Minnesota Bridge

Unit 178 from San Diego

Hi all!  I am blogging from the Fall NABC in San Diego.  The view from my room is so glorious, I may never play bridge at all!  (Only kidding :))

Marv Riedesel, President of Unit 178, requested that I post the September minutes from that month's board meeting. Please find same below.

More to come from the Nationals, too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Whether you are cooking a big feast in your home, on your way to a family get together - or - heading to San Diego for the Fall NABC - best wishes for a wonderful holiday!

Unlearning

Many years have passed since I began my first bridge lessons.  No matter how much time passes, however, I think I shall still remember my struggles to learn our complex yet fascinating game.  So many rules - and so many that seemed to conflict with one another!  Yet, it is the complexity and the difficulty that makes it all so worthwhile.

At times, it also seems that for every rule I memorized and learned - circumstances arise where ignoring that rule is what works!  If you are a beginning bridge player and fret that you will never master it all - not to worry.  None of us ever achieves "bridge nirvana" - and that is part of bridge's charm.

This week, John Koch features a trick that we are told never to do as beginners:  underleading aces.  How can this maneuver be correct?  When is it the right thing to do?

As he does so well, John shows us the way with some fascinating hands. 

Red - Green - Gold

Mike Cassel, MN Units Coordinator and District 14 Coordinator for the 2009-2010 Grand National Teams season is most excited about this year's competition!  Mike has written an article, letting everyone know how you can win red, green and gold by competing in the GNT.

What is red - green - and gold?  Do read Mike's column below to find out! 

And do be sure to check out the other links to brochures for the event, plus conditions of contest, too.  This could be your opportunity to win a subsidized trip to the New Orleans NABC!

Thanks, Mike!

There Once was a Partner....

At our most recent Minnesota State Sectional, we featured a bridge poetry contest.  Great entries were submitted by Evan Sachs, Steve Gaynor, Edna Lusk, Maurice Mertens, Verda Gould and Dave Neiman.  We thank everyone for their submissions, which were posted at the tournament.

Dave Neiman created the winning poem.  Please enjoy it below!

There once was a partner from hell,
Who bid like his hand was so swell.
He ignored my two passes,
Then took two losing finesses,
And blamed me when one short he fell.

Portrait of Bridge Players

Earlier today, I received a phone call.  "Hi," said the voice at the other end.  "I'm a commercial photographer in Minneapolis.  I like telling stories with my photos, and I'm working on telling the story of bridge."  So began my conversation with Chris Bohnhoff.

Later today, I arrived home with a link to Chris' blog, his Twin City Bridge Center photo shoot, and links to his fantastic other photographic work. 

When Chris says he's a professional photographer, he is not kidding!  Please do take a look at the portraits he took.  They are just superb - as his Chris' accompanying story of his introduction to the game of bridge itself.

Chris is hoping to take more photos and tell more stories.  I certainly hope he does - and if he has half as much talent for the game as he does for photography, we will have a budding bridge star on our hands!

What IS Bridge?

When your non-playing bridge friends wonder, "What is bridge?" - you can show them this!

What's Happening?

This week, John Koch presents us with a query from bridge great Bob Hamman.  If something seems a bit odd, ask yourself, "What is going on?"  Sometimes, a strange action can aid us in putting together all the pieces of a bridge puzzle.

Declarer did so on this hand.  See if you can match him!

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.