THE GRANDSLAM
SRC BRIDGE SECTION NEWSLETTER
JAN/FEB 04 ISSUE #23
1. Message from the Convenor – B. K. Tham
It seems only yesterday that we celebrated New Year 2003. It was a trying year for many of us, with SARS, 2nd Gulf War, terrorism and the recession. However, our Bridge carried on undaunted.
Our Annual Pairs Event in November attracted the usual large crowd of quality players from our supporters. Once again, Zain and Shamim walked away with the Championship Trophy for SRC for the 4th consecutive year. Well done! You can read all the details below.
All that remains is for me to thank everyone for their magnificent contributions and support for our Bridge Section throughout the past year. We look forward to a more exciting and successful 2004, starting with our participation at CSC Annual Pairs on 3rd Jan and our fun-filled Genting Escapade on 29th February.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you and your loved ones
2. SRC Annual Pairs Event – 30th November
Throughout this exciting 36 boards, 6-hour marathon event, the lead changed hands several times, accentuated by the computerised scoring. As the (mentally) exhausted players finally dug into their dinner, the final scores were tabulated under the excellent directorship of Tan Peng Huat.
When the dust settled, SRC once again retained the Moledina Challenge Trophy through Zain and Shamim. SRC also secured the overall second place through a superb performance by Carlton Parker and Chris Wong. A beaming Richard Yong, chairman of the Social Section, was there to give away the prizes and proudly retained the trophy for yet another year.
A special congratulation goes to 79-year-old bridge player cum line dancer Stella Ee from SGCC for securing overall 4th place. Clearly age has neither dampened her mental nor physical faculties. A beacon and inspiration to us all!
Overall Position Percentage Position
1. Shamim & Zain Moledina (SRC) 62.9% 1st Open
2. Carlton Parker & Chris Wong (SRC) 59.6% 1st SRC
3. Pat & John Shoesmith (Ind) 59.0% 2nd Open
4. Stella Ee & Pauline Ng (SGCC) 57.6% 3rd Open
5. Kanan Bala (BC) & Ron Quan (CSC) 55.2% 4th Open
6. Rahim Rahmat & Loo Yew Chung (Ind) 54.5% 5th Open
7. Helen & BK Tham (SRC) 53.7% 2nd SRC
8. Dorothy Wong & Richard Lim (SRC) 50.2% 3rd SRC
Other Prizes
Crossword Puzzle (see below) Winner – Wendy Lim
Top Board Score – Tan Eng Choo & Veronica Png for 6NTXV
3. Bermuda Bowl World Championships 2003
Those who managed to catch the action live on the Internet must be the envy of the bridge world. The ending was worthy of an Agatha Christie novel, complete with twists and turns, mistakes, anger and suspense.
After 127 boards in a 128-board match, Italy were ahead of USA 1 by 11 IMPs. On the last hand, Italy overbid to 4H in the Open Room and went down 4 vulnerable on a bad trump split and skewed distribution. In the closed room, the American’s bidding took a similar initial route, but Italy pushed on to 5D. With perfect defense, Italy would have gone down two and lose the match, but the Americans made a mistake in the opening play. This would have allowed Italy to escape with one down and a tied match. But fate was not smiling on the Italians. As Dummy had left the room, the exhausted declarer accidentally pulled a low Spade from the entry-less dummy instead of the winning SQ in order to discard a loser from his hand. He immediately corrected to the obvious SQ, but it was too late. Angry words, the director’s ruling and an appeal to the committee came to no avail. The Americans had won the match!
4. Genting Bridge Escapade 4 – The Casino Tenace
Yes! The Annual Bridge Escapade to Genting is back again. Apply for your vacation leave early and block the following REVISED dates in your calendar – February 29th to March 4th (Sun to Thurs). Full details will be available in January.
5. Hari Raya Special at CSC – 25th November
The “bring a dish” bridge party at the Chinese Swimming Club saw 24 players supplying an assortment of goodies and prizes to the competition.
1st Zain/Shamim (SRC), 2nd BK/Helen (SRC), 3rd Murli/David
6. New Year’s Eve Special Celebration at CSC
30 Bridge players celebrated the New Year doing what they like best – playing Bridge. Everyone pitched in with food, desserts and drinks, but special mention must go to Pat & Leong for their superb organisation and prize donations.
1st Zain/Ron S, 2nd Eric/Alice, 3rd Tanny/Siak
7. Bridge Courses
The SRC Beginner Parent/Child Beginner course had to be cancelled due to insufficient participants. However, an Intermediate Course will be starting on Tuesday 3rd February. If you are fed up with erratic performance, you can improve, reinforce and refresh your bridge knowledge by enrolling in this course.
