North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 03/10/2025

Rank Achievements

Congratulations to the following members who advanced in rank during February:

Mary Tassaro

Susan Wilson

Regional Master

Bronze Life Master

Click here to see other recent achievements.

REMINDER - New 0-50 Game

Our new 0-50 game is held on Friday mornings:

Time:--------------10:00 am
Card Fee:-------=$8
No. of boards:--.12
Director:-----------Mitch Snyder

Please sign up if you would like to play in this game. The director has to prepare for the game in advance and we want to make sure we have enough

players.

Signing up is easy…there are three ways available:

Phone the club: (215) 699-4932
Email the club: northpennbridge@gmail.com
The sign-up book at the club

We look forward to seeing you!

This Week At North Penn

All games are International Fund, offering extra points.

Monday, 3/10

Tuesday, 3/11

Wednesday, 3/12

Thursday, 3/13

Friday, 3/14

Open, Shuffle & Deal.

0-1500.

Shuffle & Deal, 4 Is Enough.

Open.

0-750, 0-50.

View Monthly Calendar

Education

Joann Glasson's March Zoom classes will be held on Monday, March 24 & 31 at 10:00 a.m. See flyer for details.

Monday Evening Shuffle & Deal

March 10, 24 and 31.

The April schedule is in work and will be published later.

Open to all players.

Deal of the Week

by John Dickenson

Penalty Cards Present An Opportunity

Playing in the Open Pairs at the Hilton Head Regional, an ACBL official on my right and a pro known to indulge in cannabis while playing on my left, I pick up:

♠AK ♥A6 ♦J8764 ♣AJ96

My partner and RHO pass and I open 1N. I normally only open 1N with two doubletons when they are a major and a minor, but this hand seems best described by opening 1N. LHO passes and my partner Susan Morse bids 3N, all pass. LHO leads a low spade and dummy hits:

♠10 ♥Q108 ♦AQ32 ♣K8542

Now the opponents are a tempo ahead of me, and if I lose the lead spades will be cleared immediately. With 10 spades between them, there is no “safe hand” to lose a finesse to. I have 6 top tricks, and I can take the diamond finesse and even if it loses I should have 9 tricks. So I win the spade jack with the ace and play a diamond to the queen, which loses to the king. As predicted, the spade queen hits the table and I win king. Now I lead a diamond to the ace, west discarding the heart 4 and East discarding as well. Not only did I lose a diamond finesse to the stiff king, but the 4 outstanding diamonds broke 1-1! The ACBL official says, “no diamonds, partner?”, seeming in disbelief that I would open 1N with a 7 card minor. The pro sheepishly produces a diamond and the heart 4 is a major penalty card, which must be played at its first legal opportunity.

At this point declarer should look to see if he can seize an advantage from the opponent’s misstep. The opponents play upside down attitude, so the heart 4 might indicate LHO holds the king, in which case I could pass the heart queen from dummy and it would hold the trick. Remember I said there was no “safe hand”? But now South is a safe hand, because if he gains the lead the heart 4 will have to be led back! So I led a club to my jack, LHO producing the ten spot. Now I claimed 5 clubs, 4 diamonds, the heart ace and the AK of spades for 12 tricks. This was worth 24 matchpoints on a 27 top, as a spade was led at all tables, and once a diamond finesse lost to the stiff king no one was willing to risk the contract by taking a club finesse.

The full deal:

Learnings:

Sometimes it is tempting to just tell an opponent to “put it back” when they have a major penalty card. And in a friendly club game, you could consider that. But in a tournament, you owe it to your partner (and teammates if a team game) to take advantage of any misplay by the opponents. In a national event I played in, my partner and I went down in a heart slam where he held Kx of diamonds opposite two small and the diamond ace was offside. The opponents at the other table, who are highly respected players, played an extra round of trumps so my teammate had to discard her diamond ace which she had previously dropped face up onto the table, thus making the slam.

Ask the Expert

Email your questions, or a pesky hand, or something you’d like to know about bidding or playing to Toysie Walker. She will forward them to the panel, one will be chosen, and the question and answers will be printed in the following week’s newsletter.