The Bridge Gazette November Gazette.pdf · The Bridge Gazette November, 2014 Kim Howard, Editor...
Transcript of The Bridge Gazette November Gazette.pdf · The Bridge Gazette November, 2014 Kim Howard, Editor...
The Bridge Gazette Page 1 of 9
The Bridge Gazette
November, 2014 Kim Howard, Editor
1520 14th Avenue, Vero Beach, FL. 32960
772-562-3008
www.verobridge.com
From the Bridge Coordinator’s desk By Martha Glassmeyer
We are happy to see so many familiar faces returning to the Bridge Center. November will be a busy month with a STaCs tournament from the 17th to the 23rd and several other special games. We will also be starting work on the roof replacement. We know this creates unwanted noise, dust, and parking difficulties for everyone. Clearly, this is not ideal but we look forward to having this roof installed so we can move on in greater comfort and safety. We appreciate your assistance while this important project continues. The roof workers will be staging equipment and supplies on our premises. Carpooling would be very helpful. We cannot park in the dental office lot or on the grass along Old Dixie Highway. The playing areas will be changing on a daily basis depending on where the roofers are working. We all need to be flexible and positive. There are signup sheets for this year’s Mentor Mentee Program on the foyer table together with detailed program guidelines. Thanks to Judy
Melchiorre who is chairing this important effort. We welcome your participation in making this another successful event. The Indian River Shores games are held on Tuesdays. This is an opportunity for a more relaxed atmosphere at the Indian River Shores Community Center. The Student Game begins at 9 AM and the Open game begins at 12:45 pm on Tuesdays. We are hosting a Sectional Tournament from December 5 through the 7th. We are well known for providing a spectacular venue for this special event. Our membership donates a wonderful assortment of home cooked food items and the committees over the years have always done a remarkable job. We thank you in advance for helping. We are thankful for the many volunteers who work tirelessly to maintain our facility, run our
The Bridge Gazette Editor: Kim Howard Contributors for this issue:Leslie Phelps, Lyn Guiffrida,
Kim Howard, Martha Glassmeyer, and David Garfield
From the president’s desk
By David Garfield
The Board of Governors met November 10. The Annual Meeting of the Club is just a month away. The Nominating Committee , chaired by Marge Desmery
joined by Eileen Krisinski and Rob Middleman, has selected Yvonne VanNostrand and Don Tribus to fill vacancies which will be created at year end with the retirement from the Board of our Vice President Bill Poole and our Treasurer Don Brinkerhoff. Our by-laws do not require that the Treasurer be a member of the Board and it is our expectation that Don will continue in this position when officers are selected by the new Board. More information on the candidates is posted on the bulletin board. By the time the Gazette is published we should be experiencing some activity stemming from the roof project. We expect delivery of materials on November 12 and commencement of the re-roofing shortly thereafter. Obviously there will be some inconvenience but we expect to continue our usual schedule of bridge lessons and games. The time to completion will be affected by the weather but we are hopeful of finishing within three weeks of the start date. The availability of parking will be impacted and members can help by car pooling. We will try to keep everyone apprised of developments with announcements on our web site.
tournaments, organize events, donate generously, prepare food, clean up after us, plan for our future, and have established this Club as the wonderful place it is. We all thank these volunteers for their selfless efforts. We are grateful.
