Tuesday 10 December 2024

We continued our lessons on Play of the Hand in advanced beginners bridge, covering different types of finesses when missing the queen. In beginners lessons, we discussed when to open 2 Clubs and how to respond.  We will continue on both of those topics next week.  There will be lessons next week, but no lessons on 12/24 or 12/31. 

We had 5 full tables in the pupil game. The winners this week were Elizabeth B and Jean L with 60.25%!! Second place went to John Burnap and Joan Nickell with a very nice 57.31%.  I had a great time as I could freely direct without playing.  Thanks to all of the players who partnered up this week!  I think we had at least 3 pairs made up of players whose regular partner wasn't in attendance.  See you all next week!

5 December 2024 - North Hampton ACBL Charity Game

 5 December 2024 - Lightly snowing and we had a robust 5.5 table game with a Howell movement.  

I just typed in all the hands for 24 boards that you played.  Sorry for the delay.  Also I added one late score on Board 3 for Hornbeck v Hornbeck.

I believe that yesterday is still the Nancy's day!  

Suzanne

Here are the results:

4 December 2024 North Hampton Fun Bridge

  4 December 2024 North Hampton Fun Bridge

Today we had 5 and a half tables and we played 7 rounds with a pair who had to sit out for 3 hands.  The light was weird and you could tell its winter.  You all did well. Everybody had a good time and Jan had to play with me, who was distracted the whole day, and brought Jan's play to the bottom.  Sorry Jan!  Hope you will come back!  First place as frequently happens were Jillian and Janet with a 65.18%, followed by Bobbie and Sid with a 62.24%, Dave and Jack came in third with a 61.01%, and to round out in fourth place were Audrey and  Colleen with 57.06%.

Thank you all for playing and helping take stuff down.  Somehow I must have jammed a finger cause my hand is not working!  

See you all next week!

Suzanne

3 December 2024 Review of Pre-emptive Bids and Responses, and Responses to No Trump Openings.

 3 December 2024 Pre-Emptive Bids  (Plenty of material in this alone!)

This review was led by Suzanne.   We started the review lesson  of Opening 2 Preempts, 3 premempts, and Gary Terhune asked a prescinet question ("how can a preempt at 4" be WEAK??)  Good question  it is to stop opponents from bidding 4 at their suit?  I do not know how its weak?   Ask Carl! I'd like to know)  BTW  we want to thank Melissa for the scrumpuous sott caramels (what dentist is she related to?  Just kidding, these caramels were soft and goey.  and YUMMY!).  Thank you!  Some of us had never had a carmel??

We started at 11 a.m. with a review of Preempts, and then played 3 hands that were reviews of NT openings, Preempt openings and ? openings(overcalls).  These took 55 minutes.  We  then took a 10 minute break at noon and started the game at 12:10.    Because two people had more than the 5 Master Points (Suzanne and Herb) ACBL disallowed the pairs with a NE (Not Eligible)  and we could not earn Master points.

We had a 4 table Howell movement with 4 sets of boards a round.   Table 1 and 2 shared a set of boards.  You all did very well.  However there is always someone that comes in first, and today it was with Dave and Gary with 60.05%, with Lyndon and Charles coming in second with 57.55% , followed by Melissa and Chris with 52.22 %.   Wow  Lyndon and Charles are two of our newest members! congratulations!  We closed shop at 3:15 since another 4 hands might have taken us to 4:15pm. ( In a "Sanctioned" open game each hand is estimated at 12 minutes, with a few minutes to change tables.  So 4 hands would take 48 minutes, but we are a bit slower- don't be surprised if you go to an Open game that they will hurry you through!!) 

There was an interesting hand, board 13 where East opened 2 CLUBS.  In 2 partnerships West replied 2 Hearts. East, not knowing what that meant, East went to 2 NT at which point west went to 3 Hearts.  One Partnership opened 2 Clubs, West did the standard 2 Diamonds that Dave taught (There are at least 3 different responses available depending upon PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT(something you will hear about frequently).  After 2 Diamonds by West, East bid 2 NT and west bid 3 diamonds transferring East to Hearts.  Then West went to 4 hearts.  I believe all partnerships made 6 hearts, and one partnership made 6 NT, but bid only 3 NT.  

