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The Daily Deal
Each day we "seed" one lesson deal somewhere into our otherwise randomly dealt set of boards. The board number is different each day. You never know which board it is. The daily deal is a free mini-lesson. You can take home a handout of the daily deal every day. We hope you find it educational as well as entertaining. To see past Daily Deals, click here. |
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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.
You can learn more about this 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. | |
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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, we are beginning a series on famous deals throughout history, from swindles to murder at the bridge table.
To kick things off, here is a deal played in Kansas City, KS in 1931. The Bennetts played rubber bridge at home vs. the Hoffmans. John Bennett's wife was so infuriated by his play of one hand that she shot him dead!
The alleged deal: |
 The Bennett Murder
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Mr. Bennett opened the bidding without sufficient values for an opening bid, and suffered an unusually heavy penalty. However, four spades was not an impossible contract.
Ely Culbertson, the reigning bridge expert of the day analyzed the deal to see if Bennett could have saved his life by better play. You can read his analysis below. |
Bridge Ace Named "All Star"
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 The Contact All Star Program is our way to recognize customers who stand out among more than 400,000 small businesses and organizations. These "power users" make the most of our marketing tools-both in how well they use Constant Contact to meet their goals and the results they get in return. Our All Stars set an example for small businesses everywhere, and we love to celebrate that "all-star power." How do All Stars get picked?All Stars come in all shapes and sizes - small businesses and organizations from different industries and areas. When we choose All Stars, we look at the following criteria for success: - Communicate with customers and members for all four quarters of the year
- Update mailing lists often and obtain permission from all their subscribers to contact them
- Have high open and click-through rates, and low bounce rates
- Use mailing list sign-up tools like "Join My Mailing List" on their website or Facebook page
- Use reports to gain insights about their contact list and online marketing activities
- Use our social media tools
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Deal of the Week Archive
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Did you know that we archive many of our Deal of the Week newsletters? You can read them here.
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New Interclub Challenge
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 We have made an agreement with Kathie Angione, owner of Eastlake Bridge Club in Chula Vista, California to run a monthly interclub match. We will run this game on the second Wednesday of each month, starting April 13. Unlike previous interclub matches, this one will pay overall masterpoints across both sections and as an extra incentive, we will make the first one a club championship! |
Culbertson's Analysis
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We have heard of lives depending upon the play of a card. It is not often that we find that figure of speech literally true. Here is a case in point.
Mr. Bennett had overbid his hand. Of that there can be no doubt, but even with this, so kind were the gods of distribution that he might have saved his life had he played his cards a little better.
Mr. Hoffman opened the diamond ace, then shifted to the club suit when he saw the dummy void of diamonds, and led the club knave. This Mr. Bennett won with his king and started to pull the adverse trumps. Here again he flirted with death, as people so frequently do when they fail to have a plan either in the game of bridge or the game of life. He still could make his contract and save his life.
The proper play before drawing the trumps would have been to establish the club suit, after ruffing the last diamond in the closed hand, upon which to discard losers in his own hand.
Suppose Mr. Bennett, when he took the club trick with his king, had led his last diamond and trumped it with one of dummy's small trumps. He could then lead the club ten, and, when Mr. Hoffman followed suit, his troubles would be over.
He would play the ace of clubs and lead the nine or eight. If Mrs. Hoffman put up the queen, Mr. Bennett should trump and let Mr. Hoffman overtrump if he pleased. If Mr. Hoffman, after winning this trick, led a heart, the contract and a life would be saved. If he led a diamond the same would be true.
A lead of the trump might have still permitted the fatal denouement but at least Mr. Bennett would have the satisfaction of knowing that he had played the cards dealt to him by fate to the very best of his ability.
As always, you can follow the play of this deal with our Bridge Movie on our website.
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The Verdict
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Mrs. Bennett was tried for murder later the same year, and acquitted!
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