For details on upcoming courses at SRC and elsewhere, do check with Shamim (zaris@pacific.net.sg).
8. Wrong Bid
An insufficient bid is when you bid at a lower level or suit than the previous bidder. In this case, the rules are quite clear. You have to increase the bid to make it sufficient otherwise there are restrictions on how you or your partner may continue bidding.
A wrong bid, in most cases, means that you have forgotten an agreed convention with your partner. If you remembered your error after you have made the bid, it is absolute vital that you do not provide unauthorised information to your partner through facial expressions or verbally. You cannot say “oh”, apologise or utter anything. This is unethical and the director may be called to make a score adjustment. Your best remedy is to take your medicine and quickly pass if you feel that your partner has bid something you can perhaps make before it gets any worse.
If, however, you realise your mistake after some external action (an Alert by partner or a question by an Opponent) you are now ethically bound to continue bidding AS IF YOU DID NOT REALISE YOUR MISTAKE. This means you must answer to partner’s bid as per your original mistake. Your ability to pass and therefore limit the damage, (as in the previous case) is no longer allowed.
9. SRC Monday Bridge Results – Nov 3rd to Dec 29th
DATE Pairs FIRST SECOND THIRD
3 Nov 8 Zain/Rahim Yu/Ping Shamim/Molly
10 Nov 12 Pat S/John Yu/Ping Shamim/Richard
17 Nov 12 Zain/EngChoo Shamim/Rana Kanan/Greg
24 Nov 9 Zain/Shamim= Murli/Rana= Pat S/John
1 Dec 8 Shamim/Molly Zain/Murli Joli/Henri
8 Dec 9 Zain/RonQuan EngChoo/Veron SohHong/Jenny
15 Dec 10 Zain/Rahim Shamim/Molly Yu/Ron S
22 Dec 13 Anna/Lucy Zain/Rahim Dorothy/Ron S
29 Dec 10 Zain/Rahim Molly/Ron Oh Dorothy/Ron S
10. Books Donation
The SRC Bridge Section would like to thank Pat and John Shoesmith for their kind donation of 2 books to our Bridge Library. We enjoyed their company during our Monday sessions and wish them all the very best on their return to the US.
The books are :-
Tips for Tops by George Rosenkranz
More Tips for Tops by George Rosenkranz
Please see any committee member if you wish to borrow these or any of our other bridge books or videotape -- free of charge.
11. History of Bridge (Part 4) – Stayman Convention
History is sometimes unfair in allocating fame. Charles Darwin got the credit for Evolution while Russell Wallace, who probably contributed as much, is unknown to the world. Isaac Newton takes the credit for calculus while Leibniz, using a better notation, gets barely a fleeting mention.
The bridge world is no different. The first bidding convention a novice comes across is the “Stayman” Convention, presumably invented by Sam Stayman. In fact, in 1944 George Rapee of New York described the idea to Stayman. Sam then wrote an article on it in the April 1945 issue of “The Bridge World” magazine, giving Rapee credit for it. In spite of this, Stayman got his name on the convention. C’est la Vie!
Even worse, 5 years before that, in 1939, Jack Marx of London distributed notes of a “two-clubs over 1NT” convention to his friends, but the start of World War 2 prevented formal publication. After the war, it was published in issue #1 of “The Contract Bridge Journal” in 1946. Who says life is fair anyway?
12. Married Bridge Partners
Those of us who partner our spouses know how tense the situation can become. Here are some words of advice from Dorothy Truscott. She and her husband Alan are arguably (no pun intended) one of the best bridge couples in history.
“When one spouse is clearly better than the other, he or she should avoid criticizing and should shoulder as much of the blame as possible. When both partners are relatively equal, as Alan and I are, things become more delicate. Now gender does matter. Men have a certain macho instinct that prohibits them from admitting a mistake, just as it prohibits them from asking directions when they are lost. The sooner a wife realizes this the better. It is much easier for a woman to say, ‘sorry partner’.” All you wives out there take note!
13. Profile on Partners – The System Perfectionist
In each issue of “THE GRANDSLAM”, we will try to profile different kinds of partners. Contribution to this column is most welcomed.
The System Perfectionist has a dislike for straightforward bidding, which, he claims, “are for novices and lazy people”. He loves to cue bid the opponent’s suit, Redoubles whenever possible and, of course, totally wears out the “Double” card in the bidding box. When his partner gets confused, his favourite line is “but it can only have one meaning partner, you should have been able to work it out.”
