North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 09/30/2024

Change is in the Air

After 5 years as Club Manager, Dave Dodgson is retiring. Dave has been an outstanding and knowledgeable leader. He quickly learned the ACBL requirements and his presence during Covid contributed to our rebound. He promoted extra club games and encouraged new ideas. We wish Dave all the best and look forward to seeing him at the tables!

Effective October 1, 2024, we are delighted to announce that Don Baker has agreed to be our new Club Manager. Don has been a supporter and player at North Penn since 2016. His love of the game, his computer and management ability qualify him for this position. And, suffice it to say, everyone who plays here knows Don!

Please show your appreciation to Dave for his fine work when next you see him. And be sure to welcome Don and offer to volunteer should he need assistance.

See you at the tables!

Roger Milton, President of the Board of Directors

Farewell Message From

Dave Dodgson

Greetings, everyone! This is my last newsletter as club manager. Please welcome Don Baker as our new manager. I am sure he will do a good job with your support. I am not leaving, I will still be directing and playing. It’s just that I have been manager for over 5 years and it seemed like time for a change.

It has been an eventful 5 years. Obviously, the biggest event was the pandemic. It came out of nowhere and completely changed the face of duplicate bridge. We managed to survive it, although we have never recovered to the same number of tables in play as we had before. There were some other big events. We became a 501(c)3 charitable organization, so we could accept donations. We also renewed our lease for another 10 years. As for me personally, I became a director.

The list of people to thank for helping me these last 5 years is too long to list everyone individually; however, I would like to specifically thank Mitch Snyder for his continuing help in running the club, and past presidents Dave Dresher and Pat Andrews for their support.

Good luck everyone, and see you at the tables.

Dave

North American Pairs

The District 4 final for Flight B will be held at North Penn Bridge Club on Sunday, October 6.

There is still time to sign up. Check our website for more information.

Please register in advance if you plan to participate.

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.

Fall Class for Beginners

Oct 21 to Nov 18

Teacher:------Deb Crisfield

Time:----------6-8 pm

Fee:-----------$150 for the set of classes

Address:------North Penn Bridge Club

----------------298 Wissahickon Ave., North Wales, PA

Contact Deb Crisfield at dwickcris@yahoo.com or 973-769-9619 if you’d like to attend.

Upcoming Events

Daily:

Oct 3
Oct 6
Oct 9
Oct 18
Oct 19
Oct 26
Oct 31

Handicap Swiss Team game

NAP flight B final (see above)

4 is enough

0-500 Swiss Team game

Joann Glasson game (see above)

Online robot game

Closed due to Lancaster regional

Weekly:

Oct 1-4
Oct 7-11
Oct 14-18
Oct 21-25

Club appreciation games

ACBL charity games

Club appreciation games

Local charity games

Upcoming Tournaments

Oct 14

Oct 23-27

Oct 28 - Nov 3

I/N sectional at KoP Bridge Club. Flyer.

Allentown Sectional. Flyer.

Lancaster Regional. Flyer.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Education

Deb Crisfield will continue her four-lesson series titled, Bidding Help for Big Hands on Monday evenings from 6-8 pm. The final 2 lessons will be presented on September 30 and October 7. Click here for flyer.

Shuffle & Deal. Wednesday, October 03, 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

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

“If you can see the winning defense, take charge. Don’t put additional pressure on partner if you don’t have to.”

“Watch partner’s spot card signals. The stronger your partner, the more meaningful they are.”

From Warm up tips

by Eddie Kantar

Deal of the Week

by Bruce Schwaidelson

(bruschwade@aol.com)

Mildred Macduff &

The Case of the Unsupported Aces

“Most experts agree that opening leads are the toughest part of the game. To find a good lead, you must analyze the bidding, visualize dummy’s strengths and anticipate the play…”

- Frank Stewart

We are very fortunate to have Mildred Macduff as a long-time member of North Penn DBC. She is not only a gracious player, but she really stepped up her game during the COVID disruption. Crestfallen that face-to-face bridge had been canceled everywhere, she bought her very first computer to participate in as many of our online club games as possible. Her friends were so impressed they began calling her “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and suggested it as her BBO moniker. She was fine with just plain “M-Macduff.”

BBO bridge was not Mildred’s only COVID-19 awakening. She began ordering bridge books online and devoured them excitedly. She was especially interested in sharpening her opening lead skills, since she thought that was the weakest part of her game.

She had read some time ago that the single most important moment in a bridge deal is quite often the opening lead, so she began studying Winning Notrump Leads by Bird & Anthias, plus Robert Ewen’s and Michael Lawrence’s books, both entitled Opening Leads. She even started keeping records of how frequently her opening lead gained or lost a trick in the play, trying to determine if her batting average improved as she studied the topic. (I suppose there wasn’t much else to do during the pandemic.)

