North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 02/20/2023

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

Congratulations to the following players who did well in last week’s STaC games:

Monday Open Pairs

second: Dave Dodgson & Tom Salter
sixth: Pat Andrews & Ellie Goldman

Tuesday 0-1000

first: Rich Godshall & Kay Garrity
second: Don Baker & Michael Carver
third: Dave Hallman & Jane Pelullo

Wednesday Open Pairs

second: Barbara and Bob Muhlhauser
seventh: John Dickenson & Elaine Clair
second in C: Jane Pelullo & Gail Kirrstetter

Thursday Open Howell

fourth: Dave Willgruber & Jeffrey Rohrbeck
sixth: Pat Andrews & Mitch Snyder

Thursday 0-299

first: Gail Kirrstetter & Jane Pelullo
second: Jackie Zelle & Marcia Yanoff

Friday Teams

first: Peggy Michaud & Ross Currie & Joyce Levin & Don Baker
second: Gail Kirrstetter & Jane Pelullo & Barbara Daly & Katherine Link
second: Arlene Lessak & Cheryl Berman & Josephine Ferguson & Anne Cheney

Unit 141 Ace of Clubs. The results of last year’s Ace of Clubs for Unit 141 are available on our website.

Special congratulations to Lauren Dougherty who came in first in the 1000-1500 group.

Grand National Teams. A reminder if you are forming a team for the GNTs, you have to register by February 27 for flight A (0-6000). The match is online, so you can play from anywhere. Details are available on our website (link.)

Board Meeting. The next North Penn Bridge Club Board meeting is Thursday, February 23 at the club. Time: 10 a.m. All are welcome.

February 22: 0-50 monthly game.

February 23: 0-299 game at noon. Please sign up in advance as follows:

Email Pat Andrews at pat@andrewsartworks.com
Email the club at northpennbridge@gmail.com
Sign up in the book at the club, specifying that you want to play in the 0-299 game

February 20-24: All club games are for the benefit of Education Fund Week. There are extra points and an additional $1 fee.

February 27-March 3: Club Championships with lots of extra points!

Save the Date. On Saturday March 25 there will be a bridge game at the club to thank Pat Andrews for her outstanding leadership during the past two years. It will be an Individual Movement which means no partners needed. Stay tuned for details.

From the Membership Chair

Mitch Snyder

I’m happy to report that there are more than 200 paid members so far this year. More than 30 of you are first timers. I hope to see many more renewals as the snow (?) birds return to Pennsylvania. Thanks to everyone for supporting North Penn.

A couple of you filled out new membership cards when you renewed. This is not necessary. If you’re not sure if you have filled one out or not, ask and someone can check for you.

If you play in any North Penn BBO games I urge you to join. Annual membership is only $20 and you can pay online or by mail. See our website for more information.

Education

Joann Glasson’s Bridge Lessons. Final February lesson is Monday the 27th. Click here for full details.

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 northpennpartner@gmail.com.

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

“In the original version of Roman Keycard Blackwood 5C showed 0 or 3 keycards. This left less room for the trump-queen ask after the very common one keycard response, so some experts switched to the ‘1430’ method. This proved to be so popular that it is now more widely played than the original version.”

From 25 More Bridge Conventions You Should Know

by Barbara Seagram & David Bird

Deal of the Week

by Rex Saffer

How Unusual, Unusual

There are two commonly used conventional overcalls used to show a two–suited hand in a competitive auction: The Unusual 2NT overcall and the Michaels Cue Bid.

Unusual 2NT (shows the two lowest unbid suits)

1♥ or 1♠ – 2NT: Both minors

1♣ or 1♦ – 2NT: Hearts and the other minor

Michaels Cue Bid

1♣ – 2♣ or 1♦ – 2♦: Both majors

1♥ – 2♥ or 1♠ – 2♠: The other major and an unspecified minor

The Unusual vs. Unusual (UvU) convention is a useful defense against these two–suited overcalls. It is convenient to identify “their” two suits and “our” two suits. For all but a Michaels Cue Bid of a major suit, both of “their” suits are known, and identifying “our” suits is unambiguous. To employ UvU with invitational or better strength, responder cue bids one of “their” two suits. Some use the mnemonic “Lower is lower, higher is higher.” to remember that a cue bid of “their” higher suit shows possession of the higher of “our” two suits, and vice–versa.

For a fine article with exhaustive details, see Karen Walker’s Defense Against Two-suited Overcalls.

The Deal of the Week

Our Deal comes from a recent F2F game at a local Club:

The Auction

After East’s initial Pass and South’s 1♥ opening, our West chose a 2♥ Michaels Cue Bid to show the pointy two–suiter. Although West’s minor was unknown to the rest of the table, it did not matter to North since spades and hearts were the two “higher” suits. North’s 2♠ cue bid conveyed the desired message, a (somewhat thin) limit raise in hearts. North evidently considered 4–card trump support to be worth the stretch. With a good–looking 14 HCP, this was all South needed to carry on to the vulnerable game.

The Play

A spade lead would have irretrievably sunk the contract, but West led the ♦5, taken with the ace in the closed hand. Declarer saw that if trumps were 2–2, there would be two trumps left in dummy to ruff the third club and the fourth spade, coming to five hearts in hand, two ruffs in dummy, two spades, and the ♦A for 10 tricks. But upon laying down the ♥K and receiving the (very) bad news, declarer decided to cut and run for down one and led a low club. It was ducked around and won with a spot card by East, who returned the ♠10. Recognizing the singleton, Declarer rose with the ace and led a second club, West winning the king. An immediate spade continuation would have given East a ruff for down one, but West instead tried to cash the ♦K first.

Declarer ruffed in hand, ruffed the ♣J with the ♥J, then played the ace and a small heart to hand, coming to this position:

When declarer laid down the ♥10 to draw East’s last trump, West was presented with Hobson’s Choice. Whether West discards the ♠J or the ♦6, declarer discards the same suit from dummy. A spade will put West in, and the forced return will give declarer the last two tricks. Click here to display the hand in the BBO HandViewer. Repeatedly click the Next button to see the hand played trick by trick, or click the Play button to select cards yourself and explore alternate lines of play.

Closing Thoughts

How much strength is required to make one of these two–suited overcalls? Quite a few players will do this either with a relatively weak hand or with a strong one. With an intermediate hand, some will overcall the higher ranking suit and hope to get the second suit in later in the auction. Discuss with partner to ensure you both are on the same page. Vulnerability is obviously an important consideration. In this week’s Deal, if West had overcalled 1♠, by the time the auction came back around the diamonds might have to be bid at the 3–level, dangerously high at this vulnerability with West’s modest values. Better to show both suits at the 2–level and at the same time take away a simple 2♥ raise by North.

All the best,

Rex

Laughter is the Best Medicine

I'm teaching a class on counting losers and how to get rid of them. I ask a gal in the class how many losers she has, and she replies correctly that she has three. "And what are you going to do with them?", I ask. " Lose them right away so I don't have to worry about them any longer." And she was one of my best students!

Bridge humor from

Eddie Kantar