North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 11/20/2023

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

Board of Governors. Our club is run by our Board of Governors. There are 11 members of the board, 9 elected and two appointed. Elected members serve three-year terms and we elect three members every year in December. Please let Mike Carver or me know if you wish to serve on the Board and we will put you up for election. If no more than three people are up for election, they are elected by acclamation. Elections will take place the week of December 18, 2023.

STaC Results. Congratulations to the following players who did well:

Monday

A Seventh: Bruce Schwaidelson, Dave Cohan
B Tenth: Ellen Luchette, Marc Topaz
C Sixth: Jane Pelullo, Gail Kirrstetter

Tuesday

First: Mary McGready, Arlene Lessak
Second: Marsha Schwartz, Bert Kimmel
Third: Don Baker, Michael Carver

Wednesday

A Seventh: Jeff Rohrbeck, Dave Willgruber
A Ninth: Dan Jacobson, Dave Cohan

Friday Swiss

First: Neil Snyder, T Aschoff, Tay Adams, Joellen Stockmal
Second: Constance Abel, Christina Dowling, James Dowling, Scott Guiser
Third: Marianne Beezer, Mary McGready, Christine Sgro, Devin Murphy

Volunteers Needed. It takes about 15 minutes to duplicate the boards for a game, and we need volunteers for this task. Please contact me at the club or via the club website. Someone will gladly teach you how to operate the dealing machine. We all like having pre-duplicated boards, so hope you can help us out.

Toys for Tots. There is a box outside the lawyers’ office for donations to Toys for Tots. Check out the poster displayed at the club.

November Schedule

November 21 – Shuffle and Deal at 7 p.m.
November 22 – Shuffle and Deal at 9:30 am.
November 23-24 CLUB CLOSED
November 26 – Shuffle and Deal at 12 noon.

Upcoming Tournaments:

November 23 to December 3 is the winter NABC in Atlanta
December 8-10 is the Wilmington Sectional
December 15-16 is the I/N Regional in Allentown
December 19-22 is the Online Regional
January 5-7, 2024 is the Sectional Tournament at North Penn and KOP.

Pairs events will take place on Friday and Saturday and Swiss Teams on Sunday with separate sections for players with no more than 500 masterpoints! All open events will be held at King of Prussia Bridge Club; all I/N events (500 Masterpoint limit) will be held at North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club. Each site is limited to 21 tables, so pre-registration is strongly recommended. You can find the tournament flyer and registration form here.

Education

Shuffle & Deal

Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. However, please note that Tuesday Shuffle and Deal will be replaced by Linda O'Malley's 4-week series beginning November 28 (see below for more info.)
Wednesday mornings at 9:30 a.m.
Sundays at 12 noon

New Lesson Series Tuesday Nights. Beginning November 28, Linda O’Malley will teach Overcaller’s Forcing Bids. Check flyer for details.

King of Prussia Bridge Club Lessons. For lesson details go directly to the Latest News item on their website: https://www.bridgewebs.com/kop.

Partnership

To add your name to the player list or to request a partner for a game, please send an email to northpennpartner@gmail.com.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Ask the Expert

Here is my question for the panel. You hold AK10932 opposite the 8 (opponents hold QJxxxx between them.) What is the best percentage play to hold your losers to one?

From Mitch Snyder:

I would play the AK and another. It works whenever spades are 3-3 or 4-2 with a doubleton honor.

From John Dickenson:

I realize passing the 8 does not work against QJxxx with RHO unless they split - unlikely with 5 and 5 in dummy, as this is a losing play if declarer holds the stiff 8, and also a loser if he holds 8x and he can repeat the finesse. Final score - 64.6% for cash AK, 61.4% for pass the 8 if not covered.

From Elaine Clair:

I definitely would play the AK. If an honor shows up you’re a hero. Otherwise you can hope for a 3-3 split which I get more often than the percentages say I should.

From Dennis O’Brien:

I would play for a doubleton honor. Play the AK and if you get a doubleton honor the 10,9 will limit losers to one trick. If no doubleton honor falls, play a low card hoping for a 3-3 split.

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

“When the opponents have a known eight-card fit, Balance of Power (BOP) doubles at the two level show at least three cards in the opponent’s suit and BOP doubles at the three level show at least two cards in the opponent’s suit.”

From How You Can Play Like An Expert

by Mel Colchamiro

Deal of the Week

by Bruce Schwaidelson

(bruschwade@aol.com)

Have You Ever Been A Grosvenor Victim?

There are many exciting plays in bridge – squeezes, falsecards, coups and endplays, for example - but there may be none as bizarre as the Grosvenor Gambit. Philip Grosvenor is a fictional character created by Frederick Turner for the June 1973 edition of The Bridge World magazine. His psychological defensive ploy involves purposely giving the declarer an opportunity to make his unmakeable contract.

Grosvenor, a competent player himself, believed that if he deliberately made a totally illogical play, his opponent would assume that he could not have possibly played that way, so he still won’t make the contract. Why do so? According to the article, he hoped that “…without risk, one could bring about a natural result in an unsettling and disruptive manner.” Declarer would become so distracted thinking about what had transpired, he would play horrible bridge thereafter.