When our club finally reopened and things started returning to “normal,” she was glad our Tuesday night game was still available online, since the BBO games were the easiest to analyze. Sadly, that game died a slow death earlier this year, but some of the former participants, including Mildred, still “see” each other Tuesday nights in the 7:10 pm “ACBL World” game, usually with 50 to 60 tables in play.

Today’s deal from that weekly game was a great test for Mildred’s new found opening lead enthusiasm, and an opportunity to put yourself in her thoroughly modern shoes. Sitting North in 3^rd seat, she held the following (all white):

♠ AJ932 ♥ J8 ♦ 1083 ♣ A64

The auction:

As the BBO clock ticked down, Mildred pondered which one of her unsupported black Aces should she lead. Before reading on, do you have a recommendation? What is your vote?

The first thing Mildred contemplated: what did West’s 5♥ bid mean? When she tapped that bid on BBO, the response from West was “Slam try - undiscussed,” certainly not very helpful. She realized that if her opponents were of the same mind, 5♥ should mean: “bid on if you have a 1st or 2nd round spade control.” East would pass if she didn’t, bid 5♠ if she had the Ace or a void (in case partner had grand slam aspirations), or bid 6♥ with a stiff or the ♠K. She didn’t know her opponents, Mack and Beth, so she wasn’t able to judge their level of bid sophistication.

Then Mildred considered: how could West make such a brash slam try missing 2 Aces? And why didn’t he bid 4NT to find out about his partner’s keycards? Perhaps West had a void somewhere. If it were in spades, he likely would have bid 4♠ rather than 5♥. She also felt he could have a couple of spade losers and was indeed asking his partner for help there. Mack’s partner continued to 6♥, so she could have spade shortness or the ♠K. Or maybe she didn’t understand the 5♥ bid and just plain liked her hand.

Mildred concluded that West was void in clubs and conceivably held a 2-suiter with solid diamonds. She was concerned that the side suit would allow Dummy to pitch her singleton spade. If the opponents were in a 9 or 10 card fit, she knew trumps were breaking 2-1 or 2-2, giving Dummy the opportunity to ruff a spade ruff or two.

Of course, Mildred’s books all suggest not leading an unsupported Ace, but there are exceptions. One would be if you are desperate to take tricks in a hurry due to a running side suit. Surely this was time for desperate measures; after all, she held 2 unsupported Aces and her opponents were in slam. What Mildred didn’t know was that only 3 of the 56 E-W pairs had bid the slam, so she was essentially playing for a top or bottom. She did suspect, however, that this might be the case – and she was feeling the pressure.

By now Mack and Beth were also getting desperate, time-wise, and Mildred noticed Mack’s “chat,” one she had seen many times before: “Lead on Macduff!”

Finally, came her thoughtful decision: she elected to lead the ♠A, planning to look at the board before settling on her next move.

Did you draw the same conclusion? Here was the full deal:

Observe West’s fairly bold 5♥ bid. He did indeed have a club void, but did not have a 2-suitor. He assumed that his partner’s 3 or 4 hearts would solidify their trump suit even without the ♥Q, but he certainly needed help from partner in spades plus a way to get rid of his diamond loser.

After everyone followed to the ♠A, Mildred felt no need to cash her ♣A; if Declarer held a stiff club, it wasn’t going anywhere. Furthermore, if West had several spades, a trump shift might beat the contract, especially if partner held the ♠Q, so she shifted to the ♥8.

Unfortunately, West had no problem winning the heart in his hand, then playing his ♠Q to pitch a diamond in Dummy. Next he ruffed his losing spade, cashed the ♦A-K, and ruffed his last diamond with Dummy’s remaining trump, the Queen. Finally, he ruffed a club to his hand (sorry, Mildred) to finish drawing the outstanding trump and claim 12 tricks.

The Mack-Beth pair had found their way to an excellent slam, resulting in a 1.8% matchpoint score for Macduff and Duncan. There was, in fact, only one way to beat the contract, and that was an opening trump lead. Declarer would have to knock out the ♠A immediately and if the holder of that card happened to hold the remaining trump (as Mildred did), a 2^nd trump should defeat the slam - provided both defenders hold onto the correct cards when West runs all his hearts.

Postmortem: Mildred was crestfallen after she realized that a trump lead, the option she didn’t even consider, was the winning move. Following the game, she posted her hand as an opening lead problem on the Bridge Winners website to see what others would have done. The results were quite interesting: 60% chose the ♠A, while the rest decided on the ♣A. Substantiating just how difficult open leads can be, NONE of the 25 participants chose the winning trump lead. Did you?