North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 12/19/2022

Happy holidays to everyone

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

Happy Holidays. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy holiday and best wishes for the new year.

January Schedule. January is Junior Fund month, highlighted by the ACBL-wide Junior Fund game on January 27. The first week of the month will be Club Championships. The Pro/Am game is January 12. Be sure to sign up in the book at the club. The Robot Individual is January 14.

More Points are Coming Your Way. The ACBL is going to award more points to club games. Points will be increased based on the number of hands that are played. A 24-board game will get a 33% increase and a 27-board game will get a 50% increase. These points are awarded by ACBL Live, so you won’t see them on the results posted by the club; you’ll have to wait until they are posted online.

January 6-8 - Unit 141 Sectional at Bala Golf Club. Voting for Unit Officers will take place at this time. This is an important election and an opportunity to select candidates who will run the Unit professionally and who are known to be supportive of local face-to-face clubs. Click this link for the slate and election details. Click this link for the Sectional Flyer.

Education

Joann Glasson’s Bridge Lessons. Resuming on Monday January 16. Click on this link for the details.

Advanced Beginner Lessons start January 17th. This class will run for five consecutive Tuesday nights from 7-9 p.m. The lessons are geared toward the students who took the beginner class in the fall. We will cover Stayman, transfers, and the takeout double. The cost for the five classes is $100 per person. Shuffle and Deal will continue on Tuesdays leading up to the class.

Click this link for the flyer.

You need not have taken the Fall class to attend. ALL ARE WELCOME!!

Shuffle & Deal continues Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings.

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.

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 hold the ace of a bid and supported suit and partner leads another suit, your suspicions should be aroused. If partner is not leading from an honor sequence, the lead is a likely a singleton or doubleton.”

From Defensive Tips

by Edwin B. Kantar

Deal of the Week

by Bucky Sydnor

Does A Bad Hand = A Bad Attitude For You?

You are 2^nd seat in a F2F game, with favorable vulnerability, and pick up:

-----♠1032 ♥9652 ♦Q74 ♣J52

Now there’s a hand that can make your heart sink and your shoulders slump. It does not even qualify as a Mitch Snyder Duck Pond (full of quacks, i.e., queens and jacks).

But don’t!

Do not let the opponents know that you have a terrible hand! (If your body language or facial expression lets partner know, it is considered Unauthorized Information and can result in a director’s ruling against you.) It turns out this hand is going to deliver 2 defensive tricks which will set the opponents’ 4♠ contract.

Several years back I was playing in the semi-final of a knock-out in Wilmington. Our opponents were a Junior female (i.e., a young bridge player who is considered up and coming in the bridge world, which is shorthand for “better than Bucky”) and her client, who was either a non-LM or a new LM. We beat them roundly. But every time the Junior declared, almost always in an unmakeable contract, it seemed from her body language that she was going to make the contract. She went down in most, as you can guess, but one would have never known by her body language. That’s an example to emulate.

Back to the present, here is our deal:

The bidding is Precision, so Opener’s 1♣ showed 16 or more HCP. Responder’s 1♠ showed at least 5 spades and 8 or more HCP. Trying to find a suit in which to compete, N makes a very risky (a euphemism for “totally ill-advised”) take-out double as the opponents have already shown at least 24 HCP, and N does not have support for all three of the unbid suits, namely, he does not have 3 card support for clubs. Opener ignores the take-out double and makes a game forcing raise with only a doubleton spade with an honor. Responder goes directly to game, rather than starting a cue-bidding sequence, thereby showing he is not interested in slam. After 3 nanoseconds, N finds the opening lead of the ♥K.

Declarer’s line of play is poorly chosen. After winning the heart lead, Declarer draws trumps, ending in his hand and leads the ♦10 for a finesse. N ducks (“second-hand low”), and S wins her queen. She returns a heart, which N wins and continues hearts, as it is a safe exit. Declarer ruffs and continues diamonds. N wins and plays hearts once again. Declarer ruffs with his last trump and leads a diamond to Dummy’s king. He is stuck in Dummy, though it does not matter, since he has to lose the third round of clubs to S’s ♣J, which is the setting trick. Surprisingly, S took 2 of the defense’s 4 tricks holding only 3 HCP.

Declarer’s mistake was working on diamonds rather than clubs. After drawing trumps, he should lead the ♣10 and if it is not covered, duck it around to S’s jack. S cannot profitably lead diamonds, as it would set up Dummy’s king, so she’d probably exit safely with a heart.

Declarer ruffs in and takes 4 club tricks, pitching 2 diamonds from his hand. He will have 10 tricks (5 spades, 1 heart, 4 clubs) and will have to lose the ♦A at the end.

Neither bidding errors (aplenty) nor Declarer’s play are the points of this article. It is “attitude check.” When you have a hand that is so bad it is not only flat hand but also has only a queen and a jack (or worse) do not let the opponents know by your body language or facial expression how bad it is. You may be able to set the game contract, or, better yet, their slam, if you maintain your focus on defense rather than on the pathetic hand you were dealt, just as S did at the table.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Former Wimbledon champion, Bob Falkenburg, is about to play in a rubber bridge game at the Regency Club in New York. His friend, Ozzie Jacoby, who is also in the game, tells Bob that it is a tough game and the stakes are high. Falkie says the worst he can do is lose. Ozzie says: "That's the best you can do."

Bridge humor from

Eddie Kantar