Thursday Open Game 21 August 2025
The Fogarty's and Poirier's cleaned up today taking the first place spots in our 25% silver point game. Brent and Roslyn were first place in the B strat. Linda/Nancy and Patti/Barbara were first place in the C strat.
Thank you so much to Andi who brought in yummi brownies so we could celebrate Judy's birthday today.
Wednesday Open Game 20 August 2025
Today the strats were Open/1500/500 based on the avg of both players on each team. This is a club record for the highest caliber of players which have ever played here.
Congratulations to Lesley/Carole for first place overerall in the A and B strats and to Bob/Dave for first E/W. Pam/Claire were first place in the B strat E/W. Anne/Paul were first place in the C strat. Ron/Chris, Colette/James and Toni/Elaine all earned points in the C strat.
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Tuesday 19 August 2025
We had a lesson on forcing 1NT response in Advanced beginners and Responses to 1 of a minor opening in Beginners class. Next week we will have another lesson on forcing 1NT responses in adv beginners and a lesson on responding to an open of 1 of a major in beginners class.
We had 4.5 tables in our pupil game. Either people are traveling or the weather was so nise that people wanted to be outside. I already have been given notice from at least 3 people that they will miss next week's lesson. So, if you are one of them, we will miss you next week and hope you have a good trip or fun time, but I hope to see you back here in two weeks! I will be here next week and every week until the second week of November.
The BIG game today was turned in by Al and Mary Lynn with a whopping 78.13%!!! If this were not a "Pupil Game" that scoret would be turned to the ACBL for a special listing! Elizabeth and Jean and John and Bill tied for second with a very nice 52.08%.
See most of you next week! ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 14 August 2025
Today we had the perfect 9 Table Mitchell movement with 9 rounds of 3 boards for our Red Hot Challenge with partial red points awarded. Thank you so much to Yuni for her fabulous shrimp salad. That was so beautiful and healthy and delicious.
Congratulations to our winners today - Mary/Bill and George/James. Wow - B and C strat teams. Linda/Nancy came in second place even though they are also C strat players.
Tuesday 12 August 2025
We started a new cycle in both Advanced Beginners' and Beginners' Lessons. In advanced we started a new cycle on 2/1 explaining when it is used and when it is not used. In beginners, we discussed the point system and evaluation of a hand, including both high card points (hcps) and distribution points based on length or shortage.
We had 5.5 tables in our pupil game today thanks to Pam Robinson helping out and learning how to run our pupil game. Pam will take over running the game in November! Thank You Pam!
The winners today were Mary Lynn and Al Bowen, in their first time to play together, with a whopping 66.67%! Second place went to Harriet P and Bill S with a very nice 56,25%.
See you next week! ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 7 August 2025
We were happy to welcome Walter Driscoll from the Boston area to our club today. We had a nice cake celebration for Peter's 75th birthday. There was a great 12 table full Mitchell movement. Congratulations to Erzsebet/Steve for the first place A strat finish, Linda/James and Ron/Herb tied for the B strat finish, and Linda/Nancy for the C strat finish. Congratulations also to Simone/Helen, Andi/Judi and Mary/Joyce for C strat finishes.
Tuesday Pupil Game 5 August 2025
It was a pleasure to run today's 5-1/2 table game today and get to meet everyone. Congratulations to John/Bill, Kathy/Alan, Martha/Sue and Sue/Martha for the mp finishes today. The lesson was about defensive signals - attitude, first discard, count and Trump Suit Preference. Hopefully you were able to agree and practice some of these signaling techniques.
I was asked about how you could have bid to and made the slam on board 8 below. The key is for the opener to jump to 2NT after their 1H open and responder's 1S response. Once responder knows that opener has 18/19 points for their 2NT jump. they can add their 14 points to see that they are in slam territory. I can see the bidding going 1H, 1S, 2NT, 3D (forcing), 3S (courtesy showing 3 spades), then 4NT, 5H (shows 2 aces), then 6S. 7S makes with a H finesse of the 10.
