South African Bridge Federation

2021 Congress – BBO

BULLETIN #3 Fri 18 June 2021

Content compiled by: Neil Hayward Layout and Design: Shirley Kaminer

The Qualifying rounds are now finished and we are moving into the final stretch of the 2021 National Congress Pairs event. Wishing everyone an enjoyable two days at your virtual bridge tables!

The final results of the three Qualifying sessions are at the end of this bulletin as well as on the results page of the SABF Congress website.

Bumper Stickers

Play Bridge: It is Cheaper than Therapy

A Bad Day at the Bridge Table is Still Better than Cleaning the House

Duplicate Bridge: A Game in Which Agreeable Partners Can be Disagreeable

I Have No Free Time. Not Since I Started Playing Bridge.

Bridge: A Test of Your Skill Versus Opponents’ Luck Logical thinking in declarer play

It is amazing how much information we can gather from a bridge hand and use it to our maximum advantage There will always be clues from the bidding and from the early play. Imagine that you are declarer in the south seat, holding the following hand (comes from a friendly game, as do so many interesting hands). Your side is vulnerable, and the opponents are not vulnerable.

Partner is the dealer and the bidding proceeds as follows:

North East South West 1C pass 1D 1S Pass pass 2NT pass 3NT pass pass pass

West leads the Ace of hearts and you see the following dummy:

East encourages and West continues with a small heart. You play the jack (not expecting to win the trick, but mainly for the purpose of cutting communications between the defenders). East wins the queen of hearts and shifts to the 9 of spades. You play small, and West wins with the queen. West now shifts to a small club. You win with the ace and try the jack of diamonds. If the diamond works and the diamonds divide 3- 2, you will have your 9 tricks (1S, 1H, 5D and 2C). Unfortunately for you, West wins the queen of diamonds, and exits with a small diamond which you win in dummy with the ten. When you play the third round of diamonds, West discards a small spade. You now see that the diamond queen was a doubleton. At this point, it is important to picture the opponent’s cards. This can be done by roll calling the suits:

• Spades: West overcalled 1S, so he should have 5, so East has a doubleton. • Hearts: West led the ace of hearts, followed by a small heart. (He could have started with a small heart if he had more than 2). Also, when he won the queen of diamonds, he could have played a heart, but he exited with a diamond instead. So, it certainly looks like West started with 2 hearts, so East must have 6. • Diamonds: This suit we know for certain. West has 2 and East has 3. • Clubs: By elimination, the clubs must be 4 with West and 2 with East.

So, the full hand could look like this:

With West marked with having started with 4 clubs to East’s 2, the odds are 2 to 1 that the club finesse will work.

At this point, with 4 cards left, the position will be as follows, with you on lead:

You play the 3 of clubs, and when West follows with the ten, you finesse by playing the jack . . . or do you?

In fact, if you think about it, there is no need to finesse. If West has the queen of clubs, the contract is certain without the club finesse. You simply rise with the king of clubs and play your heart winner, discarding your club. West will be under the hammer and will be forced to blank his king of spades to keep the queen of clubs. Now you play a spade to your ace, dropping the king and making the last trick with the ten of spades.

On the actual hand, when you rise with the king of clubs, you drop the bare queen from East, thereby reaping the reward for your far-sighted play.

Diniar Minwalla

More Trivial Pursuit Bridge Questions . . .

1. What is the name of Charles Goren’s partner, the first woman to play in the ?

2. This American President was considered an expert at bridge.

3. This famous comedian played bridge on pretty much a daily basis, and he continued to do so even at the age of 100.

4. Top-notch tennis player who was an avid bridge player.

Pterodactyl: A 10-1-1-1 hand

Rattlesnake: A 4-4-4-1 hand

Rattlesnake with a tail: A 5-4-4-0 hand

Salmon: The 7-spot

It’s the semi-final of the ABF Zonals vs Tunisia. 4th in hand, no-one vulnerable, you are faced with a decision to bid over a (potentially light) 1S opening. As you are in the middle range for a two suited , and further have no prime in C (it would be different if AS was AC), and for now it looks like it’s the opps hand in S and you don't want to give away the distribution, you decide to pass.