There are no standard  hand records for 22, 23, and 24.  I think Carl had only made up 21 hand records, but the game called for 24, so 3 Unrecorded boards were played.  ( I added the last 3 hands but not with the possible contracts).  Thank you Dianne for coming back to our game after the unsettling game you had when our First director retired after 25 years to the great surprise, and upset to all of us. We are so happy you tried us again!. 

Hope you had a good time! I did!

Suzanne

Wednesday 27 November 2024 - Thanksgiving Evening

 We had a fine 4 table Howell movement where we all played 7 rounds of 4 boards.  And most pairs got to play each other.  Thank you for coming today. The weather was fine, and we had a grand time.  We were joined by Jim, Wolfgang, Colleen and Mark and Bob who are most welcome to this game!

Everybody did a good job.  However, there is always one couple that comes in above the others!  Today that couple was  Jill and Janet with 62.5%, followed by Paul and Suzanne with 58.33% , then  Jack and Dave with 55.95% .  Dave and Jack had a grand time showing Suzanne and Paul who was boss, when they bid 3 NT and went down 5 vulnerable! That was a bottom!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

See you in December!

Suzanne

,

 Tuesday 26 November 2024 Pupil Game and Lessons

In our advanced beginners game we discussed different ways to finesse in addition to leading to the Q when holding the AQ.  Next time (in two weeks, NO ADVANCED BEGINNERS LESSON NEXT WEEK!) we will discuss the finesse some more.  In beginners class we discussed the BIG double as an extension of the Take Out double. Next week we will have a review of recent topics, led by Suzanne Sayer, as I will be in Vegas trying to earn more Master Points.

We had six full tables in our Pupil game and Bob E pulled me along to a tie for first, at least that what he said.  Mary Lynn and Claire tied with us and Bill Swett and John Safford came in third.  I had a lot of fun today and hope you did too!!  See you in two weeks! ---Carl

 Thursday Open Game 21 November 2024

We played a perfect 9 table Mitchell movement with 3 A teams, 3 B teams and 3 C teams in both directions and no sit outs.  Congratulations to Connie/Roger for first place overall followed by Pat/Suzanne who were 2nd place overall and first place in the C strat. Barbara/John earned points EW in their C strat.

No bridge next week on Thanksgiving and Suzanne will be running this game the following week for a special high-point game.

 Wednesday 20 November 2024 - Another lovely late fall day brought us 6 and a half tables with 13 rounds of 2 boards and because of the odd number of couples a Howell Movement. We had 2 new bridge players, Barbara Turk and Marc Schwartz in addition to our other new person last week Jan Ebeling!  WE WILL HAVE A GAME THE DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING!

First place today goes to Pat and Sherry with a 64.58% , next came the Poulins with a 62.08% game, followed closely by Dave and Jack with 60.83%.  Next are the Moores and Bobbie and Sid made up the top 5 teams.  Hope you all had a good time.  With 2 hands a round they should be played in 15 minutes x 13 = 195 minutes. and 2 minutes between hands. so 24+195 = 219 minutes or 3 hours 39 minutes.  So we were a bit slow, but we all had a great time!

You all did very well!  Use the enclosed hands to compare how others did an improve your game.  See you next week!

Suzanne

 Tuesday November 19

We discussed more about establishing suits for play of the hand in NT in Adv Beginners and Take Out Doubles in Beginners class.  Next week we will discuss finesses in play of the hand in Advanced beginners and have one final lesson on Take out doubles in Beginners class.

We had 5 full tables with a playing instructor/director in the Pupil game.  GaryTerhune came back after a long absence for golf and Lyndon and Charles came back to play in their first duplicate game.  Welcome back all of you!!  

Bob Cully (We miss you Ann!)  and Melissa V won the day with 68.24%!! Mary Lynn and Claire were a close second with 67.53%.  We hope to see you all next week!  ---Carl

Open Game 14 November 2024

Wow - we had a 9-1/2 table Mitchell movement today.  It was nice to see the return of a few faces we haven't seen in a while.  Brent/Roslyn and Donna/Peter came in first place, with Barbara/Carole and Linda/John coming in first in B and Nancy/Mary Ellen and Jim/Ed coming in first in C.  The C strat players all had an average of less than 300 mps.

Please try to play in our Portsmouth Sectional match this Saturday and Sunday.

 

 Wednesday 13 November 2024 -  FUN GAME.

