g the 188 in g counties id r B Vol. XLVI No. 4 Published by Westchester Contract Bridge Association December 2004 SEE YOU THERE ! THE 2005 WCBA § ¨ © ª § ¨ © ª § ¨ © ª § ¨ § ¨ ¨ CLOSED WESTCHESTER TOURNAMENT © © PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AS THERE ª ª ARE CHANGES FROM LAST YEAR Friday, January 7 § § 1:30 PM Stratified Open Pairs & 0-750 Pairs - Bridge Deck and Hartes’ ¨ ¨ 7:00 PM Stratified Open Pairs - Bridge Deck December A complimentary cold buffet will be served between sessions at the Bridge Deck. © © ª ª 5 Master/Non-Master Game Saturday, January 8 - Riverview (1 Warburton Avenue, Hastings - See directions below) § Bridge Deck § 1:00 PM Stratified Open Pairs ¨ ¨ 4:00 PM Annual Meeting, followed by cocktails and dinner © © 7:00 PM Stratified Open Pairs ª ª January Sunday, January 9 - Bridge Deck - Golden Apple XXII § § 11:30 AM Complimentary Bagel Brunch ¨ 7 Closed Westchester ¨ 12:00 Noon Stratified Swiss Teams (1 Session) © Bridge Deck & Hartes’ © 5 matches Stratified: 0-Infinity; 0-500 ª 8 Closed Westchester ª Riverview All games are $10.00 per person per session Saturday: One session plus cocktails - $14.00 per person § 9 Golden Apple XXII Swiss § One session plus cocktails & dinner - $24.00 per person ¨ Teams - Bridge Deck ¨ Two sessions plus cocktails & dinner - $30.00 per person © 11-17 District 3 Regional © For non-bridge players, cocktails - $5.00 per person ª Rye Brook, NY ª For non-bridge players, dinner - $20.00 per person 18-24 STAC Week For non-bridge players, cocktails & dinner - $25.00 per person § Various Clubs § ¨ 19 International Fund Game ¨ Please make reservations for Saturday’s dinner by December 31 with Charlotte Brasel, Various Clubs 1 Bryson Street, Larchmont, NY 10538. Makes checks payable to WCBA. © © ª ª Name: _________________________________ Player Number ________________ Address:______________________________________________________________ § February § Partner’s Name: _________________________ Player Number ________________ ¨ ¨ Address:______________________________________________________________ 28 ACBL-Wide Senior Pairs © Bridge Deck & Hartes’ © Directions to Riverview: ª ª From Saw Mill River Parkway (North or South): Take Exit 9, Executive Blvd. Go to 3 rd traffic light and make left onto North Broadway (Route 9). § § At first traffic light make a right onto Odell Ave. At bottom of hill make a right ¨ ¨ onto Warburton Ave and go to end. Riverview is on the left, parking across street. From Route 9 (from North): Double traffic light in Hastings, Warburton Ave. © © Turn right onto Warburton Ave. and go 1 1/2 miles to Riverview. ª ª ¨ © ª § ¨ © ª § ¨ © ª § ¨ § § g n i the g PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE id counties As the year ends, so does my term as bridge. We cannot imagine bridge activities r President. It has been a very rewarding two without Bob, and at our last meeting we B years and I would like to take this voted Bob to be an Honorary Board Member. opportunity to highlight two of the new Thank you Bob for all that you have done for BRIDGING THE COUNTIES (ISSN 1059-3586) is activities undertaken by the Board. our Unit and for bridge. published (quarterly) four times a year in March, June, September and December by the Westchester First, with the help of Ed Zuckerberg, we The new year always begins with the Contract Bridge Association, 2 Carriage Way, White launched the WCBA web site (www.bridge- Closed Westchester Tournament. This year Plains, NY 10605. Periodicals postage is paid at White wcba.com). Our site offers information on the Friday afternoon games will be held at Plains, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Bridging the Counties , 2 Carriage Way, White upcoming events, results from local both the Bridge Deck and the Hartes’ Club. Plains, NY 10605. tournaments, Unit Ace of Clubs and Mini- The Friday night cold buffet dinner, the McKenney leaders, on-line copies of Friday night open game, and the Sunday WESTCHESTER CONTRACT Bridging the Counties, contact information, Golden Apple Swiss will be held at the BRIDGE ASSOCIATION and links to other sites you may want to visit. Bridge Deck. Saturday is a social occasion Janet Lippmann, President Second, during both of the past two and celebration held at the Riverview years, our charity committee - Joan Gerard, Restaurant in Hastings-on-Hudson. In www.bridge-wcba.com www.bridge-district3.org Alisan Harte, Mimi Bieber, Kassie Munoz, between sessions of bridge, we have a www.acbl.org and Heidi Klein - organized a Charity Swiss cocktail hour and our Annual Meeting and Editor ........................Jason Fuhrman Teams event of which we are very proud. Dinner (where we honor new life masters and 21 Alkamont Avenue, Scarsdale, NY 10583 E-Mail: [email protected] This event has been so