When the tray comes back round, you now have another decision. With what looks like an 11 card fit, 1st or 2nd round control in the opps suits, and 1st AND 2nd round control and a source of tricks in the 4th suit, you jump to game in C.

Over to you to play the hand...E leads AD under which W throws the K. Switch to 2S, A, Q, 8. Finesse or drop?

Neither. Let’s get a count of the hand. AH (4, 6, 9). TH (5, 8C, 2). Ruff a D (2, 3C, 3). KH (7, JS, Q).

What do we know? Opps play UDCA with standard remainder count - looks like they are religiously signalling. Opener has 5cS (opened) and 3cH (count); KS, QH, AD that’s 9 HCP. On the bidding and count signals it looks like Responder has 6cD, on his play to trick 1 it looks like KQJxxx, QS stiff and Jxxx of H (so doubleton C). Filling in the gaps, Opener has 4cD and a singleton C. If Responder has the KC, his hand would be QJxxx KQJxxx Kx - I would open that, wouldn't you? So, Opener must have Kxxxx Qxx Axxx K (and that fits with his 3rd in hand opening), so you drop the stiff K of Trumps offside, 8 IMPs in the bag.

And the lesson? Don't take critical decisions too early: get a count of the hand from the play and the bidding.

P.S. what do you think about the 3C bid? Let’s face it, no 3C, no game...

Andrew Cruise A Game Steeped in History

Who would believe that bridge played a significant role in American naval history? In 1917 in the Turkish harbour of Constantinople (now called Istanbul), an American gunboat, the Scorpion, was boarded by the Turks, who were German allies. The German navy wanted the Scorpion to be used as a decoy, but the crew much preferred to be interned under Turkish control. The Captain of the ship, Lieutenant-Commander Herbert Babbitt, challenged the Interior Minister, Talat Pasha, to a game of , with the ship as the stake. If Babbitt lost, the Scorpion would go to the Germans. If he won, the vessel would be interned where she was. Babbitt succeeded in bringing home a difficult 4NT contract to win the stake. Talat was true to his word. The Scorpion and her crew remained in Turkish waters until the war was over. For the rest of his naval career he was known as Four Notrump Babbit.

Daft Definitions

- Bath : getting to use the tub before your roommate. - Doubleton: 4,000 pounds. - Dummy: (see below). - Partner: (see above). - Free Bid: all of them, once you pay your fee. - : annual meeting of baby-food manufacturers. - Bid: an opening like "Club One." - Roman Discards: Caesar's trash. - : the only known way to become declarer with a singleton in each hand. - : relocation to a branch office in Dallas. - Trump Echo: a brand new casino in Atlantic City. - Vienna Coup: the mating sound of Austrian doves. - Wolff Sign-off: the ending of Little Red Riding Hood.

Strategy at Matchpoints (3): Defensive Play By Kathryn Herz & Eckhard Böhlke

Dealer South, none vul: the opponents bid 1NT-3NT; partner leads ©8; sitting East you see the following dummy:

ªJ62©J107¨K72§KQ72

N W E ªAQ102©A5¨J765§J83 S

How will you defend? Partner has obviously led from a weak suit (either from 98xx or from 8xx), since from an honour he would have led a small card. To beat the contract, you need to find partner with ªKx(x). If South as declarer held a minimum opener of only 15 HCP, this would leave a maximum of 3 HCP for partner West. You expect a probability of perhaps 20% for partner’s potential 3 HCP being exactly ªK (assuming dealer to hold 15 HCP including ©KQ). Do you play for this? Which trick objective do you play for?

Yes, at Teams you would go for this worthwhile chance of beating 3NT by ©ace winning the first trick followed by four ªtricks.

At Matchpoints, however, your objective is to outscore as many pairs holding your cards as possible. Beating 3NT is not your primary objective. You have to consider what would happen if you played ª2 at trick 2 and partner did not hold the ªK. Declarer would run the ªswitch to his ªJ. Later he would play towards his ªking (since the ªace seems to be with East when West did not win trick 2 with the ªace). Since playing partner for ªking is clearly against the odds, probably presenting declarer with an overtrick, you cannot make such a risky switch at Matchpoints.

