Newsletter 9 September 2022

 In this week’s newsletter...

  • AGM arrangements
  • Thanks to our Wonderful Volunteers
  • Community Rewards with the CSCC
  • Results 
  • Technical Explainer with John Donovan
  • Upcoming Events 
  • BFACT Gala Pairs  
  • Canberra in Bloom
  • Ian Morison Card Play: the Hideous Hog in Action
  • Lighter Moments

From the President

 

Please note that nominations for the Committee are now open. Nomination forms are available from the Committee notice board in the Barry Turner Room. The board also contains proxy forms and the draft minutes from last year’s AGM.

Stay safe and enjoy your bridge.

Margaret

 

 

Notice of Canberra Bridge Club Inc Annual General Meeting

 CBC members are invited to attend the AGM to be held on Wednesday 5 October 2022, 5.30pm, at the clubrooms.

The AGM Notice, the draft minutes of the 2021 AGM, nomination forms and proxy forms are available from the Committee noticeboard in the clubrooms and as soon as possible the CBC website.

The election of office-bearers (President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Tournament Secretary) and eight general Committee members will occur at the AGM.

Please place completed nomination forms and proxy forms in the appropriate labelled box in the Managers' office by midday on Tuesday 4 October 2022.

The AGM agenda and the 2021-22 audited statement of the CBC accounts will be available from the Committee noticeboard and the CBC website as soon as possible.

All AGM attendees are asked to observe the CBC COVID-19 protocols.  Details are available on the CBC website.  Please wear a face mask.

If possible, members are asked to submit their questions in advance of the AGM to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., this will facilitate the provision of a complete answer at the AGM.

BFACT AGM

The BFACT AGM will be held on Saturday 17 September 2022 commencing 5.00pm (or as soon as practicable after completion of the Gala Pairs). Further details are available from the BFACT website Notices section.

 

Thanks to all our Volunteers

We celebrate all those people who help around the club.  This week we've been noticing Deb Milner who routinely supplies information and checks our website for logic and completeness, John Hempenstall who manages the club maintenance, Liz Van Der Hor and Myra Hyland amongst others who wash the chux and tea towels, our Treasurer Jennifer Yeats who improves systems, Nola Arnold who refills the disinfectant bottles, our beginner and supervised volunteers - this list is many and varied and only a portion of the people who help to make this club great! Thank you all!

These people are heroes who make ordinary tasks extraordinary.  A HUGE shout out for all your help.  

Sessions in the Club and on RealBridge are outlined below

Upcoming Sessions

Our weekly sessions are the same as last week:

  • Monday morning 10.00am at the club
  • Monday 2.00 pm (24 boards) RealBridge
  • Monday 7.00 pm RealBridge
  • Tuesday afternoon 1.00pm at the club
  • Tuesday 7.15pm event RealBridge - Swiss Pairs - 3 week competition commencing 2 August
  • Wednesday morning 10.00am at the club
  • Wednesday morning 10.15am RealBridge
  • Wednesday evening supervised at the club 7pm (18 boards following lesson) 
  • Wednesday evening 7.15pm at the club including GNOT finals 
  • Thursday morning 10.00am at the club - Butler and walk in duplicate
  • Thursday afternoon 2.00pm (now 27 boards with Rob Hurst) RealBridge
  • Friday morning supervised 9.30am at the club (18 boards following lesson) 
  • Friday morning walk-in session 9.30am
  • Friday afternoon 1.00pm at the club
  • Friday afternoon 1.15pm RealBridge
  • Saturday afternoon 1.15pm RealBridge

Watch the newsletters and website for advice on face-to-face sessions at the club, and RealBridge sessions as these are fluid, depending on COVID developments and demand.  At this stage it is intended that the Monday and Thursday afternoon RealBridge sessions will continue indefinitely.  

Member table money will be deducted from players CBCPay accounts. Visitors' fees will be paid for by their member-partner, or via prior arrangement by emailing the office.

Cost: face-to-face $10 members/ $13 visitors, concession $9.  RealBridge $8 members and $7 concession (including event) $10 visitors

Links to sessions are on our RealBridge page.

Monthly statements were emailed last week. Please top up your account if you are running low.  

 

September Supervised Sessions Wednesday nights and Friday Mornings at the Club

We run supervised duplicates on Wednesday evenings starting at 7.00pm and Friday mornings starting at 9.30 am.  

Each duplicate is preceded by a short lesson. 