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November 1
Richard Crannell, Robin Dunlap, Gini Koehler November 2
Gloria Anderson, Carole Miller November 3
Bill Baum, Peggy Jesser November 4
Este Brashears, Pat Brinkerhoff, Martha Downes, Bobbie Maffei, Ginger Winkler November 5
Robert Byrd, Paul Donaghy, Robert McBride, Barry Rowles November 6
Jill Benedict, Norm Thomas November 7
Mark Earle, Carol Mahony November 8
Karen Lind, Gerry Nogelo November 9
Hazel Lacks November 10 Nona-Are Franson, Don Riefler November 11
Carol Critchell, Christine Gibbs, Phyllis Thompson November 13
Judy Alderman November 14
Lil Cornett, Kathy Gillman, Lillian Horton, Ann Sowers November 15
Janice Glenn, Donald Houpt November 16
Mary Rianhard, Helen A. White November 17
Jim Greene, Louann Yates November 18
Frances Ingraham, Douglas Johnston, November 19
Elaine Gillooly, Ellie Lloyd, Marilyn Ohring, Preston Strazza, Susie Woody November 20
Richard Hunter, Judith Melchiorre, Betty Wiese, Bill Wilbur November 21
Sandra Gross, Janice Lunn, Barbara Smith
November 22
Gerry Browning, Mimi Burke, John Medley, Honey Lee Richless November 23
Betty Dalzell, Pat Pritchard, Joanne Reeves, Bob Shrauger November 25
Peggy Bradt, Robert Cronenwett, Sharon Sklansky November 26
Toni Brower, Rick Helfand, Bill Rose November 27
Eileen Sheridan November 28
Anita Stafford, Marshall Wolf November 29
Karol Lynch, Griff McClellan, Sarah Price November 30
Bizzy Cote, Lise Hounsell, Sarita Johnston, Paul Mita, Patricia White
JOE SHIFLETT
Joe Shiflett, past president (1981) and long time member of the VBBC, died October 10, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. He and his wife Nita were regular players. Eleanor Bengyak, our past manager, remembers Joe as always helping around the club, particularly after it moved to it’s current location. Before Joe retired, he was traffic controller at the Vero Beach Airport...always steady and never in a panic. Those attributes, together with a good sense of humor, made him a good president and a good partner in the game. Joe will be missed by those who knew him.
NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS
HEALTH MATTERS!!!! Many of our members have serious health
issues so if you are feeling ill please stay
home. Everyone use the hand sanitizer to
wash your hands so no one infects anyone with
a contagious disease or just the common bug.
THE ANNUAL HOLDIAY PARTY The Holiday Party will be held on December 12th beginning at noon. Please join us to celebrate the season. Holiday attire is encouraged! Boots and her crew will be providing a festive feast.
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Bridge Education by Lyn Giuffrida
2015 Celebrity Series The first celebrity speaker for 2015 will be Audrey Grant. On Tuesday, January 13, Audrey will speak on "The Art of Balancing. Don't let your part score slip away!" Member tickets purchased in advance cost $40. Our mid-winter land cruise will be captained by Jerry Helms. Jerry will speak on "Defend to Win!" This two day event will kick off with a wine and cheese party Friday after the game where Jerry will do a question and answer session. Saturday and Sunday will consist of 4-sessions with Jerry. Breakfast and lunch will be served both days. Cost for members in advance is $180. March will bring us Billy Miller of "Dear Billy" fame. He will be speaking on Tuesday, March 1oth. His presentation will be both morning and after-noon. His topics will be announced next month. Our day with Billy will include both breakfast and lunch. Advance member tickets cost $90. Plan ahead and make your reservations with Kim.
Bidding Review Classes Bidding review classes are held on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11:30. No reservation or partner is re-quired and the cost is $15. Here are some of the up-coming topics:
Nov. 12 - Takeout doubles & advances - Lyn Nov. 19 - Stayman - Ron Nov. 26 - Preemptive opening bids - Gail Dec. 3 - Jacoby Transfers - Jamie Dec. 10 - Opening & responding 2 clubs- Lyn
December Classes A 5-session supervised play course will be offered on certain Mondays and Thursdays in December. The dates are: Thurs, Dec 4 - Mon, Dec 8 - Thurs, Dec 11 - Mon, Dec 15 and Thurs, Dec 18. The cost is $65 and the instructor is Gail. Please register and pay in advance. We need 8 participants to hold the course, so please sign up with Kim.
