Shantanu Rastogi's Bridge Page

issue 17

For your comments please e-mail to srastogi@lw1.vsnl.net.in

1. Bridge Facility in Lucknow, India

Lucknow Bridge Association conducts bridge regular bridge tournaments in Lucknow.There are two regular pair events every week, on Tuesdays and Fridays.On Tuesday matchpoint pair event takes place and on Friday IMP pair event takes place. The entry fee is nominal Rs. 15 per person or Rs. 30 per pair for members. All bridge enthusiast all welcome. The membership of Lucknow Bridge Association is nominal Rs. 350 per annum and all regular players are expected to become members of the association. The venue for these tournaments is Oudh Gymkhana The address is: Oudh Gymkhana,Kaiserbagh, Lucknow.The timings are 6:30 pm onwards in the evening.

Lucknow club where the event used to take place earlier has closed down. Lucknow club was an old building which couldn't sustain the rains this year and the roof of its Badminton court, which was adjacent to the lobby where bridge used to take place, fell. Oudh Gymakhana charges Rs. 2000/- per month for making its hall available for bridge, part of which is being paid by raising the entry fee and by increasing the annual subscription.

2. The Convention Card Editor Bridge Card 6.0.1 by Lee Edwards

A convention card editor fills, edits and prints convention cards on computer. Lee Edwards of Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA has designed this very convenient convention card editor for various convention cards. The convention cards which can be filled by this editor are ACBL, SAYC, WBF, WBF(England), EBU, BBL, French, Dutch, Belgian, Sweedish, Italian, Austrian, Ireland, Israeli, Indian & Australian. You can download this software which is freeware from the link mentioned above. Those of you who want to send your comments to Lee Edwards can do so at ledwards@bellsouth.net

For Indian bridge players,lovers & enthusiasts the good news is that the convention card designed by Bridge Federation of India (BFI) appears on this convention card editor. So for those of you who have computers the convention card filling in India is a lot more easier job now.

Lee has been constantly updating the software. The latest version he informs is 6.0.1 with enhanced printing features.The software now supports 21 formats and the convention cards of Germany and South Africa are in offing.

3. Tournament News

In this section I would cover tournaments happening in India and more so the tournaments happening in Northern part of India and in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Winter Nationals started in Delhi on 7th November.There were widespread protests against the organizers on first playing day. Participants complained of lack of food & water and were unhappy with the lodging arrangements. The play was heldup for about three hours.Though the organizers have pooled in Four Square Sports Gear as sponsors for the event the organization was decidedly poor.

The Jagdish Agarwal Memorial Oudh Bridge Championship would be held in Lucknow from January 14 -17. The event is being accorded national status by the BFI.

4. Deal of the Week

In this section I would cover one good deal which appeared in the Weekly Bridge Tournaments at Lucknow or in a recent tournament with explanations.

This week's deal elaborates the point made on adjustment in law of total tricks in isssue 15.

Dealer: East

Vul : EW

Lead : S K

SA J 2
H6
DA Q 10 2
CA K 10 8 3
S9SK Q 8 6 4 3
HK J 9 7 5 3 2HA Q 8
D8 7 5 3DK
C4C6 5 2
S10 7 5
H10 4
DJ 9 6 4
CQ J 9 7

Bidding

EastSouthWestNorth
1 SPassPass3 C
PassPassPass

This deal lucidly explains the point made in the previous issue regarding adjustment to the law of total tricks.

The Par contract in this deal is 5 Heart doubled which is one down.

There are 19 trumps in this deal but there are 21 total tricks. One trick results from the long heart suit of West and another trick comes due to the establishable Spade side suit for EW.

EW has ten tricks in heart contract and NS has 11 tricks in Club contract which can be made by eliminating and then thorwing in East with a Spade. EW can not make the contract until unless the Spade suit can be set up.

You saw in the previous week's deal that total trumps were varying from total tricks by two. One full trick was there was resulting due to the heart side suit which can be established and the another extra trick was resulting as Spade K Q 10 produce a trick for Offense.

So for those of you who use Law , this is a very useful adjustment that if you have a long side suit which can be established it would result in an extra trick.

Those who bid Forcing NT on Major can easily ascertain that they have a long side suit apart from the trump suit Heart. West would bid a Forcing NT with its card over 1 Spade bid by East and would bid Heart at three level to show seven card Heart suit.

Yes, you would say that the contract of 5 Clubs in down on Heart underlead and Spade switch, that is the best defence. But who would underlead a heart ? There are many layouts possible where heart underlead would give overtrick. This layout is at beat approximate but try switching few cards in heart suit and you would get straight to what is said in this deal.

5.Bridge Links

Following very good bridge sites are available for any bridge enthusiast:

1. American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Website

2. Canadian Bridge Federation (CBF) Website

3. World Bridge Federation (WBF) Website

4. The Internet Bridge Archive

5. Floater Online Bridge

6. Bridgeworld Website

7. Bridgebase Website

8.Norwegian Bridgesite Bridge Arkade

9.Anna Gudge's Bridgesite

10.Richard Pavlicek's Page

Some other bridge sites are:

1. Okbridge Website

2. Demicoma Bridge Academy

3. Playbridge Deal Generator

6. Previous Issues

issue 1 issue 2 issue 3 issue 4 issue 5 issue 6 issue 7 issue 8 issue 9 issue 10 issue 11 issue 12 issue 13 issue 14 issue 15 issue 16

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