North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 04/29/2024

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

ACBL-wide Charity Game. Congratulations to the players who did well in the game. Provisional results for District 4:

First: Mitch Snyder and John Dickenson

Third: Ken Salter and Dave Dodgson

Fifth: Ellen Luchette and Ed Leach

Results can be found at https://my.acbl.org/special-events/results.

Local Charity Games. We collected money for a local charity this month. Do you have a suggestion for a worthy cause? If so, communicate it to a board member or send an email to northpennbridge@gmail.com.

Maintain a Friendly Atmosphere. Please be courteous to new players in our games. We want to encourage them to play. If there is a problem at your table, please call the director so he/she can resolve the issue.

May Events.

May 2 Handicap Swiss Team Game.

May 8 Four is Enough Game. Elaine Clair and Mitch Snyder will be in charge. Please contact Elaine at eeclair37@comcast.net or Mitch at msofearl@comcast.net if you need a partner, if you are already partnered or if you have questions. You can also sign up in the book at the club

May 6-10 STaC Week. Silver points will be available at the club.

May 11 Robot Individual.

May 13-23 Grassroots Weeks.

May 17 0-500 Swiss Team Game.

May 22 0-99 Game.

May 27-31 Club Championship Week. Extra points at no extra cost.

Upcoming Tournaments:

April 29-May 4 Regional in Rehoboth Beach, DE

May 6-10 STaC week at the club.

Education

Shuffle & Deal Wednesday, May 1 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.)

Joann Glasson’s New Lessons. Monday May 6 and 20 at 10 a.m. on Zoom. Click here for details.

Partnership

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

Requests for Tuesday and Friday limited games should go directly to Mitch Snyder at bridge4all@comcast.net

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

Deal of the Week

by John Dickenson

A Tale of Three Slams (with apologies to Charles Dickens)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I was playing in the monthly handicapped teams event at North Penn, and my team was 0-2 going into the 3^rd match. This event has proven popular, attracting 9 teams in January and February, falling slightly to 7 in March and rebounding to a record 10 teams in April. The fun thing about this event is all teams have a chance to win – in fact, on the 4 dates we have held it, it has been won twice by a C team and twice by an A team. We tied the first match, 11-11 but were giving 6 IMPs so lost by 6. Lost the second match outright, 11-14 and then tacked on a handicap of two more for a loss by 5.

Playing in the 3^rd match, we were spotting the opposing team 11 IMPs so I was on the lookout for games and slams that might not be bid at the other table. We were not likely to cover the spread on part score swings or overtricks. We started with boards 16, 17, and 18 while the other table started with the first three boards in the set – 13, 14, and 15.

On 17 my partner and I bid to a 30 hcp 6H, which was not a great slam. I needed trumps 3-2, a 68% chance, but also needed the queen onside so we had reached a 34% slam. Trumps were 3-2 but the queen was offside so down one, lose 11 IMPs on top of the 11 we are giving. To make matters worse, 6D is cold as I could pitch a heart from Axx and ruff out the heart queen.

On board 18 I again felt slam was in the cards, and we bid 6C on 28 hcp which rolled – win 13.

The caddy brought us boards 13-15, and on 13 I picked up a strong NT in 1^st chair.

After my partner’s spade transfer, I super accepted with a bid of 3S. My criteria for a super accept are strict - 17 hcp, 4+ pieces of trump, and a side suit doubleton. On this hand, additionally, I was all “primed out” – 15 of my 17 hcp were in aces and kings. Over 3S, partner bid 4C, an Italian style control bid showing 1^st or 2^nd round control and slam interest. I showed the same in diamonds, and partner bid 4S with nothing left to say. Roman Key Card elicited a response of 5H, two key cards without the queen. We held all 5 keys but were off the trump queen, so I signed off in 6S, making 7 when the doubleton queen appeared. No need for a practice finesse in diamonds as one of dummy’s diamonds go on a heart and clubs set up. Win 12 on this board, as none of the slams were bid at the other table (and one too many at my table LOL – or at least in the wrong suit.)

I don’t recall a time when I bid three slams in a row, sometimes you can go a whole session or two without bidding a single slam. Yes, it was technically not three consecutive boards but they were consecutive in the order we bid and played them.

Learnings – this deal really points out the advantage of Italian Style (1^st or 2^nd round control bidding) over American Style (1^st round only). My partner would not have a bid over 3S to show slam interest playing American Style. Good bidders evaluate slam prospects below game level.

Please consider coming out for our monthly handicapped teams event, which takes place on the first Thursday of each month. It is a lot of fun for all levels of players, and the handicap formula really levels the playing field – despite reaching and making two slams not bid at the other table, we prevailed by a narrow margin of only 3 IMPs after handicap.