We had a 5 and a half table Howell movement playing  8 rounds of 3 boards.  The Moores seemed to have More and came in First with a 63.69% game.  Congratuations!  We  had a new member play who is taking lessons on Tuesday come and play today! Welcome Jan Ebeling!  Thank you for joining our little bridge club!  The Poulins (60.94%)  followed the Moores closely, then Jack and Dave(60.11%), with Pat and Sherry coming in 4th at 56.77%.  We had a cold front come in last night so it was a tad bit chilly, but thanks to the constant upgrading of Centennial Hall we were warm enough. 

Thank you all for coming.  Maybe next week we can have a Mitchell movement when we do not have a half table!

See you all next week!

Suzanne 

 Tuesday November 12 2024

We started Play of the Hand on declarer play today in Adv. Beginners class and Take Out Doubles and responses in Beginners class.  We will continue to work on both of these topics next week. We had three new people join our beginner's lessons: Jan Ebeling (who finished fourth in the pupil game), Lyndon Blaylock and Charles Mullen.  Lyndon and Charles had to leave after the lesson today, but we look forward to seeing them in the Pupil Game from now on.  Welcome!!

We had 5 full tables in our Pupil Game.  Mary Lynn and Claire came in first with 69.44%!! Sue and Martha finished second with 63.24%..  I look forward to seeing everyone next week!  --Carl

 Thursday Open Game 7 November 2024

We are very happy to see the new players here at the club today - welcome Barbara Turk and James Garvey. It was also nice to have Paul Arond, Anne Aoki and the Connors here.  Congrats to Lisa/Nancy and Gordon/Skip for the first place finishes. The B strat spots were actually won by C strat players - Congrats to Mary  Ellen/Nancy, Anne/Paul and Darrel/Brent for these fine games.

We were challenged to an international online Swiss game with a club in England for wednesday 11/27.  Unfortunately we only had about 8 players able to play on that day right before Thanksgiving.  I will see if many Greatbay players want to play.

 Wednesday 6 November 2024 - Unbelievable weather!  We had the double doors and 2 windows wide open for all the fresh air! Air Bathing so to speak! We had a 4 and a half Howell Movement with 9 rounds and 27 hands.  The winners, Penny and Rick just edged out Hildy and Paul.  Then came Pat and Sherry followed closely by Dave and Jack!  Its amazing how partnerships can jump from last to first place in one round!. Everybody it seems was first for a round!

You all did a good job!  Thank you for coming. Our club is slowly losing individuals who would rather spend their November someplace south instead of enjoying the Beautiful weather.  But please keep coming we will try and find you a compatible partner!

Suzanne 

 Tuesday 5 November 2024

We reviewed and had supervised play and bidding in Adv Beginners and continued competitive bidding in Beginners class, dealing with opponent's over-calls  Next week we will begin studying the Play of the Deal in advanced beginners and start a series on take-out doubles in beginners class.

The winners today were Herb and Ellen Kingsbury with 62.5%!!  Congrats!! Second place went to Jane and Susan with 56.25%, followed closely by Melissa and Christopher with 55.21% for third.

Today is also election day!  I, for one, am glad it is finally here!

Have a great week!  ---Carl

 Thursday Open Game 31 October 2024

We were very happy to see Lucia Carlisle here today with Carol Poirier.  We played a 8-1/2 table standard Mitchell for a change.  Congratulations to the winning teams Donna/Peter and Joyce/Carl.  Barbara/John came in second even though they are C strat.  Carole/John and Linda/Nancy also earned points in the B and C strats.

 Wednesday 30 October 2024

For this All-Hallow's-Eve Eve (the day before Halloween), we had 5 full tables.  Carl filled in for an ailing Suzanne to direct the game.  The winners were Bobbie and Sid with 60.81%!  Second Place went to Jane G and Jan P with 55.8%.  Have a Happy Halloween tomorrow!  --Carl

 Tuesday 29 October 2024

We did a review in advanced beginner lessons and more dealing with overcalls in beginners lessons.  Next week we will do more of the same.

We had 4 full tables for our pupil game.  A new member, Dianne Luby, partnered with Jean Lanham and tied for first with Mary Lynn and Claire at 63.49%! Yours truly played with Bob Eberhart and finished third at 57.94%.  I had a great time even though it may have seemed a bit hectic playing and directing and instructing all at the same time.  

