This is a competition between local clubs. NP holds the current title. Contact me if you would like to play and I’ll look for a team for you. Further details are on our website.

September 16 - Robot Individual.

September 18-22 NPDBC 50^th Anniversary Celebration. There will be special events every day and the games will be awarding triple points! More history from Mitch Snyder below.

September 25-29 - International Fund Month with extra points for an extra dollar.

NAP Flight B Pre-Registration. North Penn is one of the hosts for the NAP Flight B District 4 game on Saturday, September 23. Players are required to register with the club where they plan to play. Early registration is $64; last minute registration is $80. Registration can be made online (see details on our website) or by check made out to the North Penn Bridge Club placed in the red box at the club. Be sure to list your names and ACBL numbers. Many of you have already qualified, so now is the time to register. If you aren’t sure whether you have qualified, you can click here to find out. Only two weeks left before the price goes up.

Upcoming Tournaments:

September 8-10 is The Wilmington Sectional
September 23 is NAP District 4 Flight B
September 30 is NAP District 4 Flights A and C
October 6-8 is the Philadelphia Sectional in Cherry Hill
October 20-21 is the Allentown Sectional
October 30 to November 5 is the Lancaster Regional in Manheim, PA

Club History Series 4

From Mitch Snyder

50th Anniversary Celebration Co-Chair

Throughout our stay at the Moose and Line St. there is one person who quietly did a lot for the club for a long time: Pearl Tyson. She always came early and sat North at table 1 and as long as Bob Pollsen was running the club Pearl collected card fees and assigned tables. She was a lifer on the board of governors. The original table arrangement at Line St. had table 1 closest to the back door where Pearl parked, as she was not as spry as she was years ago. When Pearl couldn’t play anymore the table order was changed to better accommodate the movements.

The first club directory was published in 2010.

The minutes from March 28, 2011, report that “the Wednesday evening game is doing well.” Does anyone remember that? There was a Thursday evening game for a while at the Moose, but Wednesday evening at Line St? The Wednesday eve game was suspended in January 2012.

Bridgemates were introduced in 2012.

The search for a new home continued throughout 2009, 2010 and 2011. Little progress was made. Our current location is mentioned for the first time in the September 26, 2011 minutes.

The By-laws were updated in 2011. The changes mostly involved financial issues including reserve capital and the possible dissolution of the club.

At the end of 2011 the club had a little over $16,000 in the bank. A year later that amount was just shy of $19,000. Throughout 2012 and 2013 the debate raged about whether we could afford to move. We did finally move to Wissahickon Avenue in early November 2013 (during the Lancaster Regional.) Thanks to John Dickenson (president), Steve Becker (treasurer) and Pat Hunn (real estate law consultant) for their efforts.

The move itself was uneventful except we may have set a Guiness world record for the shortest (distance & time) truck rental. We rented a truck to move the furniture from a place on N. Broad Street. We put about 5 miles on the speedometer and returned it in under 2 hours.

What a difference a mile makes. The new place was beautiful. The refrigerator and modern restrooms were a luxury. Parking was plentiful until we started getting 16+ tables on Friday mornings. People had to park out on the street on a couple of occasions hence all the reserved parking today.

The mural on the wall opposite the snack counter was a gift from Tay Adams. It was painted by her sister-in-law, Yveline Reisner.

Now that we were located in a modern facility, we were able to contribute to the bridge community in a new way. We started hosting various NAP & GNT events. We got to showcase our beautiful facility and make a few bucks for the club.

Come celebrate 50 years of North Penn Bridge September 18-22. Come for the food or come for the prizes but most of all come for the memories. Do you remember Bob Pollsen’s everyday snacks? We do.

Education

New Lesson Series - Tuesday Nights from 7-9 p.m. Beginning September 19^th. In this four-session series on Opener’s Forcing Bids, you will learn when and how to do a forcing bid as an opener and how to respond when your partner makes a forcing bid. These lessons will target those players who have completed Deb’s beginner classes. The lesson fee mentioned last week was inaccurate. Individual lessons are $20; the four-lesson series is $75. Click here for details.

2/1 Saturday Class with Lisa Mita at North Penn Bridge Club.

When:-----October 7^th through November 4^th

Time:------9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Cost:-----..$125 for five lessons.

------------Or sign up at the club.

