North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 10/14/2024

Jigsaw Puzzle Fans

Our Puzzle Lending Library has diminished and that means many of you are enjoying the puzzles folks have donated. That said, we need to stock up again so please return puzzles when you’ve finished and add new ones to the Library if you can.

And in case you haven’t noticed, we are going to keep a puzzle going in the back of the bridge room for your enjoyment during sit outs. Donations for smaller puzzles for this table would be gladly accepted!

Rank Achievements

Congratulations to the following members who have advanced in rank:

David Klaus

Stuart Freemark

Seulky McInneshin

Devika Chakraborty

James Dowling

Junior Master

Sectional Master

Regional Master

NABC Master

Upcoming Events

Daily:

Oct 18
Oct 19
Oct 26
Oct 31

0-500 Swiss Team game

Lunch and bridge with Joann Glasson

Online robot game

Closed due to Lancaster regional

Weekly:

Oct 14-18
Oct 21-25

Club appreciation games

Local charity games

Upcoming Tournaments

Oct 23-27

Oct 28 - Nov 3

Allentown Sectional. Flyer.

Lancaster Regional. Flyer.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Education

Fall Class for Beginners.

Teacher:------Deb Crisfield

Date:----------Mondays from Oct 21 - Nov 18

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.

Joann Glasson Zoom Lessons. Monday October 21 at 10 a.m. Click here for details.

Shuffle & Deal. Wednesday, October 16, 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.)

Deal of the Week

by Bucky Sydnor

(sydnoriv@yahoo.com)

A Funny Thing Happened As I

Was Drawing Trumps

While playing today’s deal, the chance to make all 13 tricks was staring me in the face, but I totally missed it!

I am 4^th seat holding

♠AQ853 ♥K ♦KJ52 ♣Q32

Partner opens 1♣ and the auction, uncontested, proceeds:

P – 1♣ – P – 1♠

P – 1NT – P – 2♦@

P – 2♠ – P – 4♠

All pass

@=Alert: New Minor Forcing, showing at least invitational values and asking partner if he has 4 hearts or 3 spades and whether he is a minimum or maximum opener.

The opening lead is the ♦7. Here is the deal:

I play a low diamond from Dummy, RHO plays the ♦8, and I win with the ♦J.

Counting tricks, if trumps break 3-2 (or 4-1 with the ♠J singleton), I have 5 spades, 3 diamonds and 3 clubs, for 11 tricks. The diamonds are probably not breaking 3-3 as the ♦7 lead is most likely a doubleton; if it was 3rd best, then the diamonds are breaking, and that would give me 4 diamond tricks. As for the clubs, if they divide 3-3 I will also get a 4th club trick. So, if the minor suits both break 3-3, that will give me all 13 tricks. But it is not likely.

I start drawing trumps, playing the ♠Q from my hand: 7, 2, 4. Then I lead up to the ♠K and LHO plays the ♠J, RHO the ♠6. The fall of the ♠J is great news. Now I can test the diamonds, for if they are 2-4, I can ruff my 4th diamond with Dummy’s ♠10.

Sure enough, on the play of Dummy’s ♦A, it goes, 6,2,3. Since the opponents are playing standard leads, LHO’s lead of the ♦7 followed by his play of the ♦3 on the second round of diamonds means he had a doubleton. Since it appears he is also out of trumps, I come off Dummy with the ♦9, winning my ♦K. Sure enough, LHO shows out, discarding his ♥5. I lead my 4th diamond and ruff with Dummy’s ♠10.

I now return to my hand with a low club from Dummy to my ♣Q and draw the last outstanding trump. Next I played the clubs and when they broke poorly I had to lose a heart, but I missed an excellent opportunity for a 13th trick. (Ruffing my fourth diamond in Dummy assured 12 tricks.) To see how I misplayed the ending, click here and then click the “Next” button repeatedly.

Here is the layout with 5 cards to play:

It turns out that I now have a squeeze against my LHO in hearts and clubs. This particular one squeezes one defender who has to protect two suits while Dummy holds one threat card, the ♣9, and Declarer holds a threat card in the second suit, my ♥K. If I play all my remaining trumps—often the key to executing many squeezes—then on the final spade LHO is squeezed in hearts and clubs. On the first spade, he can pitch his ♥J, but on the second spade, he has to unguard either hearts or clubs. His best bet is to discard the ♥A, hoping his partner has the ♥K, but it was not so.