See you next week!!  ---Carl

 Thursday Open Game 24 October 2024

We had an interesting day today with many voids.  We played a 7-1/2 Table Howell movement.  Congratulations to Darrell/Brent for 1st place and Ed/Jim for 1st place in the B and C Strat.  It is interesting that B & C strat teams won 5 of the 8 point gaining spots today.  Everybody really seems to be learning this game.

The lesson next week will be playing hands with doubles.

Wednesday 23 October 2024 - North Hampton Fun game

 23 October 2024   A gorgeous Indian Summer Day!  We opened the windows and had a very uneventful 5 round Mitchell with 5 hands a round and NO SIT OUT ! We listened to some eerie piano music played by a very good young pianist!  Today we had 4 people come in without partners and so we were able to fill a whole table.  Thank you for coming even without your partners!  It makes it more fun for all of us.  You all played very well on this lovely day!  Sadly we said goodby to the Mahoney's - they are going to Florida for the winter!  We will welcome them back in the Spring! Bon Voyage! Speaking of Bon Voyage Susanne is going to Italy for a couple of weeks.  Ciao!

In first place North South were the team of Sulger and Dickenson with a breath taking 66% followed by Bobbi and Sid!  In East/west our winners were Cynthia and Marion with a 59.5% followed by Susanne and Paul and Pat and Sherry! Congratulations to you all?  O/A stands for Overall. 

Thank you ALL for coming to North Hampton Bridge club and see you next week!

Suzanne 

 Tuesday 22 October 2024

ATTENTION! Eyeglasses are missing that may have been left at our lesson.  If you know anything about them please call, text or email me. cvwikstrom@gmail.com (501)416-8305

Our Advanced Beginner lesson was about bidding a splinter instead of Jacoby 2NT when you have a singleton in an outside suit, opening points and 4 card support.  The beginner's lesson was about overcalls and responding to your partner after an overcall. Next week we will continue the lesson on overcalls in beginners and a general review in Advanced Beginners.

We had four full tables in the Pupil game so we played 7 rounds of 3 to avoid sharing boards among tables.  Jean and Elizabeth were the winners with 57,41%  Coming in at a tie for second were Chirstopher K-Melissa V. and John S-Bob Cully both with 56,67%!

Thank you all for playing the extra three boards so we didn't need to share.  See you next week!!

 Ooops!! As I was getting the report together, I saw an alert for a suspicious board which was board 18.  It had been recorded as NS bidding and making 4 Hearts, but that was impossible, so I changed the points to EW bidding and making 4 Hearts.  That changed our results. The updated results are listed below. John S and Bob C are no longer tied for second and are now in 4th. Christopher and Melissa are now in second place alone and Jane G and Susan Scott are in third!

Sorry about that!!

---Carl

ATTENTION! Eyeglasses are missing that may have been left at our lesson.  If you know anything about them please call, text or email me. cvwikstrom@gmail.com (501)416-8305

Saturday 19 October 2024

The total mps earned by players in our STaC game are listed below.  These should be converted to 25% of each:gold, silver, red and black in a few days.

 Thursday October 17 2024

We played in a Royal Sectional Tournament At Clubs (STaC) today.  The points earned will be initially posted as silver and should be converted to gold, red. silver and black (25% each) within 48 hours and will be final at the end of the week.  So the ranking below will hold for OUR club, but the ranking in the sectional will be different.  I will update with the actual points awarded when they are final (probably Saturday, maybe Sunday).

 We played an eight table Mitchell.  Darrell and Brent won N/S (63.69%!) and Joyce and Andi won E/W (59.08%). Lesley and Bob Fogerty came in second N/S with 59% and Mary and Roslyn were second E/W with 58%.  Since this will be compared to other games played in the Thursday Morning session, final results will vary.  I will try to post the final results here when they become available.  I'll be glad when Skip is back!  Won't you?  See you next week.  ---Carl

 Wednesday 16 October 2024

We had a lovely day playing a 6 and a half table Mitchell movement where we all played 4 boards a round.  First place NS were Jill and Janet, followed by Dave and Ann then Zelda and another Dave.  EW first place was Cynthia and Suzanne, followed by Jane and Jan then Susanne and Paul! so the Sus(z)annes and Daves made the day!

We had a great day! Five people came without a partner allowing us to set up 6th table and allowing the director to play!  Thank all of you for showing up without a partner. You all seem to have a great time!

