For Complete Swiss Teams Results
Swiss Team results are not completely posted on our website under "Results." Our website provider presently can only list three names and cannot post hand records. However, if you click on LINK TO BBO RESULTS on the game’s results page, it will take you to the BBO page that lists detailed results.
Guard Against Misclicks
As you know, you are not allowed to take back a misclick in either bidding or play. You can greatly reduce the chance of misclicking by changing two settings on BBO. First click on ACCOUNTS. This will usually be on the far right or the bottom of the screen. Then click SETTINGS. Under PLAYING, you will see CONFIRM BIDS and CONFIRM CARDS. If the slider for either or both is to the left (and gray), turn it on by clicking the slider. The slider will move to the right and turn green.
Now you will have to make an extra click to bid or play a card, reducing the chances of an error.
If you do make the wrong call or play the wrong card, you are not allowed to let your partner know. To do so is a serious breach of the Laws of Bridge. Alert and explain your agreements, not what you actually hold.
Board of Directors Meeting
The next Board meeting will be held, via Zoom, at 4:00 pm on Monday, February 22. All club members are welcome to attend. If you wish to attend please contact Pamela Gorbics, p.gorbics@att.net, so that she can provide you with a Zoom invitation.
ACBL Educational Foundation Charity Games
All of the St Pete Club – TBBC virtual games for the week of February 22nd through the 28th will be double points (all black) with a fee of $7 rather than our normal $6. The extra dollar goes the Educational Foundation, a 501(c)3, which supports teaching and popularizing bridge. We encourage you to support the Foundation and our clubs by joining us several times this week. For more information on the Foundation, visit https://www.acbleducationalfoundation.org/page/who-we-are-1.html.
We have added a 0-499 game for Saturday, February 27, to give our players one additional chance to earn double points during Charity Week.
Memorials
In past years, our club held a memorial game in February to honor those club members we lost in the prior year. Unfortunately, we are not (yet) able to get together to remember our lost friends. The names of those we lost in 2020 are listed in the Memorial section of our webpage. Their names will be memorialized on the plaque in our club. Below is the list of members who passed last year. Please let us know if we have accidently failed to include someone.
Kathie Pettit
Charlie Dunn
Judy Zebos
Beverly Jo Ganim
Barbara Keast
Jimmy Pelham
Bud Dean
Bill Hale
Gayle Moore
Charles Mueller
Bridge Tip for Newer Players
I’ve been told that newer players are taught that an opening one-of-a-suit bid shows 12 to 21 high card points. That is a perfectly reasonable guideline. However, distribution and concentration of honors in long suits are also important. For example, AKT97 KT86 432 6 is a better hand than T9843 J762 KJ AK. I would open the first hand and pass the second.
Bridge Trivia
Answers to last week’s questions
1. The largest score you can make when declaring a hand at duplicate bridge is 3160 for taking all the tricks in 1NT redoubled vulnerable. Bidding and making 7NT redoubled and vulnerable is worth only 2980.
2. The ACBL was founded in 1937 by the merging of two competing organizations.
3. Chico undoubtedly lost more money gambling at bridge than the other Marx brothers. Chico played for high stakes and was not a very good player. He also was a consistent loser at other forms of gambling.
Questions for this week
1. Who is credited with inventing Contract Bridge?
2. Who hosted a bridge show on ABC from 1959 through 1965?
3. Who has the most Master Points? Bonus question: who is third on the Master Point list?
Help, Please
Any suggestions, complaints, error corrections, or juicy gossip? Please drop me a note at stpetebridge@gmail.com.
Paul (Guido) Friedman