North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 12/06/2021

Director Appreciation Month

Dave Dodgson. I first started playing bridge during the lunch hour after I joined Sperry Univac in 1976. Four novices, including myself, decided we wanted to learn to play. I had a flip book by Goren with tips on bidding and play and our rule was that you could consult the book whenever you wanted. We managed to struggle through and learn to play. Playing at lunch became a regular thing. I wound up frequently playing with my manager. I don’t know if she liked me better for my bridge play or doing my job. It’s unfortunate that kind of interaction seems to have disappeared at most companies.

My first foray into duplicate play was right there at the company. Longtime director Alan Brooks worked for the same company and ran a duplicate tournament once a month in the cafeteria. For a while, my partner and I played Precision but received only mediocre results. We did much better after we switched back to Standard. It shows that it doesn’t matter how good your system is if you can’t play it well.

Duplicate play led me to join the Philadelphia Industrial Bridge League. That was a group of companies that rotated hosting duplicate games every two weeks or so, usually playing in the host company’s cafeteria. In its heyday the League had multiple sections playing. I played there many years until it finally withered away.

I started playing in tournaments about that same time. It was very different then, with scoring done on paper and the rooms filled with smokers. My first big win was the non-masters pairs at a regional with Tom Salter in the late Seventies. We are still playing today, which is either a tribute to persistence or pig-headedness.

My erstwhile tournament play took a hiatus when I got married and had children. I only played occasionally until the kids were older. I began playing at the club when it was back on Line Street and then more often after we moved to the current location, but it was only after I retired four years ago that I started playing more frequently.

Dave Dresher talked me into taking the club manager job a couple of years ago. When I told him I would do it, he called an emergency meeting of the board right then and voted me into the job before I could change my mind. I have received thanks from a number of people for doing this job, and I do appreciate the comments, but it is really the directors, the board, and the members of the club that make the job worthwhile. So, I thank all of you for making the job easier.

From the President

Pat Andrews

I hope you have all enjoyed “getting to know” our directors as much as I have through the profiles they have graciously allowed us to publish over the past six weeks. Thanks again April, Mitch, Brendan, Dennis, Roger and Dave for your professionalism and service to our club.

Board of Directors Election

The slate of candidates for the three vacancies on the North Penn Board of Governors has been finalized. The three candidates are: Sue Bailey, Brendan O’Malley and Toysie Walker. Elections would normally take place during our holiday week (December 13-17,) but since there are only three candidates for three positions, these individuals will be voted in that week by acclamation per the Club By-Laws.

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

Membership. It’s the time of year to pay your 2022 $10 membership dues. You can put it in the red container (envelopes are beside the box) in the club, mail a check, or pay online with either a credit card or PayPal. The second week of December is Club Membership week. All members who have paid their dues will only be charged $5 to play. See the Membership item at the bottom of our homepage for details.

December Events. The first full week of December is Super Club Championships - triple points at no extra cost. The second week is Club Membership week - extra points for only a $5 card fee for members.

Card Fees. The last 22 months have been difficult for everyone, not just for individuals but for businesses also. Accordingly, the board has voted to raise the card fees starting January 3, 2022.

The current Face to Face card fee is $8 ($10 non-member) for regular games and $9 ($11 non-member) for special games. The new member fee will be $10 for all games, both regular and special. Non-members will pay $12. Our online game fee will increase by $0.50 cents to $5.50.

Proof of vaccination and face masks will remain a requirement at our F2F games until further notice.

Calendar (click here to see a file you can enlarge):

Looking For A Partner?

We’ve noticed that many long-standing partnerships were disrupted by the pandemic and quite a few of you are looking for new or substitute partners for the F2F games. We have new members who want to play but don’t yet have the contacts to set up partners. If you need a partner, we urge you to go to the calendar on our website, click on the partnership icon & enter your ACBL #. If another member checks the calendar, he/she will be able to contact you to see if you are available to play.