Mentoring Program The sign-up sheets on the table for the open game mentoring program. We encourage both mentors and mentees to register. If a mentor and mentee have already agreed to work together, they may sign up as a pair.
Beginners' Corner You are defending against a trump contract. During the auction your partner has bid. Which card in partner's suit should you lead?
* top of nothing - 9-3, lead the 9 * top of touching cards - QJ8, lead the Q * low from 3 or more cards - K73, lead the 3 or 864, lead the 4 Exceptions: * don't lead low when holding the ace (lead the ace) A83 * if you've raised partner's suit, lead the top of nothing-874, lead the 8 9 A.M. FRIDAY STUDENT GAME
A brief lesson at a somewhat slower pace makes this a great game for students or those who want to give duplicate bridge a try. The session is 9 a.m. until noon. The fee is members $8 and $10 nonmembers.
9 A.M. TUESDAY STUDENT GAME WILL RESUME ON NOVEMBER 18TH!!!! A brief lesson at a somewhat slower pace makes this a great game for students or those who want to give duplicate bridge a try. The session is 9 a.m. until noon. The fee is $8 And is held at the I.R. Shores Community Center.
CARD SHARKS FOR OCTOBER
Martha Glassmeyer
0–5 Carol Davis
6–20 Migdalia O’Leary
21–50 Matha Moore
51–100 Doug Ell
101–200 Terry Wolf
201–300 Boots VanNostrand
301–400 Sue Weller
401–500 Sandra Gross
501-750 Mike Williams
751–1000 Helga Woodard
1001-2500 Gail Reams
2501+ Ron Andrews
CLUB STATS FOR OCTOBER TOTAL TABLES - 872.5
Black Masterpoints - 1746.33
Red Masterpoints - 45.28
Gold Masterpoints - 8.84
TOTAL MASTERPOINTS - 1800.45
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New Orleans, here we come! This past Saturday (10-25-2014), my partner Christine and I qualified as one of Florida’s top two pairs in the B category in the District playoffs of the North American Pairs (NAP) competition, and now we’re going next March to the Nationals – we don’t have to pay entry fees and we’ll go with a few hundred dollars in our pockets as a travel subsidy from our District! Not bad for one of the lowest-ranked pairs in a tough field that included at least a couple of directors from the Palm Beaches and Fort Lauderdale and went up to 2,500 MasterPoints for each player – we barely have half that between both of us. At our own home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center, we’re only C players, but as Life Masters with more than 500 points, we had to compete as Bs in the NAPs. We love New Orleans. We were on vacation there this past summer and we wanted to go back really bad anyway, and now we’ll be staying at the official hotel for the North American Bridge Championships (NABC), the Marriott on Canal Street just at the edge of the French Quarter – in between bridge there’ll be time for some eatin’ and some great music! And Christine will finally get the Po’Boy sandwich she missed out on in New Orleans the last time. For several years both Christine and I had qualified multiple times with mostly different partners, first in C and then in B, first up North and then in Florida, but we seemed to be jinxed when it came to District playoffs. Once I qualified with a partner who died before the playoffs; then a C playoff had to be canceled because not enough people showed up, and finally, a venue was closed because the night before someone had made off with 80 feet of copper wire and there was no power. And once, my Delaware/Pennsylvania partner and friend John Walston and I didn’t make it to the playoffs because his wife Eileen, a photographer for USA Today, worried what we were going wear for the pairs competition (she came at a “pairs” competition from a different angle – she was used to covering figure skating at the Winter Olympics). Christine and I were not to be denied this time. The competition was held simultaneously at two sites, one on Florida’s West Coast in St. Petersburg, and one on the East Coast at the beautiful new Mandel Jewish Community Center in Palm Beach Gardens, where we saw hardly anyone from Vero, but there