The full deal could look like this:

ªJ62©J107¨K72§KQ72

N ª874©9842¨Q109§964 W E ªAQ102©A5¨J865§J103 S

ªK93©KQ53¨A43§A85

Your strategy regarding defensive play should be: At Teams, you will seize even the slightest opportunity to beat the contract. If this proves impossible, the (IMP) cost for risking additional overtricks is negligible. At Matchpoints, however, defensive play is a highly complex matter, not least because the number of tricks you are aiming at it is not always clear from the outset. You must define the number of tricks you aim at in EVERY hand! Never put all your eggs in one basket (i.e. play against the odds), as additional overtricks tend to be very costly for the defending party. Kathryn and Eckhard . . .

Both of us started playing bridge later in life. Eckhard took up the game when working abroad during his international management life. Both of us were involved for many years in committees of our local club in Hamburg and our regional Bridge organisation. Eckhard also served for many years in the national committee of the German Bridge Federation responsible for (amongst other things) education, later for national championships, tournament direction, and the selection of the national teams.

We enjoyed the honour of winning a German Mixed Pairs Championship.

We love Cape Town and our friends there and we are looking forward to coming back to Cape Town in December.

Trivial Pursuit Answers . . .

1. What is the name of Charles Goren’s partner, the first woman to play in the Bermuda Bowl.

Helen Sobel. Charles Goren was considered “Mr Bridge” in the 1950s. Someone, in great awe of Goren, asked Sobel what it was like to partner a really great player. Sobel answered: “I don’t know. You will have to ask Mr Goren.” That might have sounded conceited, but it was also probably accurate.

2. This American President was considered an expert at bridge.

Dwight D. Eisenhower. He held Saturday-night games at the White House. Regular players included Fred M. Vinson, chief justice of the United States, Harold E. Talbott, secretary of the Air Force, and, on occasion, Oswald Jacoby. One imagines transfers would therefore have been in use.

