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Sitouts Banned! 
We have done away with sit-outs, for once and for all. When we have a half-table in the game, we enter the computer as a participant in the game, in order to make a full table. When it would otherwise be your turn to sit out, instead you play against the computer. Your score vs. the computer counts in the game. The computer is always disqualified, so it doesn't take away your masterpoints - in fact, the awards actually increase because the game is larger. Everybody appreciates playing against "Ace O'Matic." In fact, some people are disappointed when we have full tables of "flesh & blood" players and they don't get to play the computer! You can learn more about how this works by clicking here. | |
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Replay At Home  You can now replay the boards you've played at the club - in the comfort of your own home.
Replay the exact same hands with any of several commercial bridge programs such as GIB or Bridge Baron if you own one. If you have not purchased one, we have a free program for you to download. Click here for instructions. | |
| Free Bridge Lessons | |
Rich answers your questions every Tuesday prior to the game.  |
Thursdays, we have a vugraph presentation. Rich reviews interesting deals of the past week. Each board in question is projected onto our large video screen for all to see as we discuss it. |
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Greetings!
This week's deal is a reprise of a deal originally played at Bridge Ace in June, 2008. Somehow the identical deal found its way into our barometer game Saturday. |
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Second Time Around |
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Back in 2008, the final contracts, all by East-West, were:
- 2ª - making 5 for 200
- 3NT - making 7 for 520
- 6§ - making 7 for 940
- 6© - making 7 for 1010
Nobody bid the cold grand slam in clubs, hearts or notrump.
How did everyone do 2½ years later?
Scroll down to find out. |
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The Greek Festival |
 Our friends at St. Demetrios hold their Annual Greek Festival February 10-12. This is their big fund raising event of the year. It is a lot of fun with good food, dancing and rides for the kids. You should plan to attend.
Due to the time it takes the church to set up and break down the festival, we will temporarily move all our games to Art Serve from Monday, February 7 through Friday, February 18 (no games on those Saturdays). |
For directions to Art Serve, click here. |
A New Interclub Challenge |
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I have to believe that every East opened 2©. It is a book bid. From there, the bidding at different tables obviously embarked on different routes.
How did someone end up in 2ª? It's easy to guess that this was the auction: 
West responded 2ª, believing a new suit was forcing, and East passed, thinking that it was not. This is a common misconception. East had been told many times that a preempter never bids again. As a rule, this is good advice, but it leaves out one very important word. It should be: the preempter never voluntarily bids again. New suits by partner are forcing.
What about 4NT? Sounds to me like someone passed what was intended as an ace-asking bid.
6§ is also easy to imagine:
The 2ª response was forcing and natural. 6§ said "I have slam in my own hand, please choose between my two suits." Not a bad auction, but it pretty much gives up on a grand slam.
How about the pair that bid 6©? I can only conjecture that East was an unequivocal hand hog.
Here is a reasonable auction to reach the grand slam:
After East raises clubs (remember, new suits are forcing; East cannot pass 4§ any more than he could have passed 2ª), West will cue bid his diamond control. When East shows the heart ace, West can bid 7§. There are no red suit losers, his partner must be short in spades and he will be able to ruff out the suit.
So, did anyone bid one of the frigid grand slams in 2011?
Sadly, no! |
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