Grandslam #18 Mar/Apr 03

THE GRANDSLAM
SRC BRIDGE SECTION NEWSLETTER
MAR/APR 03 ISSUE #18

1. Message from the Convenor – Carlton Parker

Play and Play
Probably the best way to improve your game is to just play and play and play. Aside from the obvious benefits of having a regular partner (or, at least, a good partner), consistent and frequent play is essential to developing
your Bridge skills.
Fortunately, with the new year well underway, there are plenty of opportunities to play Bridge; either at informal "practice" sessions or the more structured and competitive tournaments. With the big holidays over, regular weekly sessions at various clubs (see 4 below) are now back on schedule. Most Bridge groups are in the process of finalizing their plans for tournaments throughout 2003.
SRC's popular Teams Event will be back in June with an expanded format to accommodate more teams. The "teams" event is a fun alternative to normal "pairs" play, and involves different strategies as well.

Wishing you lots of great Bridge in 2003.

2. CSC Tournament Result – 25th Jan
SRC won the Chinese Swimming Club’s tournament on 25th January (18 pairs) through Yu and Zain. But the performance that astounded everyone was BK and Helen who came in a close third. They took up bridge just a year ago and have only just completed the Intermediate Bridge Course. Overall, six of the seven SRC players who took part managed to take the top 7 out of the 18 positions. Well done!

1st Yu Chun Yee (SRC) & Zain Moledina (SRC)
2nd C C Loo (SCBA) & Chua Gang (SCBA)
3rd B.K (SRC) & Helen Tham (SRC)
4th Lu I Nan (SCBA) & Seet (SCBA)
5th Moo (SCBA) & Henry (SCBA)
6th Alice (CSC) & Eric Luk (CSC)
7th Chris Wong (SRC) & Carlton Parker (SRC)

3. SGCC Loving Hearts Feb 16
14 Pairs competed in this event with SRC entering 4 players. SRC topped the tournament through Dorothy who was partnering Ron. Well done!

1st Dorothy Wong (SRC) & Ron Savage
2nd David & Lucy
3rd Zain Moledina (SRC) & Rahim
7th Chris (SRC) & Carl (SRC)
4. Where to Play Bridge
Below are just a few places to play duplicate bridge in Singapore. If you do go to a free session, a small contribution of a snack is always appreciated.

Monday 7.30pm – SRC (free)
Tuesday 7.30pm – SICC & Dutch Club
Wednesday 7.30pm – PA (free)
Thursday 7.30pm -- SICC
Friday Morning – PA (free), Friday 7.30pm - SCBA
Saturday 2.30pm – CBC (free) or CSC (once a month)
Sunday 2.30pm - SGCC (free)

5. SRC Bridge Results – Jan 6 to Feb 24
DATE Pairs FIRST SECOND THIRD
6 Jan 11 Rahim/Ron Zain/Michael Adelene/Helen
Carl/Chris
13 Jan 11 Zain/Rahim David/Adrian Yu/Shamim
21 Jan 10 Zain/Yu David/Adrian Pat/Leong
28 Jan 10 Zain/Yu Dot/Richard Lawrence/YewChung
3 Feb 10 Zain/Molly Alan/Lena Carl/Chris
10 Feb 9 Pat/Leong Cheyenne/Ginny Carl/Chris
Shamim/EngChoo
12 Feb 5 Zain/EngChoo Pat/Leong Jane/Evelyn
17 Feb 13 Dot/Molly Ron/Rahim Pat/Leong
24 Feb 14 Ron/Rahim Zain/Yu AiLeng/Peter
Special Mention goes to Pat Leong and Mr. Leong for winning 10Feb and placing 3 other times – keep it up.

6. Unauthorised Information/Communication
The basic principle is that you are allowed to take advantage of anything done by your opponents at your table, but you are obliged to ignore any unauthorised information gained from your partner's actions or from other tables.

In fact if you do obtain unauthorised information from your partner, you should not only ignore it, but also be prepared to prove that you have done so. This means that if you are involved in any kind of close decision you ought to take the action opposite to the one indicated by the information from your partner. For example if during the bidding your partner passes after a hesitation, you must pass too unless you have a cast iron case for bidding, otherwise you might be accused of making use of the unauthorised information that your partner nearly had a bid.

