North Penn Bridge News

Greetings to the

North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 04/04/2022

From the Club President

Pat Andrews

Winter seemed especially long, cold, and windy this year but a bright spot has been the return of face-to-face bridge. It has been heart-warming to once again be with our bridge friends at the North Penn tables these past few months. Here’s hoping Spring will bring more players back…we miss you all!

April is ACBL Charity Month featuring upgraded masterpoint awards. This week (April 4-10) all our games are ACBL Charity games with a portion of table fees going to the UNICEF Help Children in Ukraine Fund. More information about this fund may be found at www.unicefusa.org.

Also, the North Penn Board has decided that all games played at the Club April 11-15 will be local charity games benefitting the United Nations World Food Program, where our donations will be earmarked to go to the Ukrainian people. We will donate $1 of the $10 game fee for each player to that cause.

Additional donations are encouraged and welcome during our charity games. Simply give the director the amount you wish to contribute, and it will be passed on. If you can’t play in person, direct donations may be sent to www.wfpusa.org, which has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator.

Enjoy the Spring…I look forward to seeing you at the tables!!

From the Club Manager

Dave Dodgson

ACBL Live for Clubs. The ACBL continues to have problems with their software. Please bear with us if the games take some time to upload. In the meantime, you can see the results by clicking on the Results item on the menu at the left on the North Penn website. Don’t be concerned if the points listed are different from what you expect. The ACBL will adjust them when they are loaded.

Charity for Ukraine. April 4-15: all games during these two weeks will be charity games to benefit Ukraine. (See the note above from our President.)

Happy Hour with the Robots. Our next Robot Individual will be this Saturday, April 9 at 4 pm. Please join us for this charity event.

Phone Fee. The club will no longer collect a $1 fee if your phone goes off during the game; however, please continue to silence your phones out of respect for your fellow players.

Calendar

Click here to see a file you can enlarge.

Education

Spring Bridge Classes with Deb Crisfield begin Thursday, April 21 and run through June 9.

The first three classes are free…there’s no obligation to stay if you don’t wish to.

Bring a friend! Recruitment is the key to growing and sustaining our club.

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 you have a choice of two trump suits, prefer to play in the trump suit of the weaker hand and have the stronger hand as dummy.”

From 100 Winning Bridge Tips

by Ron Klinger

Deal of the Week

by Bruce Schwaidelson

Can Down One Be "Good Bridge" In a Grand?

Are you familiar with the expression: “Down one is good bridge”? It’s usually uttered by declarer or her partner after their part-score contract has failed by a trick, suggesting something like “I think the opponents would have made their part-score in (say) 2♠, partner, so down one in 3♦ should get us a pretty good score!”

I have heard the same assertion following a successful save after the opponents bid game, but I had never heard that claim after a voluntarily bid grand slam had failed – that is, until a few weeks ago.

Two of North Penn’s newest members, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok rode into town with guns a-blazin’ (in their SUV, not on horseback) to play in one of our Monday open games. The pair were long-time bridge partners who had recently moved from Deadwood, SD, to Lumberville, Bucks County. Calamity has always been known to be a pretty straight shooter, even as a bridge player, but “Wild Bid”, as Jane herself had so apply renamed him, likes to pre-empt foolishly or overbid whenever he gets the chance.

In fact, Calamity had complained to her compatriot Annie Oakley about the agita she experiences while playing with Wild Bid. Annie recommended an intervention to coerce him into attending some OA meetings (Overbidders Anonymous, of course), or perhaps Calamity could try yoga or tai chi or at least buy a relaxation video to help her de-stress and hone her meditation skills. Calamity knew the OA scheme was out of the question, but she did take Annie’s advice regarding the meditation ideas - just in time for today’s grand slam deal:

Not shown in the bid diagram are Wild Bid’s 2♣ opener and Calamity’s 2♥ response, promising 5+ hearts including at least 2 of the top 3 honors. After Wild Bid’s raise to 3♥, a couple of control bids (3♠ and 4♣) were followed by 4NT (RKCB). The 5♠ call confirmed 2 keycards plus the ♥Q. Playing “specific kings”, Wild Bid’s 5NT guaranteed all the keycards and asked: “Partner, do you have any side suit kings?” The 6♥ bid stated: “No, go fish”.