Skip Page
Thursday July 13 2025
We had 10 full tables today and Carl directed in Skip's absence.
Liz Van Hof and Ted McMichael won NS with 60.1%!! Congrats! (Nice to see C players do well!) Bob Fogarty and Sandra Larson won EW. Second place NS went to Nancy Hornbeck and Claire I, Second Place EW went to Nick T and Eddie S.
Skip should be back next week. Thanks to all of your cooperation and sorry about the slow start as some of you are not in my database, so it took a little while to get it going. See you in a couple of weeks.--Carl
Unfortunately, My ACBL program would not open the Bridgemate Control program. Here are the cards for each hand. Today we had 5 full tables. Anne left since she had nobody to play with! and she did not want the first sit out!
The lesson today was on "Take out" Doubles, and Negative Doubles both of which are done at the Earliest opportunity and require their partner to respond UNLESS the opponents interfere. As was explained during the lesson, There are only numbers 1 to 7, 4 suits, pass, double and redouble to tell your partner what you have. Some Brillant bridge player in the past decided to use doubles for more than doubling the score. So several doubles were invented. You all seem to remember the "BIG double". Two more were introduced today, the Takeout double, and the Negative double. You also had a review of the Rule of Nine, which occurs when your partner makes a Takeout double of the opponent's suit, and you have several of the suit that was doubled and few points. You add the number of the bid (2 diamonds let's say), you have 5 diamonds including the Jack and 10, which are considered "honors", so 2 +5 +2 are 9 so you leave the double in hoping to take down your opponent, and you've converted the Takeout double to a Penalty double.
So here are the cards that were in play. You had some very interesting hands, where one person opened a one of a major and their partner had few points but 6 of the other major, for instance board 17
News Flash! Kate and Connie told me they won Everything! Congratulations Oh my goodness Mary Lynn and Claire as well as Claire and Sally said they came in first! Congratulations to all of you! Jan and Chris tied with John and Bill Swett for the top all male teams, while the Kingsbury's came in first as a married couple and Jean and John came in first as an unmarried couple. Wynne and Betty came in first as the longest lasting partnership, while Judy and Harriet came in first as the Shortest time partnership. Jane and Susan came in first as the partnership containing a student of Dave Pepple's and a student of Carl's ! So Many Firsts! Congratulations to all of you I got really confused, since without partnership numbers I could not tell who was supposed to play at a particular table.
Sorry my computer can't find files today!
Skip will be teaching the lesson the first Tuesday in August! and the first lesson of the next session starts the second week in August with Carl starting all over again. What is this Ground Hog Day?
Suzanne
Thursday Open Game 24 July 2025
Wow, we had some crazy hands today for our 10 table full Mitchell movement today. Congratulations to the Defoss couple and Pam/Skip for today's win. Ellen/Nancy, Liz/Ted, Joyce/Bill, Yuni/John and Barbara/Lori all took home 25% red points for today's NAP game. I was told that the N/S pair had a void in their partner's bid suit 4 times!
Tuesday July 22, 2025
We finished up our Defense lessons set today in advanced beginners and reviewed competitive bidding in beginners. There will NOT BE an ADVANCED BEGINNER'S LESSON next week. There WILL BE a BEGINNER'S LESSON next week that Suzanne will run on takeout doubles. Skip Page will run the beginner's lesson on August 5th. I will return to start a NEW CYCLE on August 12. THERE WILL NOT BE AN ADVANCED BEGINNER'S LESSON UNTIL AUGUST 12 WHEN WE WILL BEGIN A REVIEW OF THE 2/1 GAME FORCE SYSTEM. In beginner's we will restart the cycle for new beginner's on August 12.
We had 5 full tables in the pupil game today. The Kingsburys were the winners today with 61.81%, followed closely by Christopher K and Jan E with 60.42%. Sue and Martha finished 3rd with 55.56%.
