North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 12/11/2023

Happy holidays

to everyone

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

Board of Governors. Three NPDBC members ran for the three open positions and have been accepted by acclamation. Congratulations to new board members Jeff Rohrbeck and Len Saffren and returning member Michael Carver.

Brendan O’Malley has resigned from the board and Mitch Snyder has been appointed to fill out his term. Thanks to Brendan and Deb Crisfield for the important work they have done.

Here is a list of board members and their terms:

2024-2026-------Michael Carver, Jeff Rohrbeck, Len Saffren

2023-2025-------Elaine Clair, Roger Milton, Dennis O’Brien

2022-2024-------Sue Bailey, Toysie Walker, Mitch Snyder

Treasurer--------.Beth Milton

Club Manager-----Dave Dodgson

Monthly 0-50 Game. Wednesday December 13 at 9:30 a.m.

Breakfast with Santa. Tuesday December 19 at 9:30 a.m. The menu will include quiche, croissants and sausage links. Side dishes and desserts would be most welcome. Please sign up in the book at the club.

Achievements. Congratulations to the following members who have achieved new rankings:

Steve Becker----------Sapphire Life Master

Alison Shoemaker-----Gold Life Master

Lauren Dougherty-----Ruby Life Master

Christine Sgro--------.Bronze Life Master

Jeff Rohrbeck-------..Life Master

Alison Ellison----------Junior Master

Season of Giving. For those of you who may be considering end-of-the-year charitable donations, this is a friendly reminder that our club is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Donations may be made via check or online here.

Volunteers Found. Don Baker, Ross Currie, Jeff Rohrbeck and Marsha Schwartz have volunteered to make boards. Thank you for answering our call!

Snow Days. In case of inclement weather, we will notify you by email. In addition, we will put a message on our website and our answering machine.

Partnership

We are in the process of re-activating our online partnership desk and will now be monitoring it on a daily basis. Please use it for requests for our Open games; partner requests for Tuesday and Friday limited games should go directly to Mitch Snyder.

If you are in need of a partner for a Monday, Wednesday or Thursday Open game, please email northpennpartner@gmail.com. We will do our best to match you up with others who are looking for someone to play with.

Upcoming Tournaments

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 on Overcaller’s Forcing Bids continues Tuesday Nights. December 12 – lesson three. 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.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

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

Good Advice:

“It’s easy to find excuses for losing. Find ways to win.”

“Never let one bad result beget another. Move on.”

“Remember that there is only one important hand per session—the one you are playing.”

From How You Can Play Like An Expert

by Mel Colchamiro

Deal of the Week

by John Dickenson

A Strong Preference

Suit preference signals do not come up often among non expert players. A few examples of when suit preference DOES come up:

* Any time you lead a card for partner to ruff

* When partner leads ace against a suit contract and it is obvious to switch

* When clearing a suit (knocking out the last stopper of the declaring side) against NT

Here is an interesting hand Susan Morse and I defended in the 4^th round of the Senior Mixed Pairs in Atlanta last week:

Against a contract of 5D, Susan led her singleton heart ace. I must play the heart 3 – with the deuce visible in dummy, this must be asking for a club switch. A club to the ace and a heart ruff and the contract is down one.

Note that 3N is cold for 10 tricks.