You can also send an email to the club regarding your partnership request, and we will do our best to find someone for you. Please note that using the partnership icon on the website calendar is much more efficient and more likely to get results.

Education

Shuffle & Deal for Newer Players. Shuffle & Deal has moved to Thursday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30 am. There will be two more sessions this year: 12/9 and 12/16. In the new year, S&D will move to Wednesday mornings. Everyone is welcome - no partner needed. A mentor will be available to answer whatever questions might arise as you play. $5 per person per session. No scoring, no pressure!

2021 Beginner Lessons: The last two beginner lessons with Deb Crisfield will be December 8 and 15 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. Contact Deb at: [email protected]

2022 Beginner Lessons: Starting January 3rd, 2022, North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club will be offering beginner bridge lessons on Monday mornings from 9-11 am.

A fee of $100 covers the 5 lessons and the textbook is $15.

We all enjoy bridge and probably have friends who would too! Please pass this email (or information) on to them so that they can register for this fun class with teacher John Dickenson. Contact John at: [email protected]

You can view the lesson flyer on our website.

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

Are Splinter Bids Useful?

“Splinter bids are a fine convention. Most experienced partnerships use them extensively. I recommend them. The extent to which you use them will be defined by the amount of time you wish to devote to learning them. You will find they are easy to use and to identify as long as you are aware of them.”

Here’s Mike’s definition of a splinter bid:

“If a bid is one more than a jump shift or one more than a reverse or one more than a cuebid, it is a splinter bid.”

From Bridge Tips

by Mike Lawrence

Deal of the Week

by John Dickenson

Kickback and a Trump Coup

A Story of a Fall From Grace and Redemption

So I am of the belief that aces are worth more than 4 points and kings more than 3 points and queens and jacks are not worth as much as they are assigned in the Work point count method. I also believe ten spots are worth something in no trump.

I picked up AKxx Txx Tx AKTx and opened 1NT. My partner, Lisa Mita, bid 2D and I announced “hearts” as has been ACBL protocol since January 1^st of this year - we don’t announce “transfer” any more. I dutifully bid 2H and heard 3D, showing both red suits in an unbalanced hand and creating a game force. I bid 4H, fast arrival, trying to put the brakes on. Lisa tanked for a bit and bid 4S.

What I heard: She has first round spade control. Great. I have opened a 14 point no trump with Txx in her suit and she wants to go slamming with major duplication, half my HCP are against her void. I will NOT show the club ace, I will bid 5H to end this auction.

What our agreement was: 4S is kickback, asking for controls. So Lisa heard me bid 5H, which is the 4^th step showing “2 with the queen”. And she promptly bid 6H.

Well, I sure botched the auction, I had better play it well. The 3 of clubs was led and I surveyed my losers. Two diamonds, a heart, and a spade. A spade loser can go on a club honor. Still three losers. Not good.

The club went to the queen and ace. I led a heart to the ace in case the stiff queen was offside. Spade to the ace and passed the heart ten. Good news is it won, bad news is West showed out. Now I can’t pick up the heart queen by a normal finesse, because I need to ruff a diamond in the short hand. I will need to play for a trump coup.

The rest of the play went as follows: diamond to the ace, cash king of diamonds, ruff a diamond with my last trump. King of clubs, pitching dummy’s last diamond. Now the key play – ruff a club in the long hand to reduce dummy’s trumps to the length of East’s trumps. Spade to the king and the queen drops, but I did not need that. Play the good club ten and if East throws her diamond jack I throw my good spade jack. If she ruffs low I overruff with the jack and if she ruffs with the queen I overruff with the king. Making all 13 tricks. Click here to watch the play unfold.

Remember the key to running a trump coup is you must reduce the long hand to the same number of trumps as the opponent sitting before the long hand, otherwise you end up ruffing before the defender and endplaying yourself.

Moral of the story – don’t play a convention if you can’t remember it. And if you find yourself in a silly contract, play to make because you won’t be getting a good score if you don’t make the hand.