Greetings to the
North Penn Bridge Community!
Week of 04/11/2022
From the Club Manager
Dave Dodgson


Extra Point Games.

April 11-15 Ukraine Charity.
April 18-22 Club Championship.

The bridge world has lost one of its most admired and loved players, Eddie Kantar. He lived in Santa Monica, CA and died on April 8, 2022 at the age of 89.
Calendar


Click here to see a file you can enlarge.
Education



April 21 through June 9, 9:30-11:30 - bridge classes for beginners with Deb Crisfield.

Bring a friend! Recruitment is the key to growing and sustaining our club.


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


“With a strong trump fit (or a self-sufficient trump suit,) a grand slam is likely if you have no losers in the first three rounds of any suit. If either partner holds a void, a grand slam is feasible with about 27 HCP in the other three suits.”




From 100 Winning Bridge Tips
by Ron Klinger
Deal of the Week
by Rex Saffer



Many Words At Your Beck and Call


This past Thursday, your author had the distinct pleasure to have been paired with Mr. Steve Becker at our own NPDBC Open Pairs game at 12 noon. Steve is well known to Club members, having played and directed there for many years before he and his wife took off in their RV to tour our great nation. Steve is back in town for a few weeks, and he graciously agreed to play with me. Clearly, he was misinformed about the level of play he might have expected from his partner.

Now please bear with me, Dear Reader, for a brief digression on the Many–Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, which holds that there are worlds or universes which exist in parallel at the same space and time as our own. If the outcome of an event occurs one way in a given universe, the other outcome can materialize in a parallel universe. Yogi Berra is notorious for many malapropisms, one of which is, “If you see a fork in the road, pick it up.” More to the point, if I come to a fork in the road and take the path on the left, there is a parallel universe identical in all respects except that there, I take the path on the right. How could this possibly be relevant to our Deal? We shall see.

The Deal

It was a 6–table Mitchell movement with six rounds of four boards each. Extracting their cards from the pockets of Board 3, the players at our table picked up this deal:


Before describing the auction and play, let us first consider outcomes at other tables.

The Deal in the Field

N/S declared at the other five tables, three in 1NT, one in 2♣, and two in 2♠. Our protagonists Beck and Call played the same deal in two parallel universes, where N/S declared 1NT at one table, and 2♠ at the parallel table, simultaneously. At the other five tables, scores ranged from +150 and +90 in notrump, to –50 in 2♣, to –100 in 2♠. Sitting E/W, Mr. Beck (MB) and Mr. Call (MC) defended well to set 1NT two tricks in one universe, and to set 2♠ three tricks in the other. Scoring +100 E/W was good for 4.5 out of 5 matchpoints; scoring +150 was a cold top.

The Auctions

At one table the auction went:

South---Mr. Call---North---Mr. Beck
--1♣------Pass--------1♠-------Pass
--1NT---.All Pass

At the parallel table it went:

South---Mr. Call---North---Mr. Beck
--1♣------Pass--------1♠-------Pass
--2♠-----.All Pass

Now, after a one of a major response to one of a minor, opener may wish to consider raising responder’s major to the two level with only three trumps. However, in my partnerships we have an agreement that to do so, opener should have one of the top three honors in the major and a worthless singleton or doubleton. With an invitational hand, responder can employ the “3344” convention to ask opener to clarify trump length and hand strength (see the citation at the end of this article). But here, South’s doubleton heart is headed by the ace, which will be useful in notrump, and in my partnerships, opener would prefer a 1NT rebid. Either way, responder is sub–invitational here and passes.

The Play

You can click here to see the defense prevail against 1NT in the BBO HandViewer. Click the “Next” button to see the play unfold trick by trick. Judging diamonds to be marginally less risky than hearts, MC led the 5. Declarer ducked in dummy and won MB’s nine with the king. A low spade toward dummy produced the queen, ace, and deuce. MB won the club continuation and continued a 4th best heart, ducked to MC’s king, who returned the nine and cleared the suit. Declarer cashed the ♣K, revealing the 4–1 split, then the ♣Q. MC won the spade continuation, cashed the ♣J, and put MB in for the rest of the tricks.

Click here to see Beck and Call defend against 2♠ in the parallel universe. N/S should always be down two, but against perfect defense (in a parallel universe, why not?) the contract can be set by three tricks. MB led a natural 4th best heart, won by the ace, as MC and dummy played low. MC won the heart continuation and shifted to the trump king, won in dummy with the ace. MB won the club continuation and returned a spade to MC’s king. The heart return consumed declarer’s last trump, leaving MB with the remaining top two trumps. MB allowed declarer to cash two clubs, pitching diamonds, but Beck and Call took the last five tricks for down three.

Closing Thoughts

There are times when after opening one of a minor and hearing one of a major from Pard, opener might need to choose between rebidding 1NT or raising Pard’s major to the two level with just three trumps. Here, with an honor in the heart doubleton, most of my partners and I would prefer 1NT with the South hand.

Things must not have gone all that badly, since after the game Steve said, “We’ll play again.” What is certain is that we had fun, with good–natured give and take throughout the game. Steve is not an unfunny person. It was thoroughly enjoyable, at least from my side of the table. We finished a little above average, but I’m telling you, that is one tough room on Thursday at noon, and we got taken to the cleaners more than once.
The 3344 Convention: A complete yet concise treatise on the convention by Robert Todd. 3344 is a subset of the vast territory covered by Eric Rodwell’s Game Try Convention.

All the best,
Rex
Laughter is the Best Medicine



John Crawford playing with a beginner for huge stakes. Partner leads the SK and Crawford has the 1098. He doesn't want partner to continue, but knows if he plays the 8 he will. So Crawford drops the S8 on the floor and is slow about picking it up. His partner asks what card is it? "Oh, just a low spade" says Crawford. Partner shifts suits.

Watch this space for future big game scorers.
It could be you and your partner!
Play often to improve the odds!
April Birthdays


Abel, Constance
Chiodo, Carol
Corner, Anne-Marie
Hillenbrand, Gary
Langbein, Susan
Michaud, Peggy
Milton, Roger
Myers, Joel
Prager, Jo Ann
Schwaidelson, Bruce
Stuart, Harriet

North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club
(215) 699-4932