Greetings to the
North Penn Bridge Community!
Week of 07/25/2022
From the Club Manager
Dave Dodgson


July 27 - Shuffle and Deal - 9:30 a.m.

July 25 - July 29 - Club Championship Games

August 3-4 - Non-Life Master Sectional (0-750) at KOP Bridge Club. Click here to see flyer.

August 7 - Bobbie Gomer Team Challenge. There is still time to sign up so be sure to form a team and compete for the trophy! The attached flyer provides all the details.

Summer NABC. The tournament in Providence was a great success. The weather was hot, but the bridge was hotter. A great group of North Penn players attended. Here are their results:

Friday, July 15
  • Bracket 3 Teams
  • Fourth: Susan Morse, Alison Shoemaker, Lisa Mita, Thomas Foerster

Saturday, July 16
  • 0-3000 Bracketed Team, Bracket 1
  • First: Lisa Mita, Keith Thompson, Kathy Rolfe, Phyllis Siegel
  • Mid-Flight Pairs
  • Ninth: Alison Shoemaker, Susan Morse

Monday, July 17
  • Open Pairs
  • 23: Carl Berenbaum, Mark Cohen

Tuesday, July 18
  • Bracketed Round Robin Teams, Bracket 1
  • Fourth: Carl Berenbaum, Mark Cohen, Todd Wachsman, Jeffrey Liu
  • Wagar Women’s Pairs
  • 11: Lisa Mita, Alison Shoemaker
  • Senior Swiss Teams
  • 10: Andy Kaufman, Robert Schachter, Michael Cassel, Paul Meerschaert
  • Bracketed Round Robin, Bracket 4
  • Fourth: Mike Kohler, Frank Morgan, Jane Havighurst, John Schwartz
  • Bracketed Round Robin, Bracket 7
  • Second: Linda and Brendan O’Malley, Deb Crisfield, Karen Haines
  • Evening Side Pairs
  • Fourth: Cathy Strauss, Judy Robbins

Wednesday, July 19
  • 0-3000 Bracketed Teams, Bracket 3
  • First: Linda and Brendan O’Malley, Deb Crisfield, Karen Haines
  • 0-3000 Bracketed Teams, Bracket 6
  • Fourth: Anne-Marie Corner, Sharon Harrington, Jane Grewcock, Allison McGeough

Thursday, July 21
  • Wernher Open Pairs
  • 38: Carl Berenbaum, Stephen Horwitz
  • 0-3000 Bracketed Teams, Bracket 2
  • Lisa Mita, Alison Shoemaker, Barbara Devaney, Alexander Stille
  • 0-3000 Bracketed Teams, Bracket 4
  • Second: Linda and Brendan O’Malley, Deb Crisfield, Karen Haines

Friday, July 22
  • Fast Pairs
  • 2C: Deb Crisfield, Karen Haines

Saturday, July23
  • Bracketed Round Robin Teams, Bracket 1
  • First: Rex Saffer, Betsy Cutler, Frank Morgan, Bob Cole
Partnership


Details about the new partnership desk coming soon. Stay tuned!
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


“Whatever signaling method you adopt, the most important signal is at trick one to confirm the initial line of defense or to ask for a switch to the proper one. The third-hand defender should take a few moments to think out the hand before playing to trick one. If a break in tempo is required, advise the declarer that you are thinking about the whole hand.”




From How the Experts Win at Bridge
by Burt Hall and Lynn Rose-Hall
Deal of the Week
by Bucky Syndor



Listen to the Bidding



I’m 4th seat, white against red and pick up
---♠32 -- 974 ♣AKJ97653

I’m wondering how I should bid this hand under different scenarios when the auction gets to me and everyone has bid!
1 – 1NT – 2♠ – ?

We may have a club slam if partner has the right cards. But now there is no way to find out. Thinking smaller we may have 3N, with lots of overtricks, as long as partner has a spade stopper. But there is no way to find that out either. His 1NT overcall only promises a diamond stopper and a 3♠ cue bid by me is Stayman for hearts, which I don’t have. (Some might play 3D by me would be Stayman for hearts and 3S would be asking for a spade stopper for 3n, but we don’t. It hasn’t even occurred to us to discuss it!) Finally, my hand is too good to not be in game. So, I have to make a guess as to which is right, 3N or 5♣. 5♣ it is.

W leads the ♠7 and this is the deal.


Partner stretched, really, REALLY stretched for his 1NT overcall. But I cannot be too huffy; I’ve already made my own mistake. Since we play “stolen bids” against interference over our 1N (which I think is a mistake, but that’s another article), I merely needed to double E’s 2♠ to transfer my partner to clubs. After he accepted the transfer, which he must, I would have bid 5♣ and he would be declaring the hand. That would have put E on lead and it would have been unlikely for him to make the very unattractive lead of his ♠A from AQ10-6th, especially after my partner overcalls 1NT. Without a spade lead my partner would be cold for 11 tricks—he can discard one of my two spades on the A at trick two, and could play for a 12th trick as we’ll see below.

