North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 06/20/2022

Dear North Penn Bridge Players

As we all know, the Covid Pandemic has taken a toll on face-to-face bridge and on our bridge club. And while our pre-pandemic “rainy day fund” has helped us through this time, table counts must increase if we are to continue operating at our current location long term. Most of our expenses are fixed (rent, utilities, directors) and to meet these, we need an average attendance of 7-8 tables at each game. That’s a 25-30% increase over our current attendance.

We are grateful to those of you who have returned and are playing on a regular basis. But there are many who have not returned and we want to hear from you.

Do you plan to return in the near future?
Are you unsure about returning?
Are you doing other things and consequently do not plan to return?
For those of you on the fence, what can we do to bring you back?
Do you have other suggestions on improving game attendance?

Please email the club at www.northpennbridge.com with your feedback. This information will help your Board understand what actions we need to take. Your specific suggestions and recommendations will be very much appreciated.

Our next Board meeting is scheduled for July 28 at 10am. Any information you can provide before that will help us in our deliberations. As always, club members are welcome to attend.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Many, many thanks.

Dave, Pat and the Board of Directors.

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

COVID Update. Montgomery County is now in the Low Category. Accordingly, masks are now optional, but if someone at the table asks for masks, please comply.

New Start Time for Open Games. Last week we wrote of an anticipated change in the start time for the open games. After further discussion and some feedback, the open game time will remain at 12 noon for now.

June 20 - 24 - Club Championships.

June 22 - Longest Day tournament. Please join us for lunch between our 0-50 game and our open game. Proceeds benefit Alzheimer’s research.

June 22 - Newcomers game at 9:30 a.m.

June 23 - New Shuffle and Deal from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Supervised play. $5.

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.

Except for the Tuesday night virtual game, the club will be closed.

Interested volunteers can contact Cathy Strauss at [email protected].

July 4 - The KOP Bridge Club is having bridge and a party on Independence Day. As our club is closed, you might want to join the fun there.

Bobbie Gomer Team Challenge

North Penn will be hosting the next Bobbie Gomer Eight is Enough Team Challenge on Sunday, August 7 so let’s get busy forming teams to represent our club! Lunch will be provided at 11:45 a.m. with the team game beginning at 12:30 p.m. Entry fee for each team is $48. Pairs or individual players who want to participate and need help finding partners/teammates should email the club at [email protected] so we can assist. The attached flyer provides all the details.

Partnership

Please contact the club at [email protected] or 215-699-4932 if you are looking for a partner or if you are willing to be on our Standby List.

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

“If dummy has not shown a long suit, then if you have no obviously attractive lead, prefer a passive lead to leading from a suit with just one honour or with two non-touching honours.”

From 100 Winning Bridge Tips (new edition)

by Ron Klinger

Deal of the Week

by Rex Saffer

Jamming Up The Works

Few of us, if any, need an introduction to Larry Cohen. It would be a full–time job to catalog all of Larry’s contributions to the sprawling literature of bridge. In Bridge World Magazine alone, he has authored an astonishing 91 articles over the last thirty years. One of these caught my eye, and it happens to be a free sample article in the long–running Strategic Thinking feature of the magazine. In the series’ inaugural column, Partnership Style, Larry describes his three long–term partnerships and the nature of those relationships:

Mr. Sound: Ron Gerard
Mr. Aggressive: Marty Bergen
Mr. Medium: David Berkowitz

Besides Larry, your author is especially devoted to Marty Bergen (as well as Mike Lawrence, Eddie Kantar, and Ron Klinger – Eddie above all, RIP). In the modern era, duplicate bridge has become a bidder’s game. Somewhere around the early 80’s, perhaps earlier, Marty revolutionized the game of duplicate bridge with several innovations in bidding theory for which he is well–known: Bergen Raises, founded on the Law of Total Tricks; the DONT defense against an opposing 1NT opening; and creative advances in hand evaluation, especially as it pertains to slam bidding. What he might be less well–known for is his spectacularly aggressive style.

Anyone who has played with me knows I (sometimes) suffer from less than well–considered aggressiveness. I don’t recall if I stole this from someone, but one of my favorite aphorisms is, “The meek shall inherit the earth, but they lose at bridge.” I have labored mightily over the last few years to muzzle this harmful beast, and though some of my partners may disagree, I would like to think that I have made some progress. I also would like to have a banana split right now, but I would have to leave the comfort of my padded office chair and find a nearby Dairy Queen.

