UNIT 206 CHIT CHAT \Volume 8 Issue 1-2 Publication of ACBL Unit 206 January/February 2017

Email: 206news@epbfi.com

LIBRARY CORNER BRIDGE TIP FOR FEBRUARY

Notrump responses to a takeout double guarantee at least one stopper (hopefully two), in the opponent’s suit.

You hold: S. KJ9x H. xx D. Q10x C. Jxxx (or AJxx)

West North East South (you)

1S Dbl. Pass ?

With Jxxx of clubs, respond 1NT. With AJxx of clubs, respond

2NT. You don't need stoppers in the unbid suits to bid

notrump. A good partner will have them.

Eddie Kantar

www.kantarbridge.com

BRIDGE ETIQUETTE

While most bridge players try to be sensitive to others at the table, do you know that many have allergies or asthma that is aggravated by strong scents? When going to a bridge game be aware of the amount of cologne or perfume you are wearing. It will make your friends with breathing issues better able to play and enjoy the game. Thank you from all affected.

KEITH’S KORNER

ATTENTION BRIDGE PLAYERS

You can buy an online bridge lesson for a friend and their partner for just $15! To order, please send requests through bridgeinga.weebly.com.

Jack Gillispie

I Fought the Law of Total Tricks

By Mike Lawrence and Anders Wirgren

The law referred to in the title of this book is the Law of Total Tricks. According to one reviewer, the authors have “created a way to evaluate hands that relies on the important things: val-ues, shape, and judgment.” One of the bullet points about the book listed on the back cover says, “Without distribution, ten trumps will not ensure safety at the four level.” There is more to consider. This is probably not a book for the novice player, and even the more experienced may want to read it more than once. In the summary at the end of the book, the authors ar-gue that the Law was brought to the market too soon. Wirgren saw some of the flaws in the law, and after a lot of testing, some of it using computers, he and Lawrence have produced this book that expands upon the knowledge base about the Law and the importance of distribution. Players will want to

read the book more than one time.

I’d like to thank the Board for having confidence in me to lead our organization in 2017. Now that 2016 is behind

us and we are well into 2017, it’s important to reflect the things that have gone great with the Chattanooga

Bridge Club and Unit #206. Due to Past President Dan Chandler’s guidance and host of helpers we have seen

more new growth in bridge than we’ve seen in many years.

In 2016 we had a very successful rollout of the Bridge in a Day program and we hosted our very first Non-Life

Master (NLM) Sectional Tournament. New players from these events and others are the driving reasons why our

table count for the club was up nearly 200 tables for the year. In addition to the increased fun with more players

at our games, this this new activity has resulted in 12-16 new life master members over the past year.

To capitalize on the resurgent growth of our local bridge program, we now have two of our newer bridge players

who have agreed to serve on our Board of Directors – Bruce Antman and Sharon Lewis. Both are outstanding individuals and

active newer players. We look forward to the fresh ideas that they bring to our leadership team. Please congratulate them

the next time you see them and feel free to visit with them about continuing the things that you liked in 2016 as well as the

things you would like to see going forward.

In addition to our new Board members, feel free to reach out to our other Board members with any ideas that you’d like to

see us do (or not do) as a club. Those Board members are Dan Chandler, Winnell Goodner, Frank Hughes, Don Eigenberg,

Keith Honnold, Janie Hunt, and Buddy Landis.

No organization runs without people who work to make things happen. Many times that work is behind the scenes. Without

them, our bridge play would grind to a halt and we would not get to enjoy our favorite hobby. All our bridge members are

volunteers. Please take a moment to thank those you see helping at the club – especially those who you know work behind

the scenes.

It’s been said that “you get out what you put into” any activity. If you are not one of the many existing volunteers within the

club and would like to help, please contact any of our board members, directors, or club manager Myra Reneau. We can al-

ways use volunteers. Become one if you’re not already. Raise your hand. Help make bridge more rewarding and fun for all

of our players whether they’re new or long-time players.

Non-Life Master Tournament – What a Success!