So, back to the play of the hand, W’s lead of the ♠7 rides around to E’s ace, and he then tables the ♠Q. W lets it win, rather than overtaking it with his ♠K, leaving E on lead. He tanks and finally leads a safe club.

Had he led a diamond I would be down 1, but now I have a shot at 11 tricks. I play for the K to be tripleton—a very, very low percentage play (and that’s an exaggeration!). Though W probably has fewer than 5 hearts from his opening 1 bid, it is highly unlikely that he has 3 of them (listen to the bidding) as that would mean E had 6 hearts and would have not sold out to 5♣.

To execute my plan, I win the trump trick in Dummy, ruff a heart, return to Dummy with a club, and ruff a 2nd heart. My (very poor) plan does not work, even though I also managed to execute it poorly. I should have played the A before ruffing the 2nd round of hearts to find out if the K was falling when I trumped the third round of hearts.

Meanwhile, the defense has given me not one but two chances to make this contract. If W overtakes E’s ♠Q and leads a high diamond, I am unavoidably down 1. But W didn’t, so E is on lead. Secondly, if E choses a diamond rather than a club I am again unavoidably down 1. But once E goes passive, the contract is cold.

Do you see it? The clue is in the bidding.

The late Eddie Kantar was big on teaching one to listen to the bidding. What should I lead? Listen to the bidding. As a defender, does Declarer have a distributional hand such as 5-5-2-1 or 6-4-2-1? Listen to the bidding. As declarer, if the deal is down to 5 cards and I have led up to a KJx in Dummy, should I play LHO for the ace or finesse with the jack, hoping RHO has the ace but not the queen? Listen to the bidding.

Here, too, by trick 3 I have all I need to know to make 11 tricks, if I had just listened to the bidding. What does the bidding tell me? W opened the bidding vulnerable, 1st seat, with 1. On the first two rounds of spades E played the ace and queen, while W started the suit with a low spade. After E’s ♠A and ♠Q appear, there are only 3 kings, 1 queen and 1 jack outstanding. Guess who has the 3 kings? Moreover, if W has the KQ, as he almost certainly does (or any 5 card diamond holding, for that matter), he can be squeezed, giving me my 11th trick.

This is the most uncomplicated of squeezes, aptly named the simple squeeze. In this case, I expect W to hold all 3 of the cards I am concerned about: KQ and K. The squeeze works because W has to play before dummy, which holds the “threat cards”, the Q and the J, threatening to take a trick once the higher honor in hearts and diamonds is discarded.

To execute this simple squeeze, after losing the first two spades, I win the club return in dummy, ruff a heart back to my hand and win another club in dummy. There I cash the HA, pitching a diamond, and ruff another heart. Then I simply play all my remaining clubs. This forces W to give up one of what are called his “guard” cards before Dummy has to play. This is the textbook layout of the simple squeeze: one opponent has to play before the hand holding the threat cards has to play.

After I’ve played my next to the last club, this is the situation:

=====================- =Q==AJ= -
======- K==KQ==-=====================immaterial
=====================-===-==-97==♣3

On the play of my last club—yes, I absolutely must play my last trump since it is the card that squeezes W—W has to give up a card in hearts or diamonds. Note that dummy is also squeezed by the play of my 8th club, but it is squeezed after my LHO. If W pitches his K, I pitch the J, but if he pitches the K or Q, I throw the Q. Next I lead a diamond to dummy and claim the final 2 tricks and my contract.

Listening to the bidding will enhance your game. Of course, you have to learn the meaning of what you hear. Watching better players draw inferences from the bidding is one way to learn it. Reading “It’s Your Call” in the monthly Bridge Bulletin is another. They frequently mention what a bid means, whether it is their bid, partner’s bid or an opponent’s. However you do it, grow at listening to the bidding. Your opponents will be frustrated by your success. Better yet, your partner will say, “Wow, how did you know to do that?”

Now that’s a great feeling!


P.S. The squeeze will also work if RHO has the stiff Q (or K), though that would make W’s 1st seat vulnerable opening quite light.
Laughter is the Best Medicine



A woman goes to see her dentist. During the exam he tells her she needs a root canal. She says “I'd rather have a baby!” He says “well make up your mind, I have to adjust the chair.”




Courtesy of our resident comic - Michael Carver

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


Binnick, Steve
Bumbry, Deborah
Clair, Elaine
Currie, Diana
Dickenson, John
Gorman, Mary Ann
Hallman, Dave
Kirrstetter, Gail
McReynolds, Steve
Melchiorre, Evelyn
Milton, Beth
Morganstein, Stanley
Scena, Sherry
Tilney, Sandy
Walker, Toysie

North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club
(215) 699-4932