No Need to bring a partner we will set you up.  Pass the word to all your friends!  So many people are afraid to go to a game without a partner, but it still is fun!

You all did well and we will see you again next week!

Suzanne 

PS   I added matchpoint data.  I did not know anyone was interested in that.  When I add that it cuts off the names of the EW pair, but the number is still visible. 

See you Wednesday  Please tell all your friends without partners that they are most welcome!

 Tuesday October 15 2024

We had a review lesson of Jacoby 2NT in Advanced Beginners and a review lesson of responding to NT in the Beginners lesson.  Next week we will introduce splinter bids in the Advanced Beginner lesson and defensive interference, over-calling and negative doubles in the Beginner lesson. 

We had 5 full tables in the pupil game.  Wynne and Betty came in first (AGAIN!) with a score of a whopping 75.69%!!  Melissa V and Christopher K came in second with a very nice 66.67%.  Jane and Susan had a very nice 63.89%, but today it was only good enough for third place.  It was a fun game, and I hope you all enjoyed playing in it as much as I did running it.  I look forward to next week!  See you then!  --Carl

 Thursday October 10 2024

Skip was not available today, so Carl was the director for the 6.5 table game.  We had a visitor, David Anthony, from Florida who was stuck playing with the director, but he was extremely kind and is welcome back any time.  We also had new members Joe Watts and Linda Garey join us today.  Welcome!

The winners today in our Club Appreciation Game were Nancy Barron and Mary Ellen Barker with 63.75%! Congratulations!  Second place went to Darrell Ford and Brent Sadler with 61.67%.  The master points shown below are a little lower than that actually awarded.  Go to "Live for Clubs" at the ACBL site to see your actual points awarded.  Next week we will playing in a STaC tournament that will award silver points initially, but should be converted to gold/red, once the STaC week is completed.

See you next week!!  --Carl

Wednesday 9 October 2024

 Wednesday 9 October 2024

We had 6 full tables and played a Mitchell with a skip after round 3.  We welcomed Dave and Zelda back after a prolonged vacation.  With the Mitchell movement we played 5 hands in each of 5 rounds.  This speeds up the game since we do not spend so much time moving.  A drawback is that we do not get to play all the other people! When there are an even number of tables we skip a table half way through so EW does not play the same hands twice! With an odd number of tables No Skip.  Any sit out in this movement is Long,  l o  n    g,     l   o   n   g!  With this type of movement there are winners in both N-S and E-W.  for this reason, if this were an sanctioned ACBL game we would not get as many master points.

You all played valiantly and are all winners!  I hope you had a good time!  The people who came in at the top in NS were 3 way tied  at 58.5%, Dave, Penny, Sid, Bobbie, Jill and Janet! But Jack pointed out that it was also a 3 way tie for 3rd place!  The top scorers in EW are Jan and Jane  with 57.5% followed closely by the Moores with a 55%! with only 3 hands remaining Colleen and Mary Lynn were first in EW.  Surprising how 3 hands can move things around

Congratulations to you all!

See you next week! 

Suzanne 

 Tuesday 8 October 2024

We had a lesson on 2 way reverse Drury in Adv Beginners and a lesson on Preempts and responses in Beginners class.  Next week we will review Jacoby 2NT in adv beginners and do some review of NT responses in beginners class.

We had 4 full tables in our pupil game with Kate Couillard returning for the second time and Coinnie Kaplan back after some time away.  Welcome back!  Christopher K and Melissa V came in first today with a whopping 68.5%! Kate C and some guy named Carl came in second followed by Connie and Jane G.

I had a great time and hope to see you all again next week!

 Thursday Open Game 3 October 2004

We had a smooth running 7-1/2 table Howell movement today. Tops were Joyce/Carl in A, Donna/Peter for B and Darrell/Brent for C. I just corrected Board 14 which changed the results slightly (10/4)

Carl will be running this game the next two weeks while I am on vacation and there will be no lesson.  When I get back the lessons will be on doubles and defensive signaling.

 Wednesday 2nd October 2024 Once again lovely weather! - We had a six and a half table Howell Movement with 2 hands a round, 13 rounds and we all played with everyone else.  We seem to have a hard time with Howell Movements.  Howell Movements only have a 2 board sit out.  If we play a Mitchel movement this speeds up the game since people don't have to move as often and don't wander aimlessly and taken long breaks between rounds.  However, the sitouts will be MUCH longer.  Next week we will try a Mitchell movement, where all N-S sit at the same table, and only the EW moves.  So we will not play with everybody.  If you were playing in a sanctioned ACBL game you would get less points.  Howell Movements award more points.