  • 14-16 Sep:  Same bid – different message

    21-23 Sep:  System card

    28-30 Sep:  Etiquette, Duplicate play, bridgemates & scoring

If you are interested, please come along.  You don’t need a partner.   There is no need to book.  If you would like a copy of the notes, please contact Morag Lokan.  Morag’s email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Master the Basics

 Master the Basics virtual lessons are on Thursdays at 9.00am.  The topic on 15 September is Competitive Doubles - More about Doubles Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you want to be added to the Zoom class. $6 for members and $8 for non-members. The lessons run for 30 minutes.  

.  

Support us while Dining at the Canberra Southern Cross Club

CBC has recently reentered the Southern Cross Community Rewards Program. This Community Rewards Program rewards patrons and their preferred community groups.  

The club can earn up to $20,000 per year through the program. Those groups who are the most successful in the program have higher visitation to the CSC venues at Woden, Tuggeranong, Jamison and the Yacht Club.

7.5% of your food and beverage at the Southern Cross Club will be donated back to us as your preferred Community Group on your Canberra Southern Cross Club membership.  So if you are a member of the  Southern Cross Club and want to make us your favoured community organisation please indicate on this link and we will all be enriched!  

Non CBC members can also nominate us as their preferred community group, so please tell your friends and neighbours.

 

Results

 

 Doreen Johns and Pam Hannaford are recent additions to the plus 70% club breaking the barrier at a recent Friday morning session, featured on our website and here.  Congratulations girls!

 

 Lisa Bradley, Steve Taylor, James Walcott  and John Lee have recently qualified for the Australian Wide Knock Out Teams Under 50 Masterpoints Quarter Finals on Realbridge in October.  Congratulations Team!

 

Technical Explainer with John Donovan

In response to a general query John breaks down some technical bridge jargon down for us

Game types:

  • duplicate - a regular club pairs session
  • butler - teams style scoring for pairs
  • teams - teams of 4 (or more) play as a unit
  • BAM - board a match - each board is a separate event. A different form of teams.

Scoring types:

  • matchpoints - your regular club session. you get 2 matchpoints for every score you beat, 0 for every score better than yours, and 1 point for a tie I
  • MPs - more IMPs for score more above the *average* score achieved over all tables (usually).
  • In Teams you add the two scores together, if positive you get IMPs, if negative you lose IMPs. in BAM scoring you get
  • 1 point for a positive score, 0 for a negative one handicap - better players get a penalty to bring them back to the rest of the field (sort of like the ratings system used by grand slam)
  • VPs - a way of further reducing big score differences

Movement types:

  • Mitchell - two winners, play short round against (most) other pairs in the other direction
  • Howell - one winner, play short rounds against (most) other pairs (other movement possible)
  • Swiss - longer matches against opponents who are doing about as well as you are each time. Most teams events are swiss style.
  • Danish - same as swiss but you can play the same pair more than once.
  • American Whist/New England Relay: teams matches where you don't play the match at the same time as your teammates. Usually shorter matches, suitable for single session teams.

Other terms:

Eclectics: Combining the results of multiple sessions to form an overall winner. At CBC it is the best 3 scores for each pair over the first 4 weeks of the month (so the fifth session for any day in the month unfortunately does not count).

Ranking: overall results from an event. The top third of match-style events and top half of pairs events get overall masterpoints as well as match masterpoints (see below)

Masterpoints: A measure of how you played. You get more masterpoints in a bigger field, and if the competition is more highly rated. You accumulate masterpoints and are promoted when you have enough of the relevant colours (Green = club, Red = State, Gold = National).

Masterpoints are a measure of how long you have been playing as well as how well you play.  If you have any queries or comments on your masterpoints, John is the man!

 

Upcoming Events

  

Upcoming Tuesday Evening RealBridge Tournaments

There are a range of other RealBridge tournaments coming up in August, September and October:

Butler Pairs on 6,13 and 20 September - Entries close 10am on Monday. Please don't delay in submitting.  

Teams on 27 September and 4 October; and 

Butler Pairs on 10 and 17 October.  

