MountainView bridge players
Ann Kuperberg
The MountainView Bridge Club games are now on Tuesday afternoons in the Catalina Room from 1 to 4 p.m. If you need a partner or further information, contact JoAnn Aiken at [email protected] or phone 520-256-2702. Our website is www.bridgewebs.com/mountainview.
Congratulations to Jane Pendley and her partner for coming in first overall in a Sectional Tournaments at Clubs game and 32nd out of 1,100 players in the district during the week of Jan. 31 to Feb. 6. Peter Godfrey and his partner also finished first at one game that week and in 36th place.
Peter also reached the Silver Master Point level, and Joy Rieckers reached Sapphire level (3,500 master points!).
Bob Murray came in first place for the 2021 Ace of Clubs 1,000-1,500 level. That’s a race at the district level and quite an achievement.
Maybe they all had the luck of the Irish, even if they weren’t Irish.
Eddie Kantar gave advice about reverses in a recent Bridge Bulletin.
“When opener bids 2 suits in a way that forces responder to go to the third level to return to the first suit (if he prefers that one), opener has ‘reversed.’ These actions are forcing for 1 round. A reverse shows more cards in the first suit and at least an ace more than a minimum opening bid with 4-5 distribution. A reverse with 4-6 distribution can be made with as few as 14 hcps, assuming all the points are concentrated in the 2 suits.” That’s a good bid to review with partner.
Another contributor to the magazine, Paul Ross, discussed what to lead against a No Trump contract. He said that if partner leads a club, partner has led from a 4- or 5-card suit. If you think partner has hearts when you see 2 small hearts in dummy, lead a mid-level heart to indicate you don’t want it back. If you lead a low heart, you’re promising an honor.
Yet one more contributor, Marty Bergen, gave advice on when to open in third seat. He said you should open when you have honors and a 5-5 hand or a good major suit with honors. The example was AQJ9 in spades and an outside ace. With that holding, he would open 1 spade, even though he only has 4 of them.
We can always adjust our thinking after we read what experts have to say.