September Classes with Joann Glasson on Zoom

When:-----September 11

Time:------10 a.m.

Details:---.Click here

King of Prussia Bridge Club (KOP) Lessons

For details regarding the dates and times of the following lessons offered by KOP, please check our website.

Partnership

To add your name to the player list or to request a partner for a game, please send an email to [email protected].

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Ask the Expert

Here’s this week’s question for our experts:

Your holding is Kx

--.AQJxx

--.Kxx

Do you open 1NT or 1H at matchpoints and why? The vote for 1NT was unanimous. Below are remarks by two of our experts:

“This is clearly a 1NT opener. If you bid 1H, you have no second bid that adequately describes this hand after partner's likely 1S or 1NT response. If partner has 5 spades, 3 hearts and a weak hand you may end up in the wrong part score but you are much less likely to miss a game if you open 1NT.”

“I would open 1NT. I'm protecting my side kings. If I open 1H my rebid is problematic. My operating theory is that if you can open 1NT, you should.”

Email your questions, or a pesky hand, or something you’d like to know about bidding or playing to Toysie at [email protected]. She will forward them to the panel, one will be chosen, and the question and answers will be printed in the following week’s newsletter.

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

“When you create a trump trick out of thin air you have delivered an uppercut. Do not concern yourself with remembering the word. Everyone is more impressed with a player who can execute this classy play than one who can identify it by name.”

From Points Schmoints

by Marty Bergen

Deal of the Week

by Mitch Snyder

Who's In Charge?

When you open 2NT, partner often has a weak hand. Heck, you announced that you have at least half the deck. But as weak as partner might be, you’ve made him or her team captain. Since you have a known HCP point range and a flattish hand, partner gets the privilege of controlling the auction. This sometimes results in responder passing a part of the decision back to opener. In an uncontested auction such as: 1NT-2D; 2H-3NT, responder sets the level at ‘game’ but is asking opener to choose the strain.

Look at these hands from recent F2F games. As responder should know, a long suit in a weak hand when partner opens NT (1 or 2) is always valuable as trump but may not be useful in a notrump contract.

In both cases you can see who got the better result, the East’s that transferred to their major and passed. The responder chose both the game and the strain.

Notice in the second hand that 5 of 7 pairs made an extra trick probably because North led a club. The extra trick is available in both NT and spades, so 3S should always score better that 2NT.

Here’s another hand. This time responder finds himself in a whole different situation.

In 2^nd seat, East can open 1H or 2NT. If 1H, what do you rebid after a likely 1S or 1NT (forcing) response? 3C gets the points and distribution right but those clubs are soooo bad… How about 2NT? No, you’re too strong. The solution is to open 2NT, then there is no rebid problem and partner can lead the search for the best contract.

Now West has a pleasant problem. He can plop it in 4S via a Texas transfer or investigate for a heart fit and/or slam in either major.

As you can see nobody bid a slam although two pairs did find the heart fit. Given that anemic heart suit, not much better than east’s clubs, I would ignore it and concentrate on looking for a spade slam.

Despite only an ace in high cards, this a powerful offensive hand. If partner has as little as Kx in spades and controls in the red suits, there should be a play for slam, but how do you find out?

After a Texas transfer, responder can employ their favorite Blackwood variation or show slam interest by making a cuebid. This hand is perfect for a 5C bid. If that doesn’t excite partner he can stop at 5S. If the club control is a good thing he can make his own cuebid or just bid the slam.

Here’s a possible auction:

N----------E----------S----------W

Pass-------2NT------.Pass-------4H*

Pass-------4S--------.Pass-------5C**

Pass-------5D***----.Pass------=5S****

Pass-------6H*****--Pass------=6S****

Pass-------Pass-----=.Pass

* transfer to spades

** 1st round control, slam interest and asking opener to help decide the level (the strain, spades, is set)

*** 1st round control, no need to make a decision on the final contract yet although you know you’re bidding 6, at least

**** I’ve told my story

***** Not ready to merely bid 6S yet, leaving the door open for partner to bid 6NT or 7S

6S got 91% of the matchpoints in the common game.

Notice in the last hand that after responder set the strain, he enlisted opener’s help to determine the final level as opposed to the (1N-2D; 2H-3NT) auction where responder set the level and asked opener to pick the strain.