President-Bernetha Henry                                                                                                                 April   2008 Vol.   XXV   No.4

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

                                           TRICKS AND TREATS  

                  For Members of the Columbia Duplicate Bridge Club  

                                 (Calendar On-line at www.cbcbridge.com)

Our sympathy goes to Rosa Shaw on the passing of her husband Guy.  We were also grieved

 by the death of long time CBC member Marlise Overby.   “Fear not for I have called your

name.  I know you and you are Mine.”

 

The game Saturday April 12 will be our birthday party- it will be held at the Cypress St.

 location.  Club Championship due to all the new members-come and bring a treat.

Our March party (can you believe I missed it?)  Thanks to Joyce who sent cake and Alvaree Hanely and Sheelagh Young on-site hostess.  Congratulations to a new partnership, Alice Moore and Bill Charlwood who were successful their first time out.

                 N/S                    Charity Game 13 tables                                       E/W __

1)  Ken Fasching/Marj Edens           186.00             Bill Charlwood/Alice Moore          191.00

2) Elaine Wade/Brent Holcomb        176.00            Luanne Edwards/Annie Hawkins   185.50

3) Henry Momand/DaMaris Rorie    168.50            Betsy Stanton/Sylvia White            177.00

4) Ed and Sheelaugh Young              165.00            Dot Cole/Sue Harrington                160.50

5) Ellie Hack/Fran Jenkins                163.50            Harold Moore/Butch Maybin          160.00

 

From Head director Mike Bitonti and all the other game directors:  Slow play-all unplayed boards are “No Play” (game averages) both directions.  If you are the cause of slow play: first offense-a warning, second offense ¼ board match point penalty..  Third offense-full board match point penalty.  Habitual failure to finish/move by start of the new round is slow play whether you get all boards played or not.  It’s not fair to the other players.

 

We continue with some more defensive help from Eddie Kantar 39) When signaling encouragement with equal spot cards, signal with the higher or highest equal.  With A-9-8-7 signal with the 9 (which denies the ten).  If you lazily signal with the 8, you are denying the 9. (Some partners actually watch stuff like that)  40) When giving partner  a ruff, the card you lead is suit preference telling partner which suit to return after the ruff!  The return of a relatively high spot asks for the return of the higher ranking of the two remaining suits. The return of your lowest asks for the lower of the two suits.

It’s that time again.  Dues are Due!!  You know you want to renew, you’re going to renew, so do it now while you think about it instead of running up against the deadline.  Single memberships are $15 and couples are $28.  Attach the member info on the coupon below.

 

Name(s)_____________________________________________Home #______________

 

Address______________________________________________________Zip_________

 

Birth Month(s)________________Web Address__________________________________  

In case you missed it…..for newer players who haven’t heard it before.  Some things drive some more experienced partners crazy.  So…1) .sit back from the table.  Note that if the table legs suddenly disappeared, most experienced players would have the table top hit on their knees.  Don't clutch the cards so tightly they curve-hold them in a flat fan.  If your cards are fanned-don't have your hands or elbows on or above the table.  If you are away from the table-don't have the cards fanned in your lap.  (this under the heading of making opponents use their whole heads, not just their eyes to beat you)   2)  Bridge is a game of skill….and focus, concentration.  Nothing is more important than the game, nothing outside the planes of the four edges of the table matters.  Not grandkids, not outings, not health-Just the game.  It’s a social game, but once cards are drawn, it is no longer sociable. 3) Be ready to play.  Come early and talk to partner.  Don’t bother with discussing exotic bids, but talk about what to do over opponents’ interference.  What do you lead from 4 small?  What about the bidding and defensive tips you’ve read here?  Talk to other players about problem hands, conventions.