On January 27-29, 2017 there was a large group of bridge players who descended upon our Second Annual NLM Sectional

Tournament. For those of you who missed this event, you missed a great time playing bridge at the Embassy Suites Hotel

on Shallowford Road. This year’s event drew players from 4 states and we had total of 121.5 tables of bridge that were

played. Over 80% of the players went home with some level of Silver Master Points! The event was very rewarding for

those attending.

As always, our volunteers who helped with the tournament did an outstanding job. Although many people helped, we

would like to especially thank Kay Martin and Suzanne Atchley for overseeing the partnership and registration desk respon-

sibilities. Both assembled a great team of helpers that worked tirelessly throughout the weekend. Others who helped Di-

rector Pricilla Smith with the directing during the weekend included Dan Chandler, Don Eigenberg, Jack Gillespie, and Teresa

Moore. Many other people helped with various responsibilities during the tournament and we thank each of you.

The Embassy Suites Hotel ended up being a great venue for a bridge tournament. The host hotel is new, is easy for those

out of town to find, and it has ample room to accommodate nearly any size of a crowd. A number of our own people chose

to stay at the host hotel to take full advantage of playing bridge as well as enjoying the free breakfast and free cocktail/hors

devours offerings to guests of the hotel.

For our members who did not play, but stopped in to see the tournament, they got a preview of how nice things were and

what you can expect when you come to play in our upcoming Sectional Tournament during March 17-19, 2017. It will be

held in the same ballroom and it should be a great time for all of those who come. You may want to consider making a

weekend of the event - stay at the hotel so that you do not miss a minute of the fun!

Lastly, it’s important to remember what Arthur Ashe once said, “From what we get, we can make a living, but for what we

give, makes a life. If you want to make a life by the giving of your time to help in an upcoming tournament or in any of the

many other things we do as a bridge club, raise your hand and let us know!

By Iris Abelson and Keith Honnold, co-chairman

FEBRUARY HAPPENINGS

in CHATTANOOGA

Monday Evening, February 13

GNT "TEAM" game. Bring a team of four. No lesson that night. The game will start promptly at 6:30 pm. $24/team

Thursday, February 23

GNT "TEAM" game at 6:30 pm. Bring a team of four. Tuesday, February 28

Mardi Gras game at noon. $6

Bring a dish to share.

EDITOR’S MESSAGE TO ALL I want to thank everyone for the support and encouragement that you have provided me over the last two years. I also want to apologize for the lack of newsletters last fall and early winter. Hopefully I will be back on track with a steadier supply of information.

The steadier stream of information is aided by you the readers sending me articles, notes, pictures, and requests of different things. The newsletter is a way to educate yourselves about bridge things, but it is also a way to keep up with what is happening in your bridge friends’ lives.

Who do you want to see spotlighted? Every time I ask for spotlight pieces I hear how boring people’s lives are and that everyone already knows everything about the person. Then once the piece is done, I hear all about how wonder-ful the piece is and how they were enjoying reading about and learning new things about the person. Please think about including a few pictures with spotlight pieces...one when younger and at least one from the last few years.

Unfortunately during the time that there were no newsletters, our unit lost several members. I am only going to list them here, but I do have more information if anyone wants it.

Carol Waddell 10/1941-8/2016

Jim Visage 2/1931-8/2016

Warren Mitchell 6/1927-8/2016

Dr. Frank Green 3/1923-8/2016

Judge Tom Stinnett 2/1944-8/2016

Betty Sue Farmer 6/1940-9/2016

David Brown 6/1934-11/2016

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW TEXAS TRANSFERS?

Basic Texas Transfer: Your partner opens 1NT or 2NT. You bid 4D (transfer to hearts) or 4H (transfer to spades). You are showing a game going hand

with at least 6 in your major.

So, what do these auctions show?

1N 2H

2S 4S? This is a mild slam try with no shortness. Your partner can bid Blackwood or RKC if they have a good fit in spades and are not on a minimum hand. This is a very good side benefit of Texas transfers. If you have no slam

interest, use Texas transfers.

