WELCOME

Welcome!!!  This is the first issue of the new CBA Electronic Newsletter.  We hope you find it of value to you.

We welcome your input.  Please give us your thoughts about the content of the Newsletter by sending us a return E-Mail.

PREZ SEZ BY PATTI  ENGLISH

HOME RUN!  That’s exactly what the Regional was….a home run for Cincinnati!

Everyone should be proud of the very successful Regional that we just hosted for our    District.  The turnout was great…. hospitality continues to be a huge draw… we met our concession stand minimum every day but one……and the Derby Dinner was better than expected.   This event is a huge undertaking, but we had lots of help from our members.  Actually, that is the only way that a Regional can be successful….everyone does their part…to help those in charge.

At our May Board of Directors meeting, I provided a recap sheet from the Regional… pointing out gains, losses, pros, cons, and miscellaneous items.  The section on ‘pros’ is noteworthy enough to share with everyone.

PROS:             Derby Dinner…..a HUGE success!  110 people attended and we turned away 30 more.   People had a great meal for $10…got a split-the-pot raffle and stayed to play bridge.

                        Our local lecturers were the BEST…and had great handouts!   

                        Many more people stayed for the weekend events than last year.

                        Caddies were great..had training…helped when not busy…were wonderful with take down.   The new T-shirts …..lookin’ good!

                        LOTS of people helped with set up and take down…it was a breeze!   

                        Hospitality was FANTASTIC!

                        Sign Posts were s SUPER help.

I love our Regional….I love working on our Regional…ok…if you saw me Thursday or Friday of that week….maybe I didn’t appear to be having that much fun!   But… when someone says that the Regional runs “like a well oiled machine”…well…I love our Regional.

UPCOMING SPECIAL GAMES

North American Pairs Qualification—June, July, and August are the qualifying months for the North American Pairs (NAP) competition.  The June qualifying events are:

Monday, June 2^nd at 7:00pm at the Oxford Duplicate Game

Thursday, June 5^th at 1:00pm at the Cincinnati Bridge Center

Friday, June 13^th at 11:00am at the Cincinnati Bridge Center

Monday, June 16^th at 11:00am at the Cincinnati Bridge Center (Deschappelles members only)

Saturday, June 21^st at 1:00pm at the Cincinnati Bridge Center

Tuesday, June 24^th at 7:00pm at the Cincinnati Bridge Center

Friday, June 27^th at 10:00am at the Elsmere Senior Center.

Go to the CBA website http://www.cincybridge.com/ for the July and August schedules.

Student Game—Nancy Sachs and Linda Wolber are having a special game on Sunday, June 29^th at 2:00pm at the Cincinnati Bridge Center for their students.  Hand analysis records will be distributed and there will be refreshments and prizes.  A standby partner will be available.  Call Nancy Sachs (513-561-1766) or Linda Wolber (513-522-1771) for more information.

Summer STaC—The summer Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC) starts on Monday, June 30^th.  Visit the CBA website for more information http://www.cincybridge.com/ .

UPCOMING BRIDGE LESSONS

Bob VeVerka is starting a new series of classes on “Commonly Used Conventions” on June 17^th.  The six classes will use the ACBL Spade Series of courses. For more information about these classes, call Bob at 513-772-5115 or E-Mail him at robv2@fuse.net .

Nancy Sachs will be conducting a series of classes on Advanced Two Over One topics, beginning on Wednesday, August 20^th.  These classes will cover Two Over One topics that are of specific interest to the class.  For more information, call Nancy at 513-561-1766 or E-Mail her at nspp@fuse.net .

HOMESTYLE BRIDGE GAMES

If you haven’t played homestyle bridge, you should—“try it, you will like it”.  In addition to Kay’s homestyle game on Wednesdays, Bob VeVerka will have a new homestyle game on Monday nights, starting on Monday, June 16^th.  Advance registration is required.  For more information about these games, call Bob at 513-772-5115 or E-Mail him at robv2@fuse.net .

LIBRARY REPORT BY GAYLE KEANEY

New Additions—The club has just added a number of new books to its holdings (see the list below).

You may wonder how I make the choices.  Well, the June 2007 Bridge Bulletin included 2 articles about favorite books.  They included 2 top 10 lists… the Experts’ favorites and the Readers’ favorites.  Our library is now missing only 2 of these 20 books.  These 2 are no longer in print and I am searching the internet for them.  And we are only short a couple of the 37 books listed in the second article.

