North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 03/25/2024

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

HEAR YE HEAR YE all 0-99 Players! Come and play duplicate bridge tomorrow, March 27 at 9:30 a.m.

April is Charity Month. The first two weeks feature charity games. The open game on Monday, April 1 will honor the memory of Jim Watters. Proceeds from this game will be donated to a charity specified by Jim’s wife, Elaine.

April Events.

April 4: Handicap Swiss

April 10: Four is Enough

April 13: The Robot Individual

April 22-26: Stardust Week...gold points awarded at the club

April 24: ACBL-wide Charity game

April 29: 0-99 game at 9:30 a.m.

Upcoming Tournaments:

March 26 District 4 Online game

April 12-14 Sectional in Cherry Hill, NJ

April 26-27 Sectional in Allentown, PA

April 29-May 4 Regional in Rehoboth Beach, MD

Education

Shuffle & Deal - Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m.

Sunday Shuffle and Deal – 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. There will be no Shuffle and Deal this Sunday, March 31.

Joann Glasson’s Next Monday Zoom Classes are April 8 and 15. Click here for details.

Tuesday Evening Series on Forcing Bids. Linda O’Malley’s next class is March 26. Click here for the flyer.

Partnership

If you need a partner for a Monday, Wednesday or Thursday Open game, please email northpennpartner@gmail.com. We will do our best to match you with others who are looking for someone with whom to play.

Requests for Tuesday and Friday limited games should go directly to Mitch Snyder @ bridge4all@comcast.net.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Ask the Expert

Email your questions, or a pesky hand, or something you’d like to know about bidding or playing to Toysie at toysiewalker@gmail.com. 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.

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

“Balance of Power (BOP) Doubles

A BOP double says you don’t have a big fit with partner, and you don’t have a very long suit of your own—your hand is relatively balanced.
A BOP double is frequently a double of a suit first bid on your left. It can also be a double of a suit where it is obvious the opponents have at least a four-four fit.
With few exceptions, BOP doubles are made after both you and partner have bid at least once.”

From How You Can Play Like An Expert

by Mel Colchamiro

Deal of the Week

by John Dickenson

Better Lucky Than Good

Playing with Andy Kaufman in the Championship Flight of the Grand National Teams, we picked up the following hand as our first board in the Finals:

I opened 1NT showing 15-17 balanced and Andy bid 3S, showing 5-5 in the majors, game forcing. Now fortunately we had discussed this auction and follow ups on the drive over. Andy taught me to bid the corresponding minor to set trumps and show slam interest – clubs for hearts, diamonds for spades. So my 4C set hearts as trump and showed slam interest. 5D was exclusion keycard Blackwood – show me your keycards, ignoring the diamond ace. We respond 1430 to EKB, so my 5H showed 1 or 4 keys. Now Andy bid 5N and I had no idea what that meant – he meant it as Specific King ask but I have only bid or responded to EKB around 4 times in my 50 years of bridge play and did not recognize it as such, so tried to sign off in 6H which Andy passed. Of course as soon as dummy hit, I realized we had missed a grand slam. Even if I had showed the club king, it is not clear we have 13 tricks as if I started with Axx in spades the grand would be on a finesse. 20/20 hindsight, 5S by Andy would have been the queen ask and if I recognized it as such (a big if!) I could have responded 6C showing the club king and the trump queen. Still not in a position to bid the grand, as Andy needs to know I have 3^rd round spade control.

Not a good start against very capable opponents, missing a laydown grand slam. When our teammates came to the table to compare, we said “Plus 1460” and the reply came back “win 14”. What? It seems our opponents played a weak NT and opened the North hand 1D, South responding 1S, and opener rebidding 1NT to show a strong NT. Now South played Two Way New Minor Forcing and bid 2D to set a game force, which was misread by North who passed so they played 2D in a 4-0 fit.

Moral to the story is if you are going to play fancy conventions, better know them cold and the follow ups and the follow ups to the follow ups. I missed the specific king ask but survived, the other table missed the 2-way nmf and did not.