North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 08/18/2025

This Week At North Penn

Mon, 08/18

Tue, 08/19

Wed, 08/20

Thu, 08/21

Fri, 08/22

Open

0-1500

Shuffle & Deal, Open

Open handicap Swiss

0-750 NAP qualifier (Non Life Master only)

View Monthly Calendar

Rank Achievements

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

Arthur Chiu

Carole Levin

Deborah Farkas

Dinesh Doshi

Joe Hirt

Anne-Marie Corner

Linda OMalley

Marc Topaz

Junior Master

Club Master

Sectional Master

Regional Master

Bronze Life Master

Silver Life Master

Tournament Reminder

The King of Prussia bridge club will host a Non-Life Master / 499'er tournament on Monday, August 25. Click here to view a flyer.

Pre-registration is required to guarantee your spot and lunch. Space is limited to 21 tables, so don't wait too long to sign up.

New 0-99 Game Starts Next Week

Starting Aug 27, we will have a monthly 0-99 game in place of Shuffle & Deal:

When: 4th Wednesday of each month
Time: 9:30 AM
Cost: $10
Boards: 12

Sign ups are greatly appreciated! If you need assistance finding a partner, let us know and we’ll work with you.

Hand Analysis

by Bucky Syndor

(sydnoriv@yahoo.com)

Postmortem Discussion From Last week's Article

GIB (Goren In a Box) is a very handy tool for deal analysis. It can be accessed on BBO in the following way:

After opening BBO,
Click on the “History” tab among the tabs running down the right-hand margin.
Click on a (past) session which includes the deal you want to study.
Click on the deal.
Click on the menu icon of the BBO deal you have called up.
When a menu comes up, click on Export.
When a new menu comes up, click on Handviewer link.
A tinyurl will come up on your screen. Click on the tinyurl.
The deal will open in a window all of its own.
Along the bottom of the window displaying the deal are 6 options, all of which are not bolded (i.e., not active). The 5^th one is GIB.

GIB works in the following manner. At any point from the opening lead to any point in the subsequent play, if one clicks on GIB, it will tell you whether playing (or leading) a particular card will allow the deal to be made (and with how many overtricks) or set (and by how many undertricks) if the deal is played “double-dummy” by both sides.

Here is an example, which is Board #1, the deal I write about in my article. The deal is awaiting W’s opening lead. If one clicks on GIB at this point, this is what will come up over W’s cards.

The notations over W’s cards mean the following:

The green box with the equals sign: Declarer can make his contract exactly—here it is 8 tricks—if W leads a spade, any heart or the ♦K or J.
The green box with the number ‘1’ in it: If W leads a club, Declarer can make 1 overtrick.
The red box with the number ‘1’ in it: if W leads either her 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th diamond, the Defense can set the contract 1 trick.

GIB is a fascinating tool. If the deal has several options for leads, several lines of play for declarer, and several options for the defense to pursue, one needs a lot of time to enjoy all GIB’s information for just that one deal.

But if one has just one question at one point in the hand, for instance “What is the lead that allows 2♠ to be set?”. GIB can give an answer in no time.

If this is a tool that may interest you, Happy GIBing.

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.