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All the sessions are played; all the results are in. Another fine Winter Carnival Sectional to celebrate bridge and the winter!
Thanks to Gus Doty and his Unit 103 crew for an excellent tournament. We hope that all the competitors enjoyed both the hospitality and competition!
Also, thanks to director Tony Ames for sending results hot off the press. When ACBL final results are in, they will be added.
Plus - happy birthday to Lorna Nordlinder. What a great way to celebrate your birthday; at the table!
More photos and results below.....
All of us have the bones of system. Yet, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.
Today, Steve Gaynor offers an example hand. In that context, Steve discusses how to judge what meat should go on our system's bones.
Thank you, Steve - and look forward to seeing everyone this weekend at the Winter Carnival!
Is it a second hint?
This week, John Koch weighs how to decipher clues from the auction.
This year's Winter Carnival Sectional is less than one week away! The tournament has an excellent new venue in New Brighton - and a great schedule.
Check out all the details here - and make sure you have all your games for next weekend!
The bridge community of Minnesota has suffered a loss. We are saddened to report the death of John Cummings of Owatonna on Tuesday.
John was a long time member of Unit 103, and a successful player for decades. Most often, you would see John competing with wife Carol. In recent years, John also could be seen sitting across the table from son Bill.
Greg Caucutt kindly provided John's obituary, which includes visitation and funeral arrangements. Our condolences to Carol and Bill, and to all of John's family.
John will be missed by all.
Bridge is a fascinating game for a multitude of reasons. One of those reasons is that we are constrained in how we communicate with our partners. As we all know, when we bid, legal communication is quite limited. We have the various suits from 1 to 7 plus no trump, double, redouble - and the almighty pass. When we raise partner's 1 spade opener to two, our bidding box doesn't offer us a choice of: "mediocre raise to two," "middle of the road raise," and "right on the cusp of a limit raise" selections. No, we just have to evaluate each hand as best we can, then go with what we think is the best.
Needless to say, good bridge demands some thinking - and often, thinking versus not thinking takes time. The more time we take to make our bids and plays, however, the greater the odds that we have communicated information to our partner that is outside the bounds of what is "legal" than when we bid in tempo. Nothing whatsoever is wrong with taking time to think; we all do it. Yet, when we do so, we must appreciate that our partner is under a greater burden to not take any inferences from our extraneous actions.
Last week, Paul Gutterman wrote a nice article about some crossover between poker and bridge. This week, Paul shares with us the first of what we hope will be many columns on the important and perplexing issue of communication at the table.
Thank you, Paul - and - enjoy, everyone!
Is there any card with as many nicknames as the powerful ace? "Sticks," "the one," "bullets" - and more. We bridge players love to find our hand rich in aces - and deduct value from hands bereft of these mighty cards.
When you are fortunate enough to have an ace - or two or three or four - do you use your card to best effect?
This week, John Koch demonstrates the power of aces - be you declarer or defender.
Kurt Schaeffer is one of Minnesota's best. Whether bidding, declaring or defending, having Kurt on your team is always a plus.
Lest you think that Kurt is the only talented player in his family, however - guess again. Anne, Kurt's wife, definitely can rise and shine.
Kurt delivers the story and details the odds. Anne delivers the 1-2 cheeky punch!
This week, John Koch presents us with a rarity: a grand slam. A hand where all thirteen tricks can be taken occurs infrequently. In addition, some potential grands wither on the vine. Few of us want to be in a position where we went for the gusto, only to find that 12 tricks was the limit. At IMPS, finding out that the Other Guys are plus 920 or 1430 when we are minus 50 or 100 means we have dug ourselves a deep hole on just one hand.
On the face of it, John's hand today appears to depend upon a finesse. Can anything more be done to heighten the odds of success? As he does so masterfully, John will show us the way!
"Poker!?" you're thinking. "I thought that this was a bridge blog!"
Well, it is. And, although many of the sorts of "bluffing" that are allowed at the poker table are not allowed at the bridge table - a few definitely are.
Paul Gutterman is here to demonstrate how you can "play poker" at the bridge table and reap rewards!
Only a few weeks until this year's Winter Carnival! 2011 will bring a new venue (the New Brighton Community Center) along with a great schedule.
For all the details, please check out the flyer posted below. Don't miss one of the Twin Cities' most fun and longstanding tournaments!
Had Joe Grue stayed in the community of his childhood, I'm guessing he would have been "Player of the Year" in Minnesota an awful lot of years! Instead, however, our loss was New York's gain.
Jonathan Cohen sent me a column from the New York Times highlighting a key hand from Joe's most recent tournament triumph.
A great hand for a still young but very great player. Congrats, Joe, on being "Player of the Year" in NYC!
Sometimes we are destined for defeat. Suddenly, though, fate offers us a chance to escape doom.
Needless to say, however, rarely is life easy at the bridge table. If it were, few of us would continue to show up!
This week, John Koch shows us how to find the winning line when a lifeline is extended and opportunity knocks.
Unit 178's board will convene for the first time in 2011 on January 22nd at the Twin City Bridge Center in Minneapolis. For those who like to stay abreast of what their board is doing, please do check out the agenda below.
Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of our new year!
Hope 2011 is an excellent year for all - filled with loads of wonderful bridge games!