Albuquerque Bridge Player

Volume 4, Issue 1 March 2002

Ask Al continued from page 1

1 something by partner, 2 no-trump by you invitational or forcing: no alert. (Note this is a natural response, not something conventional like Jacoby 2NT.)

In other words, if your bid is natural, and does not convey some specific other information (such as guaranteeing a singleton somewhere else, for example), no alert is required.

Doubles, redoubles, and passes--- None of these are alertable unless they convey some highly unusual or unexpected meaning. For example, a penalty double by agreement when most would play the double as takeout is an alert. Another alertable call would be a pass, which, by agreement, may require action by partner (but not a high level: forcing pass”). Support doubles and redoubles remain alertable.

The so call “Albuquerque double” to show points not shape has been clarified. I checked with Tom Whiteside, director in charge at our Regional, and despite the language about “highly unusual or unexpected, the double is NOT an alert.

If you want to make a takeout double of one heart just to show your points, without regard to you holding in hearts or any other suit, no alert is required. However, if your doubles may be highly unusual, it is suggested that you warn the opponents after the auction if you become declarer (not if you defend or are dummy). This would cover making a takeout double of one heart with a hand like S-Kx, H-AKxxx, D-Kxx, C-xxx. You have 13 points, but the majority of them are in opener’s suit, and that is also your longest suit-surely “highly unusual or unexpected.” The world would pass and want to defend. Do not alert, but if you become declarer, just say, “We play points not shape takeout doubles.” There fore, if your takeout doubles may be unusual in that they don’t promise support for all suits, but most of your power is still outside opener’s major suit, then no alert, not need to make a statement as declarer (unless asked).

All opening one no-trump bids must be accompanied by an announcement of the range by partner. Note that it is only opening one no bids, not two no trump, not overcalls in no trump (unless, as always, there is something unusual about you bid).

Also, if you play that an opening non-forcing one club or one diamond bid may be fewer than 3 cards, an announcement (not an alert) is made. The partner must simply say, “May be short.” (Precision players should note most of their alerts remain in tact.)

Remember that conventional bids are all alertable unless specifically exempted, and that there is no penalty for making an unnecessary alert, but there is for failure to make a required alert. It is your responsibility to know your card, and to learn what requires an alert or an announcement.

Navajo Trail Regional

January 21-27, 2002

MASTERPOINT LEADERS

1	Hugh	Grosvenor	94.77
2	Ken	Gee	94.77
3	Jay	Mann	90.67
4	Darrell	Keel	89.20
5	Mark	Lair	79.21
6	Eddie	Walker	79.21
7	Bruce	Cobb	75.56
8	Steve	Bruno	74.74
9	Michael	Levy	73.85
10	Phillip	Kielpinski	73.55
11	Joe	Harris	71.30
12	Dennis	Goldston	66.19
13	Ronald	De Harpporte	64.43
14	Dennis	Saliny	64.43
15	Barry	Harper	61.74
16		Karwur	59.80
17		Manoppo	59.80
18		Sacul	59.80
19	Suzanne	Jones	57.20
20	Broma Lou	Reed	57.20
21	Don	Campbell	53.34
22	Alan	Goldenberg	52.09
23	Mike	Hutchinson	52.09
24	Steven	Blatter	51.77
25		Lasut	51.75
26	H Jay	Sloofman	50.47
27	Judy	Randel	50.27
28	Sandra	Hiss	48.14
29	William	Lynch	46.33
30	Markland	Jones	44.81
31	Ken	Barbour	44.81
32	Rudy	Krall	43.34
33	Larry	Berthoff	42.65

