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 - Student Game and 24 June 2025

 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 

 Thursday Open Game 19 June 2025

We had a nice 12 Table Howell movement today.  Congratulations to Sue/Barbara for first place EW.  The Maddocks were first place overall in NS.  Jude/Ken, Gordon/Pat, Roger/Connie, George/James and Mary/Rosyln all earned points in the B or C strats.

 Wednesday Open Game 18 June 2025

We had a nice 8 table Mitchell movement. Congratulations to our strat C players who go first and second place - Coleen/Mike and Linda/Joe.  Cliff and Carl were first place NS.  Connie/David placed today also.

 REMINDER!!-- THE START TIME FOR THE WEDNESDAY SANCTIONED GAME is 11:30 AM!

 PLEASE arrive by 11:15  so that I can get the game setup for an on-time beginning!  --Carl W

 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.

 

Monday's Centennial Hall's Game DOES NOT SEND ANYONE Away who arrives on Time. Skip was referring to GREAT BAY SENDS PEOPLE AWAY

 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.

 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.

 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. 

 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