Joys of Playing Virtual Bridge

Peter Haglich mentioned in George Jacobs’s article , Bridge Bulletin, March 2021, page 65.

1) How did you get involved with the event?

The event was an annual charity auction for Homeward Bound of Marin County, California.  .  It’s a charity providing homeless shelters and services.  A BBO friend of mine is their Unit Coordinator for the event, in which players could bid on professionals to play with them in the game.  Kathy and I decided that we would make this our mutual Christmas present.  She wanted to play with Robert Todd, whom we met in Bermuda several times.  I scanned through the other available professionals and saw that George Jacobs was available.  Recognizing him from his humorous Bridge Bulletin columns I made a bid. We were fortunate to prevail and win our auctions at a fairly reasonable price.

2) How and where did the event take place?

The event was a virtual club game on BBO the Sunday after Christmas.  About two hours prior to the event we each received a phone call from our pro to go over a convention card.  After the game the Unit hosted a Zoom party to give us more information about the charity.  The pros went over the interesting hands.

3) What did it feel like playing in such an event?

Naturally, Kathy and I were both a bit apprehensive, considering how many good players would be playing.  Neither of us wanted to let our pro down.  During the game I felt quite relaxed though.  Between rounds George would give me some comments and tips.  I don’t really remember any of them now, but they were quite encouraging.

4) What did it feel like to be mentioned in the article?

I didn’t know about it until you told me, then I went and looked at it.  It’s always nice to get one’s name in the Bulletin but really there wasn’t much in the article about me.  I could have been replaced with a generic “North” in the bridge analysis.

5) Did you know ahead of time that there would be an article?

No, I didn’t.  In hindsight I’m not surprised.  George has a regular column and the hand he chose was a nice illustration of a stepping stone play, so I could have anticipated that he might have chosen it for a column.

6) After the event did you think any of the hands played were outstanding? 

This board was somewhat interesting, and one that I played as South.  This link has a hand viewer where you can watch play by play:  .

The opening lead was West’s Club 7.  When the dummy comes down I am looking at 1 trump loser, 2 heart losers, 1 diamond loser, and 1 club loser.  It looks as if the club ruff will be the 6th trick for the defense.  East won the Club Ace, played a low Heart to West’s Ace and won the return with the King.  East then gave West the club ruff.  East exited with another Heart, won in my hand.  I played the Spade Ace and noticed the Queen fall from West.  I had to guess whether it was a false card from an original holding of QJ3 or a true card.  My virtual table feel told me it was a true card but I didn’t follow it.  Here’s the position at that point, after I’ve drawn 1 trump:

If I had really believed that West was out of trumps I would have crossed in Clubs (overtake the Jack with the King), pitched my sole Diamond on the Club Queen, and then run the Spade 10 for a finesse against East’s presumed Jack.  The downside to this is that I’ll go down 2 if I’m wrong and West had made the false card play in trumps.  I knew that at this point I could draw one more round of trumps and make the contract by discarding the Diamond on a good Club in Dummy so I opted to do so.  Note that if If they take their Diamond Ace before giving the ruff (which is sensible, given that they’ve established Dummy’s Club suit for discards) then I have to pick up the trump suit for no losers.  In that case I might have taken the second round Spade finesse.  Making +110 was still an above average board but +140 would have been a 90% board.

Here’s another one that I played: 

George raised my 3NT to 4NT as a quantitative slam invitation.  I really have nothing extra so I declined and found myself in 4NT.  The opening lead was a questionable Diamond 3 (I say questionable because this auction really begs for a major suit lead).  As Dummy comes down I see that slam could have been down immediately on a Spade lead.  I’m very comfortable with this contract, though, as I have 6 Clubs, 2 Diamonds, and 3 Hearts for 11 top tricks.  Just in case West has made an underlay from QJxx(x) I decide to try the 10 from Dummy, which went to the Queen and my King.  (I didn’t duck it because the defenders could switch and hold me to 10 tricks when I have 11 runners, a bad result).  I unblocked the Club Jack, crossed to the Heart King, and started running the Clubs.  (I was mildly disappointed when they split evenly because I didn’t need it on this hand.  The naive view of statistics would say that I’d used up one of my favorable splits and wouldn’t get it when I needed it on a future board.  This is of course, completely fallacious.). On the run of the Clubs I threw all of my Spades and a Diamond.  The opponents threw several Spades but otherwise didn’t provide much information until the final discard from West, the Diamond 4.  I came back to my hand in Hearts and cashed the last Heart, leaving this position:

At this point I’ve made my contract.  I can settle for making 5 by taking the Diamond Ace.  West’s play in Diamonds (the choice to lead one and later discard up the line) convinced me that they had started with 4.  I ran the Diamond 9 from my hand, hoping to coax a cover from West.  They didn’t but I let it ride successfully, making 6 for a decent board.