The first place winners are Mary Lynn and Claire, whom we have not seen in a while, followed by Dave and Penny.  Next were Jack and Suzanne and Cynthia and Marion, then Pat and Sherry.  We welcome Colleen and Jim who play a different type of duplicate, and came in right in the middle of the pack! We hope they will continue to come and bring their friends.

Please be careful when putting your hands back into the boards. Try not to rotate them!

Just a tip!  On board 1 with 21 points in the West.  You probably should not open 2 NT with 2 doubletons.  This was a tough one to bid!

See you next week! Suzanne 

 Tuesday 1 October 2024

We reviewed REVERSES in our beginners lesson today.  Remember only the opener can reverse by opening a lower suit and then a NEW higher suit later.  In Advanced beginners we discussed opening in the 3rd or 4th seat and learned the RULE of 15.  Next week we will review preempts and responding to them in beginners lessons.  In advanced beginners lessons, we will introduce the Drury coinvention used when partner opens a major in the 3rd or 4th seat.  What Fun!

We had 6 full tables for our pupil game, although to make 6 full tables we had to suffer a playing director.  Bill Swett managed to win with 62.8%, even though we had to be declarer when his lousy partner (yours truly) left him to answer questions by other players.  Wynne and Betty came in a close second with 61.1% and Jane and Susan were a respectable 58.9% for third place.  

I had a great time and hope you did too!  See you next week!  --Carl

 

 

 Thursday Open Game 26 September 2024

Wow we had 10 full tables today! It was very nice to see Bev Conway and Kathy Larnard here today for the first time.  They even ended up winning our Unit Championship game NS. Another women's team Susan and Nancy won EW. Other C strat players Jim & Ed and Mary & Andi also did very well coming in first in the B strat. 

 25 September 2024, Fun game! Exactly 3 months until the Christmas Holiday. It was cool and overcast! We played 5.5 tables 8 rounds and 21 boards with 1 sit out and missing 3 hands.  The top 5-6 pairs kept bumping each other off the top (Hey this is not bumper cars!  It's bridge) You all did well. Sid brought the paper cups and Susanne brought the grapes!

The top pair for today was Susanne and Paul, followed closely by Jan and Jane then Jill and Janet, Bill and Jack. Sid and Bobbie almost caught up!  Hopefully you all had a good time!

Another ACBL rule that you are not familiar with is that all of you should play in tempo. That means no hesitation when someone puts a card down. Just play. It also means don't play too quickly (which I have a tendency to do).  Play in tempo!  Another ACBL regulation for our mini lesson!  The intent is not to let the declarer have any idea (or to perhaps fool them) where the high card in a finesse!

Hope you all had a good day and see you next week!

Suzanne 

 Tuesday 24 September 2024

We had 4.5 tables at the pupil game after our lessons on Balancing Seat Bidding (Advanced Beginner) and Stayman and Transfers (Beginners).  John S and Claire D tied for first with Jane G and Sue S. with 60.42 %!  Martha R and Bill Z tied for third with Christopher and Melissa at 56.25%!  Great game, people!

We also had a newcomer to bridge who played as my partner.  Welcome Kate Couillard!  Hope to see you back next week.

Next week we will talk about reverses in the Beginners lesson and 3rd or 4th seat opening in the Adv Beginners lesson.  See you nest week!  ---Carl

 Thursday Open Game 9 September 2024

It was nice to see Carole Poirier and Darrell Ford here today after being away for a while.  Bob & Carole were the magical partnership today for first place. I am impressed that a married pair came in second - Jim is really starting to learn this game!  Two C strat teams also placed - Darrell/Brent and Linda/Nancy.

Wednesday 18 September 2024  The most lovely of late summer days, one of our old friends, Cindy Trayers, who used to partner with Jane showed up to take up duplicate again. Jill and Janet also showed up after taking the summer off!   We had 6 and a half tables and played 2 boards a round for 9 or 10 rounds of a Howell movement  until it got to 3:15 and I sent everyone home to enjoy the last summery day!  Our winners were Jill and Janet followed closely by Susanne and Paul and Bill and Jack and Sherry and Margie and Jane and Jan for the top 5 slots.  You all did very well! Each team missed 6 hands, but most of you played 20 boards.

