UNIT 206 CHIT CHAT Volume 6 Issue 5/6 Monthly Publication of ACBL Unit 206 May/June 2015

Email: 206news@epbfi.com

How to Read Your Opponent’s

Cards

Mike Lawrence

The second half of this book’s title is, The

Bridge Experts’ Way to Locate Missing High

Cards. Lawrence, another prolific author of

bridge books, became a World Bridge Champi-

on at 30, the second youngest player ever to

achieve that rank. This book, his first, was

originally published in 1973, when the author

was at the tender age of 32. What the book

does is “tell you what to think about, why, and

how” as you play the game. Lawrence has

gone on to win other championships and write

many other books, but this one, named Book

of the Year when it was published, still has

much to offer. Chapter titles read like the

steps a detective takes in solving a case:

“Sizing up the Case,” “Finding the Witnesses,”

“Analyzing the Clues,” and more. Quizzes

about hands along with answers that guide the

reader’s analysis of the hands make this a val-

uable resource for anyone wanting to become

a better bridge player.

LIBRARY CORNER

BRIDGE TIP FOR JUNE

A direct raise of a second suit promises

four-card support (in blood).

You hold: S. xx H. A10x D. A10x C. K10xxx

Partner You

1S 2C

2H ?

Rebid 2NT with 11-12 HCP. Don’t even think of raising

hearts with only three pieces.

Eddie Kantar www.kantarbridge.com

BRIDGE ETIQUETTE

Did you know that the dummy can only call attention to an irreg-

ularity in declarer’s play as it is starting to happen? Once the

irregularity occurs, the defenders are the only ones that can say

anything about the lead being from the incorrect hand. Dum-

mies, you must remain quiet UNLESS you can prevent the incor-

rect lead from occurring!

KITCHEN CHATS WITH DAN

Hi again.

As you know we missed the May newsletter due to our editor, Charise Ovalle’s health issues. I hope and believe that Charise

is doing better, but we are pulling for a complete recovery. Due to this, some of this letter may seem a little dated, but is worthy

of mention.

First, the Unit is going to make a big effort for the ACBL’s longest day. This charity event is sponsored by the ACBL to support

Alzheimer’s’ research. Many of us, including my family, have been touched by this terrible disease. Everything raised by our

effort will go towards the ACBL effort. Cleveland will be hosting a game at a local Cleveland mall on Sunday, June 21. Please

contact Teresa Moore for details and plan on playing. Cleveland would really appreciate players from all over the Unit partici-

pating. Chattanooga will have three games on Monday, June 22 at our club. The games will be at 9:30 AM, 1:30 PM and 7:00

PM with lunch and dinner provided. The evening game will be our normal non-life master game. Nancy Maple is coordinating

the food effort with David Vine agreeing to cook hamburgers, hotdogs and such for dinner. Please plan on playing and if you

feel appropriate make a donation to this important cause.

Congratulations to Sophie Field on her first overall in a big pairs event in Gatlinburg. Also John Friedl had another great showing

and Suzanne Atchley and Marilyn Shelton also had a big tournament. I am sure there are others who I should acknowledge, but

everyone who went should be proud of their effort. If you have not been to a tournament, it is really fun and always helps your

game.

While on the subject of tournaments, your Unit 206 Board is very happy to report that we are going to have a Non-Life Master Tour-

nament next January. Keith Honnold has agreed to be chairperson for the event and is already doing a great job. Cleveland has

offered to help with specific tasks and Keith is going to coordinate your involvement. It will be held at the Holiday Inn Express on

Shallowford Road near Hamilton Place to facilitate participation for players all over the Unit and beyond.

Also we are having another Sectional July 31 through August 2. Bob Tate is tournament chairperson. Please avail him the same

support which we granted Nancy Fletcher. I believe we can all agree that our last Sectional was a great success and will be difficult

for Bob to match or exceed without a tremendous effort by all of us.

If you see Ellie Weems, please congratulate her on achieving Gold Life Master. This is quite an accomplishment. Way to go Ellie!

I saw this in the Bulletin. If anyone knows of other changes in rank, please let me know so I can congratulate these achievements.

By now you may be aware that your Board has spent some time and money fixing up the back room of the Chattanooga Bridge Club to be more of a training facility. We have one lent notebook computer loaded with Mike Lawrence software, and we have a new computer with two screens ready for loading with software we hope to purchase for groups and individuals to assist in improv-ing their games. If anyone is interested in using these computers and have any questions, please call me @ 423-400-6999 or email me @ danlchan@hotmail.com. I would appreciate the opportunity to help you get started. Also if you know of software which you think would be helpful, please let us know.