The Deal of the Week

Our Deal occurred in a recent local F2F club game:

Before describing the Deal further, let’s examine some of the results of play.

The Deal in the Field

In this 9–1/2 table Mitchell movement, the pair stratifications were seven A’s, eleven B’s, and a single C, so a reasonably accomplished field with several very good pairs. The board was played eight times. At seven other tables, two N/S pairs were allowed to declare, one in 3♣ and the other in 4♣, both doubled and taking eight tricks, scoring –100 and –300 for 100% and 86%, respectively. E/W declared the remainder of the deals, four in 4♥ taking between 10 and 12 tricks, and one in 4♠ taking all thirteen tricks.

The Auction

At our table, and pleased with his holding, West was anticipating a pass on his right and considering a strong 2♣ opening. There is room for discussion about whether the hand qualifies – there are five top winners and a plausible expectation of three more in diamonds, five quick tricks, and only three losers, but some may consider this not quite good enough. Opposite a passed hand, your author would have done so in a heartbeat, not unreasonably concerned that after a 1♦ opening the auction would die there.

But in second seat, South obstructed the auction with a 3♣ preempt. West now had an easy double, and after a pass by North, East pondered her hand. Trusting her partner to have both majors for a 3–level double, she reasoned that he also should have at some length and strength in diamonds. Against such a holding, she judged her hand to be worth more than its jack–laden 9 HCP and made a 4♣ cuebid, showing her strength and 4–card support for either major, and turning captaincy back over to Pard.

Now, West is not a timid player, and he also is a student in the Marty Bergen school of hand evaluation. He realized that a double fit in the majors was quite likely, and that slam might well be in the cards, so to speak. How to investigate? Alas, that pesky preempt had taken away valuable bidding room needed for exploration. What would Marty do? West recalled what Larry Cohen had written in his Partnership Style article:

"My next partner was Marty Bergen, and my world was turned upside down. From 1983–1990, I played things Marty's way. That meant we could open the bidding because one of us was dealt 13 cards (Points Schmoints)."

He also recalled one of Marty’s slam evaluation articles from the November 2010 Bridge Bulletin: Ten Commandments of Good Slam Bidding. The number One commandment of Ten?

1. Never forget the magic of voids.

Hands with a useful void take a lot of tricks.

When the void is in the opponents’ long, strong suit,

that’s even better.

Not inclined to ignore advice that suited his predispositions, West recalled a favorite Marty–ism, “He who knows, goes.” Holding four keycards himself and first–round control in clubs, he jumped straight to 6♠.

The Play

North led the ♣A, and declarer took all thirteen tricks: Ruff the opening club lead in the closed hand, cross to dummy with a diamond, ruff another club, lay down the ♠AK, cross to dummy in hearts and draw the last trump, cash four more diamonds and the ♥A, and ruff the ♥J with dummy’s last trump. The overtrick depends on a 3–2 trump split, perhaps less likely given the auction, but there it was. The play somewhat resembles a dummy reversal, although the trumps in the closed hand are not longer than dummy’s. Click here to view or play the hand yourself in the BBO HandViewer.

Closing Thoughts

We note that thirteen tricks are available only in spades. With careful play in hearts, a small diamond slam can be made, but there is no way to avoid one heart loser. When there is a double fit, 5–3 in one suit and 4–4 in the second, playing in the 4–4 can deliver an overtrick not otherwise available. Worse, only eleven tricks can be taken in hearts.

Finally, if we allow competent opponents to conduct an unobstructed auction using their offensive bidding tools, they frequently will reach the optimum contract. So, Dear Reader, if it lies in your power to obstruct the auction, Jam Up the Works with joyful abandon.

All the best,

Rex

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Two wives were discussing whose husband plays worse. Wife #1 says it isn't even close, hers does. Wife #2 doesn't agree and says listen to what my husband did last night playing 7NT. He had 11 tricks outside of spades and the dummy had the AQ of spades and the spade finesse was onside and he had plenty of entries to his hand to take the finesse, but instead of taking the spade finesse he went to dummy and led the SQ from the dummy! "What's so bad about that"? wife #1 says, "Against my husband that play works."