NEW JUNIOR MASTERS

Antje G. Muir

Keesha M. Ashanti

Jean Lycan

Margaret A Casados

Barbara J. Sims

NEW CLUB MASTERS

Doyce King

Marilyn Woodruff

Nancy L. Black

Russell E. Edwards

Polly W. Wimer

Lillian H. Fesler

Susie Manhoff

Richard C Minzner

Virgil L. Mitchell

Elsie D. Wilkins

NEW SECTIONAL MASTERS

Sudip Dosanjh

Deborah L. Reichman

Joy A Sjogren

Lise S. Sullivan

Cheryl Eckart

Helen L. Mc Kee

Joan Barnett

Nelson Barnett

Lisa Torres

David Fugelso

Jana S. George

Barbara Kelsey

Buck Schreyer

Puzzle

Five People decided to play bridge one evening. Each one took a turn at sitting out and kibitzing. While playing, each person bid and played either a small or grand slam. There was one slam bid in every suit, clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, and one in no-trump. Given the information to the below, determine each person’s full name, the suit and slam bid, and whether or not the slam was successful.

1. Dick, who isn’t Mr. Dawson, didn’t declare in hearts.

2. Mr. Clark (who isn’t Tom) isn’t the person who bid the grand slam that went down 2.

3. Harry wasn’t in the spade contract.

NEW REGIONAL MASTERS

Julie J. Drennan

Janis Maclay

Sara Jane Scott

J. Michael Eckart

Alice F. Boynton

Vicky M. King

NEW NABC MASTERS

Christa Cooper

Viorel Atudorei

Norman Cliff

Felicity M. Reid

Jeanne M. Richmond

NEW LIFE MASTERS

Sara H. Doonan

Kathryn T. Ritterbush

New Bronze Life Masters

Katherine Stewart

Lynda Hundertmark

New Silver Life Masters

Diane A. Schnepper

New Gold Life Masters

Mary S. Terell

Mary R. Nelson

4. Peter and person who bid hearts (who isn’t Anderson) went down one in their slams.

5. The man who bid 6, down 1, wasn’t in clubs.

6. John didn’t bid no-trump.

7. The fellow who bid and made a grand slam and the fellow who bid a grand slam and went down 1 were not Mr. Anderson or John.

8. Mr. Clark was not in the club contract.

9. Mr. Anderson didn’t declare in no-trump, didn’t bid and make a baby slam, and didn’t go down 2.

10. Mr. English and Harry didn’t bid no-trump, but they both played dummy exceptionally well and made their contracts.

Solution on page 5

Bridge in the Albuquerque Schools
By Kitty Cooper

Some of you may have noticed the average age at Duplicate Bridge is only rising. In an effort to combat that trend, a few of us got together and started a “Bridge in the Schools” program this year. The ACBL educational foundation provides some sponsorship and the Unit and schools have provided the rest. Although it may be a while before these classes add younger players to our games, it is still very exciting to see sixth and seventh graders learning to play. Interestingly, some of our kids have been teaching their parents. A number of them have mentioned that their grandparents play.

We took the approach of not teaching bidding for about ten lessons. We used MiniBridge, a form of bridge without bidding. Each player, starting with the dealer, announces his or her points going clockwise. Then the partnership with the most points gets to control the hand. The partner with the most points is declarer. His partner puts down the dummy and then the declarer decides on a contract. Scoring is the same as duplicate non-vulnerable scoring. This lets the kids build their play skills and learn scoring. Then when the bidding is added in, they know why we want to get to game when it makes.

We have three successful middle school after-school classes going at Hayes, Hoover, and Wilson. The classes range from one to two hours with one to three tables worth of students, depending on what conflicts there are that week. A challenge for all our bridge teachers is coping with the constantly changing student body. Not all the kids can be there every week and new students frequently show up. But they are all having fun and learning some card play skills and a little bidding.

We are hoping to have an inter-school Bridge competition for the middle schools towards the end of the school year.

The feedback from these schools has been very positive. One striking comment was that some of the kids who were having success in the program were not the ones they expected. One of the sponsoring teachers, a math teacher, was impressed by how some of the kids were counting the suits so easily by now.

Our two high schools, West Mesa and Highland, have been more challenging. We have had to cope with a shorter time period and less interested or fewer students. West Mesa is finished for this school year; we will try again there next fall. Highland has only four to six students in a thirty-minute period, but they do seem to like it. In two years’ time the Wilson and Hayes kids will hopefully be continuing their bridge there. Cliff Hill is willing to try to keep this “Bridge Club” going.

