North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 02/14/2022

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

Congratulations to the following players who placed in the STaC Week Overalls:

Monday:

Tom Salter and Dave Dodgson - 7^th
Al Fitzgerald and Steve McReynolds - 8^th

Wednesday:

Roger and Beth Milton - 6^th
Dave Dresher and Ed Leach - 7^th

Thursday:

Dave Dresher and Dave Dodgson - 3rd
Gladys Firing and Joyce Levin - 4^th and first in C
Peg Butera and Ron Goldsman - 11^th

Friday 0-750 game:

Roz Fudell and Barbara Peoples - 1^st
Ceil Morton and Constance Abel - 2^nd
Jean Harrington and Barbara Grossman - 3rd

Schedule Change. On February 22, the last Tuesday of the month, the 0-750 online game will start at 10:00 am. Previously this game started at 12:50 pm.

Helen Shanbrom Ace of Clubs for 2021. The Ace of Clubs is awarded to players for the points won at clubs. The list of North Penn players who finished in the top 5 in Unit 141 is available on our website:

Special Congratulations To:

Lauren Dougherty - first in the 500-1000 category with 321.6 points
John Dickenson - first in the 5000-7500 category with 277.44 points

Proof of vaccination and face masks will remain a requirement at our F2F games until further notice.

Bobbie Gomer Memorial Trophy

Yorktown Bridge Club reports that five area bridge clubs - Ami, Hamilton, King of Prussia, North Penn and Yorktown, competed in the first CLUB TEAM CHALLENGE last Thursday, February 10. 12 teams signed up for a F2F game at Yorktown Bridge Club. The event was deemed a success and the winner of the BGMT Trophy was the Hamilton Club.

Special thanks to Al Fitzgerald, Steve McReynolds, Bruce Schwaidelson & Dan Jacobson, North Penn's team. They ably represented us and finished 4th in the event."

The next Team Challenge will be held at the King of Prussia Bridge Club. Stay tuned for details.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Education

Shuffle and Deal Wednesday, February 16 at 9:30 am. Open to players at any level who want to ask questions as they play. Led by Deb Crisfield.

Reminder... Grand National Teams

The deadline to sign up for Flight A and for Flight C is Saturday, February 12th. You need to take immediate action if you want to join the fun.

Click here to view the District 4 GNT event email.

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

“The speed of the play may be a clue to declarer’s problem. When playing in a 4-3 trump fit, play usually slows to a crawl.”

“When two possible defenses present themselves to defeat the contract, both equally likely, select the simpler. (Unless you are looking to make an appearance in a newspaper column.)”

From Defensive Tips

by Edwin B. Kantar

Deal of the Week

by John Dickenson

Better Lucky Than Good

I am writing this from the Hilton Head Island Regional, this is only the third big tournament I have been to since COVID, I attended the Austin NABC and the Rancho Mirage Regional last December and each had about 50% of pre-pandemic attendance. Will be interesting to see how many players come out for this tourney, now that Omicron is in retreat.

Lisa Mita and Elaine Clair and I flew in to Savannah, and I went to the Avis desk to pick up my car. There was a long line with a dozen people waiting, and a sign saying “Preferred enter here” with no one in it, so being Avis Preferred I chose the shorter line. A big guy called me out, saying “there is a line over here”. LOL it was Mike Passell! I asked the agent and he assured me I was not cutting the line, but was in the correct line for Avis Preferred. Mike softened his approach and said he could give me a ride to the Marriott if I did not need a car for the week, I declined.

So previously I have presented the hand where I forgot Kickback and Lisa put me in a very thin slam which miraculously made 13 tricks. And last column, I presented the hand where the auction started 1C, P, P, and I bid 2N showing 19-20 balanced. Partner thought it was unusual for the red suits and put me in an impossible 4S which made with a great deal of help from the opponents. Michael Carver observed that when my LHO decided it would be a good idea to lead queen from AQx of hearts into the strong balanced hand, allowing me to score my Kx, that defensive play should be christened the Elvis Presley coup. Why? Because the King is not dead!

OK so third and maybe final installment of BLTG. I am playing the robots and pick up:

A pretty nice hand, I open 1D in second chair and LHO overcalls 1S, robot partner makes a negative double and robot on my right leaps to 3S. Now it is always a good idea when contemplating a bid with the robots to hover over the bid and see how your partner will take it. The hovering over 4C produced an answer of around 19 playing points – well I have 16, plus I teach Audrey Grant and she says add a point for every card over 4 in a suit, so I am up to 18. The QT of hearts are in partner’s suit so they should be “working”, and the stiff in the opponents’ suit looks promising. I bid 4C and the robot bids 4N, Roman Keycard for clubs. Great, I bid 5S showing 2 with the queen and he bids 6C. Ace of hearts is led and dummy comes down:

Now the robot has done the unthinkable. I always teach, “don’t bid Blackwood with a void, or two quick losers in an unbid suit.” And the robot bids Blackwood with 4 dead hearts, and wasted values in spades. Maybe he is playing me for a stiff heart. It looks like I will lose two hearts on the go for down one. But wait! After cashing the heart ace, LHO shifts to the 6 of diamonds! I win, pull trump in three rounds, finesse the spade queen and throw my heart queen on the spade ace.

Why did the robot not lead a second heart? He did not have one! The complete deal was:

Key learnings:

A better way for the robot to make a slam try would have been to cue 4S over 4C – a control bid – when he bypasses hearts I would know to sign off in 5C.

When in a ridiculous contract, play to make (I get a lot of practice with this maxim). If the spade hook loses, I am getting the same zero for down 2 as for down one. But if it is on, I get a cold top.