was a large contingent of our friends fromMelbourne. We had people in Palm Beach from as far away as Jacksonville, and in St. Petersburg, they had people from as far away as Fort Walton Beach. In the end, two of the top three spots in the B competition went to pairs who played at Palm Beach. A husband-and-wife couple from India, Margaret and Shirish Ponda, built up an almost insurmountable lead in the after-noon part of the double session and held on for first overall with over 57%, and we were second with 56.13%. We beat out the third-place team from the West Coast crowd from Fort Myers by .21 percentage points, although three teams from Florida qualified for the Nationals so they’ll make it, too. A pair anchored by a player from The Villages, the retirement community where they do nothing but play golf and bridge all day – most people drive a golf cart to bridge – was knocked out of second place all the way back into fourth at the end and will miss the Nationals. We had placed only fourth overall in the early afternoon session, and even though our percentage in the evening session was slightly lower (54% vs. 58% in the afternoon), with a fairly consistent game avoiding the big mistakes, we managed to nail down that silver medal for second place – and earned a whopping 12.75 Gold MasterPoints in the process, our second biggest one-day haul ever. We probably made it on the very last of the 48 boards we played in the double session, when we bid 4 Spades on a very risky Game with just 22 points between us. The hand records showed that we should have been able to make only 3 Spades, but Christine made 5 with an intelligent cross-ruff that our opponents could have prevented by drawing trump when they were on lead. For that feat of stealing a contract that shouldn’t have been made (and tying for a top among all the players on both Florida coasts), Christine deserves to be Smug Sam in one more “Bridge Burglar” column as she plays South on the diagrammed hand. I’ll be North as Sam’s partner, Shy Shem, although I certainly wasn’t shy about opening my 11-point hand with a singleton and then supporting her Spade suit. Our East opponent who twice failed to lead trump to give us our coup will play the role of Flustered Flo. She was probably tired at the end of a long night.
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Phone extensions 201 Kim’s office
202 Director’s desk
203 Courtesy phone by the bookcase
204 Cashier’s desk
205 Martha’s desk
October ACBL Rank Changes Junior Master: BRENT WELCH Club Master: SID HYDER Sectional Master: RAYMOND CONTANT Bronze Life Master: JAN RUSU & VINCE SOUKUP Diamond Life Master: CONNIE SACKVILLE
North Dealer; North-South vulnerable
North SpadesQ J 7 5 Hearts A 6 5 Diamonds A 9 7 6 3 Clubs 5
West East Spades3 Spades 9 8 6 4 Hearts 8 4 3 2 Hearts Q J 10 Diamonds K J 10 8 4 2 Diamonds Q Clubs Q 8 Clubs A K 10 7 4
South SpadesA K 10 2 Hearts K 9 7 Diamonds 5 Clubs J 9 6 3 2
The bidding: North East South West
1 Diamond 2 Clubs 2 Spades 3 Diamonds 3 Spades Pass 4 Spades All pass Opening lead: Q of Clubs
Here’s a rule of thumb: When your opponents seem to be stumbling into a suit which appears to be a second preference for one or both of them, lead trump on defense. They probably don’t have too many trumps, and leading trump will rob them of the opportunity to use all available trumps for cross-ruffing, since they’re probably short in each other’s first suits. Flustered Flo kind of forgot that rule at a recent District North American pairs playoff when she sat East on the diagrammed deal. She was excited to be able to overtake her partner’s opening lead of the Queen of Clubs with her Ace to lead back her singleton Queen in the Diamond suit that her partner had bid. She couldn’t resist that temptation. Sam took the trick with dummy’s Ace and correctly judged that his only chance of making the contract would be a cross-ruff. The opponents’ only chance of setting him would be to lead trump to foil that plan, but they hadn’t led trump the first time, and maybe they wouldn’t do so the next, time, either. Sam was careful to collect his Ace-King of Hearts before the opponents sloughed all theirs, finishing up in dummy, and started his cross-ruff by leading a Diamond. Flo ruffed, and she couldn’t believe it when Sam over-ruffed – what a split in Diamonds! Sam continued ruffing Clubs in dummy and Diamonds in his hand, forcing Flo to under-ruff on the last couple of tricks. In total he garnered 11 tricks with 8 trumps, the Ace of Diamonds and the two top Hearts to make his contract with an overtrick. On the last trick, when he had a to lead a losing Heart, he let the opponents’ last two trumps – the 9 and the measly 3– fall
