President-Bernetha Henry                                                                                                                                   April   2007  Vol.   XXIV No. 4

Editor – Patrick Lauterbach                                                                                                                                All the news that fits, we print

 

                           TRICKS AND TREATS  

                  For Members of the Columbia Duplicate Bridge Club  

                                           ( on line at www.cbcbridge.com)

 

Mary Townhill leads her Flight ‘B’ squad to victory in the second GNT qualifier at the CBC.  It was a real tester-8 matches-round robin in a 9 team field.   

     Wins/VP’s points won           Team members_________________________________________

1)  6 / 97          4.75                  Mary Townhill/Sandy Gies/Emily Lamphere/Lil Hopkins

2)  5 / 95          3.56                  Harold Moore/Marj Edens/Alice Moore/John Mac Gregor

3)  4 /93           2.69                 Brent Holcolm/Jim Chianelli/Rick and Mary Giles

4)  5 / 90          2.01                 Mike Charles/Bob Woodham/Jack and Joan Moye

The next round will be held at the CBC on April 21 at 10:30.  It will be ‘B’ and ‘C’ flight ONLY.  Looking at the results of both qualifying sessions, the ‘A’ players don’t want to play you guys any more.

 

The birthday party with hostess Rosa Shaw looked like an event no one was prepared to win.  With one round to go, there were 10 pairs within 6+ match points of the lead.  The two eventual section winners were running fourth going into the last round with George Nichols/Mary Townhill nipping  Ellie Hack/Fran Jenkins and Joyce Lauterbach/Harriet Blassetti for 1st overall.  

                            N/S             Upgraded Club Championship 12 tables          E/W ________

1)  George Nichols/Mary Townhill           127.00          1)  Joyce Lauterbach/Harriet Blasetti         123.44

2)  Ellie Hack/Fran Jenkins                       123.87          2) BJ Cornelia/Diane Finan                         120.19

3)  Ken Fasching/Marj Edens                    117.13          3) Jack Wilkinson/Roni Keisler                  115.69

4)  Marlise and Tommy Overby                116.12          4) Alice Moore/Emily Lamphere                114.82

5)  Jim Chianelli/Bernetha Henry              115.81          5)  Butch Maybin/Harold Moore                113.32                           

 

Facts of Bridge Life (Eddie Kantor)   #17  When the opponents bid and support each other and you have the Jack or Queen of their suit, do not count points for those honors.  They are not worth the cardboard they are printed on.  These secondary honors (“qwacks”) may take tricks on defense, but seldom when you are declarer.

#18  When all your honors are in your two long suits  add 1 extra “purity” point.

You hold   S- AKJxx       H- KQxx       D- xx         C- xx

All your high-card points are in your two long suits so add 1 extra point to your hand.  Think of having 14 points.  If your partner supports Spades or Hearts, your hand goes up.  If he doesn’t, your hand stays at 14   Hands that have 8-card or longer fits add distributional points.  Until that fit is uncovered, distributional points should not be added.  It doesn’t make sense.   Hands that are misfit should not add extra points, they should be subtracted!!   

 

It’s that time again.  Dues are due.  Singles are $15 and couples are $28.  Send it in now while you think about it.  Or give it to the director at the club (but write the check now) and attach the coupon.

 

Name(s)____________________________________________________Birth month(s)____________

 

Address____________________________________________________ Phone___________________

e-mail

Kibitzers should be seen and not heard.  They must also be seated during the bidding and play of the hand.   Any player may ask a kibitzer to leave.  Official CBC and ACBL policy

 

Congratulations:  to Ed and Sheelagh Young who made Life Master at Wilmington!

New Bronze Life Maser- BarbaraJay Cornelia

New Silver Life Master (it’s official!) Jeff Thomas

Up the ladder: Jr. Master-Irene Duhene Club Masster-Cynthia Cone Sectional Masster-Sandra Wesley Regional Master-Ginny Chianelli

Anyone have a big bunch of keys that aren’t theirs?  Has a Heart charm and Alice needs them back.

 

Notes on Batesburg Tournament are in the extended ON-LINE version of this letter.

 

OK,  I can take an hour before the game and shuffle all the boards, put them out on the table and say “Play them as they are.”  This instead of letting players make them at the table.  But I refuse to write down the hands and put out printouts later.  This is the only difference between me and the computer dealt hands.  I can’t write nearly fast enough.  Nor do I have the little bridge suit glyphs on my computer.  I always give the pack 6 riffles (which is what the computer does) to get a random deal.  Neither the ACBL nor I have any interest in fixing hands just to frustrate the players.  It serves no purpose, we’re up for entertainment.  The handouts are for the purposes of giving you and your partner an accurate record of what you’re talking about.  Improve your game.  Everyone plays the same cards.

 

The bottled water and soda are cheap-but not free.  Give the director 25 cents please. 

The management. 

 

0-100 Jr. Fund 2/23  1) Elly and Terry Winter  2) Cassie Jackson/ Robert Allen

Open Jr. Fund 2/19                        Open Jr. Fund 2/22                                   0-1000 Jr. Fund 2/23

1) Marj Edens/Alice Moore            1) Hap Neuffer/Alice Moore         1) Sylvia White/Ed Scheiblich

2) Hap Neuffer/Arnold Levinson    2) Pat Lauterbach/Harriet Blasetti 2) Carolyn Floyd/Emily Lamphere

3) Mike Bitonti/Mirza Baig            3) Ken Fasching/Brian Lipscomb   3) Carolyn & Lewis Cromer

Open Jr. Fund 2/28                        Open  Unit Game 3/6                             Open Club Champ 3/7

1) Brian Lipscomb/Gwen Beckman1) Bob Pierce/Henriette Morris     1) Ken Fasching/Ellie Hack 

