North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 09/16/2024

Four is Enough

This month’s game is Wednesday, September 18 at noon. Please contact Elaine Clair to sign up, request a partner or ask questions. Her email address is: eeclair37@comcast.net.

North American Pairs

Flight B

The Flight B District qualifying game will be held on Sunday October 6 at the North Penn Bridge Club. Please sign up in advance.

You can see if you qualified by checking here. Check our website for more information.

Special October Game

On Saturday, October 19, Joann Glasson, Grand Life Master and winner of eight National Titles, will join us for a bridge game! As most of you know, Joann was president of the ACBL in 2022 and 2023. Currently she is Regional Director of our unit.

Lunch will begin at 11:15 a.m. followed by an Individual Movement game at 12 noon. (No partners needed!) Hopefully everyone will get a chance to play with Joann.

Please sign up in the book or call the club to register. This will be a very festive and special day…so please join us and bring your bridge friends.

One More Beginner Needed

For the Fall Class

Please start recruiting!!!

Contact Deb Crisfield at dwickcris@yahoo.com or 973-769-9619.

Fundraising in the Fall

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all North Penn Members who have made financial donations to our club. The consideration you’ve shown has really helped us navigate through one of the most challenging times our club has experienced. A big thanks to all of you!

I’d also like to thank the North Penn Members who have donated their time to help with other tasks that make our games operate more efficiently. They are members who make the boards for the weekly play; volunteers for our Shuffle & Deal games; members who take the time to help keep our club clean; members who are kind enough to bake food to share with us; and finally members who have paid for lunch for our parties and certain game days. Additionally, I’d like to thank my fellow Board Members for putting in the time and effort to organize a great bridge experience here at North Penn. All of us are part of a wonderful bridge community!

One final thank you goes to everyone who simply comes to play bridge. Playing regularly or coming to an additional game really helps in the long run!

We look forward to being a bridge club that’s attentive to its members for years to come. If there’s something you can do to assist, whether financial (it’s tax deductible!) or volunteering, please keep the bridge club in mind. As we move into another Fall Season it’s nice to know that our combined efforts have made a difference! Thanks for listening and good luck in your next game!

Michael Carver

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

September is International Fund month. Here is the game schedule for the rest of the month:

September 18------.Four is Enough game

September 20------Swiss Team 0-500 game

September 23-27--Club Championship games

Upcoming Tournaments

Sep 16-21

Sep 2

Sep 27-29

Oct 14

Oct 23-27

Oct 28 - Nov 3

NABC Online Games

District 4 Online Game

Cherry Hill Sectional. Flyer.

I/N sectional at KoP Bridge Club. Flyer.

Allentown Sectional. Flyer.

Lancaster Regional. Flyer.

Education

NEW NEW NEW. Deb Crisfield will be teaching a four-lesson series titled, Bidding Help for Big Hands Monday evenings from 6-8 pm starting September 16. Click here for flyer.

Shuffle & Deal. Wednesday, September 18, 9:30 - 11:30 am

Remember, our Shuffle and Deal sessions are open to all who have an interest in supervised play (not just new players.)

Joann Glasson Zoom Lessons. Mondays October 7 and 21 at 10 a.m. Click here for details.

Partnership

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

Requests for Tuesday limited games should go directly to Rose Wartman at wartmanr61@gmail.com

Requests for Friday limited games should go directly to Mitch Snyder at 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

Deal of the Week

by John Dickenson

"The Blue Double"

A friend of mine who is a very accomplished player was mentoring a beginner, and when he said something about the redouble card, she allegedly said, “oh, you mean the blue double”. This column is about the use of that card, but it is also about proper use of the “red double”.

I was playing with Alison Shoemaker at a local sectional when the following deal came up:

Al was the dealer and opened 1S. North made an ill advised take out double. It is a cardinal rule of bridge that unless one has the “big double”, one should have at least 3 card support for all the unbid suits. Or as Larry Cohen says, if you don’t, don’t expect to hear “thank you partner” when you put the dummy down.

Sitting East, I hold 11 hcp and do not have a fit with partner, so I put the redouble card on the table. By doing so, I announced to partner that we hold more than half the deck, probably no fit with you, and I would like to defend if possible. Now South did the right thing and bid 2D. When it goes bid-double-redouble, you MUST bid if you have a four card or longer suit to show. No one expects you to have values, nearly all of the 40 point deck has been accounted for.

Once the redouble is made, any double by opener or responder is penalties. Al could not double 2D, so correctly passed it around to me. I was happy to put a red double atop my blue double and the auction ended.

I can’t remember exactly how the play went, but it started with Al leading her spade ace. I played an encouraging 5 spot – we play upside down attitude, standard count and she can see the 3 and 2 in dummy and holds the 4 spot herself. King of spades, spade ruff, and declarer still had to lose two hearts, a club, and two more trumps for down 3 or -500.

We might have reached 3NT with our cards – 8 EW pairs did, four making and four going down. In any case, +500 exceeded the value of our non vulnerable game.

Learnings

1) Don’t make minimum off shape doubles. Often I hear inexperienced players say, “I had an opening hand – I had to do something”. Passing is doing something, partner will balance with values.

2) If your partner makes a takeout double and it is redoubled, bid with a four card suit. Don’t make the doubler guess which suit you like! Everyone knows you have no points.

3) If you open the bidding and it goes double, redouble and you cannot make a penalty double of advancer’s suit, pass it around to partner. The only time you should bid a second suit or rebid your suit is if you have opened a highly distributional hand which absolutely cannot defend.