It is also illegal to behave deliberately in such a way as to try to give spurious information to the Declarer. For example if you have only one card of a suit that is led, it is illegal to hesitate before playing it, creating the impression that you had more than one card to choose from. (See 17 below)
The same is true when a finesse is being done through you and you hesitate even if the honour card that is being finessed is not in your hand.
Another form of illegal information is to take out a card from your hand before it is your turn to play. This can be viewed as illegal communication to your partner or perhaps, a deliberate action to mislead the declarer. In either case, it is illegal and you can be penalised for it.

Another is to play your card differently to give information to your partner. An unethical defender may play his card quickly or slowly or perhaps pick up his played card slowly so as to ensure his partner has noticed his signal.

Yet another ploy is to make comments about the bidding or play with your opponents or partner in order to provide your partner with information. All this is totally unethical and illegal.

In practice, the director is seldom called. Some players do not know that this is illegal or would rather not spoil the relationship with the offender. As such, the unethical player continues to play unethically year after year. These players also know which opponents will not report to the director and which will and adjust their violations accordingly. Know your rights and call in the director if you see any infringement. Some of the time, the illegal communication could be purely accidental. However, if you notice the same person doing it frequently, you have a responsibility to weed out these unethical players from our group for the betterment of all.

7. History of Bridge – part 2
In the December 2002 issue of THE GRANDSLAM, the vague origins of Bridge were traced to the Tarot Cards in Italy in the 14th century. However, modern bridge players would not be able to relate easily to that game; with all those colourful pictures and strange terminology!

The modern bridge game structure was formed around the early 16th century in England. These early versions were called Triumph, Trump, Ruff, Slam, Ruff and Honours, Whisk and Swabbers, Whisk and Whist. Whist is still being played a little nowadays, but the rest have pretty much faded into oblivion or perhaps being played only in a niche context.

Whist may have referred to the rapid action of sweeping up the cards after winning a trick, or perhaps a call for silence! This game does not have a dummy and is, therefore, more difficult than modern bridge. Whist was popular as a fashionable amusement among the upper crust in England, and in 1834 Lord Henry Bentinck invented the first card signal.

The first game of duplicate whist was apparently played in London in 1857. It was intended to demonstrate the skill factor. A team of supposedly “good” players was deliberately pitted against supposedly “poor” opposition (there having been no previous objective criterion for judging them). The “good” players, as expected, won easily.

8. Believe It Or Not!
At a recent tournament, a new type of scoring methodology was used. Each pair had to write their own scores on their private scorecard WITHOUT showing it to the opposition or to anyone else. At the end of the tournament, the scores were not even verified or cross-checked! Talk about an honour system!

9. Revokes
A revoke occurs when a player plays a card of another suit when he, in fact, does have a card of the suit that is led. A revoke is established once the trick is completed. The rules on revoke have been covered in a previous issue of THE GRANDSLAM and will not be repeated here. Instead, I would like to present some of my observations and suggestions.

A revoke happens to everyone. As long as it is totally accidental and happens very infrequently, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Apologize to everyone at the table and be more careful in future.

But if you are prone to frequent revokes (say, once every 100 boards), you should realize that you are disrupting the game and it may even bring into question your moral ethics if you tend to revoke against weak opponents.

As weak opponents may not spot the revoke, they have been unfairly penalized and you have unfairly gained in the overall tournament result. If the revoke was spotted and the tricks are adjusted accordingly, it may still be unfair to the rest of the tournament players as your opponents may get an additional penalty trick over the norm, handing them a “top” board.

A revoke wastes the time of the Director, spoils the fun of the game, causes unfair scores to be posted and delays the tournament. If you are prone to frequent revoking, maybe duplicate bridge is not for you. You should consider Rubber Bridge, Chicago Bridge or just plain and simple friendly bridge with your friends.

Puzzles ? ? ? ? Puzzles
10. Breaking the Bridge
How many English words of 3 letters or more can you make from the letters of the word “B R I D G E”? Give yourself 1 point for each 3-letter word, 2 points for 4-letters, 4 points for 5-letters and 8 points for words of 6 letters (besides Bridge of course). No capital letters and short forms (e.g. deb, reg) are allowed. (Answer 18 below).