Introduction to Defender Play  by Kantar
25 Ways to Be a Better Defender  by Barbara Seagram & David Bird .. Beg/Intermediate
25 Steps to Learning 2 Over 1  by Thurston … Social/Intermediate
Standard Bidding with SAYC  by Downey  … Beg/Intermediate
The Monster Book of Basic Declarer Play  by Huggett & Cashmore… Beg/Intermediate “…it will reward handsomely any new player who reads it from cover to cover and who works at understanding the principles involved.”  I’m loving this book so much I bought one for myself!  Not available through Barclays - I got them online at Half.com.
Backwash Squeeze & Other Improbable Feats  by McPherson .. Humorous story of journalist learning duplicate bridge 
Bridge with the Blue Team  by Pietro Forquet… hands played by the famous Italian team

Also, as a result of our latest additions, we now have both the Bridge Techniques Series  and the Test Your Technique Series  pamphlets on almost all of the following subjects:

Eliminations

Planning in Suit Contracts

Simple Squeeze

Avoidance Play

Safety Plays

Defending Suit Contracts

Entry Management

Planning in No Trump

Endplays & Coups

Reading the Cards

Defending No Trump Contracts

Deceptive Play

Tricks & Trumps

Planning the Defense

Tricks & Finesses

Defensive Signaling

These series were highly recommended in the above cited articles.  The level of the books vary - many are for Intermediate and many are for Intermediate/Advanced.  They are written by David Bird in collaboration with either Tim Bourke or Marc Smith.  Being only 65 to 96 pages they simply are not as overwhelming as so many books can be and most of the pages are devoted to quizzes with detailed explanations in the answers.  They are a great way to learn alone and/or practice with your partner. 

Support Your CBA Library!!!!—If you’re a reader then you surely have some bridge books in your library that you won’t be reading again (you’ve advanced!!).  How about giving them to the club library? If it’s a book we don’t already have we’ll add it to the library (or it may be in better shape than what we already have ! ).  If not, it can add to our library by earning some book $$ for us at the October Sectional Library Sale.  Bring ‘em in !!!

Miscellaneous—Now that the CBA has had the Audrey Grant videos for several months, we can loosen the stricter lending period attached to them to the usual 1 month.  

….Please - when you take out a book or video MAKE OUT THE CARD WITH THE DATE & YOUR NAME CLEARLY PRINTED ( I can’t read my own writing - how am I supposed to read yours????!!!!)  If I am not there at the time you can leave your filled out card with the Director. 

… In a couple of weeks I will be putting up a sign for where put your returned books.  In the meantime, the storage room’s LIBRARY box is fine.

… Return ( or renew) overdue books!!!  Return the books you are finished with!!!!

… Don’t forget - the library is catalogued by Title, Author & Subject and is available both on-line and in hard copy usually on one of the club bookcases.

…..Let me know if there’s a book you think our library should have.

…. I can always be contacted at gkeaney@aol.com.

HAPPY READING !!!

PSYCHED OUT???

The CBA is constantly looking at ways to improve the enjoyment of playing games at our club.  One topic that we are in the process of looking at is ‘psych bids.’  Valuable information coming from ACBL says that psychs are legitimized by Law 40, which allows players to make any legal call, including an intentionally misleading one such as a psych, as long at the agreed upon meaning of such calls are disclosed to the opponents in accordance with the regulations of the sponsoring organization…. ABCL.    Huh?   You can psych as long as you disclose to the opponents that you may be psyching?  What’s the point then?

Onward…ACBL also says that:

1.      An agreement to psych, either explicit or implicit, is illegal.

2.       Frequent or excessive psychs are illegal.

3.      Frivolous or unsportsmanlike psychs are also illegal.

Mike Flader, author of Ruling the Game, says that a disproportionally high percentage of letters to him involve incidents of psychs made by Flight A players when they are playing less experienced opponents.  His suggestions:

1.      Education – for all club members…victims and perpetrators.  In a club game, a more relaxed atmosphere should be encouraged.  Encourage players to ‘play it straight,’ a tactic which will result in a friendlier atmosphere and help the less experienced players improve.

2.      Policy implementation – require that all psyches be reported by the victims and the offenders.   Set up a log book to record psychs and keep it up to date.

3.      Policy enforcement – be consistent!  If pairs fail to comply with regulations in reporting psychs committed by their side, a penalty can be assessed.  If pairs seem to have an implied agreement to psych, they need to get an adjusted score. 

While all this sounds great, it will take the effort of everyone…those playing and those directing…. to make this a plausible alternative to doing nothing… other than listening to people complain.  And if it is true that this occurs more often to less experienced players, they are going to need to be reassured that this is what they should do for themselves…and the pleasure of the game.

GETTING AQUAINTED

This section of the newsletter will be devoted to getting you acquainted with some of the people who comprise the Cincinnati Bridge Association.  We will give you information about some of the CBA players, bridge teachers, game directors, and CBA officers so that they become more than just a name and face to you.  We decided to start with CBA President—Patti English.

