President-Bernetha
Henry
February
2008
Vol. XXV No.
2
Editor – Patrick Lauterbach
All the news that fits, we print
TRICKS AND TREATS
For Members of the
(On-line at www.cbcbridge.com)
Our January Birthday party was the last hurrah of the downtown club. Four pairs have a
shot at the club Championship going into the
last round. Congratulations Bob and Pat Webb!!
N/S 15 tables Club Championship E/W __
1) Bob and Pat Webb 194.12 1) Alice Moore/Joyce Lauterbach 188.50
2) Hap Neuffer/Betty
3) Fran Jenkins/Ellie Hack 188.29 3) Francis Robinson/Zan Edmunds 174.00
4) Brent Holcomb/Sylvia White 176.75 4) Marj Edens/Margaret Hill 168.96
5) Ken Fasching/Brian Lipscomb 173.12 5) Jan Ripley/George Nichols 163.88
Two(!!) new Life Masters for
Up the Ladder: Jr.
Master Kathryn Sutusky
Club Master Francis Robinson.
New Bronze Life Master: Sylvia
White
New Silver Life Master: Rick
Giles
For you on-line subscribers-the calendar is available at the CBC web page (see above).
Something extra for you on ‘page three’ which will also be available to regular subscribers
who go to the club web site version . Past T & T issues and calendars archived at the web site.
We continue with some more defensive help from Eddie Kantar 35) It is important to count
declarer’s tricks as the play progresses. If you find yourself on lead and can see that declarer has enough tricks in three suits to make the contract, shift to the fourth suit. Some chance is better than no chance. 34) When dummy tables, add declarer’s likely point count to dummy’s known point count. (The bidding has gone 1NT-3NT. Partner leads and dummy has a 10 count. Say the opponents are playing a 15-17 no-trump range. Assume declarer has the middle count of 16 and proceed from there. You know opponents have 26 count give or take a point leaving you and partner with 14. You know how many you have, so it is easy enough to figure out how many partner has. Do it!
In case you missed it…..
“I have never
met anyone who plays as well under pressure from a critical partner as they
would in a more nurtured environment. In
my opinion, players who loudly and frequently berate their partners are
insecure. They feel the need to make
sure everyone knows that a particular poor result was not their fault when in
fact if they were confident in their own abilities, there would be no need to
express them in a negative fashion.” Jerry
Helms
”Overlook
much. Correct a little.” Pope
John-Paul II (Life
and Times)
“I have watched roughly 5000 deals played in vu-graph matches at world championships and other big tournaments. In all that time, I have never seen a psychic bid by a top player. That’s good enough for me.” Brent Manley, editor of the ACBL Bulletin.
I’m in 7 Hearts with about 15 tricks when dummy hits. I have a 5-1 club fit and @*$^#@ if the opening lead from a 7 card club suit doesn’t get ruffed. Honest-to-God, board 5, Jan. 19.
February is Jr. Fund Month. We will be holding two Jr. Fund games for each sanctioned session during the month.
Our birthday party game will be the ACBL-wide International Fund Game on Feb. 2.
We have another Sectional Tournament at Clubs event from Feb 4-10. All the sections will be Open. Remember, we need at least a few “A” players to make the game eligible for the overall awards for all three stratifications. The Thursday and Friday sessions of the STaC in December barely filled the requisite. I encourage other ’A’ flight players to do as I do when I play those otherwise 0-1000 sessions-play with someone who is a regular at those games.
Bob Webb has been appointed to the
permanent Goodwill and Charity committee.
Next time you see him sitting at the club, congratulate him, but remind
him it is the standing committee.
We have a host for the February birthday party. We need one for March through December 2008. If you can bring the cake, let Joyce or me know.
On a lot of bridge questions, the answer depends on who you ask. Take a simple one like
“If you have 6-9 HCP, 3 hearts and four spades, do you bid one spade or raise partner’s opening one heart bid?” A lot of players won’t pass a chance to get the master suit into the auction-and a four-four fit is your best player. But I belong to the ‘support with support’ school of thinking which says raise partner now. ‘Two hearts’ is, I think, the most descriptive bid for your hand-no use giving the defense or potential balance bidders any more info than you need to. If the hand is good enough, like the ♠ KQ97 ♥ 872 ♦ K 10 32 ♣ J9 hand I held last week, you can teach a ‘2-spade’ balancer caution (if not wisdom).
Points won at CBC Trophy races
Centurion Cup- 1) Zan Edmunds (37.04) 2) Jim Willrodt (32.12) 3) Lib Odom (30.97)
4) Francis Robinson (13.20) 5) Faye Levinson (11.32) 6) Sam Robison (10.96) 7) Cynthia Cone(10.10) 8) Dozier Shaw (9.30) 9) Belford Cross (7.71) 10) Naomi Freedman (6.64)
Sol
Lourie Open Henry
Mills 0-2000 Coleman
Farrell NLM
1) Pat
Lauterbach 99.42 Lil Hopkins 74.03 Jan Ripley 54.14
2) Bob Web 93.22 Brent Holcomb 61.14 Tom Gabriel 46.42
3) Ken Fasching 91.92 Jim
Chianelli 60.151
4) Brian
Lipscomb 91.88 Bernetha Henry 59.04
5) Joyce Lauterbach 77.92 Mary Townhill 57.90 Sue Harrington 43.83
6) Lil Hopkins 74.03 Janice Ripley 54.14 Susan McFadden 38.73
7) Pat Webb 69.06 Henry Momand 50.97 Zan Edmunds 37.04
8) Hap Neuffer 67.37 Tom Gabriel 46.42 Karen Coulter 33.04
9) Ellie
Hack 65.94
10) Brent Holcomb 61.14 Chris Webb 45.11 Jim Willrodt 32.12
As promised-from the archives of Bridge World- a discussion on how to play suit combinations. I’m going to try to do one of these a month. Sometimes when the Swiss team games get to the late rounds and the distribution gets weird-or weirder you get some real head scratchers.
The ground rules are: Declarer has sufficient transportation and control to operate and nothing is known about opponents’ distribution beyond the probabilities of the original deal.
An easy one to start-North-South need five tricks:
Q-3-2
A 10 9 8 7 6
Think about it, for the answer, scroll down.
With the same high cards and the North-South holdings divided five-four (or if the Ace and Queen were switched on the above 6-3 distribution), Ace first would be best. This loses only to the K-J-low (two cases) and K-J fourth (one case) offside. However, in the current case above, it also loses to the KJ fourth in front of the Queen. Therefore, the best declarer can do is to start with a low lead from hand, intending to play low if West plays the four or five (Finesse against the Jack in West’s hand). Should this lose to the Jack, play the Ace next.. This sequence of plays loses only to three combinations: K-J-low (two cases) and singleton Jack with East. You can handle both 4-0 splits for one loser. (Though any 4-0 split is less likely than any given 3-1 split, the difference is mild; two 4-0 split chances add up to more
than any one 3-1 split chance)