Grandslam #8

THE GRANDSLAM
SRC BRIDGE SECTION NEWSLETTER

SEP/OCT 2001 ISSUE #8

Message from the Convenor – Chris Wong
Hi all Bridge Section members,

The bridge practice sessions on Monday nights at the Poolside Café have been going great, with attendance of at least 4 tables per session for the last few weeks. There were a total of 12 SRC members who have attended at least one of the sessions within the last 2 months. On average, at least 6 of these were present during each of these sessions. Non-member participants have included members from People’s Association, Changi Beach Club, Civil Service Club, Serangoon Gardens Country Club and Chinese Swimming Club and independent bridge enthusiasts.

In order to ensure that players keep pace with others during the sessions, we have recently purchased an electronic timer for our use.

We have two exciting events lined up for the rest of this year. The first is the Inter-Club tournament on 22nd September 2001. See below for details.

The other is our annual year-end function on 1st December 2001. We have yet to firm up the event details. Securing a venue within the club for the event will be a concern for us, as the club will be carrying out its renovation plans in due course. We have officially raised this issue with the Management Committee, in particular on the availability of a permanent premise for our weekly bridge practice. It is in the renovation plan that the room at the Poolside Café currently utilized for our practice sessions will be demolished to make way for a games room.

2. PA Bridge Group First Anniversary Tournament

Eight SRC Bridge members participated in this match which marked the First Anniversary of the People’s Association Retirees’ Club Bridge group. A 7-table tournament was held on 28th July.

Excellent organization by PA Convenor Lau Lee Chin and Tournament Director Ron Savage provided an enjoyable time for all. Enhanced by a delicious “pot luck” buffet and seemingly endless snacks and drinks, the event brought together a variety of players for 24 boards of challenging hands.

SRC members made an excellent showing by taking all three top places in the Open Section. Zain (with partner David) was First; Dorothy (with partner Alan of SGCC) came in Second, while our Mr. and Mrs. Leong took the Third. Other SRC members, Adelene, Carl, Chris, Helen, all put up a good showing.

We extend a big “Thank you!” to the PARC bridge committee and members, and wish them many more years of enjoyable Bridge activities.

3. Upcoming SRC Inter-Club Tournament

The forthcoming Double Teams Seeded Inter-Club tournament will be the first of its kind held in SRC (and possibly in the world!). It will be held in the Milne Lounge on 22nd Sept.

SRC, Serangoon Gardens Country Club, Changi Beach Club and People’s Association Retirees’ Club will compete against each other. Each club will send 4 pairs and they will be seeded. There will be three rounds of 8 boards where pairs of similar seeding will compete against each other. Each Club team’s scores will be accumulated to determine the overall winner. Thanks goes to Zain and Carl who invented and developed this unique one-day double teams format to cater for our unique requirement.

Out of the regular SRC Bridge section members, eight have indicated their keenness to participate in this event and will represent this club.

4. Bridge Escapade to Genting Highlands

A 20-strong turnout for the Bridge Escapade to Genting (July 1st to 5th) made this event a tremendous success. A sample survey of the attendees taken soon after the event revealed that everybody was very satisfied and very keen to go again next year. In particular, they felt that the price of $165 for return coach, 4 nights stay, karaoke, theme park, buffet dinner, breakfasts and, of course, lots of bridge, prizes and snacks was fantastic value for money.

In the Open Pairs event, Dorothy (SRC) and Eng Choo (CBC) nipped Zain (SRC) and Shamim (SRC) for first place with Ai Leng and Foo taking third.

In the Random Pairs, where partners were chosen by lucky draw, Stella (SGCC) and Michael (IA) took first place from Zain and David by one point with Ai Leng and Foo third.

To give weaker players a better chance, the third session of bridge used a seeding system. This was based on the results of the earlier sessions with the top player pairing with the bottom and so forth down the list. Zain and Mr. Chew (CBC) came first in this Balanced Pairs event with a consistent Ai Leng coming second with Susan, followed by Ron (PA) and Foo,

5. Upcoming Courses

Rahim, who has taught at NUS, will be conducting the Beginner’s course this time. He will aided by Shamim and will be using the slides and notes from Zain to ensure that a standard system is being taught. Zain will be conducting his once-a-year Intermediate Course to bring players up from the “social” level to the “competition” level. There is a discounted price for those wishing to repeat this course. Details and forms are on the notice board and the lobby.

