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What celebrity said:
"Many games provide fun, but bridge grips you. It exercises your mind. Your mind can rust, you know, but bridge prevents the rust from forming."
Scroll down to find out. |
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Replay At Home
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Replay Boards at Home Video |
You can 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.
Watch the video above or click here for further instructions. |
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Print at Home
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Print Hand Records Video |
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Download and print hand records from any game played at Bridge Ace.
Watch the video above or click here for further 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.
We also have many other free bridge lessons online at our website which you can find here. |
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Since St. Demetrios is rented out so often on Saturdays, we now hold Saturday games at Billy Rose's bar, Jester's. It is located at:
801 E. Cypress Creek Road
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334 |
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Trivia Answer:
Omar Sharif
He also famously said, "I`d rather be playing bridge than making a bad movie." |
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Greetings!
Photo Finish
By Mark Horton
The Netherlands may be a tiny country but its stature in terms of bridge considerably exceeds its size on the map. The Dutch Bridge Federation has more than a hundred thousand members and they can count the 1993 Bermuda Bowl among their trophies. The Dutch women's team had high hopes for the Venice Cup of 1999, which was actually staged in Bermuda in January, 2000. After two weeks of play, they faced perennial champions USA in a final that turned out to be a classic. The bridge was not always of the highest standard, but the tension was unmatchable.
The Netherlands built up a lead of 50 IMPs over the first three sessions, but USA won the next three sets to reduce the margin to just 11.5 IMPs (the 0.5 had come from a slow play penalty earned by the USA team earlier in the event). The Dutch team added 4 IMPs to the margin in the penultimate set and with sixteen boards to play they led by 15.5 IMPs. Little did we know how significant that extra 0.5 was to become.
In a packed to overflowing Vugraph room the audience watched the drama of that final session unfold. A series of small swings had reduced the Dutch to the slimmest lead possible, 0.5 IMP. The match balanced on a knife edge. With the match this close, even apparently routine partscore deals were taking on increasing importance.
The last few boards were flat, as the tension rose. Still only half an IMP separated the two teams. The last deal of the event offered chances to both sides:
The diamond situation meant that East-West could make a slam in either minor. However, neither pair was to be that ambitious. The auction proved to be identical at both tables: three clubs by West and three notrump by East. In the Closed Room, Van der Pas led a low heart and Montin wrapped up eleven tricks for +660.
It was clear to the Vugraph audience that a spade lead by Seamon-Molson would hold declarer to ten tricks and earn USA the IMP that would give them the title.
Anything else could lead to eleven tricks and a Dutch victory. The audience held its collective breath. The opening lead was ...
(scroll down to find out) |
 Well Done! |
 | | Anna & John Dotte |
Last Sunday I received a phone call from two of my bridge students, Anna & John Dotte. They were very excited that they earned their gold cards last week in Massachussetts, and couldn't wait to call me to let me know.
It is always so rewarding to me when my students do well!
Congratulations to the Dottes! |
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 In case this newsletter was forwarded to you, we have a brand new way for you to subscribe to receive it every week.
You can now join our mailing list via a SMS text message from your cell phone.
Text BRIDGE to: 42828. You will receive a text reply with instructions. It's super easy. |
Bridge Coups |
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coup [koo] - noun, plural coups [kooz; Fr. koo] - a highly successful, unexpected stroke, act, or move; a clever action or accomplishment.
 We have many coups in the game of bridge, from the Alcatraz coup to the Vienna coup. Some are legitimate, others highly unethical. You may be familiar with the Bath coup, but do you know about the Sominex coup?
We have just added a new section on our lesson page dealing with all sorts of bridge coups. Find it here. |
Photo Finish |
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The opening lead was ... a heart! The board would be flat.
Pandemonium broke out as the Dutch supporters erupted in wild applause. The final score in the Orbis Venice Cup was still unofficial, but they were confident that the trophy had gone to the Netherlands for the first time. A world title is still a world title, even if the winning margin is almost too small to measure.
Never in the history of the world championships had a title been decided by a margin so small. It must have been especially satisfying for Bep Vriend, Jet Pasman and Marijke van der Pas, who had lost the 1989 Venice Cup final in Perth, Australia to an American team. |
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We send out the Deal of the Week newsletter every week. You can view many of our past newsletters here. |
Video of the Week |
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So many of you liked the Peter Weichsel video last week, I thought you might enjoy Larry Cohen's entertaining introduction of David Berkowitz to the ACBL Hall of Fame.
 | | Larry Cohen's introduction of David Berkowitz |
Larry, as you may recall, has lectured at Bridge Ace. |
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