From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

November 7-18. SUPER Club Championship and STaC.

November 12. Robot Individual at 4 p.m.

Weekly Newsletter Archive. Looking for an old weekly newsletter? Don’t despair, you can find it on our website home page under “Newsletter” in the index on the left. All past issues are accessible.

Lancaster Regional.



Congratulations to the team of Elaine Watters, Jane Heintzelman, Nancy Parke, and Anne Cheney for their win in the Barn Raising Bracketed Teams 4 event on Saturday.

Click here to see a list of other winners with apologies to anyone I may have missed.

Education

Simple “Sohl,” a simplified version of the Lebensohl Convention, will be taught by John Dickenson in a one-session lesson on Monday, November 14 from 9-11 a.m. Click here for details.

Joann Glasson’s November Lessons - November 14 – Avoidance Plays. Click here for details.

Special Fund Raising Event Update

The Stress Management Workshop scheduled for Saturday 11/12/22 requires a preregistration. The preregistration deadline is Wednesday 11/9 at 3 p.m. Please do not plan to attend unless you have preregistered by the Wednesday deadline. You can email Michael at [email protected] for details and to preregister. Thank you!

Partnership

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

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Tidbits

“If the opponents have reached a 4-3 or 4-4 trump fit and you hold five rag trumps, lead a trump.”



From 100 Winning Bridge Tips

by Ron Klinger

Deal of the Week

by Rex Saffer

My Favorite Color is Red

We sometimes hear, “Six–five, come alive.” For the same number of high card points (HCP), hands with extreme distribution have markedly better trick–taking power than balanced hands. So how do we approach major/minor two–suiters? With a 6–card major and a 5–card minor we open the major, but after partner’s response, should we rebid the major or introduce the minor? The relative strength and texture of each suit will usually suggest a reasonable choice.

With a 6–card minor and a 5–card major, we may have to do considerably more soul–searching, since opening the minor and rebidding the major at the 2–level is a reverse promising extras, either in HCP or in playing strength. Compare

Despite holding “only” 13 HCP, with hand a) your author would be quite comfortable opening the diamonds and rebidding hearts twice. But with inferior hand b) many will prefer to open the hearts first and rebid diamonds twice. Much will depend on partnership style and judgment.

What about hands with even more extreme distribution? We have a rare example for you.

The Deal of the Week

Our Deal, freakish beyond even uncommon experience, arose in a recent game at a local F2F Club:

Before we examine the auction and play, let’s look at all the results.

The Deal in the Field

This 14–table pairs event featured twelve rounds of two boards each for an eleven matchpoint top. Here are the outcomes and double dummy analysis for our Deal:

Evidently, the heart game is a better matchpoint result than the diamond game, +620 vs. +600. Then why are so few pairs in it, and why is no one there taking ten tricks?

The Auction

This was a F2F event, so we have no record of the bidding. Would any West preempt 3♣ in first seat? We would not due to poor texture, the vulnerability, and the 4–card spade suit, however anemic. Assuming a 1♦ opening by North and a 1♠ response in the South, what next? We are interested in a route to a heart game. Here is a possible auction:

North is not put off by the meager HCP count and elects to reverse on the playing strength of the bizarre 8–5 red two–suiter. Some experienced players and teachers may object, but we firmly reject a 1♥ opening, and to suppress the 5–card major with a diamond rebid at any level seems entirely wrong.

Now, some partnerships play Lebensohl after a reverse, where 2NT is a puppet to 3♣ with a very weak responding hand, but let’s assume this pair does not use that convention. Thinking they may be knocking on slam’s door, South temporizes with a slow 2NT rebid, confident that North will bid again. The 3♥ rebid shows at least a minor/major 6–5 in the North, and realizing the black suit honors face shortness, South devalues them and settles for the ten–trick game.

The Play

They say that getting there is just half the fun, and so it is here. Taking ten tricks in hearts will be a challenge. Here is the Deal again:

As East you are on lead. A club seems the only safe option, so top of nothing or MUD, your choice. The queen draws the ace, ruffed in the closed hand. Next come the ace and a small diamond, and East is endplayed early on. Returning either black suit puts dummy in to lead a low heart, thank you very much. The stiff queen falls to the ace, and just like that it is a done Deal.

Declarer now untaps a deluge of diamonds upon East, who eventually must ruff in, allowing the heart jack to score behind the king–ten. Declarer loses only one diamond and two hearts to tally up ten tricks, beating all pairs in five diamonds making. Click here to view or play the Deal. Use the Next button to advance trick by trick or the Play button to select cards yourself and explore alternate lines of play.

Note that leading a heart towards dummy’s jack at trick six will not succeed. East either will duck and let the jack score or will win the king and continue a low heart. Now there is no way to return to the good diamonds without ruffing a black card. Declarer’s hand was already forced once on the opening lead, and a subsequent, self–inflicted force will surrender trump control to East.

Closing Thoughts

So, Dear Reader, the next time you find yourself looking at a minor/major 6–5 two–suiter, then provided there is compensating playing strength, consider a “distributional reverse” with less than the textbook HCP count. It is a delicate exercise in judgment, and while effective hand evaluation must begin somewhere, we should not become prisoner to an unreflective 4–3–2–1 honor count system.

Finally, note that South judged well to devalue the black honors. Just one of them was ever used, not because it was needed as a winner, but only as an entry to dummy for a heart lead toward declarer’s hand at trick five. All the rest were wasted as discards on diamond winners.

All the best,

Rex

Recognition

--------------Steve Emerson-.----.Gold Life Master

--------------Sandra Kayson-------Ruby Life Master

--------------Don Adams-----------NABC Master

--------------Paul Baron------------Junior Master

I fill in at a table when one lady has to leave. The lesson is on signaling and I emphasize signaling encouragement with the higher or highest of equals. The lady I am playing with has the A10986 and correctly signals me with the ten. I compliment her. She says: "I just read in my Goren book that when you are playing with a weak player that you should make your signals as clear as possible."

Bridge humor from

Eddie Kantar

Fri, Nov 04

76%

Ross Currie & Don Baker

November Birthdays

Adelman, Nancy

Abell, Dick

Bauer III, William

Dowling, Christina

Fryman, Maribeth

Garrity, Kay

Gewirtzman, Steven

Goldman, Bill

Goldman, Ellie

Meyers, Alan

Salasin, Sandra

Serfas, Robert

Sigmund, Ruth

Stanley, Lee

Teates, Mike

Tolles, Leslie