It was a fascinating deal. I got a 12^th trick because LHO only had the ♠J7. Then I can squeeze him in hearts and clubs as he has to guard both but cannot.

Both plays turn up as I was drawing trump. I just had to begin to play the hand and watch as the distribution unfolded before my eyes. Moreover, there was no reason to hold onto my last two trumps. I had nothing to lose by playing them — if the squeeze doesn’t work I still make 12 tricks – and when it does, or if the clubs are 3-3, I make them all.

When we began learning how to declare a hand, we were taught to make a plan; for example, draw trumps and then work on your long suit. Over time, the making of the plan became more sophisticated, e.g., set up your long, side suit before drawing trumps. For this deal, the original plan was to draw trumps and see if the diamond and/or club suits could deliver additional tricks. But while drawing trumps, I learned information that allowed me to, first, trump a diamond loser in dummy (the hand with the short trumps) and then squeeze LHO for another trick.

So, make your plan before playing to Trick 1 from Dummy. But be alert to how your plan can be improved as the deal unfolds and you obtain more information.

Tidbits

Suit preference takes a back seat to attitude and count signals in many systems. If a signal could mean either attitude or count, it is not suit preference. Misuse of these signals (that is, using one when partner thinks it is another) is a source of much confusion and distrust in partnerships. Experts tend to live with their system - they do not improvise and create understandings on the spot and expect partner to “work it out.”

From How the Experts Win at Bridge

by Burt Hall and Lynn Rose-Hall

Ask the Expert

Opener's priorities in a 4th suit forcing to game auction.

It is my understanding that the opener should:

First bid NT with a good stopper in the fourth suit.
Secondly, support responders’ suit with 3 card support. Ergo, showing 3 card support for responders denies a good stopper in the fourth suit.
Bid something else if opener does not have either 1 or 2.
If opener later bids 3NT, opener is expressing doubt about 3NT, i.e., probably has something like Kx or Q xx as a stopper. Responder should pull 3n to something else if they have no help in the fourth suit and has an alternate contract.

Does the committee agree with priorities? If not, what priorities does the committee recommend?

Consider the following deal...

What call should East make at her 3rd turn?

John Dickenson. I do not agree with the priority. I (and Barbara Seagram) say 1st priority is a delayed raise of responder's suit with 3 card support. Second priority is bid NT with a stopper in the 4th suit. Third priority is Do Something Intelligent - rebid a good 5 card minor, for instance.

Now the hand in question. East has the worst 12 count imaginable - 4333 with 8 losers. I disagree with her 1S rebid, if I opened the hand at all, I would rebid 1NT to put the brakes on. On a spade lead, as the cards lie, it makes 3NT because the spades block - East needs to win the first or second spade and knock out the diamond ace. On the opening lead of the heart king, win ace and knock out the diamond ace, you will lose 3 hearts and a diamond, 5C looks to have 3 losers, a diamond and 2 hearts.

Bill Bauer. I reverse the first two priorities to show three-card support for responder's major as the first priority.

Now, regarding the hand in question, first let me say that I do not open a balanced 12-count in 1st or 2nd position. But given the auction as it occurred, 2H is my rebid although I favor getting up and leaving to go to the bathroom and letting a fill-in complete the deal.

Elaine Clair. I disagree with the listed priorities. I think opener’s first responsibility is to show three card support for responder’s first suit. The second would be to bid NT with 4th suit stopped.

In this particular hand, opener has a bare minimum opening and responder has a questionable game going hand. The third priority would be to make a bid that describes your hand. If you’re in this auction, after responder’s 4th suit I would bid 2H and I think responder should now show support for opener’s clubs. With these hands I might bypass the spade suit with such a flat minimum hand and just bid 1NT as opener’s second bid and as responder I would now jump in clubs.

Mitch Snyder. Clearly you must show support for the major. Partner may have an unbalanced, slammish hand and showing three card support now is paramount. No trump can wait.

Dennis O’Brien. I guess I'm an outlier on this one. Regarding the auction, I agree with the 1S bid by opener (responder could have 4S!) but responder's second bid should be 3C and opener can bid 3NT which makes on the (expected diamond lead?)

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.

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