North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 10/21/2024

Special Saturday Event

Featuring Joann Glasson

Forty players came for lunch, bridge and a chance to play with Joann since this was an Individual Movement. The players who were lucky enough to play with Joann were thrilled! Others were happy just to meet her and have a chat. And how wonderful it was to see so many new faces! Thanks everyone for playing and making our party truly a success!

And thanks to all the volunteers who made the event happen: Mitch Snyder who directed a flawless game; Elaine Clair, Beth Milton, Sandy Sill, April Uhlenburg and Toysie Walker for the lavish spread; John Dickenson for grilling gourmet hot dogs; and Jeff Rohrbach for the photos you see here.

Lisa Madgin, Maryl Hitchings, Joann Glasson, Kay Garrity

Mitch Snyder, Don Baker, Joann Glasson, Toysie Walker, John Dickenson

2025 Membership

Membership season is open. Rejoin now and avoid the holiday rush. We’ll take cash or check, just put it in an envelope, make sure to write your name on it, and drop it in the red mailbox at the back of the room, near the emergency exit. (I’ll bet some of you didn’t know we had an emergency exit, eh?). Anyway, you can pay electronically too, just follow the instructions on our website. Oh, by the way, its $20.

If you’re a non-member, join now for next year and the rest of this year is included.

Upcoming Events

Daily:

Oct 26
Oct 31

Online robot game

Closed due to Lancaster regional

Weekly:

Oct 21-25

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

Shuffle & Deal. Wednesday, October 23, 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 John Dickenson

Overkill

Playing pairs with Lisa Mita in Unit 141’s September sectional in Cherry Hill, the following deal came up.

West was dealer and for whatever reason did not open 3D. I opened a spade and Lisa made a game forcing 2C bid with her 10 count – the huge source of tricks combined with 3 card fit in spades justifies this action. I showed my hearts and she then confirmed a spade fit. With my strong two suiter “6-5 come alive” I bid only 3S to show slam interest. Lisa showed a club control, we play Italian style so 1^st or 2^nd round control, and since I had first round control of the other 3 suits I could trot out Roman Keycard Blackwood. Lisa showed 1 keycard and now I bid 5NT, specific king ask. I have said before that it is mandatory to bid 5NT when you know the partnership has all 5 keys and the trump queen, so I obeyed that dictum even though I had some trepidation over my heart holding.

Now once I bid 5NT, responder is allowed to bid a grand slam with a previously undisclosed source of tricks, and sure enough Lisa plopped the 7NT card onto the table.

Opening lead was the heart queen, and I won in hand, laid down the spade ace and when spades were known to be no worse that 3-1 claimed 15 tricks. Plus 1520 garnered 100% of the matchpoints as 3 pairs were in 6 spades, one pair was in 5S, and 6 pairs were only in 4S. We could have scored a top board in 6NT, thus the title of this column – “overkill”.

A few interesting points on this deal:

1) an opening lead of a club beats 7S unless trumps are 2-2 or the jack is stiff – the club tricks are stranded in dummy! If trumps are 2-2 or the jack is stiff, the spade ten provides a reentry to the clubs.

2) 7NT always makes unless spades are 4-0, even on a club lead. Declarer can run all 7 clubs, pitching 4 losing hearts and 2 spades. 7C by South makes unless spades are 4-0 with West and East ruffs the opening lead.

3) The nervous Nellies who do not open the West hand 3D allow the opponents an easy auction to a 27 hcp grand slam. We would do well to reach a small slam after an opening preempt by West. The stronger your opponents, the more important it is to obstruct their auctions, as they will bid to the right contract without interference.

Tidbits

“No matter what signaling method you adopt, there are no illusive shortcuts, crutches, or substitutes for working out what’s going on and what declarer is up to as the hand progresses - including hand distribution and high card location.”

From How the Experts Win at Bridge

by Burt Hall and Lynn Rose-Hall

Ask the Expert

Questions about exclusion Blackwood.

Can exclusion blackwood ever exclude a suit bid naturally by the partnership?

Can exclusion ever exclude opener’s first bid suit? Specifically, can 5C’s in the auction below be exclusion blackwood for hearts?

North-----East-----South-----West

Pass-------1C-------.Pass-------1H

Pass-------1S------..Pass-------2D

Pass-------2H------.Pass-------5C

I bid 5C over 2 hearts believing that partner's 2H bid had denied a good diamond stopper for NT. I thought I should pull 3N to 5C if partner bid 3N after another round of bidding, e.g., if I bid 3 Clubs over East’s 2H, and then opener bid 3N. As openers diamond stopper would be questionable with the delayed 3N I bid 5c over 2 hearts. In addition, using the principle of fast arrival, I thought partner should know at least 11 of my cards when I bid 5 C, 4 hearts, 2 losing diamonds, and 5+ clubs. With 2 losing diamonds in my hand, I had no interest in 6 clubs if partner does not have first or second round control of diamonds.

Partner took 5 clubs as exclusion key card for hearts. 5C has play if partners K and Q of diamonds are in spades or hearts while 3N only makes if Diamonds are 4 – 4.

John Dickenson. I do not think 5C can ever be exclusion when partner has bid clubs naturally. But I question the decision to leap to 5C, as 2D fourth suit forcing has created a game force. 3C at this point would agree clubs and set trumps, and also let opener know responder is not enthused about a moysian heart contract after openers delayed raise of hearts.

Bill Bauer. I would think exclusion Blackwood to show a void and ask for keycards, can only be used after suit agreement. Now, in the auction given, one could say there has been suit agreement (hearts,) But would you really want to show your club void which is partner's opening bid suit? Almost surely there are going to be wasted values. As a general rule, I do not like to bypass 3NT without knowing where I am heading. Bottom line -- hit the "undo" button after bidding 5C.

Elaine Clair. I don’t understand the rush to jump to 5C. Since you’re in a game forcing auction, 3C would be sufficient to show your hand and let partner make a decision as to where to play. BTW, I wouldn’t take 5C as exclusion KC.

Mitch Snyder. I agree that 5C is not exclusion. In this game forcing auction, a 3C bid to deny a fifth heart and keep 3NT alive seems right to me.

Dennis O’Brien. As a non-practitioner of exclusion Blackwood, I defer to John and others for this question.

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.

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