For some reason the blogger won't let me upload the file on my Windows computer.  It says the file is "phishing".  but my Chrome book, also identified "phishing" but I could override the block.

See you next week, and hope you enjoyed the sunshine!

Suzanne 

Will go home and try and figure out why.

Suzanne 

 Tuesday September, 17 2024

We had a lesson on Unusual 2NT in adv beginners lesson and on Jacoby 2NT in beginners.  Next week we will have a lesson on responses to 1NT openers without s flat hand in beginners. We will have a lesson on bidding in the 3rd, 4th and balancing seat in Adv. Beginners.

There were 4.5 tables in the pupil game. The winners today were Bill Z. and Martha R. with 65.6%!  Congrats!  Second place went to the Cullys and third went to Mary Lynn and Claire.  See you all next week! --Carl

 Thursday Open Game 12 September 2024

It was great for us to meet Nancy Pierce's sister Joan Lewis and her husband Robert Hopkins today.  We had a very nice 7-1/2 table Howell Movement for our International Fundraiser game. I understand that this is David's 4th first place finish including our games and those at the Monday Great Bay club.  He is definitely starting to learn this game!

Next week's lesson will be on leads and frozen suits.

 Wednesday 11 September 2023  - What a gorgeous fall day!  We were fortunate to get 5 full tables, and played a 9 round Howell movement with 3 hands a round where everybody played everybody else! The competition was very tight and all of you seemed to be in each rank at one time or the other.  The final ranking is in First place is Marion and Cynthia, followed nip and tuck by Sid and Bobby, then the Mahoneys tide with Bill and Jack.The Top 6 teams were less than 6% points different! Once again we had a tie today!  Sorry I messed up the scores.  On round 8 I fixed a score (EW sat NS for one hand) and it screwed up the bridgemates through the end of the day.

Today we had four single show up!  Please do come by when you want to play even without a partner. I think they did very well for picking up with someone other than their usual partner. We welcome all comers.  Don't be afraid to come without a partner.

Thank you all for coming.

Suzanne

PS  Please do not throw the mechanical pencils out when they run out of lead. We can easily add lead to the pencils. We had over 50 pencils at beginning of summer. We are running low and I found one in the trash this afternoon, Sept 11.

 Tuesday 10 September 2024

We had a lesson on Michaels cue bid in the advanced beginners lesson and a lesson on bidding and responding to an open of one of a major in the beginners lesson.  We had 4.5 tables in the Pupil Game and a new member, Cristina Gaynor (Welcome Cristina!!) who played with her friend Harriet Petrulio and finished second!  She has played some bridge in Europe, but is learning the Standard American system that we teach.  First place went to John Safford and Betty Lewis with a whopping 73.96%!! Congrats John and Betty!

Next week we will address Unusual NT in adv beginners lesson and Jacoby 2NT in the beginners lesson.  See you next week!  --Carl

 Thursday Open Game 5 September 2024

Today we had a special game with upgraded points for our 6 Table Howell.  Please note that 4 C strat players all ended in the top 3 positions - David/Peter, Brent and Andi.   You guys are really learning this game.

I fixed boards 1, 7 and 19 which were not correct. These changed the final results.

 4 September 2024 - We had a lovely 5 table 9 round  27 hand Howell movement where everyone played everyone else!  VP Harris was down the road at the Brewery so people were inconvienced getting here and we played until 4pm so we missed the traffic at the end, but saw about 20 Yellow Yankee buses and NH State troopers outside.

We had a new player, Wolfgang Harder from Exeter, who played with Jim Nay another New comer from last week.  They did very well coming in  second after first place finishers Audrey and Carolyn.  Followed by Muriel and Paul, then Dave and Jane.    Congratulations to you all!  You did very well!

See most of you next Wednesday!  Have a good week!

Suzanne

3 September 2024 - a Lovely pleasant late summer day we had 4 full tables for our game after the lesson on No Trump openings and replies with "flat" hands (no long or short suit).

