Minnesota Bridge

Name that Game!

A week before Thanksgiving, May's Gopher Regional seems quite far away.  Yet, we all know that it will be here sooner than we realize.

The Gopher organizers are offering a great opportunity.  If you'd like to honor a friend or highlight your business, then you can choose a name for an event!  All the details about what is available and how to choose your name are below.  In addition, an application is here so that you can get your favorite name placed on the event that you wish.

This is a wonderful chance both to name that game - and help raise additional funds for bridge!

Unit 178 Board Meeting for November

Unit 178 President Marv Riedesel has requested that the agenda for Unit 178's next board meeting be posted.  That meeting will be next Saturday, November 21.  Feel free to review the upcoming agenda.

King Dub

Many years ago in a world championship, Eddie Kantar found himself clutching king doubleton of clubs after his right hand opponent bid and rebid clubs.  When the Italians reached seven clubs, Eddie was ecstatic - until he saw the AQ of clubs float down in the dummy! 

Actually, although the "death holding" appeared in dummy, Kantar might have had an opportunity to beat the grand slam, had he put up his king of clubs when declarer led toward dummy.  Joking, Eddie said he didn't do it, as he was hoping that he might find a little club somewhere in his hand, and still beat the slam.  If he found that small club and had wasted his king, he would have killed himself.

"Don't worry," his partner Bob Hamman commented.  "I would have done it for you."

Closer to home in our most recent North American Pairs, Kurt Schaeffer had to reckon with his own tale of king doubleton.  Kurt is one most talented declarer, so we have a treat before us as Kurt takes us through his line of reasoning as he judges what to do.

After this hand, however, I think Kurt feels about the club king as Hamman did.  Bob H. flung it out the window, stating:  "This calls for a human sacrifice!"

Enjoy.

MN State in Pictures

Although a celebration in Chicago took your intrepid MN Bridge reporter away from last weekend's tournament, Marv Riedesel stepped in admirably.

My thanks to Marv for the fun photos of top masterpoint winner Evan Sachs, and many other happy competitors, directors and volunteers!

A Big, Huge, Giant "Thank You"

I just posted another fine John Koch column at Minnesota Bridge.  Every week, like clockwork, John sends me another bridge column, good enough that it could appear in the best bridge journals available. 

Our numbering seems to have gotten slightly mixed up - but - it seems that John has now written over 140 columns for us!  Quite often, players I know - both in Minnesota and elsewhere - comment on just how excellent John's writing and analysis are.

Please join me in thanking John for this generous donation of bridge expertise, writing talent and time out of his schedule to contribute to our bridge world.  John:  thank you so very much!  You're the best!

Percentages and Perception

Many qualities contribute to success at the bridge table.  Have a sense of likely percentages is but one.

This week, John Koch demonstrates how we can weigh what we know about odds, along with common sense and straightforward logic.  Enjoy his insightful column and ask yourself:  are you applying percentages and perception?

Happy in Hopkins

Last weekend, many of our players competed in the Minnesota State Sectional in Hopkins.  Congratulations to Evan Sachs, who earned just over 22 masterpoints to be Top Dog in overall points earned! 

To see who won what with whom - check out the results at ACBL.

As always, many thanks to those who worked hard to put together this tournament, to our directors and caddies - and to you for being there!

Leader Board

Be sure to check out Sharon Anderson, our District 14 director's blog.  Some fun stats about how our District's players are doing in a variety of competitions!

Double Dummy

No, this is not a post about a hand so difficult, only eight bridge players in the U.S. could figure it out.  Rather, this is a tale of two hands, and how to enjoy yourself when you are "relaxing" as the proverbial dummy.

Our thanks to Bill Voedisch for this amusing and entertaining submission.  And after you're done enjoying Bill's article, do check out his new book and website!

Victorious in Lake Geneva

The fall regional in Lake Geneva has long been a popular venue for Minnesotans.  The drive there is gorgeous, and the tournament itself is fun and well run.

Highland Park natives Larry and Mary McIntyre met with much success there.  They won the first two knockout events and placed second in the morning compact knockout, finishing up the week by placing in the overalls of the Sunday Swiss Teams.  A couple from North Carolina played with Mary and Larry earlier in the week; Mary and Keith Anderson from Rochester joined them later.  Very well done!

