North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 03/17/2025

This Week At North Penn

All weekday games are March Madness, offering 33% GOLD points.

Monday, 3/17

Tuesday, 3/18

Wednesday, 3/19

Thursday, 3/20

Friday, 3/21

Saturday, 3/22

Open.

0-1500.

Shuffle & Deal, Open.

Open.

0-750 Swiss Teams.

Online robot game.

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.

Linda O'Malley will teach Beginner Part 2 Bridge Lessons at the club on Monday evenings from April 14 - May 19. See flyer for details.

Monday Evening Shuffle & Deal

The final Shuffle & Deal session for March will be held on the 31st.

Deal of the Week

by Mitch Snyder

Trick Avoidance

converting four defensive tricks into two

Playing defense is difficult to say the least. You have to play your cards in such a manor so as to maximize the defensive strength of all 26 cards held by you and your partner. To do this you need to communicate with partner about your hand by the card you play. For example, you lead 4^th best to tell partner something about your length in that suit. Or you play a high card on partner’s ace to encourage a continuation of the suit.

There is something to say with almost every card you play. Defenders, just like declarer, can also figure things out from the bidding and play.

Click here to see the hand and follow the play.

I played this hand with my friend Steve Becker against an inexperienced pair in an ACBL game on BBO. We play a 14.5-17 no trump. We both took favorable views of our hands and ended up in a very makable 23 point game. The defenders have 3 quick tricks and another in diamonds that I have to lose to establish the suit.

East does not have a standout lead. She eventually led the lowest heart from 5, not 4^th best which is normal here. It turned out to be the right suit as it knocked out dummy’s side entry and didn’t give up an extra trick.

I started diamonds next and was pleased/lucky(?) to find a favorable lie. When I played a second diamond east could have given count but did not. It was inconsequential. Note that it is necessary to unblock the queen of diamonds at trick 3 since the side entry is gone.

West exited with a club (4^th best), East won the ace and led another heart. I think a club return is called for, or maybe a spade since partner had played a discouraging heart at trick 1. East, however, led another heart and west dutifully played the jack, (3^rd hand high).

Now I cashed my hearts throwing spades from dummy. On the 4^th heart west pitched her low spade. I’m not sure why she would throw away a card from that holding and a discouraging one at that. She has perfectly useless clubs to throw away.

I entered dummy with my ‘preserved’ low diamond and east’s first pitch was a low spade! I’m baffled, unless their carding is upside-down this makes no sense. Who has the spades?

I can now see a squeeze if west has all the goods. I cash another diamond and this is the position at trick 10.

West is not squeezed but has a problem. Had east shown something positive in spades, west could confidently keep her clubs and hold it to making 4, losing a spade or a club at the end, a common result. Under the circumstances she must’ve assumed East had a club so she kept spades.

West can figure this out even without help from partner. Doing the math west can see 18 HCPs in her hand and dummy combined with 16 for declarer it comes to 34 which leaves 5-7 for east and having already played an ace there’s only room for 1 to 3 more HCPs. From west’s perspective, with the ace and queen of spades and the queen of clubs being the only unaccounted for honors, east has to have a black queen if opener has 15-17 HCPs.

East might have cashed the queen of clubs after winning the ace and with nothing else to go on I think west should keep the clubs. But East pitched them and I took the remaining tricks, making 5, as EW saw their A and K of spades evaporate.

In all fairness, holding 3 spades each, it is hard for either defender to start the suit. But looking at the results, there were about twice as many making 3 than making 4 or more.

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.