All in all it was a fun event and a real privilege for both Kathy and me to play with renowned professionals.  Our results were pretty decent, finishing 11th and 15th out of 66 pairs in such a strong field.  I’d certainly recommend participating in an event like this if you have a chance.

Joys of Playing Virtual Bridge

Peter Haglich mentioned in George Jacobs’s article , Bridge Bulletin, March 2021, page 65.

1) How did you get involved with the event?

The event was an annual charity auction for Homeward Bound of Marin County, California. ..........

     The Bridge Center(BC) will not be opening in November as hoped. While the BC remains confident that the policies, procedures, and responsibilities it has in place can provide a safe and healthy environment for F2F bridge playing, the recent increase in negative news about coronavirus makes it unlikely that many players will give it a try.

    While the health and safety of our players remains the first and foremost concern, the health of the BC should be remembered. The BC was established over 10 years ago by the Unit solely to provide a central location for club games with a space large enough to hold Unit sponsored Sectionals. An effort needs to be made to generate income for the BC so that it can remain available when things return to a more normal state. We hope there will be some positive news by the the beginning of the new year and that the BC can open in January. Your support will be needed to get things back on track.

    Hope you all remain well and that you will have as happy a Holiday Season as possible.

Bridge Center Board

     The Bridge Center(BC) will not be opening in November as hoped. While the BC remains confident that the policies, procedures, and responsibilities it has in place can provide a safe and healthy environment for F2F bridge playing, the recent increase in negative news about coronavirus makes it unlikely that many players will give it a try. ..........

Unit 146’s Board of Directors met via Zoom on Thursday July 9th.

The major topic of business was the Annual Meeting.

The Board decided it’s only realistic option is to wait until January 2021 to consider options.  Our problem with having the Annual Meeting in October is we are required to have a tournament the day of the Annual Meeting and we are required to have at least 75 voting members of the Unit in attendance.  We decided that it is extremely unlikely we could get 75 members in attendance in person or on line.

A major function of the Annual Meeting is the election of new Board Members.  In anticipation of that the Board appointed the two Board Members of the nominating committee.  The nominating committee also has three Unit members, not on the board.  If you would like to serve the Unit either on the  nominating committee or as a Board Member please let   Jim Vroom   know.

Unit 146’s Board of Directors met via Zoom on Thursday July 9th.

The major topic of business w ..........

ACBL has partnered with Bridge Base Online (BBO) and The Common Game to give you chances each day to earn black masterpoints online. Additionally, the majority of the game fees you pay will be given to your local club to support them during this difficult time.

Support Your Club ACBL Black Point Games are pair events. Games are held on BBO three times a day – 10:00 a.m., 5:10 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. Registration opens two hours before game time. You can play with any other ACBL member who has a BBO account. As these games are very popular, it is a good idea to register as soon as the game opens. You can then sign-off BBO and sign-on again shortly before the game begins. 
Daylong Tournaments are solo events played with robots. In this game, you have up to 24 hours to complete your game (18 boards), and it doesn’t have to be played all at once.  Register anytime, and you’ll have until midnight Eastern time to finish the boards.

Both events use matchpoint scoring, and masterpoints earned in these games will count towards annual races.  For more information and an FAQ about both games, visit the ACBL website.

ACBL has partnered with Bridge Base Online (BBO) and The Common Game to give you chances each day to earn black masterpoints online. Additionally, the majority of the game fees you pay will be given to your local club to support them during this difficult time. ..........

Congratulations to the Brines' team (comprised of Tracy Brines, Maureen Brines, Muh-Sha Crawford and Brian Schoenfeld) who defeated the Hendricks' team (comprised of Bob Hendricks, Jennifer Christman, Howard Miller and Richard DePaulo)!  Thank you to all the teams who participated and a special thank you to Tracy Brines for coordinating the challenge.

5th Round
Hendricks team (0 losses) defeated Schlain team (2 losses)
Brines team (1 loss) defeated Haglich team (2 losses)
The Schlain and Haglich teams have been eliminated.
The finals will be two 16 board halves on  Friday (5/22) at 7:15pm and Monday (5/25) at 7:15pm.  Kibitzers are welcome.

4th Round
Brines team (1 loss) beat Holiday team (2 losses)
Hendricks team (0 losses) advanced by virtue of being undefeated
Schlain team (1 loss) beat Mathias team (2 losses)
Haglich team (1 loss) beat Cartlege team (2 losses)
The Holiday, Mathias and Cartledge teams have been elimated.
The final four will play 48 boards to be completed by next Wednesday.
Hendricks vs Schlain
Haglich vs Brines

3rd Round
Hendricks team (0 losses) defeated Cartledge team (1 loss)
Mathias team (1 loss) defeated Haglich team (1 loss) 
Brines team (1 loss) defeated Vroom team (2 losses)
Holiday team  (1 loss) defeated Siqueira team (2 losses)
Schlain team (1 loss) defeated Deglow team (2 losses)
The Vroom, Siqueira and Deglow teams have been eliminated.  Fourth round matches are to be completed by Monday (5/11).