Next week there will be no Advanced Beginner lesson, but the beginner's lesson on takeout doubles will be run by Suzanne. See you August 12 ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 17 July 2025
We had a very nice RED HOT CHALLENGE 10 table Mitchell game today where the winners should earn 25% RED points. We were very happy to see Alan Carpenter here for the first time playing with Ken Gminski. The ranking was settled in the last round when Yuni/John played Ed/Jim at Table 1 and they each came in first place! Other C strat players who finished in the money include Nancy/Linda, Alan/Ken and Pat/Gordon.
What do you think of board 21 where there were 10 spades in one direction and they could make 4S and their opponents had 11 diamonds in the opposite direction and one partnership made 5D? That is really a lesson in the LAW of Total Tricks!
Thanks so much to Nancy Bates for bringing in the yummy brownies and also to whomever brought in the dippable spreads. It was a very nice day.
Wednesday Open Game 16 July 2025
Congrats to Carl and Cliff for winning North-South and Dave and Nancy for winning East-West. Also congrats to our C players Judy and Carolyn, Lynn and Cate and John and Nancy for placing in the overalls. If you are interested the scores in the ACBL portal will have the Qualifying results for the North American Pairs in this game.
Tuesday 15 July 2025
We continued lessons on interfering with declarer in Advanced Beginner and had a lesson using Gerber in beginners. Next week we will finish up the lessons on Defense in Advanced beginners and review competitive bidding in Beginners.
We had 5.5 tables in the Pupil Game. Sue H and Martha R came in first with a whopping 68.75%! Second place went to Elizabeth B and Jean L with 57.64% A close third was turned in by Jane G and Susan S with 56.25%. See you next week! ---Carl
TOMORROW, July 12
Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening July 12, 2025
What it will be like:
We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time. Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp. I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables. If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands. That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.
It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first. There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.
The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.
If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com. Hope to see you there! ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 10 July 2025
WE had a very nice 10-1/2 table Mitchell movement today. Congratulations to Susan/Daryl and Erzsebet/Steve for the first places finishes. Ellen/Nancy, Linda/Nancy, Carol/Carol and James/George all placed in the C stratification. Rita/Claire, Lesley/Bob and Nick/Ed did the best in the B strat.
THIS SATURDAY, July 12
Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening July 12, 2025
What it will be like:
We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time. Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp. I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables. If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands. That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.
It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first. There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.
The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.
If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com. Hope to see you there! ---Carl
Wednesday Open Game 9 July 2025
We are very happy to see Sally Kroeker, Barb Hennebe and Margie Dickinson here today. Welcome! Today was a special NAP qualifier where you earned 1/2 red and had the chance to qualify to represent our district at the nationals.
We had a very nice even 9 table Mitchell movement. Congratulations to Ellen/Lewis and Carole/Steve for the first place finishes. Susanne/Paul, Joyce/James, and Coleen/Ronald all earned points in the C stratification.
THIS SATURDAY, July 12
Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening July 12, 2025
What it will be like:
We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time. Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp. I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables. If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands. That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.
It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first. There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.
The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.
If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com. Hope to see you there! ---Carl
Tuesday 8 July 2025
We had a lesson on interfering with the declarer on defense in Adv Beginner and Asking about Kings in Slam bidding in Beginners.
Next week we will continue on Defensive interference (No penalty for it, this is bridge not Football!) in advanced beginners and Gerber in beginners.
We had 6.5 tables in the pupil game and welcomes a new participant, Al Bowen who played with yours truly and managed to pull me up to second place at 58.12%. First place (58.33%) went to Jean L. and Elizabeth B. (back from a long time away and playing like she never left!). The Cullys came in third with 55.62%.
I will see some of you at the boot cap this weekend and the rest of you next Tuesday! --Carl
THIS SATURDAY, July 12
Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening July 12, 2025
What it will be like:
We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time. Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp. I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables. If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands. That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.
It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first. There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.
The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.
If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com. Hope to see you there! ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 3 July 2025
We had a perfect 9 table Mitchell movement today. Congratulations to Lisa/Nancy for a 72.5% game! Patricia/Joe were first NS. Jude/Ken and Sid/Gordo were both first in their respective C strats. James/George and Lesley/Carole were first in the B strats.