In general, we try to have a teacher and an assistant for each program. That way each table can get plenty of attention. Also since none of us can be there every week, it is good to have more than one person who is involved. Please contact Felix Reid or me if you are interested in teaching either now or next year or if you can help us get a class going in a school you have contact with.

Here is the list of current schools and teachers:
Hayes Middle School - Felix Reid (assistant needed)
Hoover Middle School – Jeff Brown, Anne Ingram
Wilson Middle School – Betty Choc, Bill Nelson
Highland High School – Cliff Hill

West Mesa High School – Joe Harris, Jim Bushnell

Other unit members who have been instrumental in getting this program to happen are Janet Youngberg, Norma Casey, Karen Griffin, Marilyn Anderson, Sue DuBroff, and our Unit Coordinator Bill Isham. Special
thanks to Bill Kass for his wood working skills, which he used to make us card holders for those little hands.

More information about teaching in the schools is on my website at: http://www.kittycooper.com/teacher.html.

And the special page for the kids, which includes pictures of them, is located at:
http://www.kittycooper.com/Schools.html.

We would like donations of some bridge tables for this program. Or at least some loaners for our interschool competition! Also if anyone has an Autobridge set or Bridge playing program that they no longer use, we have lots of kid who would love them.

♠

President’s Report continued from page 1

Another success was pointed out to me when a District 17 board member from the Phoenix area asked how we managed to have so many 299er tables in play. Phoenix, with many more potential new players, had about 10% of the number of 299er players at their last tournament. Unit members like Marilyn Anderson, Norma Johnston, Jim Johnston, Norma Casey, Janet Youngberg and many others who have given lessons and encouraged new players deserve thanks for that success. We arranged for speakers before most of the 299er sessions. Thanks to our own Kitty Cooper for her contribution. She was among about seven expert players who donated their time.

There is a long list of good things that happened at this tournament that we as a Unit should be proud of. There is a much shorter list that I will work on to improve our next tournament with your help. I was very pleased with the Sheraton Old Town as a playing site. There were a few rough spots in the restaurant and with reservations but the hotel staff were extremely cooperative solving problems. Overall, I think it is the best playing site available in Albuquerque and I want to return there for many years. Right now we are trying to resolve a space conflict for next year at the Sheraton but should have no trouble remaining there in 2004 and later.

I welcome your comments regarding ways we can improve the tournament and invite you to volunteer your efforts to improve our future tournaments. If I have forgotten to thank some of you who worked at the tournament, I apologize. You don’t have to be on the Unit board to be eligible to volunteer. Thanks, again.

♠

Solution to puzzle on page 3:

Peter Anderson, down 1 in 6 spades.

Dick Baker, down two in 7NT,

Harry Clark, made 7 diamonds.

Tom Dawson, down 1 in 7 hearts.

John English, made 6 clubs
Ron’s Other Life

By Jill Burtram

What do you do to relax from competitive duplicate Bridge? Why, play competitive team tennis! For Ron Short, competition is as natural as breathing. Even in the tennis “off season”, Ron plays three or more times a week, his philosophy being that practice, practice, practice makes a winner. The philosophy has paid off. For 10 years he has been captain of one of Albuquerque’s men’s senior teams (age 50+) and has taken them to the regionals six times and to the nationals twice. They haven’t won the title yet, but I wouldn’t bet against them. Apart from bridge and tennis, Ron likes to shoot pool and is a mean bowler, the writer having observed him bowl a 248 on a casual afternoon outing (if any competitive endeavor Ron undertakes could be called “casual”). The senior men’s tennis national championship will be held in October or November. Ron may be taking a trip.

Sherry & Her Friends

Sherry Bradley has done it again. For the 28^th consecutive Christmas she has spearheaded a drive to support the U. S. Marine Corps Toys For Tots campaign. This year Unit 374 donated $500.00 and many individuals donated cash and toys to help Sherry make this s successful venture. 367 toys were donated to the Marine Corps to ensure a more joyful holiday for many needy children.