the Seattle Unit Newsletter SUN February/March 2009 District 19 North American Pair Winners Congratulations to the winners of each flight at the District NAP Finals held in con- junction with the Tacoma Sectional. Good luck at the Nationals in Houston! Flight A 1. Lawrence Hicks, Coquitlam, BC; Dan Jacobs, Vancouver, BC 2. Craig Barkhouse, Redmond, WA Ray Miller, Seattle, WA 3 Ken Scholes, Bellevue, WA Dick Yarington, Seattle, WA Flight B 1. John Emmerson, Federal Way, WA Flight B winners: Joel Furhman & John Emmerson Joel Fuhrman, Kirkland, WA 2. Yuandong Ren, Richmond, BC Jack Lee, Richmond, BC 3. Jerome Peckskamp, Tacoma, WA Dennis Rybicki; Tacoma, WA Flight C 1. Christine Ding, Redmond, WA David Taylor, Seattle, WA 2. Maxine Linial, Seattle, WA John Kehoe, Lake, WA 3. Roth Hafer, Bainbridge, WA Donald Seanor; Bainbridge, WA Flight C winners: David Taylor & Christine Ding ROUND ROBIN 2008 WRAPUP: YARINGTON TEAM PREVAILS Pat Dunn The 2008 edition of the Seattle Unit Round Robin Although the ultimate match had a familiar feel, Team event concluded with a close final, in which the 2008 year marked very competitive regular the defending champion YARINGTON team [Dick season matches, with all teams suffering at least Yarington-Leo Svarcs-Ken Scholes-John Scher- one loss and all teams with at least one vic- mer-Kevin Bolan-Bill O'Brien] defeated the tory. This was noteworthy in that this year's com- CHRISTIE team [Stan Christie-Sandi Hart-Rod petition was not broken out into "A" and "B" divi- Caldwell-Ray Miller-Ken Christiansen-Dave Set- sions, and the lower masterpoint holding teams terholm] by a 70-60 final score. This final acquitted themselves admirably – winning both matched the now three-time defending champs league regular season titles and thereby taking with the last team to beat them in a final. This two of the four playoff spots. It is hoped that even matchup featured the two second-place finishers more teams will compete in the 2009 event. We from this year's regular season event. Each pre- will endeavor to get it off to an earlier start. vailed over a strong and mildly surprising division/ New board member Balusu Rao will assume re- league winner. The Yarington team defeated Jeff sponsibilities for the 2009 event as part of the unit Ford's squad by 116 to 60 and the Christie team competitions package. defeated Joel Castoriano's team by 83 to 40. Congratulations to all on a successful sea- [See article on page 9 for 2009 Round Robin info] son. Page 2 Feb/Mar 2009 2009 Unit 446 Board It’s a new year and the Unit board is already hard at work planning another great year for all of its members. Your 2009 Officers are: President Pat Dunn Vice President Julie Godefroy Secretary Chris Moore Treasurer Curt Peterson If you have any questions or ideas, be sure to contact a board member; they are volunteering their time and skills Standing : Beth McCaslin, Balusu Rao, Linda Mamula, Laurie Sayer, Julie and are happy to chat with you about Godefroy, Steve Kasner, John McCaslin, Barbara Nist.; Sitting : Chris Moore, Pat Dunn. Not pictured: Mary Ruth Blustein, Curt Peterson. providing new and/or improved ser- vices and experiences to all members of our unit. 2008 Preliminary Financial Report* for Seattle Unit 446 * does not include physical inventory owned by U446 Beginning Balance 17,090 Cash 12,090 Certificate(s) of Deposit 5,000 Income 56,223 Expenses 50,989 Memberships 4,117 Unit Expenses 2,370 Sectionals 39,865 Sectional Rent 14,035 Snack Bar & Swiss Team Lunch 4,815 Sectional Sanction Fees & Expenses 16,027 299er Tournaments 3,669 Sectional Food & Supplies 6,844 Audrey Grant 2,134 Sectional Misc. Expenses & Chair Rental 2,466 Round Robin 600 299er Sectional 1,550 MUG 485 Audrey Grant 1,656 Cruise Ship 100 Round Robin Expenses 172 Pro-Am 88 MUG Expenses 481 Interest 350 Pro-Am Expenses 13 Bulletin Printing & Design 3,669 Bulletin Postage & Supplies 1,706 Net Income 5,234 Ending Balance 22,324 Cash 11,550 Certificate(s) of Deposit 10,774 District Nineteen Board of Directors Notice The District 19 Board of Directors will meet April 12th in Victoria at the Crystal Gardens across the street from the Victoria Conference Centre. Come join us for the VICTORIA REGIONAL BRIDGE TOURNAMENT APRIL 13th to 19th, 2009 at the Crystal Gardens in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. Feb/Mar 2009 Page 3 THINK BEFORE YOU PLAY… Dick Yarington Recently, I had a conversation with John Scher- of the missing high cards. What can be deduced mer about some of his favorite hands