When the rest of the field reached this point, North had to decide between 6♥ and 6NT, and they all chose the latter. But not Wild Bid! His partner denied holding the all-important ♣K, but he had other thoughts buzzing around his head: What if partner held 6 or more hearts? What if she had the ♠J (or it drops) or the ♦Q, or possibly 3 small diamonds, allowing her to ruff a losing diamond in dummy. And if it’s “none of the above”, well there is always the 50-50 club hook. Convinced that 13 tricks in hearts were as likely as 12 in NT, Wild Bid lived up to his name and boldly bid 7♥!

Without the king of clubs, 7♥ is not a good matchpoint gamble unless you are having a poor game and are shooting for a top. When West led her ♦4 and dummy hit, Calamity Jane had a very similar reaction. She saw that 13 tricks were possible, but only if all went well for her side.

Calamity’s plan was simple. She would assume hearts were 3-2 and that the ♦4 lead was 4^th best, which meant that diamonds were either 4-4 or 5-3. Thus, she could unblock the ♦AK, play a trump to the ace and ruff a diamond in dummy with no fear of an over-ruff. She would then cash the ♥K and come to her hand with a spade to the ace. After drawing the final trump, she would test the spades, pitching at least one of the club losers. If the ♠J didn’t fall, she would ruff dummy’s losing spade and take the club hook – and pray!

Unfortunately, her plan ground to a screeching halt when West pitched the ♦10 as the ♥K was cashed. East’s remaining ♥J10 were now a sure trick and the grand was doomed. The old Calamity Jane would have thought: “Oh, *%#@! Another bottom courtesy of Wild Bid.” Eventually she would have taken the club hook and gone down two.

But wait! The new Zen-Jane had some much clearer thoughts: What will happen to the declarers in 6NT? They would have 4 heart tricks (after giving one up), 3 or 4 spades, and 2 diamonds and would therefore need at least 2 club tricks. In other words, if the ♣K were offside their contract would fail. What about 6♥? If they ruff a diamond as she did, but then discover the ♠J doesn’t fall, those declarers will also need a successful club hook.

Zen-Jane’s conclusion: If the club finesse is “on”, the other declarers will all make their contracts and her side will get a big, fat Wild Bid bottom! But what if the ♣K is indeed offside? Could she figure out how to go down only one and manage an average score? The diamond lead (rather than a club) was a blessing in disguise. She was paying attention when she played her ♦A,K and later ruffed a diamond. West, after leading her 4^th best ♦4, had followed with the ♦3 (and then covered the 7 with the 10), indicating she held exactly 5 diamonds. (You can follow the play at tinyurl.com/ym4jbdsp .) Armed with this information, Zen-Jane came back to her hand with the ♠A to reach this position:

Zen-Jane cashed the ♥Q and, knowing that East had begun with exactly 3 diamonds, (drum-roll please…) she played a low trump to East’s winner - and he was endplayed. As East pondered his fate, Jane exposed her hand declaring: “Sugar, your cards are as black as the Black Hills of South Dakota [all spades & clubs] and sorry to say your hand is now ‘Dead-wood’. No matter what you lead, my two club losers are gonna disappear.”

Zen-Jane had succeeded in going down only one(!), whereas all the small-slammers were down either one or two. Two pairs stopped in game for plus scores, but Jane’s cool, calm and collected thinking, got herself and Wild Bid a slightly above average result rather than a tie for bottom. It just goes to show you that perhaps once in a blue moon DOWN ONE CAN INDEED BE “GOOD BRIDGE” even in an overbid grand slam.

The moral of our story: When you are headed for a bottom, don’t be Calamity Jane, be Zen-Jane! Perhaps you’ll discover a way to salvage some of the board’s matchpoints if you look hard enough.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

A lady who travels the world and hasn't played any duplicate in the U.S and is carrying around all kinds of foreign currency, makes an illegal comment during the bidding and the director fines her 3 IMPs. She says: "O.K, but what's the conversion rate?"