 

Bid 'Em Up

If you're going to be super-aggressive in the auction, then you'd better have a good follow-up in the play!

John Koch shows us how to put your money where your mouth is.

Unit 178 - Upcoming Election News

Seeking Volunteers

 

The Unit Board is seeking volunteers to serve on either the Nominating Committee or the Election Committee.  The duties and responsibilities of the members are noted below.  If you are interested, please contact a member of the Board.  Names, phone numbers and email addresses of the Board members are found here on MN Bridge.

 

2010 is an election year for our Unit.  At the 2009 Minnesota Gopher Regional members approved a change in the way Unit 178 conducts its elections.  The change allows the Board the discretion to use alternative means of voting, including having a ballot box at tournaments or at club games, in order to make it easy for interested members to vote without the unit incurring the costs of over 1000 mailings. 

 

 

UNIT 178 NOMINATING COMMITTEE

 

Number: Three members consisting of a chair plus two others.

 

Selection: Unit 178 Board on or before February 1^st of each even-numbered year.  No member of the Nominating Committee can be a Board member or a relative (or significant other) of a Board member.

 

Duties: To select two Unit members for nominations for each vacancy on the Board by the April 15 following appointment.  One nominee for each vacancy may be the incumbent member but at least one nominee should be a person not presently a member of the Board.  The Nominating Committee should work with the Election Committee to ensure that the nominees and their biographies are made available to the membership prior to voting.

 

UNIT 178 ELECTION COMMITTEE

 

Number: Three members consisting of a chair plus two others.

 

Selection: Unit 178 Board on or before April 1^st of each even-numbered year.  No member of the Election Committee can be a Board member or a relative (or significant other) of a Board member.

 

Duties: To oversee the election of the Unit’s Board of Directors, collect and tabulate the ballots and to announce the results of the election to the members of the Unit.

 

For both committees, the Board will provide you with easy-to-follow procedures.

 

Please volunteer!

 

Our unit provides a wonderful service FOR our bridge player members,

but only if we have wonderful service FROM our members.

 

 

Trumps All Others

I love it when our game gets more press!

Here's an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal highlighting the frustration and fascination with our favorite game.

First Weekend in November

The Minnesota State Tournament is just over a week away!  November 6, 7 and 8, you can enjoy pairs, compact KO's and Swiss teams at the VFW in Hopkins.

Our schedule with all the details can be found here.  As a bonus, if you show up a bit early before the Friday afternoon session, around 1:45PM, you can hear local expert Kerry Holloway's talk.

Lots of fun events; start scheduling your games now!

The Fumble

Everyone knows you can fumble on the football field. But, sometimes it happens at the bridge table, too.

Is your opponent someone who doesn't realize fake fumbles are against the laws of the game?  Did your opponent simply have difficulty manipulating the cards?  Was this competitor's mind somewhere else?

This week, John Koch teaches us how to analyze the play and play amateur psychologist, too!

Bridge in the News

Joe Grue may no longer be a Minnesota resident.  Yet, we all still applaud the little kid who could barely see over the table who now is a world-class player.

Do check out the story from the Hartford Courant, posted at Sharon Anderson's blog.  Great photo of Joe and nice coverage!

Wrong Spot

Virtually anyone who has played bridge has, at times, found himself in the wrong spot.  We wish we were higher - or lower.  Or in no-trump instead of a major - or vice versa.  Sometimes, we think evil thoughts about partner:  "How could he bid that way?!"

Yet, tough competitors appreciate that once the auction is over, we must concentrate on how to do the best we can with the assets dealt to us.  This week, John Koch instructs us as to how we can do exactly that.  Enjoy!

Autumn Harvest

After days of rain, snow, cold and otherwise bleak weather, last weekend produced days of beautiful sunshine, fluffy white clouds and colorful fall leaves.  Still - for 232 bridge players, their preference was to compete at the Autumn Harvest Sectional in Maplewood rather than frolic outside.

You can view results from Maplewood here.  Joe Rice ended up being big winner, with just under 20 points; Terry Lijewski captured second with a hair over 15.

Thanks to everyone who made the weekend one worth skipping glorious autumn days:  our directors, our caddies, our volunteers - and, of course, all of you who attended and played!

Be sure to check out more photos below, too!