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July

July 2017 Newsletter

Another newsletter, how time flies when you are having fun at bridge

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  • Please support
  • Coming up soon
  • Club Highlights
  • Membership News
  • Education update
  • Learn from the expert
  • National Congress Hamilton, 29 Sep to 7 Oct 2017

Please Support

  • Quiz night Friday 28 July. Put together a table of 8 – 10 for a night of fun, fellowship and some fundraising.
  • Individual Bridge Tournament – 30 July to support NZ Youth Bridge Squad
  • Billets required NZ Bridge Youth weekend 18/19 August. 

Coming up soon

 Grace Joel 8B Thursday Pairs

 10 August

 Interclub   

 18 August

 Billie Tohill 3A Pairs 

 2 September

 Tudor Rosebowl – Intermediate Pairs

  2 September

 Traude Leitl Junior Trophy 

 2 September

Highlights

In addition to the teaching activities, special sessions from expert talkers and running over 700 happenings at the club each year, highlights included …

May 2017

Hat Day on 15 May added a dash of pizzazz to Monday Bridge.

Interprovincial Results 
Seniors - 1ST Bev and Alan Morris, 2nd Jo Clark & Russell Watt
Women - 2nd Linda Cartner & Glenis Palmer
Intermediates – 1ST Sue Cohen and Karen Smith

8B Thursday Hedgerow 
1st Peer Bach & Setsuko Lichtnecker, 2nd Wendy McEntegart & Geo.  
Top Junior Lee Moselen & Peter Thompson. 
Top Intermediate- Marie Rice & Bobbi Greenwood

East Coast Bays 5B 1st Candace Doyle & Karen Smith

Pink Ribbon Breakfast - This fun occasion organised by Bev Morris and her team of helpers was attended by over 80 people and raised over $3000.

 June 2017

Queen’s Birthday Congress
Congress 10A Pairs - 1st Geo Tislevoll & Michael Ware
Congress 5B Pairs – 1st   Warren Cardno & Jill Patterson 3rd Jill Bignell & Takayo Yanagisawa
Congress 10A Teams – 1st Jan Cormack, Michael Courtney, Sam Simpson & Jo Simpson
Congress West End 3A pairs – 1st Alma Kwan & Wayne Benefield

8B Thursday Lesley Porter Salver - 1st Neil Stuckey & Mike Curry, Winners Lesley Porter Salver – Marie Ewbank & Penny McRobie

Club Individual – Section winners -  Heather Salmons and Mila Hill

Waitemata Junior Pairs 1st Dennis Watkinson & Partner, 3rd Takayo Yanagisawa & Julie Hawkes
Howick 3A -  2nd Bev Henton & Bev Guilford

July 2017

Bruce McLaren Thursday 8B 1st Graham Wakefield & Leah Andrews

North Shore 8B Restricted - 1st Sharon Marryott and Christine Wilson. 3rd Karen Smith and Candice Doyle

Our apologies for any unintended omissions from the list!

Membership News

A very special welcome to new and returning members including John Kelly, Brett Abraham, Eleanor Hamilton, Muriel Cruickshank, Jan Meldrum, Anna Dunphy and Rosalind Vyle 

And the following passed away: In June, Pam Ryan (member approx 30 years) and in July, Linda Gray (member over 31 years).

Well done

Provincial Master -Diana Smith 3*
Master - Jimmy Ching 1*
Local Master - Rosemary Hardy 1*,Margaret Harkness 9*, Ming High, Miriam Hobbs 5*, Mandy Kelly, Sunday Millar 7*, Lynne Perkins 1*, Liz Ware 6*, Bianca van Rangelrooy 1*
Club Master - Katherine Fraser
Certificate of Proficiency – Susan Lawrence, Elizabeth Edge

Helper of the Month

Some of you will have noticed the framed certificate on the wall designed and made by Jennifer and Bryan Peryer. This is updated as we try to recognise contributions made by club members. There are many members who make a quiet but important contribution to helping us run the club and we value all your contributions.

Recipients to date

Jennifer & Bryan Peryer

 Creating the award

Peter Hensman 

 Repairs and maintenance

Pat Milliner 

 Regular cleaning of the scoring tablets

Gary Mansell

Permanent positioning of safety cone in car park

A Big Thank You for all those members with coughs and colds who have stayed home while they have been unwell.

Education News

Beginner Lessons for 2017 have finished and we have welcomed these keen new players into our Monday evening novice group. After two weeks of play these new enthusiasts are doing well in the start of their club bridge.   We look forward to seeing you join our club and enjoy the friendship and fellowship of the bridge club as you go on your bridge journey.  A challenging but fascinating card game.

Improvers - In July we have held our second series of improver lessons and have been pleased to see 8 tables of keen players consolidating their No Trump and interference to No Trump under the excellent tutelage of Douglas Russell. 

Special Thank You to all members who give up their time to help with lessons, improvers and novice groups.  Mentoring new players helps make them more comfortable in the club environment, fosters enjoyment of this wonderful, challenging game as they start their bridge journey.  We also must acknowledge those members who make themself available to be a standby player and those who make time to come in when we make those last minute phone calls.