impotently over each other in a perfect loser-on-loser scenario. “We could never get in to stop you,” said a despondent Flo afterward. “Sure you could have stopped me – twice,” said Sam, looking like the cat that just swallowed the canary. “How?” Flo asked. “You had the perfect cross-ruff.” “That’s what you could have stopped,” said Sam, smug as always. “Your partner should have led a trump on the opening trick. But you’re just as guilty. When you took that first trick with the Ace of Clubs – and eventually you were going to get it anyway, you should also have led trump. If you take two rounds of trump out, I can get only six tricks out of my trump suit, not the eight I got. So instead of making an overtrick, I go Down One.” “But I wanted to lead my singleton in my partner’s suit,” Flo protested. “How can that be wrong?” “Everything in bridge is situational,” Sam explained. “We had settled for a contract in a suit that was our second preference, so we were probably 4-4. You had 4 trumps yourself. That’s when you start leading trumps to take out ours and prevent us from cross-ruffing. And that consideration trumps leading a singleton in your partner’s suit – pun intended.” “So the bottom line is that you shouldn’t have bid the 4 Spades,” Flo demurred rather petulantly. “You were too high and you should have gone down.” “Well, if you’re going to make a mistake, Flo,” said Sam. “I’m going to take advantage of it – and in this case I thought the chances were pretty good you were going to oblige me.”
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Visit our web site at:
www.verobridge.com • for daily game results
• for tournament schedules
• to locate a member’s e-mail address
• For hand records
• For partnership’s
2015 Mentor/Mentee
Program Information Sign up sheets to register for the OPEN Games are available now at the front table. Please register beginning November 1, 2014 through December 15, 2014. The partnerships will be posted by January 1, 2015. OPEN MENTORING PROGRAM GUIDELINES:
• For Mentees with 25-100 points and Mentors with 300 plus points.
• Mentees are players with more than 25 points who do not play regularly in the OPEN games.
• Mentors are players with 300 plus points who regularly play in the OPEN games and who feel they are prepared to help players make the transi-tion from the limited games.
• Mentors and Mentees are members of the VBBC and the ACBL.
• The program will run from January 1, 2015 thru March 31, 2015.
• Each partnership is expected to play in three regularly scheduled OPEN games during that
program and will be eligible to play in the Mentor/Mentee Championship Game held
April 2, 2015.
• A Mentor and Mentee may agree to prearrange partnership in this program. • All other partnerships will be assigned. • Each player will pay his or her own game entry
fee. NOTE: Sign up sheets to register for the
NOVICE Program (Mentee with 0-25 points
and Mentors with 150-300) will be
available beginning January 1, 2015 with
Guidelines in the December Gazette. ——————————————————————— For more information to register by phone or email please contact Judy Melchiorre @ 772-569-2557 or [email protected].
ABC CLUB Kim Howard
Congratulations to the following C players who came in first in
all strata (C, B, A) in an open game during October:
10/1 Jane Garr & Audrey Fetter
10/6 Norma Quinn & Gloria Anderson
Michael Williams & Doug Ell
10/9 Gloria Pappalardo & Margaret Mary Zoltak
10/12 Christine Matus & Peter VanBennkom
10/15 Helga Woodard & Sue Weller
10/16 Rob Middleman & Tom McManus
10/18 Heidi Stott & Dell Hatten
10/23 Jim Andre & Barbara Bromberger
10/24 Helga Woodard & Gloria Sinni
Kathleen Catanzaro & Sally Goodrich
10/25 Jean Kay & Martha Glassmeyer
MP
Level
ACBL-
Wide Rank
Ace of Clubs VBBC Member
MP thru
Sept 2014
100-200
5th Boots VanNostand 120
2500-5000
22nd Ron Andrews
200
5000-7500
21st
Bill Poole
208
Ace of Clubs and Mini-McKenney Leslie Phelps
Here are the Ace of Clubs ACBL nationwide (not Unit) standings of our members for points earned at the club level through September 2014 for the top 30 in each division. Our club should be proud of the fine accomplishments of these members.