 

Up the Ladder: Junior Master-Jay Shahani, Club Master-Dick Coulter Sectional Master-

Cynthia Cone, Jim Fish, Regional Master-Carol Brooks NABC Master Ginny Chianelli,

Sue Harrington, Francis Kovach, Lou Riddle  

From Treasurer Pat Webb:  Your CBC is on sound financial footing. We have just bought another CD ($20,000).  Through this fiscal year (starts 6/1/07) as of 2/29/08 we have a profit of $14,705 compared with $5,007 for the same period last year.  The bulk of this profit (8,024) is attributable to the $1 per player increase in entry fees implemented 6/1/07. Another factor which will eventually add to our increased profits is our savings by relocating to the Capital Senior Center.  We have no more costs for janitor service or supplies, telephone service, and we have vastly reduced expenses for electricity and water service (total $916/month saved).  We are not faced with making expensive improvements to the Cypress St. location.  We pay $380 monthly to the Center plus $10 for use of their phone.  Work is being done on gaining eleemosynary status for CBC-which would make contributions tax deductible.  We have had some nice contributions in memory of deceased members or their spouses. These are being accounted for separately from the club’s operations.  Knowing that such memorials are being set apart might make our members more amenable to giving money to CBC, particularly if such contributions are tax deductible.

          Points won at CBC games-Trophy races June 1,  2007 to March 18,  2008 __________

Centurion Cup- 1) Zan Edmunds (47..65) 2) Jim Willrodt (43.13) 3) Lib Odom (37.91)

4) Cynthia Cone (19.04) 5) Sam Robison (18..94) 6) Francis Robinson (16.82) 7) Faye Levinson (15.23) 8) Jay Shahani (14.11) 9) Melinda Young (13.02) 10) Belford Cross (10.19)

  Sol Lourie Open                    Henry Mills 0-2000                Coleman Farrell NLM

1) Brian Lipscomb       125.25   Lil Hopkins         92.42         Jan Ripley              71.36         

2) Pat Lauterbach         125.20   Brent Holcomb   79.44         Arnold Levinson     69.72        

3) Ken Fasching           121.40   Jim Chianelli       73.11         Everett Ness           59.58                                 4) Bob Webb                 99.03    Jan Ripley           71.36         Sue Harrington       55.89                           

5) Lil Hopkins               92.42    Arnold Levinson 69.72         Tom Gabriel           52.76                            

6) Hap Neuffer              92.22    Bernetha Henry   69.34         Karen Coulter         48.82

7) Alice Moore              88.98    Mary Townhil     68.86         Zan Edmunds         47.65

8) Joyce Lauterbach      88.93    Henry Momand    68.60        Susan McFadden    46.57       

9) Ellie Hack                 85.55    Everett Ness         59.58         John Wilkinson     44.12 

10) Marj Edens              84.77    Harriet Blasetti    58.51          Leck Mason          42.82  

 

As promised-from the archives of Bridge World- a discussion on how to play suit combinations.    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.  The number of card combinations in the two defenders’ hands we are dealing with is a power of 2 equal to the number of cards missing.  (if missing one card its two to the first or two combinations, missing two cards it’s two squared or four combinations three cards would be two cubed or 8 combinations…)

 

OK you have won a bidding war with partner and are playing your trump suit or have punched this complete misfit into some level of no-trump.  Now you are left with the problem of getting 5 tricks out of this combination (against less than horrendous splits):

 

                                                   VOID  (naturally)

 

                                             A-Q-10-8-7-6-5

 

What’s your best chance for 5 tricks?  Scroll down for the answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is not a great combination to be playing under the no-doubt baleful glare of partner.  All 3-3 splits are winners for you but are less than 50%. 6-0 and 5-1 splits without a stiff honor or 9 are all losers. (Don’t you wish now that you had quit bidding while it would have been partner on play?) But you do your best by starting with cashing the Ace hoping for that stiff honor (or 9).  Most likely the unhelpful opponents will contribute two low cards to the trick. Now you have to play to take advantage of the best 4-2 breaks.  If you continue with a low card, you will fail against nine-low, playing the ten instead loses to the jack-low, trying the Queen misses only against King-low.  The three losing cases are equally likely, so if there

were no other information available, doing this calculation would be an exercise in frustration, except for one thing:  Bridge situations in which there are exactly three equally likely-to-succeed (fail) alternatives are about as rare as four leaf clovers.  It is a joy to discover one.  Good luck.