Finally we had a meeting of the Directors to discuss the use of the Yellow cards and to begin experimenting with the use of the time

clock. It was mentioned how important it is that the Yellow card not be used to antagonize anyone, but instead is intended to inform

opponents when their enthusiasm has gotten out of hand. Just lay the card on the table and if necessary ask your opponents to

stop if their behavior is making you uncomfortable. But, please use the card if someone else’s behavior is detracting from your

enjoyment of our great game. Also, we have reduced the size of the Yellow card so it will not interfere with the use of the bidding

box. If you have other suggestions or comments about the Yellow card, please let me, Myra or any Board member know your

thoughts.

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful support you have provided me.

Dan Chandler

Martha Levardsen and the Quilt CARD TRICKS

Martha has collected fabric for 30 years and now that she has

retired, she is finally getting a chance to use it. She thought that

the quilt pattern Card Tricks would be a great way to use up

some of her fabric.

She was an Air Force JAG for 5 years on active duty and 25

years in the reserves. She also served as an Assistant U.S. Attor-

ney in Shreveport doing white collar fraud before retiring and

moving to Clarksville where she recently retired after working as

an Assistant Public Defender.

She says that she and her husband simply LOVE Chattanooga

and they are learning to love to play bridge. Let’s be sure to

thank Martha for the quilt and to make the Levardsen’s welcome

at the bridge center!

Tips for the Novice Player

By John Friedl

Signals on Defense #2

In my column for the March Newsletter I discussed how each defender should give his/her partner a count of

how many cards they hold in a suit when that suit is led. Another way of helping partner on defense is to indicate

your attitude about a suit that partner has led. This typically applies to the opening lead, but it should also be used

any time partner is leading a new suit.

Here’s a typical example on the opening lead against a suit contract. Partner leads the ace from ace-king

and dummy tables Qxx in that suit. Obviously if partner next plays the king, that will set up a trick for the queen in

dummy. But what if you have a holding in that suit of 9-3. Unless you are void in trump, you can ruff the third trick in

the suit and erase dummy’s winning queen. So you signal your attitude as positive by playing a high card, in this

case the 9. That encourages partner to continue the suit, and he will cash the king. You then complete your signal

by playing the 3, a high-low indicating an even number (in this case, 2). Partner will then lead a third card in the suit

for you to ruff.

Note that if you have four cards in the suit, you would not give an encouraging signal because you don’t

want partner to continue and thereby set up the queen. So if your holding is 9642 you would play the 2 to discour-

age. Even though you have an even number, your primary obligation on partner’s opening lead is to show your atti-

tude toward continuing that suit, unless it is obvious from dummy’s hand (for instance, when dummy has a singleton

and there is no sense continuing the suit).

Here’s another example: partner leads the king (normally from king-queen) and dummy tables the 652 in the

suit. If you hold a “touching honor” (in this case, assuming partner has the king and queen, a touching honor is the

ace or jack) you signal encouragement by playing a higher card (unless doing so would give away a trick). Lacking a

touching honor, you would normally discourage continuing the suit, by playing your lowest card. That way, if declarer

holds the ace-jack and plays low on the first trick, partner won’t continue the suit and give declarer an extra trick.

Remember, your first goal on a suit that partner leads is to show your attitude toward that suit. When declar-

er leads a suit, give your partner your count (odd or even).

Next time I’ll talk about a third kind of defensive signal – suit preference.

Hi everyone - it is once again time for our Longest Day at the Bridge Center. We are

planning on having two days worth of events. On Sunday, June 21st there is no game

in Chattanooga. There will be an Open Pairs game in Cleveland. Ask Teresa for de-

tails. moretea42@gmail.com In Chattanooga, our events will all be on Monday, June

22nd. We are having a game in the morning, Open Pairs, at 9:30. We will have lunch

following and then a game in the Afternoon, Open Pairs, at 1:30 pm. Then there will

be some more food prior to the Evening session which is Non Life Master Limited

Paris at 7:00 pm. 99'ers we are figuring out special games for you too in Chattanooga

so stay tuned as to what time on Monday.

