Join us on Friday, October 14th at 12pm game for the ACBL Wide Instant Matchpoint Game.  This is a new event for us, and we hope that you'll enjoy the challenge of this game, as well as the extra masterpoints, and the analysis provided by the ACBL's Larry Cohen.  Please note this game is usually at 10am, but due to game restrictions, we MUST not start until 12 NOON.

Event:

• Masterpoints:

• One gold point to section tops in each direction in each club, remaining points red/black at 81.8% sectional rating.
• Overall Awards: 1st, 20; depth of awards, 10 places
• District Winners: 1st, 10; depth of awards, 5 places

• Winners recognized on website and in the Bridge Bulletin

  *Hand records and analyses provided

  See your score instantly after each deal played! Features for players include a booklet with complete analyses of the deals by national champion Larry Cohen

Swiss Teams Club Appreciation Team Game - GOLD POINTS  10-14 Game (Beer, Wine & Snacks) !!!

Our Monthly Swiss Team event is scheduled for Friday,  October 14th  at 7:00 PM.  This month we are running a CLUB APPRECIATION TEAM GAME.  EXTRA POINTS ... INCLUDING GOLD!   We duplicate boards for this Swiss Team Event, so you have hand records after the game to do  a full analysis of your bridge game (and your partner's!!).   Game is at 7pm.  Get your team organized and sign up at the Front Desk (the sign up area is behind the director station).   This is a great evening of bridge.  

Ladies Night Out Game - October 28th 

Friday Evening 10/28 - our monthly Ladies Night Returns ...  with a potluck at 6:00PM, game time @ 6:45pm.  We've had the summer off, it's time to get back into the swing of fall & winter bridge.      As we did last year - it's a Halloween theme ... bring your tastiest & scariest (are those even words that should go together?) dish!

We'll look forward to sharing your favorite "Halloween" potluck dish, having a glass or two of wine & a great bridge game.  Please sign up at the front desk or you can email us at Eastside Bridge Center.    We will be serving complimentary soft drinks & wine, you may, of course, bring a beverage of your choice.  We look forward to another fun-social evening of Food, Wine & Bridge!  Signup at the front desk or email us - at Eastside Bridge Center.

Fall 2016 Bridge Lessons start in September/October - See our Class schedule.  Sign up NOW!

New Fall Lessons are now available for scheduling - please click on  Class Schedule or the lessons page to see our full schedule of spring classes!  We have a new class with Dee Berry - Important 21st Century Conventions.  This class will be in two 4-week sessions (one Fall 2016, one Winter 2017) - the beauty of this class... you will work with Dee to determine the conventions the class most wants to do in depth on.  Register quickly as this class will fill up fast!

NEWSLETTER  (volume 3 #3)!!   Click on the newspapers below to read all the news.  Always a Huge Thank-you to Susan Johnson (Editor) & Julie Godefroy for their major contributions.   Please email your suggestions for our next edition to Susan Johnson at ebcnews@comcast.net .  ENJOY!  (P.S. - it takes a minute to load - wait for it!!)

Changes to 1NT Opening ... ACBL Sanctioned

Opening 1NT with a singleton:  It’s officially legal

The ACBL Board of Directors removed a legal gray area surrounding semi-balanced notrump openers when it approved a change to the definition of a notrump opening in the General Convention Chart. The change allows players to open 1NT with hands that include a singleton ace, king or queen, as long as they do not also contain a doubleton.

Here is the new definition, effective Aug. 1:

“A notrump opening or overcall is natural if, by agreement, it contains no void, at most one singleton which must be the A, K or Q and no more than two doubletons. If the hand contains a singleton, it may have no doubleton.”

This includes hand patterns such as 5-4-3-1, 6-3-3-1 and 4-4-4-1, in addition to those that were previously allowed, such as 4-3-3-3, 5-3-3-2 and 5-4-2-2.

The change was recommended by the Competitions and Conventions Committee, a group of players appointed by the Board, in an effort to bring regulations in line with popular and expert practice, said ACBL Field Manager Sol Weinstein, who supervises tournament directors.

Before, opening notrump with a singleton was considered a psych. It was legal to do, but players could not have an agreement to open such hands 1NT or 2NT. The lack of clarity was a thorny issue for directors.

“Many players were doing it anyway,” Weinstein said, particularly when a different opening would create a problematic rebid. “They decided it’s not right to have a rule that’s contrary to the way bridge is being played.” The idea of expanding the definition has been discussed for years within the committee, but previous proposals have failed because they lacked the simplicity of the new definition.

“The Laws don’t allow you to limit bridge judgment,” Weinstein explained. “Regulations have to conform to the Laws.”

The new definition prohibits opening notrump with more shapely hands, such as 5-5-2-1, 6-4-2-1 or 7-2-2-2.  “All of this has to do with your agreements,” Weinstein noted. “That doesn’t prohibit an out-and-out psych, but you can’t keep doing that or it becomes an agreement, and an illegal one at that.”

The change does not impact the one allowable exception of a partnership agreement where 1NT is treated as a 100% forcing opening bid (and not considered “natural” with any distribution).  The use of such an unbalanced, non-natural 1NT opening must be alerted.