This Week At North Penn

Monday, 4/21

Tuesday, 4/22

Wednesday, 4/23

Thursday, 4/24

Friday, 4/25

Open.

0-1500.

Shuffle & Deal, Open.

Open.

0-750.

Coming In May

We're trying something new on Tuesdays.

After the game, Michael Carver and/or Don Baker will hold a group chat for anybody who wants to attend. This will be an opportunity to ask questions or share thoughts about interesting hands. Anything is fair game, so we hope to have some lively discussion.

Handicap Swiss Teams In May

The next handicap Swiss Game will be Thursday, May 15.

The Rehoboth Beach regional will be held from April 28 - May 3. We expect attendance at the club to be lower than usual during that time. Therefore, the handicap Swiss Team game that would normally be held on May 1 has been cancelled, and we will have a regular matchpoints game instead.

Education

Joann Glasson's final April Zoom class will be held on Monday, April 21 at 10:00 a.m. See flyer for details.

Linda O'Malley's Beginner Part 2 Bridge Lessons will continue on Monday evenings through May 19. See flyer for details.

• Note: The time has been changed to 6:00-8:00 PM

Deal of the Week

by Bucky Sydnor

(sydnoriv@yahoo.com)

Love At First Sight

My longtime partner and friend, Steve Becker, commented a number of times in the past about how I would fall in love with certain hands. Sadly, his observation was not only accurate, but it failed to cure me of the habit. Not long ago I fell in love with a hand here in NC. Tell me, though, what’s not to love about

♠A1052 ♥—  ♦AKQJ10843 ♣A

If that is not love at first sight, I do not know what is!

It is not unlike when some met their Significant Other for the first time: it was love at first sight. Their SO was 1 in 100,000 (or maybe 1 in 1,000,000, though for this article let’s stick with 1 in 100,000).

How was “meeting” this hand, for me, like meeting one’s SO? First, for some perspective, here is a list of the most likely hand types you will pick up, ranked according to how frequently they occur. #

^# Hand Pattern Source: The Official ACBL Encyclopedia of Bridge, 7^th Edition, pp 576-77.

This information will not affect your bridge game at all, much less improve it.

Notice that today’s hand type, 8-4-1-0 is not in the top 99.5% of the hands you pick up! Indeed, you are likely to pick up today’s hand type only 0.045% of the time. Moreover, the specific hand type 4=0=8=1 itself (as opposed to, say, 8=4=1=0 or 0=8=4=1) occurs 0.002% of the time. So, I would guess that my hand of 4=0=8=1, with its wealth of points, occurs less than half of that, or 0.001% of the time, or, like some SOs, 1 in 100,000 times.

It is definitely a hand to fall in love with! (Cue Jaws theme music.)

Here’s what happened when I was sitting E:

While S’s 2♥ bid might seem crazy, it has merit. I like it because it messes with E/W’s 2♣ auction and has little danger of being doubled. Moreover, if it is doubled, the more it goes down, the more likely it is that E/W have a slam. But the biggest thing in N/S’s favor is that S can make 3♥! A bid of 4♥ by N would have prevented us from getting to 3NT, which was actually our best landing spot.

In our bidding system, after interference with my 2♣ opening, my partner and I play Pass by partner shows at least 2 queens or a king, while Double by my partner shows a bust hand, i.e.,  less than a king or two queens.

I suspect that partner’s Pass shows at least a heart control, but it could just as well be at least a black king or 2 queens in any of 3 suits. (My knee-jerk reaction to LHO’s 2♥ bid is that now my partner may well not have much more than a king or 2 queens. But with me only holding 18 HCP, there’s a lot of points out there for my partner to have even after S’s interference.)

Moreover, I have only 3 losers (all in spades). One black king will only cover 1 of those 3 losers, IF I can get to it. Furthermore, if she holds the ♥K, I need my LHO to hold the ♥A and lead it—an awful lot of “needing.”

However, on the positive side, partner could hold ♠QJ(x) or even ♠Q10x and I might get a favorable lie of the ♠K, giving me a chance to get rid of my spade losers. So, I boldly jumped to 6♦.

I got a favorable lead from S of the ♣K. So, dummy’s clubs are only two entries to Dummy away from being set up. The two entries might be there. Can you find them?

If the ♦7 is with S, and diamonds break 2-1 (or if S has all 3 diamonds and has 4 clubs), then I have two entries to Dummy and I can make 6♦. All I have to do is play S for the ♦7. So, when I lead a low diamond from my hand, I finesse with the ♦6.

As you can see, it was not to be. I was down two (1 diamond and 2 spades) as the spades at least broke favorably at 3-3.

So, what would have been a better bidding sequence? This:

E-----S-----W-----N

2♣---.2♥--..P¹----P²

3♦----P-----3♥³-...P

3♠⁴-..P----.3N⁵--.all pass

Notes:

1. I have more than a bust hand, i.e., at least 2 queens.
2. I’m not familiar with raising partner’s interference over a 2♣ opener.
3. Do you have a heart stopper?
4. No, but I have a spade stopper, and suit as well, though the latter is not part of our system.
5. I’ve got the heart stopper; I hope you have lots of running tricks.

Partner now plays 3NT, which on a rather normal heart lead by N, results in 11 tricks. Otherwise, there are only 10. But either way, that is much better than making 5♦ or down 1 in 6♦.

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.

April Birthdays

Constance Abel

Deane Brennan

Anne-Marie Corner

Katharine Link

Anna McAleer

Peggy Michaud

Roger Milton

Joel Myers

Bruce Schwaidelson

Harriet Stuart

Jay Yanoff