The first time Grosvenor attempted his gambit it was accidental (he inadvertently played the wrong card), but when declarer still went down – as he undoubtedly should have – Grosvenor observed the following:

…South exploded, and even North got into the act... During the next deal, South - still fuming over the first board - revoked, and Grosvenor fulfilled a hopelessly overbid game contract. The two experts left the table fulminating, and were still talking angrily about the deal when the tournament ended. Grosvenor noted that they managed to score only 41%.

This inspired Grosvenor to begin to look for intentional opportunities for his new gambit.

Let’s fast forward to the Summer of ‘23. As the Screen Actors Guild strike dragged on, you may have been hoping to see some famous thespians (Bradley Cooper, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, or David Morse, perhaps) playing at our club. One afternoon we did have a surprise visit from four well-known actors: Batman and Robin playing N-S along with Penguin and the Riddler E-W, all fine bridge players in their own right.

When they finally met up in the middle of the afternoon, it was a SAG-AFTRA event like no other. The initial board of their 4-board round is in fact our Deal of the Week:

Robin used a forcing 1NT followed by a jump to 3♥ to show his 3-card limit raise, and Batman, although aceless, decided to bid game. The Penguin (West), not a big Batman-fan on screen nor in real life, began his assault with a trump lead to his partner’s Ace, and the Riddler (East) wasted no time in firing back the ♣7. Considering the auction and the clubs in dummy, the ♣7 had to be a singleton. Batman chuckled to himself that not only did he and Penguin know it was a stiff, but even the attorneys next door knew it!

Batman realized that best defense would easily defeat his contract. Penguin would of course win his Ace and return the ♣Q, thereby pickling dummy’s King: if Batman covered, it would be ruffed out, and if he didn’t, another club would follow to be ruffed by Riddler. There was not a single doubt in The Dark Knight’s brain that Penguin, a skilled opponent, would have no trouble finding this defense.

With top hat, cigarette holder and monocle in place, the ever-diabolical Penguin had a far more fiendish plan in mind. Despite knowing full well what the winning defense looked like, after winning the ♣A he instead tabled the ♣4 and not the expected Queen. His goal was to mess with Batman’s head rather than beat the contract straight away!

Batman was completely surprised… what the heck was going on? Was it possible that his RHO Riddler was up to his usual shenanigans? Perhaps Riddler thought leading low from doubleton J7 or Q7 would gain him a trick? If that were the case, no matter how Batman played, he would lose just two clubs and make his contract. While looking to his right, he imagined hearing his opponent’s riddle: If the solitary 7 causes you to frown, what other holding might take Batman down?

Then it occurred to Batman that perhaps Riddler had led the ♣7 from QJ75. If Batman’s 2♣ bid had been a 5-card suit, Riddler would give his partner a ruff and still make a club trick later on, possibly gaining a trick for the defense. Oh, what a brilliant play, Batman thought. Then Batman had an epiphany: if Riddler had in fact found his partner with the doubleton ♣A4 and dummy played low, Riddler would win his Jack and give his partner a ruff to beat the contract, just as the riddle indicated!

Batman was wise to all of the possibilities running through his brain, and he had a sure-win safety play: put up the King in dummy, draw trumps and lose just one more club, making four. Riddler’s tricky holding didn’t matter one bit, now that Penguin’s return was proof positive that Ridder’s ♣7 could not be a singleton.

Batman proudly called for dummy’s ♣K and Riddler promptly ruffed. Batman was stunned. He had been given the opportunity to make the 4♥ contract by simply playing low. “I knew the ♣7 had to be stiff,” he thought, “why even my Grandmother would have realized it… why in the world did I put up the King?”

Since Batman had no way to get rid of his losing club card, the contract failed, just as it would have if Penguin had led the ♣Q after winning his Ace. But Batman was beside himself. His nemeses had beaten his contract in a way that put his mental state into a tizzy. Batman made several errors in the ensuing boards, helping his two rivals obtain excellent matchpoint scores and causing Robin to exclaim “Holy, Batsh*t, Batman!” The Caped Crusader had indeed been Grosvenor-ed by Penguin and the psychological damage was far more than he could bear.

I don’t know if Batman sleeps during the day like all the other bats, but I do know he did not sleep a wink that night, nor the next 48 hours for that matter, while constantly ruminating over Penguin’s very clever - or inane - play!

Postmortem/Confession: Truth be told, I was declarer on this board, certain the ♣7 was a singleton, but when the ♣4 was returned for no apparent good reason, I thought for a very long time before finally putting up the King and going down. Totally distracted and feeling like an idiot, I began thinking about the Grosvenor Gambit and couldn’t get this deal out of my head for several days. Why did West return the ♣4, you ask? Unfortunately, we will never know!

By the way, if you would like to read Frederick Turner’s interesting and somewhat humorous Bridge World article, you can click on this link .