ACBL sponsors this event as well and donates lots of money for this great cause. All of

the games will be EXTRA masterpoints! Woo-hoo! We will be accepting ANY and

ALL donations. Thank you kindly if you have donated in the past. The goal for our

Bridge Club is suggested to be $1600. I know we can do this because we did more than

this last year. Last year we raised just shy of $2,300. Way to go local Bridge players! I

am suggesting a personal donation of $35 if you don't want a t-shirt and $45 if you

do. I will put a t-shirt sign up form at the Bridge Center. Please make ALL check do-

nations out to The Alzheimer's Association (not to me or the Bridge Center) Again,

ANY amount is greatly appreciated.!

Thank you again and hope you enjoy our Longest Day!!

Myra

APRIL HIGH GAMES

Chattanooga

Open

Don Eigenberg/Ken Storrs 70.54

NLM

Ray Hall/Hank Muftuoglu 82.14

99er

Dorothy Griggs/Tate Conlon 69.79

GNT

Myra & Larry Reneau/John

Friedl/Kyle Weems 69 PTS.

MAY HIGH GAMES

Chattanooga

Open

Betty Buechner/Larry Reneau 72.33

NLM

Elliot Gillispie/Jack Gillispie 73.29

99er

Allison King/Tyler Smith 69.79

♦♣♥♠♦♣♥♠♦♣♥

Unit 206 salutes the following

players on their achievements.

CHANGE OF RANK

April, 2015

Pamela Becktold Club Master

Cynthia Patterson Club Master

Bob Tate Sectional Master

Ellie Weems Gold Life Master

May, 2015

Tyler Smith Club Master

Mary Rhoden Sectional Master

Allison King Regional Master

Marian Riggar NABC Master

Pamela Guy Life Master

♦♣♥♠♦♣♥♠♦♣♥

Portugal and Spain Anyone?

Muggs Smith recently visited several areas in

Europe with three good friends pictured to

the right (Muggs, Pam Becktold, Linda Wat-

son, and June Carlyle). The ladies visited the

towns of Barcelona, Spain, on to Valencia,

Cartagena, Gibraltar, Seville, Isle of Portland,

England, Vigo, Spain then on to Cherbourg

France to the beaches where the Americans

landed and the American cemetery is locat-

ed. Their trip ended finally in Copenhagen,

Denmark. Muggs reported that the weather

was beautiful and that the four played a lot

of bridge and had a wonderful time! Wel-

come home ladies.

CLEVELAND NEWS

APRIL HIGH GAMES

Cleveland

Dick Mellor/Barbara Creagan 72.92

Fairyland

John Felker/Suzanne Atchley 66.67

MAY HIGH GAMES

Cleveland

Frances Pullen/Muggs Smith 64.81

Fairyland

Bob Kemp/Buddy Landis 69.09

Belated May Birthdays

Muggs Smith 5/11

Pat Whitaker 5/13

Frances Pullen 5/16

Dale Byerly 5/18

Liz Owen 5/18

June Birthdays

Jim Miller 6/1

Janice Cruden 6/6

Opal Henley 6/15

Jean Snider 6/22

Chris Reynolds 6/26

Sandy Cervantes 6/30 (Hope to see you

again soon)

The Longest Day

Sunday June 21st Game starts at 1:30;

Park in back of Bradley Square Mall, 200 Paul Huff Parkway, at the food court.

$6 per player in open game $2 will be given to 'the cause'. $20 for social bridge tables, all of which will be do-

nated.

Please call Teresa Moore at 423-321-2778 to reserve a place for either your pair (open game) or table (social).

to Jim Miller and his family on the passing of Jim’s wife Ruth.

to Robert Rymer and his family on the passing of his brother.

to Wanda Everhart and her family on the passing of her Mother.

FRIDAY GAME

We are working on going back to a weekly Friday game. More on that next month so watch this

space!

I read several years ago in a birth order book that a good marriage is of a younger son and older daughter in a family.

Everett and I must have defied all odds because he is the oldest of three children and I am the youngest of five children.

We will have been married 62 years in June 2015.

Everett was born in Dunlap and raised in Chattanooga. I was born and grew up in a small Georgia town, Cochran.

We met, Everett says, because of a broken thumb. He played high school football , and a scout wanted him to stay in high

school another year to get more experience. (That was legal in the older days). Well, he broke his thumb the first game of

that year-needless to say, he didn’t get the needed experience. Georgia Tech sent him to junior college in my hometown

to get that experience. Most all of my high school classmates and I went to Middle Georgia College. It was just an exten-

sion of our high school.

Everett and I started dating our second year there. Upon graduation he went to Georgia Tech on a football scholarship,

and I went to the University of Georgia where my four older siblings had gone and graduated.