3. This famous comedian played bridge on pretty much a daily basis, and he continued to do so even at the age of 100.

George Burns

4. Top-notch tennis player who was an avid bridge player

Martina Navratilova

ALL AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 2021 OPEN PAIRS QUALIFIERS – THE RESULTS For the FINALS: Rank 1-22 to CHAMPIONSHIP; 23-44 to CONGRESS; 45-66 to PLATE; 67-90 to PRESIDENT (NB. Some withdrawals expected; please refer to web site for final line-ups later today) Rank Players Overall Sess 1&2 Session 3 1 Noah Apteker (noahapteke) & Bernard Donde (bino2) 61.26 61.51 60.75 2 Wilf Sperryn (Wgs1430) & Di Knowler (jinja44) 58.95 60.67 55.52 3 Chris Bosenberg (bosie1) & Neville Eber (eebs) 58.71 61.83 52.48 4 Bev Hewitt (hewey7) & Trish Crosse (trishc) 57.63 57.50 57.90 5 Imtiaz Kaprey (imtiaz1) & Martin Grunder (em_ge) 57.31 60.16 51.61 6 Larry Chemaly (larryc777) & James Grant (goldbar) 57.11 57.66 56.01 7 Paul Hackett (paulhac) & Judi Lawson (judilaw) 56.76 59.71 50.85 8 Tim Cope (tec1234) & Michael Alexander (treetops38) 56.58 55.63 58.49 9 Eckhard Boehlke (Eckhardo) & Kathryn Herz (KHerz) 56.37 55.78 57.54 10 David Wrang (spurskane) & Jude Apteker (judeap) 56.07 54.76 58.70 11 Val Bloom (valfb) & Maureen Holroyd (mgcjh5) 56.01 60.59 46.86 12 Hennie Fick (hcbfick) & Duncan Keet (Dunx) 55.87 54.14 59.33 13 Glynis Dornon (Glynisd) & Ester Goosen (2000and01) 55.77 56.17 54.98 14 Craig Gower (craigy52) & Alon Apteker (alonap) 55.47 56.18 54.05 15 Desiree Pieters (desi101) & Jack Dorfan (dor1938) 55.00 54.12 56.77 16 Mark Oliff (rurban1) & Rob Stephens (drowzee) 54.84 51.60 61.31 17 Andre (WP) Van Niekerk (InTime) & Rose Duff (tarankaur) 54.29 56.01 50.84 18 Louise Berman (Loulou18) & Allan Berman (allanb) 53.89 55.28 51.12 19 Mike Ash (ma5546) & Robert Ferrari (rcferrari) 53.75 58.51 44.22 20 Marina Breytenbach (keymax) & Jimmie Potgieter (jimpot55) 53.59 58.27 44.23 21 Lotte Sorensen (lvsrn) & Aras Apteker (arasap1) 53.51 52.54 55.44 22 Guy Wilson (Guy W) & Peter Terblanche (H Dog1) 53.36 54.41 51.27 23 Delys Shepard (Del20) & Helene Roberts (THROBERTS4) 53.09 52.94 53.40 24 Mark Kenyon (marksa) & John Bryant (johnb1948) 53.06 52.09 54.99 25 Tas Nestoridis (symigirl) & Nicola Bateman (nicolap) 52.86 51.23 56.11 26 Kit Gilmour (kolivia) & Helen Kruger (helenk1) 52.79 50.30 57.78 27 Neil Hayward (neilhay) & Peter Ward (peter3202) 52.58 50.95 55.84 28 Ann (KZN) Miller (chads) & Kitty Phillips (kit e kat) 52.55 50.10 57.45 29 Di Rosslee (rottiefan) & Greg Hingle (Greg_H) 52.54 48.75 60.11 30 Paul Reynolds (horace1) & Brent Shapiro (shapsy7) 52.35 52.43 52.18 31 Shirley Rubin (shirlrub) & Dawn Palmer (palmerd) 52.06 46.54 63.10 32 Madeline Joffe (jglami) & Hilary Sacks (trazy234) 51.83 50.13 55.22 33 Joan Van Vught (jbvv) & Lex Van Vught (lexvan) 51.57 54.17 46.37 34 Brian Pincus (bkpsc) & Glen Holman (glensa) 51.51 53.10 48.34 35 Anton Der Kinderen (Banditos) & Jill Rabie (JillyRabz) 51.35 54.04 45.98 36 Ann Worthington (wor123) & Janet Colebank (JMVC) 51.34 50.76 52.50 37 Aaron Seinker (aaron_1) & Joyce Hessen (sparkle25) 51.17 54.59 44.32 38 Maureen Narunsky (moremo) & Robert Sulcas (robsu) 51.09 49.95 53.36 39 Pauline van der Vyver (paulinevdv) & Suzette Mckerron (smck48) 50.87 45.49 61.64 40 Phil King (impalaphil) & Shirley Kaminer (shirlsk) 50.85 47.67 57.22 41 Di Adrain (seaview193) & Vanessa Armstrong (Supervan) 50.70 52.35 47.41 42 Erica Zimet (rixi181) & Carol Grunder (cassandrax) 50.54 52.37 46.89 43 Laureen Harris (stanlau) & Zela Stern (sternz) 50.51 48.67 54.19 44 Ella Danilowitz (elladan3) & Jackie Solovei (jaxsol) 50.41 52.17 46.88 45 