It’s a New Year and I hope all of you are looking forward to it with eagerness and optimism, both at and away from the table. The Bermuda Regional is around the corner so more on that in the next two weeks as we get closer.

There is a lot of good new stuff happening on the local bridge scene but before I get to that let me remind you of the standard games:

Open, Stratified Games

Monday 12.30pm

Wednesday 9.30am

Thursday 7.30pm

Friday 12.30pm

0-150 Game preceded by a short lesson

Tuesday 7.30pm

0-300 Game

Thursday 7.30pm alongside the Open Game

Now to the new stuff and since club president, John Burville, is the driving force behind the new initiatives, I’ll let him describe them

Casual games: 7.30pm - 10 and 17 January

This year we decided not to run new lesson and have opted to try and concentrate on those people that have an interest in bridge, but don’t feel they are at a sufficient stage to enter the duplicate game, or just would rather practice in a casual setting.

So we are reaching out to all the players that have attended lessons, or those that have an interest in bridge and know the basics to join us on a Tuesday evening to just have a casual session (in the Moran Room), and be able to ask for guidance while they play. We are doing this on 10 and 17 January initially to see what interest we get. Depending upon the turnout and interest, we will decide what we can do to expand on this.

The game will start at 7.30pm commensurate with the regular game.

New event to be held at the regional

We are planning a “mini bridge” tournament for 22 January at the Regional. Chairperson Kathy Keane and Chief Director Sol Weinstein have both agreed that we can run this event. All three schools in the bridge programme are offered the opportunity of entering the event, and we will also make an offer outside those schools for any students around that may be interested.

Based upon initial interest in each school, and expected fallout, I believe we will have between three and six tables for the event.

We are, however, open to any person 18 or under in Bermuda joining the event.

They have to let me know as soon as possible, but no later than 17 January. If they are under 18, they need a parental approval form signed. We will look for partners for players without one, however, we cannot guarantee finding everyone a partner.

Basic Details:

1. Sunday 22 January at the Fairmont Southampton in the main playing room. Starting at 1pm, and finishing between 4.30pm and 5pm with a prize-giving afterwards.

2. We will play 16 boards, though some may not finish all 16.

3. The ACBL directors under Sol’s guidance will set the movement, and keep the scores.

4. We will have a helper per table to manage the mini bridge rules.

5. The mini bridge rules are:

a. The pair with the highest combined HCP total becomes declarer and dummy, declarer having the most points.

b. Declarer looks at dummy before any card is played, and selects trumps, and using a chart can pick a contract level subject to a minimum based upon the total HCP.

c. Play then takes place in the usual way, and is scored into the Bridgemates.

We may need transportation help, and I will be asking members closer to the time for transportation assistance closer to the time.

So there you have it! Make note and support these initiatives.

This week’s hand came up on BBO on Wednesday — partner went down one on what I thought was a reasonable line of play at the time, though something about the hand bugged me and when I looked later I found what it was — it is always a lot easier in the post-mortem !!

N/S Vul — Dealer South

North

S K74

H K1097653 D Q5

C 4

East

S 952

H AQJ8

D 642

C 765

South

S AQJ1063

H 4

D J73

C AQ8

West

S 8

H 2

D AK1098

C KJ10932

The bidding was key!

Partner (South) opened 1 Spade and West bid 2NT showing the minors — I doubled to show some cards, East passed and so did South. West now bid 3 Clubs, I bid 3 Spades and partner bid 4 Spades which ended the auction.

West started with two top Diamonds and then led the Heart 2, almost certainly a singleton. East won the 10 with the Jack and led back the Heart 8 … partner ruffed with the 10, played Ace of Clubs and ruffed a Club, now a Heart ruff with the Jack of Spades and another Club ruff. Now the King of Spades to arrive at this position when a Heart is played from dummy:

North

S

H K109 D

C

East

S 95

H A

D

C

South

S AQ3

H

D

C

West

S

H

D 10

C KJ

Of course we can see how the cards lie, but partner couldn’t and if West had started with a 2-1-5-5 hand he would have a trump left so ruffing the Heart with the Queen would be right — that is what partner did and went one down.

Where is the clue? In the bidding … when I doubled and East passed he was saying to partner “I have no preference in the minors as I have equal length in both, so you choose”! That means that East has to have a 3-4-3-3 hand which leaves West with a 1-1-5-6 hand and that West had no trumps left, so ruffing with the trump 3 was safe!

Not easy at all and a bit more complex than I usually like for this column but if it just gets you thinking about recreating distributions based on the bidding you will get something from it. There are usually clues on every hand — if you look !!