Patti is a Southern Belle who was born on November 25^th in Richmond, Virginia.  She is married to her husband John and has two boys; Ryan (27) and Alan (25). 

She received a Bachelor Degree in Elementary Education and Masters Degree in Education Administration from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She also received an Advanced Certificate in Education Administration from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Patti worked as a sixth grade teacher in Yorktown, Virginia and was promoted to the position of Assistant Principal in the Intermediate School.  Patti came to Cincinnati in 1987.

Patti is a natural leader and she has served in a wide variety of leadership positions.  She was elected to the Indian Hill Board of Education and served as its President for two years. She was Chairperson of the Festival of Trees and has been very active in the Junior League. She considers her most significant non-bridge leadership accomplishment to be as Chairperson of the Rummage Sale for the Junior League in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  From a bridge perspective, Patti is most proud of chairing a very successful Regional in 2008.

Her greatest bridge play accomplishment occurred when she was trying to become a Life Master.  Entering the tournament, she needed 1.48 Silver Points to become a Life Master.  She got 1.49 points in the first event.  You can tell Patti is a precise person.

As President of the CBA, Patti’s goal is to improve communications among all the Clubs in the Unit and to achieve greater cooperation among the Clubs.  She would also like to achieve greater participation in all the CBA night games.

For relaxation, when Patti isn’t playing bridge, she likes to sit in the sun on a beach, or sit around a pool and read.

MEMBER NEWS

New Members—We welcome the following new members who have joined the CBA in the last two months:

New Life Masters—The following Members became new Life Masters in the last two months:

We congratulate you on achieving this important milestone.

New Bronze Life Masters—We congratulate the following members who became new Bronze Life Masters:

 

New Silver Life Master—Congratulations to Gerry Mirus who became a new Silver Life Master.

NANCY’S NASTY HAND

This section will use interesting (i.e., “nasty”) hands from Nancy Sachs’ Advanced Two-Over-One classes to illustrate defensive or offensive play techniques for the intermediate or advanced player.

For this issue’s “nasty” hand, you need to make three decisions: (1) Do you want to be declarer and play the hand, (2) do you want to defend,  and (3) You need to decide how you will play or defend the hand.  Nancy’s suggestions are at the end of the newsletter.

East-West are vulnerable. South opens the bidding 1S, West passes, North bids 3S, and that ends the bidding.  West leads the 7 of spades against the 3S contract.  For the best score for your side, do you play the hand or defend?

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

We need volunteers to help with the production of this newsletter. Would you like to be the Editor of the CBA newsletter?  Would you like to contribute a column to the newsletter on a regular basis?  If so, please send an E-Mail to John Burpee at johnburp@fuse.net  and let him know of your willingness to volunteer to help.

NAME OUR NEWSLETTER CONTEST

We are looking for a creative name for our new electronic newsletter.  Do you have any ideas?  If so, please give us your thoughts by E-Mailing John Burpee at johnburp@fuse.net .  The winning entry will receive a valuable prize.

DAN SHERMAN HONORED BY CBA BOARD

Dan Sherman was recently honored by the CBA Board of Directors.  He received the Golden Age Master Award at a recent game at the New England Club.  The following is a picture of Dan receiving his award from John Burpee, a member of the CBA Board.

NANCY’S NASTY HAND ANSWER

If you answered that you wanted to defend on this hand, “You chose wisely young grasshopper”.

After drawing trumps, South must setup dummy’s diamonds for discards of his/her losers. The key to the defense is, when South attempts to setup his/her diamonds, West must drop the king of diamonds under the ace of diamonds when South leads a small diamond to the ace.  The logic is that, if South had the jack of diamonds, he would finesse it rather than playing the ace.  Therefore, West concludes that East has the jack of diamonds and by dropping the king of diamonds under the ace, he/she will create an entry for East. 

When East obtains the lead with the jack of diamonds, he/she should lead the queen of hearts.  West should discourage a heart continuation on East’s lead of the queen of hearts.  Note that if East leads a second heart (i.e., the jack of hearts), South could cover with the king of hearts and West would be end-played after winning the ace of hearts—he/she could not attack clubs.

 After East wins the queen of hearts, he/she should switch to the queen of clubs.  Now, East-West are assured of winning two heart tricks, two club tricks, and a diamond trick for down one—a plus 50 score.

You may ask what happens if South starts the diamond suit by leading low to the queen? West must duck the diamond lead and North is forced to play the queen or he/she lets East in with the hack of diamonds.  If South then returns a low diamond from dummy, he/she cannot afford to duck the diamond lead as East’s 9 of diamonds will win the trick and East can lead as described above. 

This is a good example of how important signaling is to good defense and how important it is to THINK!!!