MP Level ACBL-Wide Rank
Mini-McKenney VBBC Member
MP thru Sept 2014
N/A
70% for October Congratulations to the following who achieved 70% or more
games in October:
10/07 John Hagood & Bunny Frey 70.19%
10/10 Tom Johnson & Joe Davis 75.83%
10/27 Jay Baum & Jay Prillaman 71.00%
ACBL-wide Master Point
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BOB SCHIVES Bob was born in Chatham, Ontario Canada. He spent his youth playing sports, wrestling and cross country, and you guessed it-playing cards. His parents and Aunt and Uncle played bridge every Saturday night and at age 10, Bob started sitting in for the person responsible for serving food. Other favorite games were cribbage and hearts. Bob spent his career in public accounting working mostly in the health care sector. At age 35 he met Karen, the love of his life. He taught her to play better bridge. They also played competitive Backgammon. Bob lost Karen to cancer five years ago but stays close to her three daughters and their families. Bob and Karen spent ten years wintering in Fort Myers, Florida. When Karen died, Rob and Jeanne Colton invited Bob to visit Vero Beach. The lack of traffic and the friendly reception at the Vero Beach Bridge Center sold him. These days Bob gets his exercise by parking on the far side of the parking lot at the Bridge Center (he allows me to write this). He is a night owl, often playing games like Dungeons and Dragons until 2 AM. He continues to summer in Ontario. Bob has two trademarks-his cutoff shorts and his friendly manner at the table. He plays 7 days a week in Vero.
Slow Play
The ACBL Board of Directors has passed a policy regarding slow play which states in pertinent part: “In the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary, the director should presume that a pair finishing a round late by more than two or three minutes on more than one occasion during a session is responsible for the lateness. There is a strong expectation that the director will penalize such a pair. The size of a penalty will tend to increase for subsequent instances of slow play and for chronic or egregious slow play.” There are several ways players can speed up their game, including: 1. Lead before you write. Opening lead should be
made before you attend to your paperwork. 2. Save the socializing until your table has caught
up. 3. Claim when you are absolutely sure of the rest of
the tricks. Be sure to clearly state your line of play.
4. Review prior play after the last board of the round.
5. Get the hand over with. Stalling or otherwise putting opponents to sleep is poor sportsmanship and unfair.
Most of this is common courtesy. No one is trying to remove thinking from the game. However, it is the director’s responsibility to maintain a level playing field and avoid any player having an extra advantage.
Victor Nicholas Bengyak,
89, passed away unexpectantly, October 31, 2014 in Vero Beach, FL with family by his side. Victor was born in Jackson Heights, NY and lived in Vero Beach for 37 years. He was a graduate of Newtown High School, Queens, NY. He was a veteran of the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946 and served during World War II. Victor was a retired New York City Firefighter for 20 years, serving Lower Manhattan with Engine 24 as a First Responder, efore his retirement in 1978. Survivors include his wife of 37 years, Eleanor M. Bengyak and his beloved service dog, Mitz ; stepson, Patrick M. McCalister, Sr. (Elizabeth); and several other family members. Victor was pre-deceased by his parents Rudolph Bengyak and Theresa Radakovics, both of Jackson Heights, NY; 3 brothers: Frank Bengyak, William Bengyak and Edward Bengyak. Any memorial contributions may be made to Dogs for Life, Inc. for the "Eleanor Bengyak Legacy Society” in memory of Victor N. Bengyak.
PLAYER PROFILE
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