2nd Round

Hendricks team (0 losses) defeated Deglow team (1 loss)
Cartledge team (0 losses) defeated Sequira team (1 loss) 
Brines team (1 loss) defeated Schlain team (1 loss)
Haglich team  (0 losses) defeated Holiday team (1 loss)
Mathias team (1 loss) defeated Olson team (2 losses)
Vroom team (1 loss) defeated Riegle team (2 losses)
The Olson team and the Riegle team have been eliminated.  Third round matches are to be completed by Monday (5/4).

1st Round
One three-way match was held.  Advancing were Bob Hendricks' team (Jen Christman, Howard Miller, Richard DePaulo) and Pete Haglich's team (Joe Siqueira, Jim and Judy Fox).  Tracy Brines' team (Maureen Brines, Muh-Sha Crawford, Brian Schoenfeld) took their first loss.
In the head to head matches:
- June Cartledge's team (Beth Rafferty, Kees Vandenheiligenberg, Karen Dickinson) beat JoAnn Olson's team (The Suffolk Four, Fran Duman, Becky Habel, Hazel White)
- Doc Holiday's team (The Bucket Brigade, Joe Seubert, Bill Mannschreck, JoAnn Tucker, Dale Fiebelkorn) beat Carolyn Riegle's team (Fearsome Foursome, Louise Gordon, Pam Boyce, Kathy Haglich)
- Bonny Deglow's team (Nate Moore, Larry Ryan, Doris Jordan, Gloria Brown) beat Jim Vroom's team (Susan Beller, Jim’s brother-in-law and his partner from Charlotte NC)
- Iris Siqueira's team (Susan Chambers, Linda Ankers, Tom Potter) beat Linda Mathias' team (Sue Boring, Tish Counselman, Marilyn Mendelson)
This is a double elimination event.  Second round pairings have been identified and matches are to be completed by Tuesday (4/28).

Congratulations to the Brines' team (comprised of Tracy Brines, Maureen Brines, Muh-Sha Crawford and Brian Schoenfeld) who defeated the Hendricks' team (comprised of Bob Hendricks, Jennifer Christman, Howard Miller and Richard DePaulo)!  Thank you to all the teams who participated and a special thank you to Tracy Brines for coordinating the challenge. ..........

KO Challenge – Final Results

Congratulations to the Fox team (comprised of Jim Fox, Judy Fox, Alan Schwartz and Annie Schwartz) who defeated the Brines' team (comprised of Tracy Brines, Maureen Brines, Muh-Sha Crawford and Andy Godfree) in the 7^th and final round of the KO Challenge!  Thank you to all the teams who participated and a special thank you to Tracy Brines for coordinating the challenge.

Round 6 results:
The Fox team defeated the Haddox Schatz team.
The Haddox Schatz team has been eliminated.
The Fox team will play the Brines team in a 32 board match.

Round 5 results:

Round 4 results:
Haddox Schatz team defeated Haglich team
Deglow team defeated Olson team
Doyle team defeated Lien team
Brines team defeated Fox team
The Haglich, Lien and Olson teams have been eliminated.

Round 3 results:
Fox team defeated Haddock-Schatz team
Brines team defeated Haglich team
Doyle team defeated Duer team
Deglow team defeated Riegle team
Olson team defeated DeMarsh team
Lien team defeated Holiday team
The Duer, Riegle, DeMarsh and Holiday teams have been eliminated.
Matches to be completed by Friday, 8/7.

Round 2 Results:
Brines team defeated DeMarsh team
Haglich team defeated Lien team
Haddock-Schatz team defeated Duer team
Fox team defeated Deglow team
Doyle team defeated Vroom team
Byes: Riegle, Olson, Holiday teams
Matches to be completed by Sunday, 7/26.

Round 1 result:
DeMarsh Team defeated Vroom Team
Lien Team defeated Olson Team
Duer Team defeated Holiday Team
Haddock-Schultz Team defeated Riegle Team
Deglow Team defeated Doyle Team

Consolation Bracket

Round 2 assignments:
By random draw, Vroom Team will play Doyle Team
Bye's to next round:  Riegle, Olson and Holiday Teams
Main Bracket Round 2 assignments:
Brines Team – DeMarsh Team
Lien Team – Haglich Team
Duer Team - Haddock Schultz Team
Deglow Team – Fox Team
Matches to be completed by next Friday (7/17/2020)

KO Challenge – Final Results

Congratulations to the Fox team (comprised of Jim Fox, Judy Fox, Alan Schwartz and Annie Schwartz) who defeated the Brines' team (comprised of Tracy Brines, Maureen Brines, Muh-Sha Crawford and Andy Godfree) in the 7^th and final round of the KO Challenge!  Thank you to all the teams who participated and a special thank you to Tracy Brines for coordinating the challenge. ..........