Tuesday 30 April 2024

We had a lesson about takeout doubles and negative doubles today and had 5.5 tables for our pupil game.  We will have another lesson on takeout doubles next week. 

The winners today were Martha and Jean with a whopping 72.49% !!!.  Second place went to Claire and Mary Lynn with and astounding 69.42%, score that would garner a win on most weeks!

We will keep the format of the lessons, but we will go back and review at least one topic every week.  I have been made aware that I am dumping too much information on you at one time.  Part of the reason for that is that the places I went to college gave education in such a way that it was like trying to get a drink from a firehose.  I will try to slow it down to a garden hose.  See you next week! ---Carl

Saturday 27 April 2024-- Updated Monday 29 April

Special Lessons Days  May 11 2024, May 25, 2024

By popular request, I am hosting two days of just "lessons".  I am putting the quotes around lessons, because they will not be set to any particular topic.  We will all play the same boards, one at a time, with discussion led by me between each board.  The expectation is that 85% of topics that we might cover in a prepared lesson will come up, and this approach takes much less preparation time by me as I do not need to design hands for a specific topic, which saves me time and keeps your cost down.

As per the requests, this will be a marathon "Boot Camp." We will start at 10 A.M. and end at 4:00 P.M. or after 27 boards, whichever comes first.  I will provide an printed, annotated hand record at the end of the class.

There will be a short break for lunch and a bathroom break.  The cost is $10/person

These will happen at Centennial Hall on May 11th and May 25th.  As of right now (Monday, the 29th), we have two spots available on the 11th and one spot available on the 25th for 3 full tables.  If we get a few more than that, we can rotate up to three kibitzers on each day, and there will still be value in the lessons.  There will be a fresh set of boards for the 25th, so you can attend both days without just a rerun of the 11th on the 25th.

If you are interested, and have not already done so, please email me:  cvwikstrom@gmail.com

Thanks and see you there! ---Carl Wikstrom

 Thursday 25 April 2024

We had seven full tables in today's Stardust game and there was 25% GOLD awarded along with the well-earned Black MPs. Congratulations to Nancy and Sandy for getting first place and 1.52 Black and 0.51 GOLD Masterpoints.  Linda and John got second place and 1.07 Black and 0.36 GOLD.  I am glad we had four other pairs with GOLD.

It was a beautiful day in New Hampshire and thank you all for spending it with me.  Skip should be back next week for another fun day!  I look forward to hearing all about his trip to Portugal.

 Wednesday 24 April 2024 - Fun Game

Today we played a 5 and a half table Howell movement, where each pair played all the other pairs. We all played 24 boards.  It was a tight race with Sayer and Sulger inching out  the pair in Second Place,  Hennebury and Dickenson.  You all did a super job, with Jim Even attempting a 6 Diamond slam@ Kudos to Jim!  Everybody had a fun time and did a terrific job on this overcast late April day.

Your assistant director,

Suzanne

 Tuesday 23 April 2024

We had 6 tables for our pupil game after our special review of pre-emptive bids and responses. Congratulations to Sue and Martha for first place with 61.97% and Jean and Mary Lynn were right on their heels with a very good second place finish of 61.61%!

We are looking into having a separate day of just lessons and no competitive play and a sign-up sheet was circulated.  Right now it looks like our first session will be on a Saturday in May, either the 11 or the 25 at Centennial hall.  If you didn't get your name on the list, please email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com if you are interested.

We will get back to the scheduled lessons next week.  See you then!!

 Thursday Open Game 18 April 2024

It was nice to see a few new faces here today. Congratulations once again to Donna/Peter who continue to perform great even though they are in the C strat.  Susan & Barbara came in first in the B strat and Suzanne & Simone took the honors in the C strat.