2) Pat Lauterbach/Ellie Hack           2) Henry Momand/Jan Harrison   2) Pat Lauterbach/Harriet Blasettie

3) Ken Fasching/Marj Edens           3) Karen Coulter/Jim Chianelli     3) Brian Lipscomb/Alice Moore

Open Club Champ 3/8                     0-1000 Club Champ 3/13                       Open Charity 3/19

1)      Pat Webb/ Butch Maybin   1) Leck Mason/Frazer McCrorey   1) Ellie Hack/John Wilkinson

2)      Alice Moore/Marj Edens    2) Everett Ness/Henry Momand     2) Ken Fasching/Sue Harrington

3)      Bill Charlwood/Harold Moore3) Marianne Murphy/Wendy Carlson 3)Brent Holcomb/F. Lawton

                CBC Trophy Races-Master points won at CBC June 1 2006-March 4, 2007  

Centurion Cup  1) Susan McFadden (36.79) 2) Tom Gabriel (36.17) 3) Sue Harrington (31.02)

4) Carol Clemenz  (29.40) 5) Fred Clemenz( 27.69)  6) Ginny Chianelli (26.58) 7) Lib Odom (24.56) 8) Jim Willrodt (19.78) 9) Mary Norton (16.96) 10) Naomi Freedman  (12.32)

 

Sol Lourie-Unlimited                         Henry Mills 0-2000                       Coleman Farrell NLM

1) Hap Neuffer                 107.77      1) Alice Moore         97.68           1) Jim Chianelli             73.05

2) Marjorie Edens             105.44     2) Brent Holcomb     84.78           2) Karen Coulter            59.70

3) Alice Moore                   97.68     3) Bernetha Henry     78.68           3) Janice Ripley             58.13

4) Bob Webb                      93.31     4) Jim Chianelli          73.05          4) Arnold Levinson       57.18

5) Ken Fasching                 93.18     5) Lil Hopkins            66.76           5) John Wilkinson         53.72

6) Brian Lipscomb             85.73      6) Harold Moore        66.37           6) Elaine Wade             37.75

7) Brent Holcomb              84.78      7) Butch Maybin        64.29           7) Cathy Steinacker      37.31

8) Ellie Hack                      81.62      8) Karen Coulter        59.70           8) Susan McFadden      36.79

9) Bernetha Henry              78.68     9) Janice Ripley         58.13           9) Tom Gabriel              36.17

10) Jim Chianelli                73.05     10) Frazer McCrorey  57.44         10) Sue Harrington         31.02      

            

 

Congratulations to all who did well in the TriCity tournament.  Start with the big winner, Wayne Hollingsworth 17.37 points in four events-3rd in the Friday pairs, 2nd in the Open Knockout, 1st in the Zip Swiss and  3rd in the Open Swiss.

 

Mike Bitonti/Mirza Baig-winners of the Saturday afternoon Open Pairs.

 

Next-way to go Jim Willrodt!!  He won two 299’er events with Lib Odom and Sue Harrington.

 

Lou Riddle-not 4C or 4B but 4A/1B/1C in the Sunday Swiss with team mates Phil Mixson, Betsy Stanton and Harriet Hussey.  Swimming with the sharks all day.  Started in a three-way with two heavyweight A squads and finished by beating two other A squads.  Nice game Lou.

 

Congratulations go out to Tom Gabriel/Susan McFadden for performance on a little more extended basis.  They were tied 34/35 in the standings for Unit  members who won the most Silver Points at Unit 160 Sectionals.  They were tops for non-Life Masters and for those members under 500 points. 

 

Last, I’d like to congratulate the rest of my own team (Pat and Bob Webb/Pat and Joyce Lauterbach) -won the Knockout, 5th Zip Swiss and 6th in the Sunday Swiss teams. 

 

Joyce and I were thinking this was a small tournament because we wound up playing 62 boards against Hugh Brown and Greg Roberts in three events.  This extended match play illustrated a few points I’ve been trying to make here over the years (some of which I forgot in the heat of battle).  

1)      A lesson I forgot-don’t be a hero-unilateral actions are usually losers:  I thought we were down on a first round KO match (trust me-I had reason).  So I played a part score instead of a vulnerable game trying to create a favorable swing.  Swing it did-minus 9 IMPS and almost lost us the match that Pat and Bob had won convincingly at the other table.  Give your team mates a chance.  The other team is not immune to disaster either.

 

 

2)      Bad things happen-hang in there.  Being mentally tough cannot be over rated.  Two hands after going for a 17 IMP disaster, the pair is still with the game enough to find a slam (and 12 IMPs) missed at the other table.  Six hands after booting a slam sequence (and 11 IMPs), partner pulls home a vulnerable, doubled game contract that went down at the other table (13 IMPs).  Roast partner over a slow fire later-keep him in the game now.   I mean really:  How often are those things going to happen?  We had those two disasters early in the 24 board finals match-one at each table.  The score on the other 22 boards was

Us – 53    Them – 4

 

3)      There are a lot of valid bidding systems.  There are up sides and down sides to ALL of them.  We were facing a pair that had three different no trump opening ranges depending on the position of the opener and the vulnerability.  That gives them a good look at balanced and semi-balanced hands and creates problems for opponents bidding.  We played two different defenses and one modification of a defense depending on if we were facing a weak no trump a strong No Trump and whether we were in direct or pass out chair.  The biggest swing in our favor was when the pair we played against opened 1 NT and got to 3 NT with dispatch.  At the other table, Pat and Bob opened a minor and got to Six.  You use a system that gives you and partner the best ‘look’ at the hands you play.  Once in a while, you’re going to be wrong-that’s the price you pay for the system you use.