Marilyn Bradley (Marjam123) & Merle Bracher (stacey31) 50.33 50.98 49.02 ALL AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 2021 OPEN PAIRS QUALIFIERS – THE RESULTS For the FINALS: Rank 1-22 to CHAMPIONSHIP; 23-44 to CONGRESS; 45-66 to PLATE; 67-90 to PRESIDENT (NB. Some withdrawals expected; please refer to web site for final line-ups later today) Rank Players Overall Sess 1&2 Session 3 46 Sheila Francis (sheilafran) & Sandy Wentzel (swentzel) 50.17 49.05 52.40 47 Jennifer Gautschi (Frankiej) & Peta Balderson (peta_b) 50.11 47.08 56.16 48 Ghita Sandler (gittel) & Sharon Izerel (shai007) 49.35 47.52 53.02 49 Jeff Sapire (Fann4) & Diana Balkin (deebee2) 49.24 48.35 51.01 50 Chandoo Sunderjee (Sassycsp) & Johan J F Bouwer (Johan42) 49.22 49.95 47.75 51 Roger Wilson (RogerJW) & Brian Thomas (Duiker) 49.11 48.92 49.48 52 Merle Frey (merlef93) & Jenny Ten-Bokum (jenten) 48.95 48.26 50.34 53 Merle Modlin (Merl66) & Irene Sundelson (sunrene2) 48.64 44.52 56.89 54 Cynthia Cohen (Danijosh) & Sandra Jacobs (sjacobs660) 48.57 50.56 44.58 55 Lydia Benatar (lydiabe) & Joy Swiel (mijoy) 48.56 49.36 46.96 56 Jeanne Mcleod (jeannehill) & Susan Botha (suziq2) 48.43 45.43 54.42 57 Carol Stanton (carol2007) & Machelle Shapiro (mach1955) 48.15 51.64 41.18 58 Jan Chemaly (Mrs Chem) & Frank Chemaly (chemaly) 47.84 49.42 44.67 59 Mustafa Tezcan (tzc28) & Alfreda Frantzen (meown) 47.80 45.70 51.99 60 Beth Oldacre (BethOld) & Mary Mutch (Marykins) 47.78 45.68 51.98 61 Janette Schewitz (fudge007) & Harold Bernstein (hb01) 47.76 45.02 53.23 62 Myrna Suttner (Myrss) & Andrea Goldblatt (divoc) 47.49 49.67 43.12 63 Karen Barnes (karen105) & Anne-Marie Waterman (Newleaf01) 47.38 47.89 46.35 64 Paula Grobbelaar (Paula0609) & Barbara May (skittle) 47.33 43.63 54.74 65 Lynn Whiteside (Emerald_03) & Derek Whiteside (DerekW_wk) 47.31 47.48 46.97 66 Anneke Furniss (annekefu) & Steve Tearnan (StephenT) 46.75 46.80 46.64 67 Shirley Karon (faceplace) & Jill Leslie (jilles7) 46.61 46.90 46.03 68 Cindy Polakow (Polakow) & Joel Harris (Joelshayne) 46.60 48.22 43.35 69 Helen Roberts (Theodorabr) & Deirdre Ingersent (idealbaby) 46.44 45.20 48.91 70 Arthur Hughes (Arfurh) & Mignon Leigh (mignonlei) 46.42 50.85 37.55 71 Lara Woznica (Larawoz) & Adrian Mauerberger (adrian1980) 46.31 46.71 45.51 72 Adri Peenz (A3456) & Ice Peenz (ice 3) 46.28 42.77 53.30 73 Rita Gawron (kimeden) & Jenny Matisonn (jmatisonn) 46.24 47.40 43.92 74 Murrae Egnos (ringey) & Fred Capito (warthog878) 46.05 43.04 52.06 75 Jocelyn Ashberg (Littleashi) & Michele Alexander (lady macb) 45.89 47.89 41.89 76 Val Taylor (valtay) & Patrick Hansen (pathjal) 45.76 47.44 42.41 77 Rosemary Gowans (rosegowans) & Glenda Macleod (Tengym) 45.39 44.66 46.85 78 Mary Symmonds (mary789) & Sue Geldenhuys (suegeld) 44.86 45.88 42.82 79 Nitza Levin (yofie3) & Toni Hendler (Bruno Mars) 44.45 42.76 47.82 80 Louise Tager (latager) & Jane Baikoff (artytom) 43.72 43.33 44.49 81 Sharon Kahn (sharonkahn) & Robyn De Biaggi (rbsy2) 43.55 41.24 48.16 82 Tim Ross-Thompson (Tom quill) & Suzanne Mullord (zozbridge) 43.46 43.76 42.86 83= Rita Raubenheimer (snoek12) & Beatrix Muller (Blouberg1) 43.36 43.92 42.24 83= John Barlow (JB71634) & Linda Campbell (lindacam) 43.36 42.75 44.58 85 Roy Hayward (roybnbc) & Ian Lowdon (Ian l) 43.10 45.04 39.23 86 Wendy Praetorius (Wendz1) & Pamela Field (Pam73) 42.71 44.89 38.34 87 Tush Taute (iloveblue1) & Ingrid Krige (Ingrid 123) 42.36 46.86 33.37 88 Petro Mennen (Savoie14) & Anita Lapage (verdite) 41.74 41.62 41.99 89 Kim Hough (KimmyH) & Jenty Webster (jentee) 40.18 43.47 33.59 90 Clare Gild (Madbee) & Celia Dobes (celiad) 39.18 36.64 44.27