Carl will be the director next week while I am away.  He will be giving a lesson on Mexican 2D which is probably new to most of you. I plan to give a lesson on lebensohl followed by basic defense lessons. We will continue to have ACBL charity games during April which award more points;

 Wednesday 17 April 2024  Bridge FUN day & it was Sunny out

Today we had a full 6 table Howell movement where all but 3 couples got to play each other. The First place goes to Dave and Zelda!  Well done!  Next Penny and Rick, then Hildy and Margie and Mary Lynn and Claire We had a complaint that there were too many slam and 2 Club hands?  So we need to learn cue bidding?  You all did very well despite me hurrying you along.  I don't know if its better to hurry all of you along or tell someone to go home and then have a long sit out. 

Please when you sit down LOOK to see that you are in the correct direction.  We had a couple of hands that were NO PLAYS because the wrong people played them and it was not fair to their opponents or frankly the others in the group.

I hope you had a good time!  See you next week!

Your assistant director,

Suzanne

 Tuesday 16 April 2024

We had a bit lower attendance than usual today with 5 full tables in our pupil game and 1 student that was at the lesson only.  Due to all of the questions about pre-emptive bids, we will review weak 2's and 3's and responding to them next week.  

Our big winners today were Mary Lynn and Claire with 73.15 %!!  Second place went to Wynne and Betty with a very good 66.18%.  We will see you next week!

 Thursday Open Game 11 April 2023Gol

We had a nice 6-1/2 table game with some very strange hands.  We celebrated Carl's Gold Life Master rank with a cake since he just earned 2500 mps.

Paul & Maureen took the honors, followed closely by Nancy & Mary Ellen and Roger & Connie.  I was also very happy to see Yuni & Barbara earn 1.05 mps!

 Wednesday 10 April 2024  Fun Game

Today we had a 5 and a half table Howell movement  playing 8 rounds of 3 boards. that went fairly well.  Make sure when you put in the numbers you match N to S and E to W.  On table had N playing with E and S playing with W, other than that the day went fairly smoothly.  We had a couple of old friends drop by Christine Hoyler and Emily Creighton.  It was nice to see you again and we hope you will come back!

First, second and third places kept chasing each other today! Rick and Penny made the final cut, followed by Bobbie and Sic, and Mary Lynn and Claire from Tuesday's lessons, and Hildy and Carol.

You all did  very well!  Hope you had fun on this overcast coldish day.

For those who asked at the bottom of the schematic of the hands it shows what can be made. The par is what NS can make  Negative means its a EW game.

Your Assistant Director.

Suzanne

 Tuesday 9 April 2024 Pupil Game

We had a great time today with a 6 table, 18 board Mitchell movement.  It was decided by the director that we will be playing a Howell movement when we have less than 7 tables in the future so that no one plays the same opponents twice.   Suzanne and Ann won NS and Betty and Wynne won EW.  Next week will will talk about MINOR transfers.  Have a good week!

 Thursday Open Game 4 April 2024

Bridge is cancelled for today due to intermittent internet.  Stay safe.

 Wednesday 3 April 2024  Fun Bridge

Today while we were waiting for the enormous storm  that was forecast, we had a 5 table game using a Howell movement.  We welcome Chris Baker and Sharon Kaiser, two people who found our club! Thank you for coming!  It was a bit long since we all played all 27 hands.

The People who came in first were  Barb and Hildy, with  58% closely followed by Bobbie and Jim, Pat and Sherry and rounding up in 4th place were Marion and Cynthia!  Places 3 through 7 were very mobile, switching around all the time!

You are All WINNERS.

Thank you for coming to play on a miserable drizzly day!

Your assistant Director.   

Suzanne

 Tuesday 02 April 2024

We had our first official ACBL Pupil Game today.  Jane and Susan won NS and Betty and Suzanne won EW.  I am not sure when these fractional points will show up on your official ACBL record as pupil games are handled by email rather than uploaded online.  Please get you guest membership numbers befiore April 5, so that they will be in the database when I download it from the district

Next week our lesson will be about transferring with a good hand and Stayman responses to NT.  See you then !!