On this first Tuesday in September we had 3 hands that made small slams.  Two of them were bid once or twice.  There was a 6 Heart Hand, a 6 NT Hand and  6 Diamond Hand(#9)   The Hands were #8 making 6 spades E-W.   Hand #17 making all sorts of 6 EW, and Hand #20.  Perhaps Carl can discuss how to bid them in this blog.

Our winners today were Sue and Martha with an astounding 70%(revised to 69%), who bid one of the slams.  Followed closely by Guil and Bob and Jean and Elizabeth.  There was a lot of friendly rivalry and you all did very well.

Thank you for allowing me to run the game while your esteemed teacher was away.  Next week Advanced lessons will resume at 10 AM.  

REMEMBER  NO ONE IS allowed to play without attending one of the lessons.  This is a requirement of ACBL, Not Carl or Suzanne.  In order to give ACBL Master points in this session you need to be in a lesson for that day.

Your assistant teacher,

Suzanne.

Updated 4th of September

I had to revise the final scores on 3 hands so the new scores are Here:

 Thursday Open Game 29 August 2024

Congrats to Brent/Roslyn and David/Bates for winning our NAP game today! Note that Brent, David and Nancy are all C strat players.

I am off to see my new granddaughter!

 Wednesday 28 August 2024! last game before Labor Day!  Happy Labor Day everyone!

Hello All!  Today we had a 88 deg Plus day on the last Wednesday in August.  We had 5 full tables and played a Howell movement where every pair played every other pair.  We voted to play 18 hands rather than the 27 which was getting us out after 4 pm.  Today we got out a few minutes before 3.  Every body did very well, but our First place team was Pat and Sherry, followed by Bill and Jack, and a tie for 3rd place with Sid, Bobbie,  Audrey and Carolyn!

Marion brought a person new to North Hampton - Jim Nay from Exeter.  He played with John Burnap and did pretty well.  We hope he comes again and brings a couple of his friends!

See you in September (there's a song with that name?)

Suzanne 

 Tuesday August 27, 2024

We had a small turnout today for both the Advanced beginner and Beginner sessions.  Only 5 people for the adv beginner lesson and only 3 tables for the beginner pupil game.  In the Advanced beginner lesson we introduced bidding in the balancing seat.  In the beginner lesson. we discussed rebidding when looking for a major fit after an open of one of a minor.  I will be out next week, but Suzanne will be here to give a beginner lesson.  There will be NO ADVANCED BEGINNER LESSON NEXT WEEK.  I will be back the following week.

We had only three tables in a Howell Movement which left us with a final round where all three tables had to share the same set of three boards.  Thank all of you for bearing with us.

Bill S and Phil S won today with a nice 60%  and John B and Colette S came in second with 55%.  See you in two weeks!  ---Carl

 Thursday Open Game 22 August 2024

We had another fun 6-1/2 table Howell movement today. Congrats to Joyce/Carl for first in A, Andi/Judy for first in B and Nancy & Nancy for first in the C strat.

Nest week's lesson is on Lebensohl. This is a difficult convention to learn, but it pays big dividends and has multiple uses in your bidding. Please let me know if you have ant conventions or lessons which you would like me to review.

 Wednesday, 21 August 2024 - A lovely August Day.  We had only 4 and a half tables, which a few of us thought might be just 2 tables at 7 minutes of Noon..  Please try to get to the Hall about 8 minutes before the game not 4 minutes.  Unfortunately the internet at Centennial hall was down for the day, so sorry about the late posting.  Our winners were Susanne and Paul followed closely by Bobbie and Sid(who jostled Pat and Sherry out by playing hand 6 after everyone else left) , then Pat and  Sherry.   Shipwreck and Jack, were contending for the 9th place (do they think 9th is better than 1st?) So many times they came in first.  The Blue Moon must have fouled up their communication!  We had some interesting hands and even a Unbid Grand Slam,(Board 7)  how we could have bid that is a mystery, but our lessons and teacher on Tuesday, Carl W, might be able to shed some light on.  He has some advanced beginner lessons (really intermediate) and some fabulous Saturday bridge camps!

We had a grand time and thank you for not switching hands or putting the cards in a pile on any of the plays!  

Hand 6 was played late and the scores were included in the final result, but this JPEG, apparently does not have the 4th result, since it was played after most of you went home and I did not realize the bid did not make one of the software corner.   The top two couples were less than 1/4 point apart, so the game was really close!  

thank you all for coming!  You are all Winners!

see you next Wednesday!

Suzanne