Have a fabulous 4th of July holiday.
Tuesday 1 July 2025
We had a lesson on finessing and ruffing on defense, including signaling your partner in Adv Beginners and a lesson on RKC 1430 in beginners. Next week we will look at interfering with declarer on defense in Advanced Beginner and asking for the Q of trump and Kings in beginner's lesson.
We had 6.5 tables in the Pupil game today. Newcomer Judy Pinette managed to come in first, even with yours truly dragging her down with 67.5%. Second was Wynne and Betty with 66.88%. We also had returning players of long ago with Barb M and Sally K! Welcome back!
Don't forget about the bridge boot camp right here in Centennial Hall on July 11!. Have a great 4th of July! ----Carl
SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, July 12
Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening July 12, 2025
What it will be like:
We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time. Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp. I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables. If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands. That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.
It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first. There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.
The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.
If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com. Hope to see you there! ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 26 June 2025
Wow what a fantastic day. We had a record 15 tables for our silver point sTac game. We were very happy to welcome our new players Harry Messenheimer and Erzsebet Bean. It was also nice to see Judy Parks here again. Points may go up because our scores will be compared to the rest of the district. There will be no less for this summer. First place was by two C strat players - Donna/Peter and Geroge/James. Congratulations so to Sue/Barbara, Pat/Gordon and Juni/John.
Wednesday Open Game 25 June 2025
WE had a nice, cool 6-1/2 table Howell movement today. We were very happy to see David Reinhard here again. He has been away for a long time. Congratulations to our first place winners - Carol/Leslie. Nancy & Suzanne came in first in the C strat. These points will convert to silver in a few days and may increase. 
Tuesday 24 June 2025 - a blistering hot day, when we left it was 103 outside!
Today we learned about Pre-emptive bidding, which takes bidding room away from your opponents. We had 2.5 tables, so we could not earn Masterpoints, since I believe we need ~16 people to earn points. The game had 5 rounds of 4 hands with every pair having a 4 hand sit out, which is very long In order to practice and play, I decided that the sitout couple recruite one of the dummies from the other tables to help in the bidding, so we could get some more practice in. Unfortunately, Sometimes the "borrowed" player got the bid. Sometimes they went back to their game and things went smoothly. Other times they did not wish to go back to their team mate, so that caused confusion and at one point we had 3 partnerships broken up with a partner playing at 2 tables. I was not confused and tried to get them back in line, but they were adverse to giving up a hand they had bid. LOL
Our players were John B and Martha , Jane and Herb, Connie and Kate, John S and Bill Swett, Harriet and Claire D. in no particular order. Jane and Herb had first sitout, while Harriet and Claire got to go home early!
I hope all of you had a good time! Carl will be back in July! You might want to ask him how to bid Hand 18, where West had 19 points and a void in clubs. Some people might open 1 Spade, Bill opened 2 clubs, and John S responded 3 clubs rather than 2 diamonds and West went to 2 Spades. It is a wild hand. Had John responded 2 diamonds, I think West would then go to 2 Spades, making east uncomfortable, since all they had was one Spade.
Thank you all for coming on this sweltering day!
Carl will be back next week!
Suzanne
Tuesday June 17 2025
We had a lesson on defense in Adv beginners and a lesson on Blackwood in beginners.
There will be NO ADVANCED BEGINNER LESSON next week and Suzanne will be teaching the beginner lesson which will be a review of pre-empts and responding to pre-empts.
We had 6 full tables in the Pupil game. The winners were Guil S and Bob E with 58.89%! Second place went to John Safford and Bill Swett with 57.78%.
NO ADVANCED BEGINNER LESSON NEXT WEEK, but there will be a beginner lesson by Suzanne Sayer. I will be back as usual on July 1. See you then.
Thursday Open Game 12 June 2025
Wow - 14 tables here today! Thak you all so much for coming. I was really happy how the game went. However, we need to work to reduce the noise. Also, players must get here earlier. The Monday game sends people away if they are not here within 15 minutes of start time. It creates a lot of trouble for me and confusion for everyone f I need to keep changing the game to accommodate late comers.