successful in so many other special achievements). Please come. ways. You will not be disappointed. STAFF Associate Editor and Photographer ........................................Bob Goldwater Regrettably, Bob Goldwater recently Finally, my sincerest gratitude to all resigned from the Board of Directors. This is Board members. All of their contributions Proofreading .................................................................................Michelle Fuhrman a position that Bob held for 38 years - longer have been greatly appreciated. Joyce Blumenthal ...........................................Barbara Metselaar than most of our members have been playing Janet Lippmann Betty Fleischer.......................................................... Kassie Munoz Joan Levy Gerard ...........................................................Judy Soley I have a confession to make. Back in the at the table. Fortunately for me, game was not June 2004 issue of Bridging the Counties, I making. wrote a whole Convention. Hall article on This illustrates the importance of making sure that you and your partner were partnership discussion and understandings. on the same wavelength regarding Fortunately for me, she was understanding conventions. Recently I did not take my about my problem. She didn’t complain about Editor’s own advice. what I did. At a break, I explained why I After that article, I played in was a passed, and we cleared up our agreement. Corner knockout teams match at the NABC in New And she had a good laugh about the Smolen York City. Our teammates had agreed to disaster at the NABC when I told her about it. play Smolen over 1NT openings. Nothing One agreement we did have time to make more was said at that time. They had a was on our level of aggressiveness. We misunderstanding as to what bids were agreed to be very aggressive in the bidding. forcing in a Smolen sequence, and wound up My comment at the time was, “I don’t like to playing in a part score when game was cold. tell my partners to pass.” We lost that match by 1 IMP. Later, in second seat she overcalled 1© So in Danbury I played with a new with 1ª at favorable vulnerability with this partner for the first time. We were pressed hand: for time as we filled out a card, so we didn’t ª K x x x x have time for a lot of discussion. We agreed © 10 to play Smolen over 1NT openings, with ¨ x x x nothing more said at that time. § Q J 9 8 Of course it comes up early in the It’s not everyone’s cup of tea (the same bid match. I’m stuck sitting at the table, trying was made at the other table), but it was meant to decide what a bid means, whether it’s more to disrupt the opponents’ bidding than forcing, and what will happen to me if I pass anything else. Fortunately, I remembered our my partner’s forcing bid? I was not feeling agreement on aggressiveness and didn’t bury good, knowing that I was going to have to us in a no-play game with my monster hand. defend whatever decision I made. I passed Because I knew our agreement, we won that what was meant as a forcing bid, generating match by 3 IMPs. raised eyebrows from the three other people Jason Fuhrman Page 2 Bridging the Counties - December 2004 This N’ That From Your District Director This fall there were two major bridge about the beautiful fall foliage, but if for bridge. The ACBL is reporting events sponsored by District 3 and both you happened to look while you were revenues in excess of expenses for the were very successful. The North playing or on the drive there or back, first 8 months of 2004 to be $104,000. American Pairs District Finals, held in you might have seen one of the more Regional attendance is up slightly, Mahwah, NJ, attracted 52 tables, an beautiful autumns. Moving this while Sectional attendance is down increase of almost 20 tables over last tournament out of the mountains just slightly. STACs are up a bit. Our year. This was in spite of the tail end about doubled our attendance. We membership totals continue to have a of one of the famous hurricanes in our again thank the New England District small but steady increase. For the new neck of the woods that morning. At the for allowing us to use this site. We’ll year, we should each make a resolution end of the tough two-session event, the be back again next year, a week earlier to sign up one new ACBL member. Unit had winning pairs in both Flight A in October. After all, what better salespeople can and Flight B. Congratulations to Al The ACBL has reached an we have than ourselves, we who love Stauber and Carlos Munoz, and Sylwia agreement with Edge TV to televise a this wonderful game. and Michael McNamara. These two bridge program. This is expected to Both Ron and I wish you a happy pairs, along with Laura Brill and Rick begin midway through 2005, with a and healthy new year.