We married as soon as I graduated. I taught school in Atlanta until Everett graduated. A note here- I had 42 students in

my second grade class. There was a set of immature twins who missed a lot of school; therefore some days I only had 40

in my class. Children were very different then- they were well behaved.

After graduation Everett was inducted into the Army for two years.

He was stationed at Ft. George G. Meade, Maryland. Our first child

Everett, Jr. (Bo) was born in an army hospital—and that’s another

story.

Everett and I, in our separate states, were born and raised Method-

ists. We are now active members of First- Centenary United Meth-

odist church.

Everett retired from Southern Champion Tray Company after being

employed for 26 years as Vice President and General Manager. Dur-

ing his career, he had to go to Texas for five years to manage a

plant for SCT in Mansfield, Texas near Ft. Worth where we lived.

Nineteen months after Bo, our daughter Laynie was born. Four years later our second son George was born. Our two

sons are attorneys and our daughter is a registered nurse. They all live in Chattanooga, and we see them regularly.

Having three active children, Everett and I did our share of little league baseball, football games, band concerts (all three

were in bands), swim meets, (a swim meet is twice as long as a baseball game), hand bell choir, theater productions,

choirs (George was a member of the Chattanooga Boys Choir), and we supported the youth activities of our church.

All the young people from the church loved to go to Gatlinburg. We went so much as chaperones we became burned out

with this place. In our travels Gatlinburg was our bench mark, and we would say “just another Gatlinburg”.

I retired from teaching in 1992 and Everett retired in 1993 so we could meet a schedule for a certain European trip.

During my pre teaching years I shopped at antique stores, junk shops, and estate sales. We furnished a bigger, older

house that we bought and remodeled.

In 2001 we sold our house and moved into the Continental Condos. We loved our house but we enjoy condo living.

Spotlight on Shirley and Everett Hixson

About bridge—we started playing party bridge with three tables and

played for about 30 years. I looked at some pictures recently and

realized that six of the twelve have died. Joy and Gerry Jones, like us,

are still here. We still enjoy going to UTC ballgames with the Joneses.

The years when I taught, during Spring breaks, we would go to St

Simons Island, Georgia. In the summers we always enjoyed a week at

Lake Junaluska, NC with my extended family.

Everett and I have taken many wonderful trips through the years. We

did a lot of Bed & Breakfast, Elderhostels, now known as Road Schol-

ars, cruises, and many trips just on our own.

As you can see, we have lived a full and happy life with bridge as one of our fun pastimes.

P.S. Shirley didn’t mention three wonderful grandchildren and as Garrison Keillor says “they are above average”

Shirley and Everett Hixson

Auction Basics To paraphrase well-known player John Solodar, “Bridge is too hard; no one should play it." Reading this the other day was rather comfort-ing, as I am still, after 45 years of playing it, trying to limit my mistakes. Fortunately, there are a lot of partnership understandings that can be nailed down; eliminating a host of needless mishaps. Say you're sitting across the bridge table from a rather inexperienced partner you've never played with before. Endeavoring to think along the same lines, and to try to fend off upcoming disasters, you might have the following conversation: Opening bids: Open all 12 point hands. In 3rd seat, okay to open light (say, 9 points) if you have a suit you want led on defense. Because we will proba-bly BE on defense. Okay to bid a good 4-card major only in 3rd seat. If I open in third seat, and you have 11 points, don't jump to show it. Bid naturally. If I open one of a major (for instance), don't bid two of a new suit unless you have at least 10 points. If you have only 2 of my major suit, and 6 to 10 points, bid 1NT. If I open one of a minor, and you have no 4 card major, but 4 or more cards in my suit, okay to bid 2 of it (or one NT) with only 6 points. In any event, it's important to not skip over a 4-card major to respond 1NT; it's too easy to miss a 4 - 4 major suit fit with partner. If I open one of a suit, and you have 10 or 11 points and 3 or more of my suit, bid 3 of it, ("limit raise") if no intervening bid by the oppo-nents. If they bid, you can cue bid their suit to show this type of holding- or better; otherwise, if you bid raise to 3 over their bid, you have a weak hand, less than 10 points. Watch the vulnerability at all times. Remember, on game-going hands, we are striving for 3NT (if we have the opponents' bid suit stopped) or 4 of a major; much less often a minor suit game. If I open 1NT, invite with 8 or 9 points, and with 10 to 15, see that we get to game. If more than that, slam is a definite possibility. There's much more to discuss with a new partner, ( or even an old partner) which is why the ACBL Convention Card covers all bases.