Congratulations to Rita/George and Brent/Darrell for the first place finishes! Both of these teams were in the C strat. In fact take a look at the score below - there were more finishers in the C strat than in the B strat which was 500 - 3000 mps. All those with a Q after their names below are eligible to compete to represent our district and get a free trip to the spring 2026 regional.
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Wednesday Open Game 11 June 2025
I was really happy to see 10 full tables today. Carl will direct next week's game starting at 11:30. The group which was originally playing her on Wednesday has decided to play on Mondays so Wednesday will only be an open game.
Congratulations to Carl/Cliff for the first place overall finish. Bob/David were first place EW. Nancy/Jim were first place in C followed by Judy/Carolyn.
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Tuesday June 10 2025
In advanced beginners we discussed signaling to your partner with your card play and in beginners we talked about Splinter bids as an alternative to Jacoby 2NT when you have opening points, 4 of your partner's opening major and a singleton or void. Next week, we will talk about Blackwood and Roman Key card 1430 in Beginners and developing tricks on defense in advanced beginners.
We had six tables in our pupil game today. Jan pulled the director up to first place with 61.38% and Mary Lynn and Claire came in a close second with 61.00%! We only played 16 boards today, because we could only get in 8 rounds by 3:00, but it was still a fun time!
See you next week! ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 5 June 2025
We had a very smooth 8-1/2 table Mitchell movement today for our NAP game. Congrats to Nick/Bob and Nancy/Skip for first place finishes. The new partnership of George/James came in second place. The oldest partnership of Leslie/Bob (that is a joke) got a good finish, as did the Carole/Carole team, the Labonte team, Ed/Jim and Joyce/Carl.
The previous fun game which was running as a separate section on Wednesdays has moved to Monday so there is now plenty of room for you to come play on Wednesdays also.
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Wednesday Open/Fun Game 4 June 2025
Next week's FUN game will be held Monday at noon which is what I originally suggested. This will be directed by Suzanne. The Wednesday game will only be a single session open game.
The Fun Game had a 5-/2 Table Howell movement. The Open game had a 6-1/2 table Howell movement.
Following are the results for the FUN game:
Following are the results of the Open NAP Game:
Tuesday June 3 2025
We had a lesson on signaling in Adv Beginners and a lesson on Jacoby 2NT in Beginners. Next week we will continue discussing signaling in Adv Beginners and we will discuss splinters in Beginners.
We had 6 full tables in our pupil game.Betty and Wynne were back in the winners circle with 65.56% and Mary Lynn carried the director to a second place finish with 62.22%. Thank you all for putting the tables away after the game for the recital tonight.
The weather is warming up and we will need those air conditioners the rest of the week. See everyone next week! --- Carl
Suzanne is feeling over pressured. I have heart conditions. She is going to take the summer off, while Skip and/or Carl will be running 2 sections on Wednesday, one of which will be the Fun Bridge. Two members of Suzanne's family are in different Medical facilities in parts of Vermont 3 hours away from each other each 3.5 hours away from her. Also she is taking an advanced college course that is unrelentless 12 weeks of college Mechanical engineering in 6 weeks. Fascinating! but lots of work. A tree fell down in my yard, and I have to cut it up, and My cherry tree and 5 blueberry bushes need netting put up so the birds wont get them all. I've never had any apples or grapes since I've never had the time to net them.
Have a good summer and I will reevaluate my health in August. Suzanne
Thursday Open Game 29 May 2025
Welcome to a few players who are relatively new - Jim Scamman who has not been here for about 10 years and Margaret/Dave and Jude/Ken from the Derry Club. These new club members helped make this the largest single game I have run here - 11-1/2 tables!
Darrel/Brent and Bob Jerry took the top spots. Liz/Ted, Nick/Ed, Jim/Gordon and Louis/George also did very well earning points. The points were not very high because 25% of the points will be gold points. Next week the points will be high because it will be a NAP qualifier game.
