North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 06/06/2022

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

June Schedule:

June 6 - 10 - Super Club Championships, triple points.

June 8 - Newcomers game at 9:30 a.m.

June 9 - New Shuffle and Deal from 3:30-5:30 p.m.

Shuffle and Deal will continue every Thursday afternoon so you can practice what you've learned in a friendly, non-competitive environment. A mentor will be there to answer any bidding questions and help with play of hand and defense. Playing fee is $5.

June 11 - the ever popular Robot Individual.

June 6 - 17 - North American Pairs (NAP) qualifying.

NAP Qualifying events are held for two weeks in June, July, and August. There are 3 flights: non-Life Master <500, 2500, and open. To qualify you must get at least a 50% game or finish in the top half of your strata. Qualifiers play in the fall for the chance to represent District 4 at the Spring NABC. It’s a great event and the district will help pay expenses if you make it to the NABC.

June 20 - 24 - Club Championships.

June 22 - Longest Day. Please come out and support Alzheimer’s research. We will be providing lunch between our morning and afternoon sessions. (See details for donating later in this email.)

June 27-July 3 - Philadelphia Regional at Valley Forge. Click this link for a schedule of events:

https://4acbl.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/VF-Regional-Schedule-2022.pdf.

(Most F2F games this week at the club will be cancelled.)

If you are interested in volunteering at the Regional, please contact Cathy Strauss at [email protected].

Results from the Bobbie Gomer Challenge

And the trophy goes to: North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club!! Our participating teams were:

Bob Muhlhauser, Ed Leach, Brendan and Linda O’Malley (1^st place)

John Dickenson, Ellen Luchette, Dave Dodgson & Dave Dresher (4th place).

It was a close match as our team tied with KOP. We won the tiebreaker because one of our teams placed in first place.

Congratulations players…well done!

Do You Need A Partner?

Stand-by Partners Needed

Please contact the club by email at [email protected] or by phone at 215-699-4932 if you live close by and are willing to be on our standby list.

Donations For the Longest Day

Here are the donating 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.

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

Penalty Doubles:

“The most rewarding penalties can occur at the 1-level, 2-level or 3-level if you have the right requirements:

(1) Strength and length in their suit.

(2) 20+ HCP between you and your partner.

(3) A misfit with partner’s suit.”

From 100 Winning Bridge Tips (new edition)

by Ron Klinger

Deal of the Week

by Mitch Snyder

Sequences

We all know, as a defender, to lead the top of a sequence and to play the lowest of equals when not leading. Defenders play this way to help each other determine the position of missing honors.

But what about declarer? He doesn’t have to help his partner who might not be paying attention anyway. What declarer can do is try to thwart the defenders from using the info they get from each other. Declarer can play cards from a sequence in any order he likes.

For example, south opened and west made a takeout double. South ends up declaring NT and has this card combination in a side suit west has implied.

-----Dummy: A65

-----Hand: QJT9

If you want to make as many tricks as possible in this suit, lead the Q tempting west to cover. Without some incentive, west, holding Kxxx, may hold up three times, letting his K outlast the A.

Or this combination in the same situation.

-----Dummy: K65

-----Hand: QJT9

If your aim is to get to dummy asap to make a critical play in another suit, lead the J and play the K. West will often duck the ‘losing finesse’ to east’s supposed Q.

Look at this hand where declarer has to play his side suit sequence properly to avoid giving the defense critical information.

The auction:

South opened 1C, assumingly planning to jump into 2NT on his second bid to show the 18 pointer. West’s double must have concerned him a little so he merely raised clubs hoping to shut out west from further competition and preserve a plus score on the hand.

What if south went ahead and bid 2NT anyway? It would still show 18-19 HCPs. North may or may not raise to game. FY!, in this game NS made 9 or more tricks in NT 75% of the time.

The play:

West did not like his lead options. Leading either black suit is out of the question. We are all taught not to underlead an ace in a suit contract, which is good advice, so it looks like a 4^th best heart, it is. But no, west went ahead and underled the diamond ace!

He led the 10. This is a top of sequence lead, from an interior sequence.

South looked over the hand and expected to easily make 3 or 4 clubs, losing 1 or 2 spades, 1 diamond and a possible club.

South took the diamond lead in hand with the J, crossed to dummy in hearts and ran the Q of clubs.

West won the K and stopped to think. My reliable robot partner would play high in 3^rd seat if he had a higher honor so south must have the K & Q leaving partner with the 7 or no more diamonds. West cashed the ace of diamonds and led a 3^rd diamond for east to ruff.

South eventually lost 2 spades to end up down 1.

The technique here is that declarer should win a trick like this with his highest of touching honors. This is contrary to human nature and to what defenders do. Here, if south wins trick one with the K, west won’t be able to place the J & Q and might not find the best defense.

A note about defenders carding; if you use standard carding, (the robots don’t use any carding) east can play high at trick one and upon winning the club K west can cash the ace knowing that east started with a singleton, doubleton or both missing honors even if south wins with the K.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Helen Sobel, reputedly the greatest woman bridge player of all time, and a chorus girl in her younger days, seldom, if ever, misguessed a queen in a slam contract when she was playing against two men. Her trick was to lift her skirt a little above her knees. It never failed that the one with the queen was too nervous to look around, but the one without the queen always looked. That's how she did it. I tell the ladies in my classes not to try this one on me because whether I have the queen or not, I always look!