North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 09/05/2022

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

September Schedule. There are plenty of opportunities to earn extra points at the club this month.

September 12-16 - Club Championships. Extra points at no extra cost.

September 19-23 - Royal STaC. Red, silver and gold points.

September 26-30 - Super Club Championships. Triple points at no extra cost.

Special Events.

September 17 - Robot Individual at 4:00 p.m.

September 21 - Pro/Am Game at Noon. If you are a Life Master you are a Pro! If you are a Non Life Master you are an Am! This is a wonderful opportunity for those of you with few or no points to savor the taste of a duplicate game. You will be in good hands with one of our capable Pros! And, since this is also a Royal STaC game, you will have a chance to win gold, red, and silver points while playing. Please sign up in the book at the club or contact Toysie Walker at [email protected] if you would like to participate and indicate whether you are a Pro or an Am.

Lessons. Check out all the lesson opportunities in our Education Section below. (Additional information can be found on our website.) Lessons are a wonderful way to improve your game. And be sure to tell your friends to sign up too. There’s something for everyone!

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.

Education

Fall Lessons:

Defensive Carding - September 12, 19, 26 and October 3, 9-11 a.m., in person at the club. Teacher: John Dickenson. Click this link for details.

Overcalls and Declarer Play Deception - September 12 and 19. Teacher: Joann Glasson. Classes are at 10 a.m. on Zoom. For details contact Joann at [email protected].

New Beginner Bridge Classes - October 17 for seven consecutive Monday evenings from 7-9 p.m. Teacher: Deb Crisfield. Please contact Deb at [email protected] or 973-769-9619 to sign up. Click here for flyer.

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

“Bill Root said it exactly right. If you are serious about advancing your bridge play and becoming a winner, there is no alternative to patiently building good partnerships. Few endeavors depend on partnership as much as bridge. Partnership in bridge is supreme. The needs and desires of the two individuals must be subordinated to what is best for the partnership. The “partnership card” is the most important one in the deck.”

From How the Experts Win at Bridge

by Burt Hall and Lynn Rose-Hall

Deal of the Week

by Bucky Sydnor

The Bitter End

I’m 3^rd seat, all white and pick up:

--------♠Q873 ♥KJ32 ♦AQJ ♣Q10

This 15 HCP hand has many flaws: only one ace and one king, 3 queens (because of which Marty Bergen subtracts 1 HCP), one of which is a doubleton (also subtract 1 HCP) and my only 10 is part of the same doubleton. Unless partner has ♣KJ32 or some other complementary club holding, my clubs are of very questionable value. But so many other players will be opening this hand 1N so I will too. One advantage is it prevents West from coming in at the one level.

My partner bids 2♣, Stayman, and I show my lowest major. She then bids 2N. At this point in the auction, I failed to remember what we played, and, more’s the pity, confused our system with a (confused!) version of another system. I know: that never happens to you. In all that muddle, I think my partner does not have a 4-card spade suit. Moreover, I am a bare minimum 1N opener, so I have to pass. West leads the ♦5 and here’s Dummy’s and my hand together:

--------♠KJ64 ♥74 ♦94 ♣A9753

--------♠Q873 ♥KJ32 ♦AQJ ♣Q10

I am delaying presenting the full deal—it is below—as I am hoping you will follow my play without seeing it. If that is problematic, scroll on down to find it. Oh, and then don’t forget to come back here.

I should have bid 3♠, a much, much better spot, but there’s nothing I can do about that now. Meanwhile I am loving the ♦5 lead coming into my ♦AQJ. I win the diamond lead with the ♦Q, not the ♦J! When we are defenders, we win a trick with our lowest of touching honors to help partner figure out the placement of honors (or cards) in the suit. By winning with our lowest of touching honors we tell partner we do not have the next lower card, which may be very valuable information. When declaring, on the other hand, we do not have to tell partner anything. One of our goals in playing our cards is to keep the opponents in the dark about as much as possible. Generally speaking, then, when declaring and we have touching honors, we win with the highest, not the lowest.

Although setting up the clubs had merit, my plan was to set up the spades. Thus, I lead my ♠7 toward dummy. The reason I start with the 7 is to unblock my spades. If spades break 3-2, I want to be able to lead my ♠3 to Dummy’s ♠4 (or 6) as a late entry to the board.

The trick goes, ♠7, 2, J, 5. That seems to mean that West has the ♠A. While it is unnecessary to lead up to Dummy’s spades again—if the spades are breaking 4-1, then West now has the ♠A109 and I cannot cheat her out of her two spade tricks—I decide to return to my hand anyway and lead Dummy’s ♥7. East plays his ♥5, I play the ♥J and West plays her ♥8.

I’ve waited long enough; here’s the full deal:

I again lead up to Dummy’s spade with the ♠8, continuing to unblock the suit. West ducks again and I win with the king as East follows with the 10. To clear the suit, I come off Dummy with the ♠4 and play my ♠Q, setting up an entry to Dummy, as West wins her ace, with East pitching the ♣4 (standard discards).

My 2♥ Stayman response and my earlier heart play seem to have convinced West that I have a good heart holding so she came out her ♣2, the play going ♣3, 8, Q (mistakenly, as the 10 was sufficient; if John Dickenson ever gives a seminar on Paying Close Attention, I’m taking it!). I continue the clubs and West plays her ♣J, the lowest of equals, as the ♣Q has been played. I win the ♣A and clear the club suit, leading Dummy’s ♣5 to the ♦2, ♥2 and ♣K.

West is now out of black cards and leads her ♥9. East wins with his ♥A and finally leads a diamond, but it’s too late. I go up with my ace and have the rest, making 10 tricks for a shared top.

Was that clever, or what?

It was an “Or what!” I made 10 tricks thanks to a basic defensive error! Do you see it? It happened at trick 3, when I lead the ♥7 from Dummy. East, holding the ♥A, should have gone up with it immediately. An obvious reason is that he holds the ♥AQ105. What hearts can I possibly hold, if I am leading the suit (though I do know declarers who would lead the suit holding worthless cards; but that type of play is rare.)

But that is not THE reason to play the ♥A. THE reason is that East should go out of his way to win an early trick so that he can return his partner’s suit, especially before his partner has had to use up one of her side entries. So, for instance, if you are Declarer’s RHO holding Kxx in a side suit, and Declarer leads that suit from Dummy at Trick 2 or 3, textbook defense says you should play your K in the hope that partner has the ace and, before she has to play it, you have gotten in and returned her suit. Leading her suit through Declarer may well be all that she needs to set it up.

But in this deal, that is not the layout. East had the ♥A and when I lead a heart from Dummy, he should grab his ♥A and return his partner’s suit. If he had done that, the defenders would have eventually collected 2 diamond tricks, holding me to only 8 tricks and a bad board, which I deserved.

This 2^nd hand high play is one of the important exceptions to 2^nd hand low. We work hard to train ourselves to play 2^nd hand low and now we need to add an exception. Yep, and an important exception at that, if you want to defeat NT contracts, or limit them to the tricks they deserve.

It is easy to make this blunder. I know I have made this type of misplay more than once. I have also seen an opponent with over 10,000 masterpoints make this slip-up, thereby allowing my partner to make her 3N contract, instead of going down.

Therefore, it is not surprising if you do play 2^nd hand low in such a situation. Again, we work hard to train ourselves to do so, but in this case you shouldn’t.

Best of luck with this exception.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

This guy never leads away from a king. He was told not to, so he never did. Finally he passes away and he finds himself in a bridge game. He is on lead against 4S holding: Kx, Kxx, Kxxx, Kxxx. Right then and there he knew where he was.