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North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club
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Welcome to North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club
April Schedule

Handicap Teams

The teams are on 4/4.  Please sign up in advance so we can compute the handicaps.  You can sign up as a pair if you don't have teammates and we will find someone for you.  

4 is Enough is Hoagie Day

Our 4 is enough game is 4/10.  We are having hoagies for lunch.  The ACBL Standard American Yellow Card convention cards are available if you want to use a standard set of conventions.  Let Pat know if you want to play and she will find you a partner.

Charity Games

The first two weeks of April are Charity Games. Monday, 4/8, will be in memory of Jim Watters.  Proceeds from this game will be donated to a charity specified by Elaine.

ACBL-wide Charity Game

There is an ACBL-wide Charity game on 4/24.  Results are compared across all of ACBL, so here is your chance to win lots of points.

Stardust Week

The week of 4/22 is Stardust week.  GOLD points will be available at the club.

Robot Individual

The Robot Individual is on 4/13. 

0-99 Game

The 0-99 game is on 4/24.

 

Lessons

Responder's Forcing Bids Class with Linda O'Malley at North Penn Bridge Club.

Beginning Tuesday March 19th and running through April 16th on Tuesday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00.

More information is available here

$20 per class or $90 for all five sessions.

If interested, contact Linda at LindaForBridge@gmail.com.

 

Schedule Changes

Game Changes for 2024

Thursday of first week of each month, we will hold a “Handicapped Teams” game in place of our Open game.  Handicaps will be assigned based on the average of the masterpoint totals of each team’s players.  Any team may enter, but the higher the average points your team has, the more IMPs you have to give to the opponents.

Wednesday of second week of each month:  a “Four is Enough (4IE) Pairs” game will replace the noon Open game.  Each individual player will be assigned a value of 1, 2 or 3 based on their total masterpoints.  No partnership can exceed a value of ‘4’.

1 = 0-300 MPs        2 = 301-1500 MPs            3 = 1501+ MPs

Wednesday mornings:  we are starting a “Stay and Play” policy.  Anyone who pays to play in Shuffle and Deal will be able to play in the open game at noon for only $6.

Finally, in January our Friday game will change to a 0-500 format.  This will allow our newer players to participate in non-life master duplicate games and provide opportunities for NLM players to qualify in the NAP C competitions leading up to NAP finals in the Fall. 

If you plan to play in Handicapped Teams (1st Thursday) or 4 is enough (2nd Wednesday) games, please sign up in the book at the club or send an email to the club at northpennbridge@gmail.com.  If you want assistance finding partners or teammates for these events, contact northpennpartner@gmail.com.

IRS Charitable Organization

We are now an official IRS Charitable Organization

This is the time of year when many folks are thinking about giving to charity.  Would you consider including North Penn as one of the organizations to which you give?  By doing so, you can help us continue and expand our education efforts, grow our games, and provide assurance that this great bridge club will continue to thrive in the future.

Earlier this year, the IRS officially recognized North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club as a 501c3 charitable organization.  That means that your donations to NPDBC are fully deductible for federal tax purposes.  A link to the IRS Approval Letter can be seen here.

There are many ways to give to the club, including

  • Cash or check made out to North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club.
  • Online via PayPal or credit card by clicking on Donate
  • Through a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) 
  • Through use of a Qualified Charitable Donation (QCD) from your Retirement Account.  Donating as a QCD counts towards “withdrawing” your RMD for the year. And the amount of your donation isn’t counted toward your taxable income, which may help you save on income tax.

All donations to NPDBC will be acknowledged with a thank you letter that can be used as documentation when submitting your tax returns.  If you have questions or need assistance with planning a donation, please let Dave, Pat or Beth know.  Thanks in advance!

Join / Rejoin the ACBL

Join the ACBL!  Click here to join the ACBL as a member of our club.

Don't want to commit yet?  Click here to join the ACBL as a guest.

 

ACBL has sent postcards to members who have lapsed since 2019. The postcard
acts as a $20 credit, intended to bring these players back to your clubs. Postcards have
been sent to lapsed players. Each postcard has a personal QR code for players to
renew their memberships, and it also has a QR code for club managers to receive a $20
payment from ACBL (via a credit to the club the following month).

Lessons at KOP

Lessons at King of Prussia


Check out their website at KOP for their schedule.

Partnership Desk

Partnership Desk

We are in the process of re-activating our online partnership desk and will now be monitoring it on a daily basis.  Please use it for requests for our Open games; partner requests for Tuesday and Friday limited games should go directly to Mitch Snyder. 

If you are in need of a partner for a Monday, Wednesday or Thursday Open game, please email northpennpartner@gmail.com.  We will do our best to match you up with others who are looking for someone to play with.

Shuffle and Deal

Come to "Shuffle and Deal" Sunday afternoons from 1-3 and Wednesday mornings from 9:30-11:30!

NPDBC is offering a casual day of bridge (no scoring, no masterpoints) on Wednesday mornings for $8 a person and on Sunday afternoons (Tuesday evenings are being phased out).  Just drop in.  No commitment or advanced registration needed.  Singles are welcome!  Mentors will be available to answer any questions that may arise.

It's a great way to improve your bridge bidding and play while meeting other advancing players in the North Penn community.

Schedule

This is our general schedule. Go to the Calendar to get details for individual events.

 

Time Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
9:30       Shuffle and Deal Club      
10:00     0-1000 Club     0-500 Club  
12:00   Open Club   Open Club Open Club    
1:00 Shuffle and Deal Club             
4:00             Robot Online (occasional)
7:00     Open Online        

 

All online games use BBO.

Save Your Club (SYC) games are available online, playing anytime with robots.

Robot Individual

Happy Hour with the Robots

Our next robot individual tournament is on Saturday, March 9, at 4 PM. 

You can check out the robot convention card by going to your account, clicking on "Convention cards" and selecting "GIB 2/1".  You can also just hover over any bid with your mouse while playing and it will tell you what it is.  Check out a video on the robots here.

Competitions Updated

Competitions have been updated.  Competitions should reflect those individuals who are or were eligible for the limited competitions.   If you aged out of a bracket last year, i.e., you now have over 100 points and aren't considered a novice, you will not appear in the rankings for the novices this year but you should appear in the competitions for last year if you had less than 100 points last year. 

Competition brackets are as follows:  Novice under 100 points, C players under 500 points, Intermediate players under 750 points, B players over 500 points and have less than 1500 points  and the A players.  Brackets were set January 12 based on the masterpoints earned last year.  Aging out of brackets during the year is based on points earned at the club and ignores points earned elsewhere.  

For instant, if you started the year with 490 master points and earned 10 points in club play and you will be excluded from the monthly competitions once noted.  The fact that you earned points elsewhere would have no bearing.

If you join the club and believe you should be appearing in one of the limited competions and aren't sent us a note.  It is likely your brackets have not been set. 

Membership

For just $20.00 a year, you can support North Penn and save on every game we play at the club.

Join online: Go to our membership form

Join by mail: New members should send your name, address, telephone number, email address, ACBL #, BBO name, and birthday (not year) and a check for $20 made out to the North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club.  Returning members whose information hasn't changed can just send the check.  Send it to:
    Membership
    Norh Penn Duplicate Bridge Club
    298 Wissahickon Ave., Suite B
    North Wales, PA  19454

New members: Apply during a bridge session; just ask the director.  Put your dues in an envelope and into the red mailbox by the restrooms.  We will contact you about creating a password for the Member Area.

Renewing members: Use the red mailbox, too.  After renewing, please verify your contact information by logging onto the Member Area or by sending an email to bethmilton49@gmail.com