Good 40pts: Excellent 50pts: Outstanding 60pts: Word Wizard 70+pts

11. Fewest HCP for Grandslam
What is the fewest High Card Points a partnership may hold and be able to make a grandslam against any defense (Answer 19 below)? Guess first.

12. Bridge Poker.
During a Bridge course, this guy had been coming for five weeks but not paying any attention. He was there because his girlfriend insisted and he could not have cared less. The teacher left him alone because they had enough bodies to fill up each table without him.

On the evening of the sixth class one of the "regulars" couldn't make it and the teacher was forced to have this guy sit in. As luck would have it, this guy was the dealer on a prepared hand. He has six hearts and 13 HCP, an easy one heart opening bid. Easy for anyone else, that is. This guy didn't have a clue. Finally the teacher asked him what he was going to bid.
No answer.
"Well, how many points do you have?" No answer.
The teacher reviews the point count and finally the guy adds up his points and miraculously comes to 13.
"Good" said the teacher, "Now what are you going to open?" No answer.
The players at the other tables were becoming impatient. Finally the teacher said, "It doesn't matter, just open anything you like."
"O.K." the guy says, "I'll open for a dollar."

13. Quotes From ‘Bridge in the Fifth Dimension’
Victor Mollo has written several bridge books with exotic animals that have extreme personalities. Several of his so-called “menagerie” books are available at the National Library. Those who enjoy bridge hand stories laced with stereotyping, twists and turns, and sarcasm will no doubt find his books both entertaining and (horror of horrors) even educational!

Below are a few (slightly modified) quotes from his book “Bridge in the Fifth Dimension” to give you a flavor of what to expect.

“Clever of you not to miscount the Spades, partner. What a pity you did not show the same advance technique with the Diamonds.”

“Has your Dummy play finally reached the dizzy heights of mediocrity”

“Should I require your opinion, partner, I will give it to you.”

“Losing is due to making the wrong mistakes. Every effort should be made to pick the right mistakes”

“Partner, let me play the hand occasionally”
“But I only played one contract”
“Far too many”


14. Tip of the Month -- Finesse
Of course a finesse is prone to failure. That is why the better you become, the less you use it.

15. Different Systems
Englishman: I use the ACOL System. I open 4-card Majors
Irishman: I use the ALCOHOL System. I open anything and don’t worry about it.

16. Omission in Crossword Clues
The clue for 1 down in the previous issue of THE GRANDSLAM was accidentally omitted. The clue was 1. A double jump to 4C after your partner opens 1S is known as a ______ (8) bid showing support for Spades and slam interest. Sorry of the omission.

17. Unethical Singleton
South is playing a No Trump contract. He has Axx in dummy facing the KJ10 in his hand. He knows West has a singleton because East had opened a weak 2 in that suit. His plan is to lead the jack to the ace and then finesse the 10 on the way back. When he leads the J, West hesitates for quite a while and then plays low.
“And just which half of that singleton were you thinking of playing?" queried South

18. Breaking the Bridge - Answers
Answer : There could be some words I have missed, but these are what I came up with. (31 words = 71 points)

3-letters : bed beg bid big die dig ire red rib rid rig (11x1=11pts)
4-letters : berg bide bird bier bred brig dire gibe gird grid ired ride (12x2=24pts)
5-letters : bider bride dirge gibed giber rebid ridge (7x4=28pts)
6-letters : begird (1x8=8pts)

19. Fewest HCP for Grandslam - Answers
It may come as a source of great joy to chronic overbidders everywhere because just 5 HCP could be needed for an unstoppable Grandslam. For example, in 7S, declarer holds S: A J 10 9 8 7. H: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2, and dummy has: S: 6 5 4 3 2. D: 5 4 3 2. C: 5 4 3 2. In the opponents’ hand, the spades honours split 1-1, the hearts are 3-3 and no voids. Declarer ruff the opening lead, draw trumps in one round and establishes the heart suit by cross-ruffing 3 times.

In the next issue of THE GRANDSLAM – fewest points needed for Small Slam. (Of course it is less than 5)

Editor: Zain Moledina
1st March 2003