 

BFACT Gala 'Gold' Pairs - Saturday 17 September

This one day Butler Pairs event will have open, restricted and novice sections and 6 x 8 board rounds is open to all players in the ACT region.  Entries should be submitted by 10am on Thursday 15 September to https://www.myabf.com.au/view or by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  For more info, see the flier in the foyer, email Niek or call on 0422 471 649

 

Memorial for Sally Barber Bridge Day - Thursday 29 September 

This event to commemorate Sally Barber is being run by Jeanette Harper and the Commonwealth Club.  For details and bookings please contact Jeanette Harper This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

Canberra in Bloom 30 September to 3 October

 BFACT is holding Canberra in Bloom from Friday 30 September to Monday 3 October inclusive at our club rooms.  The program:

10am Friday 30 September                                                                Royal Bluebell Open MP Swiss Pairs

                                                                                                           Spider Orchid Novice and Restricted MP Swiss Pairs 

10am Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October                                   Golden Wattle Open Teams 

                                                                                                          Val & John Brockwell Mixed Teams 

 2.30pm Sunday 2nd October and 10am Monday 3rd October.       Canberra Bells Swiss Pairs

                                                                                                          Federation Rose Novice and Restricted Swiss Pairs 

                                                                                                          Final Mixed Teams

All enquiries to Justine Beaumont This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Entry is $120 per pair on Friday, $360 per Team on Saturday and Sunday, $140 per pair on Sunday pm and Monday.  

Entries close Tuesday 27 September 2022.  Online entries via MyABF 

 If you would like to know more about MyABF, please let us know, because the BFACT team would be happy to help either on line, or here at the Club.  

 

Ian Morison: the Hideous Hog in Action

 Many of you would have read Victor Mollo’s series of bridge books, commencing with ‘Bridge in the Menagerie’. Victor sets out fun hands, bid and played by grotesque characters, with outrageous results

One of these characters is the Hideous Hog – he contorts his bids so he can play the hand

For us mortals, we should not hog the hand from our partner if it is correct that partner should play the hand. Letting Partner play 4S may be better than trying to make 5D (one more trick) in your hand

However, there is a time when our “Inner – Hog” should surface, and this is an example from last Thursday’s game:

Dealer N, Nil Vul

                                                     6

                                                    AQJ965

                                                      Q74

                                                     1063

 KQ5                                                                                       AJ1043

K4                                                                                            2

A962                                                                                        K853

KQJ7                                                                                        A85

 

                                                     9872

                                                   10873

                                                       J10

                                                       942

The Bidding

  1. North opened 2H (weak 2), and East doubled, South passed, and West faced a decision – without a stop and a half in Hearts (say, AQ2 or K109) bidding NT is wrong. It is best to bid 3C and see what happens – a slam may be on as partner must have an opening hand for the Double, so there is no need to crowd the bidding out early
  1. North passed, East bid 3S, South passed
  1. West has 3 Spades, so there is a good fit there (East should not bid a new suit at the 3 level with just a 4 card suit). West likes his hand – good Spade support and a good Club suit, so decides to ask for Aces then Kings
  1. The Ace/King answers are good, except for one missing Ace
  1. Normally, 6S is the correct bid, but here the Inner-Hog should prevail with a 6NT bid, giving North the lead (rather than South leading a Heart to partner through West’s Heart K4). West knows it is likely North has AQ of Hearts from the bidding, so cannot let South lead through him

The Play

  1. North led HA, and it was all over. 12 tricks made

Moral of the Story

  1. Sometimes, you do need to Hog the hand, even with a good fit in Partner’s suit

Postscript

  1. The slam contract is a tad optimistic, but West strongly suspects East must have at least 5 Spades headed by the Ace, to justify the 3S bid, plus very likely CA, giving 9 Tricks, plus DK giving 11 tricks with West’s DA
  1. North may well start with Hearts, so that’s 12 tricks

The Lead

  1. North should not have led HA, as it gave the contract away. EW cannot avoid a Heart loser and a Diamond loser if North waits
  1. In deciding what to lead, North also should not lead a Diamond, as the DQ is a possible trick
  1. So, should North have led a Club or a Spade?
  1. Given West bid 3C, the S6 is the only lead left. It goes through East’s Spade suit, and partner is unlikely to have many points, if any, given North has 9 and EW should have at least 30 for the slam bidding

 

Lighter Moments

 2 dad jokes from the 2Ks who bowed out of the US Open Men's Doubles this week:

 What's the difference between a snowman and a snow woman? Snowballs.

Why couldn't the koala find a job? They didn't have the proper koalafications.

 

 What do you call a girl laying down on a tennis court?  Annette

Why do tennis players have a high divorce rate?  To them love means nothing

I'm selling a second hand tennis racquet for $5? It's so cheap, no strings attached!

A new tennis player goes to the library and asks for books about aces. "No way" says the librarian "You won't return them!"

 

If you're up for a movie Brett Yeats from the ANU Film Group and the Japanese ambassador, invites us to "The Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy" on Thursday 15 September.

Here is the Eventbrite invitation:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/402203560677

Only in Canberra!  

 

Be kind to each other. Safe travels to those travelling to Mollymook for bridge.  

 

Tamara (for Kerry and Tamara)