The System Perfectionist is usually a strong player, but his tournament results are erratic. By leveraging on his “bidding superiority”, his partner’s bidding becomes prone to error. He wins the argument with his logic, but loses the hand.
14. Crossword Puzzle by Inzane (copyright)
Specially developed for SRC Pair Event Nov 30, 2003
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Across Clues
1. Partner opens 1NT. You have a 5-card Spade suit and you bid 2H, which asks partner to convert to 2S. This is known as a ________ ___ (8,3)
2. On picking up their cards, most people ____ (4) their cards according to suit and rank.
7. A rare 2-loser squeeze is known as a ______ (6).
9. The player who bids first is the ______ (6).
11. Bridge is an intellectual ____ (4).
12. Partner opens 1S. You jump to 4S, which means you do not want partner to bid anymore. This is called a ____ (4) –off.
13. Talking while playing is not only illegal, it also ______ (6) others around you.
14. A bid that raises partner’s suit means that you have ______ (6) on that suit as trumps.
15. Among the top bridge teams in ____ (4) are China and Indonesia.
16. A ___________ (11) hand with no points is known as a Yarborough.
Down Clues
2. A player bids after having passed earlier. This is known as a _________ (9) bid
3. In most systems, a single raise of partner’s opening major suit bid is ___ (3) considered forcing.
4. After 2 passes, a player usually opens with _____(5) than 13 points.
5._______ (7) is sometimes used as another term for “revokes”.
8. Bids that fix the point range of the hand are known as _____ ____ (5,4).
10. A common strategy in an NT contract is to establish your _______ (7) suit.
13. It is usually not a good idea to ______ (5)-lead from a King in a suit contract.
15. A response of 5C to Blackwood promises zero or _____(3) the aces.
15. Most Important Factor to Win a Tournament
It was unanimously agreed among all the top bridge players that the most important factor to win a tournament is to show up.
16. The Gum Wrapper Coup
Not many books will tell you the secret of the “Gum Wrapper Coup” but “THE GRANDSLAM” will enlighten you -- whether you like it or not.
This is how it works. The bidding is complete and it is your crucial opening lead. You look at your cards intently (for effect, of course) then look at the ceiling (for inspiration, of course), then you slowly unwrap the paper of your Wrigley’s (to eat, of course) and delicately place it in your mouth (the gum, not the wrapper, stupid).
By now your opponents must be really annoyed at your time wasting tactics and the dummy is itching to put down his cards and go to the loo. When you feel that the opponents are ready to call in the director, you slam the flattened Gum Wrapper from under your palm on to the table.
If all goes according to plan, dummy will immediately lay down the cards. By the time he realizes his mistake, you have already glanced at the cards and are ready with the killing opening lead.
The “gum wrapper” coup was said to have been invented by David Burnstine in the 1930s and the first victim was none other than the great Ely Culbertson.
THE GRANDSLAM takes no responsibility for the accuracy of the story and is not responsible for any grievous bodily harm that might result from the execution of the coup.
17. Death Wish
I want to die before my wife. If she goes up there ahead of me and tells everybody about all my bridge mistakes, I will never get a decent partner.
18. I Just Don’t Get No Respect
In the last issue of Grandslam, readers were told about the ability of P. Hal Sims to locate the Queen in a 2-way finesse. Well, aside from his body language reading ability, he was also a partner that appears in your worst nightmare.
According to legend, he once partnered B. Jay Becker, the world-renowned bridge master who represented the USA many times in his illustrious career. Nevertheless, that did not restrain Sims. For an alleged mistake during a tournament, he roared “Becker, you idiot, you nincompoop, you dunderhead…”
Becker took him aside and said “Mr. Sims, if we are going to have a successful partnership you’ll have to treat me with more respect.”
Sims cooled down after this. Later in the match Sims once again felt that Becker made a mistake. Remembering to treat Becker with more respect, he chose his words carefully, “MISTER Becker, you idiot, you nincompoop, you dunderhead…”
Ever since that incident, Becker has always been called Mr. Becker.
19. Murphy’s Laws of Bridge Opponents –by inzane
1. No matter how badly your opponents bid, they will always end up in the correct contract.
2. No matter how badly your opponents play, you will hold the exact cards and distribution to allow them to make.
20. Crossword Puzzle – Answers
Across : 1. Transfer Bid 6. Sort 7. Winkle 9. Dealer 11. Game 12. Sign 13. Upsets 14. Agreed 15. Asia 16. Featureless (Pictureless?)
Down : 2. Reopening 3. Not 4. Fewer 5. Reneges 8. Limit Bids
10. Longest 13. Under 15. All
Editor: Zain Moledina
1st January 2004
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