Wed Open Game 28 May 2025
Well it was certainly an exciting game today. I was really impressed with the quality of play we had. The B stratification was 500-1200 mps by team average. We played a 6-1/2 Table Howell movement so sit-outs were only 2 boards. Ruth/Harvey earned the top spot with a fabulous 68%. The top C stratification point winners were Nancy/John and Lynn/Cate.
Thank you for everyone's efforts to be gracious hosts and friendly guests. I think we did an excellent job working together even though we are used to playing such different games. I for one have found that I usually think I know what is best, but usually find I am only seeing half of the truth.
Noise is an issue that I think we can improve on. We both had 7 tables but the Fun group (Section A) was playing a 4 board Mitchell while the Open group (Section B) played a 2 board Howell. Therefore the two groups were moving at different times. We will also try partition barriers next week which we hope will reduce the noise.
Thanks again. I hope everyone had a nice time. There is a 25% Open gold game tomorrow, same time same place.
Today 28 May 2025, we attempted to run two sections of duplicate side by side.
The A Group (FUN group) played 2 boards, 6 rounds of 4 boards in a Mitchell Movement, while the B group played 26 in 13 rounds of 26.
Group A's winners in NS were Roger and Connie with a 62%, followed by Jane and Jan with a ~60%, then Rick and Penny ~54%. In EW direction were Paul and Susanne 60%, then Margie and Carol~56% followed by Guil, and Claire ~52%.
If you would like to see what the "B" section might have done against the same cards, Please look at their section. We were playing the same cards.
For Group B see the other post for May 28,
Thank you all for coming,
Sorry about the confusion, we will be discussing how things went. I personally am exhausted, not really excited, and a bit depressed
Suzanne
Tuesday May 27 2025
We discussed second hand play defense in Adv beginner and 2 club opening and responses in beginner bridge lessons. Next week we will continue our defense series discussing defensive signals in adv beginners and another lesson on 2 club hands in beginner lessons
We had 5.5 tables in our pupil game with Jane G and Susan S winning the day with 67.97% while Jan managed to carry his partner up to second place with 66.40%.
I had a wonderful time and hope you did, too
See you next week! ---Carl
SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, July 12
Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening July 12, 2025
What it will be like:
We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time. Attendees will bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp. I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables. If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands. That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.
It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first. There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.
The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.
If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com. Hope to see you there! ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 22 May 2025
We were happy to welcome Ann Wicander to the game today. Please note that this district sTac game has different stratification than what we are used to. It was Open/2000/500 based on the average of both players. Congrats to Ron/Herb for their first place finish. It is nice to see Ron getting back to his old self! Final results for anACBL sTac typically take a little while and will be available at https://tinyurl.com/RES2505510. Next Thursday we will be having a 25% gold game.
Wednesday 21 May 2025 - Today on an overcast, dreary and coolish/wettish day, we had a melded game! Our normal Wednesday fun game only had 8 couples and Charlie Felton's "Kittery/Eliot" game as well as his Tuesday York game have folded, so we gained 3 couples from his game for a total of 11 couples. So we ran a 5 and a half table Howell movement with 3 hands per round for 8 rounds.
We polled the membership several weeks ago to see if we could move to Friday or Monday. We would lose 25% if we did that. Skip suggested that we could add a separate section to the game such that the two groups could play at the same time. Some had played at clubs where there was a 299 section for those with less points and also an open section. However it seemed that almost all members did not want to earn ACBL master points (or really be part of ACBL at all). Only one person wanted us to get ACBL points.
Skip has decided that our club will invite the Kittery/Eliot Club as guests next Wednesday to see if we can work something out to accommodate the needs of both groups. He expects about 6 tables to arrive from Eliot for their sanctioned open game. The two games will sit side by side and run independently. The fun group will be Section A and the Open group will be Section B. We are even hoping to put a sound barrier down the middle to separate the two groups. Skip and I will both be there, but hope that a single director can run both groups in the future.