Bridge Humour – Poisoned Mushrooms
One of the best players in the world, Bob Hamman of USA, was partnering his wife at a major championship. After aggressively bidding to 6H he promptly went down when the opponents cashed the Ace and King of trumps.

“Way to go, Bob” his wife muttered sarcastically.

Hamman smiled and said, “Did I ever mention to you how my first wife died? She died from eating poison mushrooms. As was the case of my second wife, she too ate poison mushrooms and died. Alas, my third wife hates mushrooms and won’t touch the stuff. She died from a blow to the head.!!!”

Remember this the next time you play and be courteous to your partner! Needless to say, Bob’s ex-wife and his macabre sense of humour are very much alive.

7. Chinese Swimming Club Open Pairs Match

To jump start Bridge activity at CSC, an open pairs event was held on Saturday 25th August. Twenty-eight participants from many clubs came and gave their support. Savory snack of satays, chicken wings and mee-goreng combined with the friendly and spacious environment made the evening most memorable.

Fittingly, CSC took first place but SRC manage to clinch third through Zain and Ai Leng.

We wish CSC all the very best to build up their numbers and look forward to many more years of fun and friendly rivalry.


SRC Bridge Results – 9th July to 27th Aug 2001
DATE FIRST SECOND THIRD
9 July David/Peter Ron/Foo Carl/Chris

16 July David/Zain Eng Choo/Veronica Mr/Mrs Leong

23 July David/Zain Adelene/Dorothy Carl/Chris

30 July David/Peter Lucy/Lena Eng Choo/Veronica

6 Aug Ai Leng/Richard Dorothy/Helen Eng Choo/Veronica

13 Aug Mr/Mrs Leong Carl/Chris Helen/Jansie

20 Aug Helen/Jansie Ai Leng/Peter David/Zain

27 Aug David/Peter Lena/Suan Lin Dorothy/Richard

9. Bridge Hand – God Save the King?

Every beginner soon realises that he will not win many bridge games if he bangs down his ace when it is his turn to lead. Not only will he get is an assortment of low cards on his ace, but it will also promote the opposition’s King to numero uno. So he now learns to use his ace to kill an honour – preferably the opponent’s King. Alas, there are exceptions to all the “rules” in bridge and there is really no substitute for thinking through each situation.

An interesting hand occurred at CBC on Sept 1st, which I have slightly modified for this article. South ended as declarer at 3NT after a mismatch hand was revealed in the bidding. South opened with Hearts and North showed his Diamonds and Spades. Watch how the Kings fare in this hand.

NORTH CONTRACT : 3NT

S : A Q J 3 DECLARER : SOUTH

H : 7 6 OPENING LEAD : CJ
WEST D : J 10 9 8 7 6 EAST

S : 10 5 4 C : 5 S : 9 8 7 6

H : K 10 9 8 H : J 5

D : A Q 3 2 D : 5 4

C : J 10 C : K 9 8 7 6

SOUTH

S : K 2 With only 7 quick tricks, South’s

H : A Q 4 3 2 best shot is to try to run the

D : K Diamonds. After taking West’s CK

C : A Q 4 3 2 with his CA (yum yum), South plays

his DK. East eyed greedily at the sacrificial King and slammed down his Ace and in the process, promoted his Queen to the top. “You killed my partner’s Club King so I will kill yours.” East muttered to himself. In his excitement he forgot about the Homer’s story of “Greeks bearing gifts”.

East returned the C10 and South took his CQ. South entered dummy with a S2 to the SQ and kept playing diamonds until East took his DQ. Now, without any clubs and much wiser, he played a spade. But South was up to the challenge. He played the SA in dummy and “sacrificed” his own SK on it. This gave him the vital entry he needed to dummy to cash all the remaining diamonds and easily making his contract with an overtrick.


East should have seen that South was trying to establish dummy’s diamonds when he played his DK. East should therefore realise that his high diamonds will always win tricks and he should duck. Now there are insufficient entries to dummy to establish and run the diamonds. South will have to fall back on heart finesse or a favourable split in the Clubs – both of which, of course, fail.

Note how the 3 Kings “died”. East correctly played his CK on this partner’s CJ (which denied the CQ but not the CA) and was killed by Declarer’s CA. Declarer could have ducked this but an inspired Heart return could have put the contract in jeopardy. The DK was a Trojan Horse disguised as a sacrificial lamb as explained above. Declarer’s SK death was a suicide as it was taken by dummy’s SA to create a vital entry. God saved the Queens not the Kings!!

Editor : Zain Moledina

4th Sept 2001