Learn From the Expert 

Partial Strip and End Play

 

North
KQJ863
T3
53
A76

 

 

 

 

 

South
T97
A865
A8
KJ52

 

South       West        North       East
1NT         (2D*)       3S**         P
4S            all pass

1NT is 12 – 14
*2D shows 4+D and 4+H in an opening hand
**3S is invitational

  • How do you play the hand on the lead of the 2 of hearts?  The first step is to count your winners.  It look like you have 9 tricks, 5 spades 2 clubs and 2 red aces.  You need to consider how to develop a 10th trick so you make your contract.
  • It looks at first glance like you could finesse against the queen of clubs to develop a 10th trick.  This is a 50% line, meaning it will fail 50% of the time when the finesse is not working.  Can you do better?
  • East is on lead with West having shown opening points with hearts and diamonds, East leads the 2 of hearts.  An alternative line is called a strip and end play.  You are hoping trumps are split 2:2 and can imagine these cards 5 tricks from the end. 

 

North
K
-
5
A76

 

 

 

 

 

South
T
-
8
KJ5

 

  • When you play the last diamond, West will be on lead if they keep their high diamonds.
  • As you can see West cannot lead a spade as they are gone, a red card gives a ruff and discard to declarer, and a club gives a 100% finesse around to the Q.  This line requires trumps be split 2:2 as you need a spade remaining in each hand so that the ruff and discard operates.
  • It is worth looking for this kind of end position in each hand you declare as it comes up frequently and will lead you to change the way you play the cards from trick 1.    If you rely on the club finesse you can just take the club finesse at any point and you either win or you lose.  However, if you plan a strip and end play you will focus on eliminating your red cards by ruffing.
  • The key skill involved is to count each suit as the hand plays; you know from the bidding that West has at least 4© and at least 4¨.  If you imagine for a moment that the trumps split 2:2 and West has 4/4 in the reds you can hold a likely PICTURE of their whole hand in your head.  You can imagine west is 2443 (2 spades, 4 hearts, 4 diamonds, 3 clubs) once you do this you will notice that it provides a picture of East’s hand who must be 2353. Because you can see the North / South hands you can estimate the count in each suit.  It is well worth taking a couple of minutes counting after you see the lead before you touch a card each time you declare, sometimes you can tell exactly what shape each hand is and it provides a map to the play of the hand.
  • If you picture West to be 2443 with 12 points then maybe they have Ax KJxx KQxx xxx or 
    xx KQxx KQxx Qxx 
    (East has an honour in hearts because they led the 2). 
    Now you can develop the play of the hand from trick 1 to arrive at the end position you envisaged.  Duck the first heart which West will win with the K, Q, or J.  If West returns a heart or a spade you can get to the 5card ending you have envisaged by ruffing 2 hearts while you draw trumps. 

 Here is the whole hand

 

KQJ863
T3
53
A76

 

4
KJ97
KQJ97
Q83

 

A52
Q42
T642
T94

 

T97
A865
A8
KJ52

 

At trick 7 this is the hand (South is about to play the heart 6 and ruff it):

 

J86

5
A76

 

 -
K
KQJ
Q83

 

5
-
T64
T94

 

T
6
8
KJ52

 

  • Declarer has seen West discard on the second spade lead so their initial hypothetical count of the hand that gave West 2443 has to be changed.  West has 1 spade and 4 hearts so either 5 diamonds or 4 clubs 1453 or 1444. Also East has shown up with A spades and Q of hearts along with 3 hearts so for West to have their overcall they most certainly have the club queen.  We know East does not have a diamond honour (they already showed up with 6 points) this last bit of information is important because once we have ruffed another heart we can exit a ¨  (play a ¨ for West to win) a diamond and know that West will have to win.
  • We can place West with 1 spade KJxx in hearts KQJxx in diamonds and Qxx in clubs.  12 high card points. If you look at the diagram above, you will see that declarer cannot afford to draw the last trump.  For the strip and end play to work both north and south must have a spade to ruff with.  If we remove the spade T from dummy you will see that West can safely exit K diamonds and North must ruff leaving him with the club finesse which we have now worked out is doomed to fail. Since East cannot ruff a diamond with the 5 of spades on the play of Norths last ¨ the partial strip is effective.

 Defensive counter measures

  •  If West can predict the line of play declarer is taking they can often avoid it.  When dummy goes down do you find yourself counting your defensive tricks? Sitting West on this hand when you see KJ52 of clubs in dummy you will be looking favourably on your queen of clubs.  If declarer plays the club finesse you will make your Q and if declarer plays the J of clubs from dummy you must cover in case partner has 3 to the T.  If you can see the danger at trick 1 you can take evasive action.  It is worth thinking about why declarer is playing the way they are. 
  • Why doesn’t declarer win the A of hearts?  Surely, they are looking to ruff hearts in hand and preserve the A as an entry to do this at trick 3.  If West finds themselves thinking this, then they know they must find a switch.  The question is which suit to switch to? A club can’t be right as that gives up the finesse.  A trump is often right, for example, if it looks like declarer is looking to set up extra tricks by ruffing in the short hand.  Here however, it appears declarer is looking to ruff in the long hand, so it seems unlikely that a trump will be effective.   So at trick 2 West shifts to the K of diamonds forcing declarer to play the Ace of diamonds before they are ready.  This attack on entries to dummy makes it harder for declarer to ruff her hearts out.  Additionally, when declarer plays a spade, which they must do to set up the end play, the defender with the A of spades can lead another diamond.  This removes declarers exit card and forces her to fall back on the club finesse.
Thank you to Hamish Brown for this contribution

National Congress 2017

Hamilton, 29 Sep to 7 Oct. Events, some short some longer, designed to meet every bridge craving and levels of play. Check the website www.nzbridge.co.nz/congress.html for details.

July 2017
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