Our top scorers were Nick and Ed with a 70.83%, followed by Nancy and Skip with a 60.72%, then Pam and Claire with 58.33%. Next came Bobbie and Sid with a 57.8%. It looks like Jan and Bill might make a good pair in the future! You all did well and we hope that you had a good time.
Thank you all for coming. We welcome your feedback as we work together to grow and continue to meet the various needs of our bridge community.
Please bear with us and our growing pains!
Thank all of you for coming to our game in fabulous Centennial Hall!
Suzanne
Tuesday May 20 2025
In Adv beginners we discussed Third Hand Play and in Beginners we discussed more about competitive bidding. Next week we will discuss the Strong 2 club open and responses in beginners and Second Hand Play in adv beginners.
We had 5.5 tables in the Pupil game and Sue and Martha won with 65,63%! Second place went to Jane G and Susan S with a very nice 60.94% I look forward to next week! ---Carl
Thursday Open Game 15 May 2025
We had a very nice 9-1/2 table Mitchell movement today. We were happy to welcome Linda Garey's sister Ann Buchanon and Patti Andrews to our game today. Congratulations to Bill and Bob who made a great surprise partnership today for first place EW. Paul/Rita were first NS. Mary/Andi were first in B and C followed closely by Linda/Nancy. Nancy/Mary Ellen and Jim/Ed also placed in the C strat.
Tuesday May 13 2025
We had a lesson on leads against suit bids in Adv Beginners and a lesson on competitive bidding in beginners. Next week we will have another lesson on defense on adv beginners and another lesson on competitive bidding in beginners.
We had 6 full tables in the Pupil game and had a couple return after a few years off, Alan and Kathy Gibbons, Welcome Back! The winners today were Jane G and Susan S with 64.00%! Second place went to Bill Swett and John Safford with 59.56%.
It was a fun day and I will see you next week!---Carl
Thursday Open Game 8 May 2025
Welcome to 2 new players today - Barbara Garnis and Cindy Eaton! We were a little worried, but I have since learned that Gordon is fine. We played a 9-1/2 table Mitchell movement. Congratulations to Herb/Ron for the first place overall awards today - I guess Ron is recovering! Nick/Darrell and Connie/Roger took first place in the B strat and Liz/Andi and Linda/Nancy were first place in the C strat. the points should be adjusted to award 25% gold mps.
Wednesday 7 May 2025 - Sunny after what seems like a month of rain! I think the drought is gone!
Today we had a 6 Table Howell movement where everyone played 2 hands with 8 other couples. The top 6 couples were so tight - only a 4 percentage point different. Unfortunately, there is always a winner even though you all played very well. I hope you had a great time! The winners today were by Mary Lynn and Claire (still taking advanced beginning lessons (they must work!), Jan/Carolyn with a 57% (rounded up -only one of you were taking lessons!), followed by Hildy and Paul with a 57% (rounded up). Next comes the team of Penny/Rick Marion(56% rounded up) and Cynthia and Marion (56% rounded up) , followed by Jack and bill with 53%!
You all did very well!
Summer is coming and I understand that some of you are going on vacation! Have a great time and remember we are sitting here missing you! Please come back.
Suzanne
Tuesday 6 May 2025
We had 3 tables in the Adv Beginners lesson and 8 tables +1 in the beginners lesson. WOW!!
We started the series on defense in Advanced Beginners and discussed Reverses in the beginners lesson. Next week we will cover more on defense in Adv Beginners and attack competitive bidding in Beginners.
We had 8 full tables in the pupil game as one person did not stay for the game. That is a new record for our pupil game! The big winners today were Mary Lynn and Claire who bid and made 3 of the possible 7 slams today for a 66,27%. Crazy Hands!! Second place went to Jan and Dianne with 60.71%.
I had a great time, even though I hardly got a chance to sit down with 8 tables worth of questions during the bidding of these crazy hands! I look forward to seeing all of you next time! I know a couple of you are away next week, so I will see you when you get back. Have a great week! ---Carl
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