from the from the low club lead? This must mean that the Boston National. For those of you new to the club honors are split else a high club might have game, John has quite the record: World Cham- been led. Why wasn’t a high diamond led? The pion, Vanderbilt victor and 2008 Seattle Round top 2 diamond honors must be split as well. If this Robin winner. Although there were plenty of is the case then what did Left hand opponent squeezes and exotic endplays, the following deal open on? It is clear that he has a marginal was one of his favorites. opener but in order to open, his values must in- clude the King of Hearts. Thus the heart finesse John held: AKQJx, Ax, xxx, Jxx. His left hand op- is doomed to failure . ponent bid 1 diamond, his partner bid 2 diamonds (Michael’s showing the majors), and his right John saw that a simple ruse might pay off. Ac- hand opponent bid 3 diamonds. John closed cordingly, he won the Ace of Clubs and at trick 2 things out with a bid of 4 spades. led a spade to his hand. On this trick RHO fol- lowed and LHO pitched a diamond. At trick 3, he The opening lead was a low Club and dummy led a low heart towards the dummy, looking for all held 109xxx, QJ10xx, x, Ax. the world like a man with a singleton or doubleton You might say what‘s the problem? I have a club small heart. loser, a diamond loser and maybe a heart loser if What was LHO to do? It was early in the hand. the heart finesse loses. The hand becomes much He didn’t know where the King of clubs was or more interesting when one considers that it came where the King of diamonds was so he ducked. from the Reisinger teams. This is one of the He is still waiting to collect a trick with his King of ACBL’s premier events and it is scored in board-a hearts. John now ruffed his diamond and club -match style. There are only three possible re- losers out and made 11 tricks on the hand. Need- sults on each hand: a win, a loss, or a tie. If you less to say his team won this board. can score an overtrick, it is worth gold. John’s tip is to try and place the missing high Before he played to trick one, he did an inventory cards before you play to trick one. Club News Seattle Bridge Center email [email protected] web site http://seattlebridgecenter.tripod.com A SPECIAL THANK YOU to all who have sup- TWO OVER ONE CLASSES are given by ported SBC in 2008, especially all who brought Marilyn Shelton every Saturday morning 9 to goodies to the Christmas parties. Our games 11:30AM. Many of the students stay and play in are growing. If you have not been to the club or the noon game. They are improving rapidly. it has been a while, we hope you come and play Good job, Marilyn! with us. We have ½ price games every Tuesday and Friday morning at 10:30. A partner is al- ACBL-WIDE SENIOR GAME is scheduled for ways available and we have lots for parking with Monday February 23rd at 10:30AM. handicap access. THE MONTHLY UNIT GAME is at SBC Sunday, NOVEMBER MASTERPOINT WINNERS March 1st, at 6PM. Reservations please. Mackie Ogino Lorraine Leach CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP’s are scheduled for Rose Bolson March. Check the calendar or web site for dates Bob Kirk and times. DECEMBER MASTERPOINT WINNERS Rose Bolson Ken Fox Clay & Nada Sundermeyer Jim Thompson Page 4 Feb/Mar 2009 But ... there are some things you should know, Our friendly neighbor to the north, ACBL Tournament Director Bruce and some things club directors will need to know. Not McIntyre, has graciously shared many. I’ve been looking at and debating the new this article he penned on the new Laws online since they appeared last October and I Laws of Duplicate Bridge. The can see only a few areas that — while not earth- article was published in the Van- shattering — might interest you: couver unit newsletter this autumn. 1) Cards should be shuffled before they are The new 2008 Laws of Duplicate returned to the board. (Law 7C) “Should be” is the Bridge (all 164 pages) are avail- weakest possible phrasing: you’re not likely to get a able free in pdf format at penalty for forgetting to do it once. (You will get a www.acbl.org/assets/documents/ penalty if you forget after repeated warnings.) Picking play/Laws-of-Duplicate-Bridge.pdf up a completely sorted hand is often an indication of what happened at the other table. If you pick up a Part One of Two sorted good hand, it is likely that the previous players were discussing some unusual bid or play that could Levity and the New Laws be made on the deal, perhaps with that particular By McBruce hand.