1N 2D

2H 3S/4C/4D This is a slam try with shortness in the suit you jump in and at least 6 hearts. Again, your partner can evalu ate his hand and decide if they like their hand for slam. The best hand they could hold would be points in the major

and no wasted values in their partner's singleton.

1N 2H

2S 4N or

2N 3D

3H 4N This is NOT Blackwood or RKC. This is quantitative, meaning you are asking your partner to bid

6S or 6N if they are on top of their bid.

Important: If you have a hand where you just want to transfer and use Blackwood or RKC, use Texas transfer first and then bid 4N! Example:

1N 4H

4S 4N Blackwood or RKC

2N 4D

4H 4N Blackwood or RKC

OK, so now your pesky opponents bid over your opening NT bid.

Opp You

1N 2S ? 4D and 4H are still Texas transfers as long as the opponents compete at 3C or less. After they

compete to 3D or higher, 4H and 4S are natural.

One final caveat: Your hand is QJ9832 AKJ5 8 73

Using delayed Texas transfers, you would check for a major. If your partner bids 2D, you may now bid 4H (Texas transfer). This way you

can get both your suits in play. Example:

1N 2C

2D 4H (Texas transfer to spades)

Good luck! Ron and Linda

Opening 1NT with a singleton: It’s officially legal

The ACBL Board of Directors removed a legal gray area surrounding semi-balanced notrump openers when it approved a change to the definition of a notrump opening in the General Convention Chart. The change allows players to open 1NT with hands that include a

singleton ace, king or queen, as long as they do not also contain a doubleton.

Here is the new definition, effective Aug. 1:

“A notrump opening or overcall is natural if, by agreement, it contains no void, at most one singleton which must be the A, K or Q and

no more than two doubletons. If the hand contains a singleton, it may have no doubleton.”

This includes hand patterns such as 5-4-3-1, 6-3-3-1 and 4-4-4-1, in addition to those that were previously allowed, such as 4-3-3-3, 5-3

-3-2 and 5-4-2-2.

The change was recommended by the Competitions and Conventions Committee, a group of players appointed by the Board, in an effort to bring regulations in line with popular and expert practice, said ACBL Field Manager Sol Weinstein, who supervises tournament

directors.

Before, opening notrump with a singleton was considered a psych. It was legal to do, but players could not have an agreement to open

such hands 1NT or 2NT. The lack of clarity was a thorny issue for directors.

“Many players were doing it anyway,” Weinstein said, particularly when a different opening would create a problematic rebid. “They decided it’s not right to have a rule that’s contrary to the way bridge is being played.” The idea of expanding the definition has been

discussed for years within the committee, but previous proposals have failed because they lacked the simplicity of the new definition.

“The Laws don’t allow you to limit bridge judgment,” Weinstein explained. “Regulations have to conform to the Laws.”

The new definition prohibits opening notrump with more shapely hands, such as 5-5-2-1, 6-4-2-1 or 7-2-2-2. “All of this has to do with your agreements,” Weinstein noted. “That doesn’t prohibit an out-and-out psych, but you can’t keep doing that or it becomes an agree-

ment, and an illegal one at that.”

The change does not impact the one allowable exception of a partnership agreement where 1NT is treated as a 100% forcing opening

bid (and not considered “natural” with any distribution). The use of such an unbalanced, non-natural 1NT opening must be alerted.

Our Sympathy is with the family and friends of ACBL Tournament Director Geoff Greene. The information I have is from

caringbridge.com. The two posts below are the majority of the information I have.

Journal entry by Elaine Wynn — 12/31/2016

It's been just 8 weeks since Geoff received a diagnosis of metastatic lung and throat cancer. Dur-

ing that time, he has undergone two weeks of brain radiation, one week of chemo, and spent time

in Intensive Care to recover from dangerously high calcium levels. Currently he is receiving care

at Select Specialty Hospital in Knoxville. Once infections and side effects from chemo and radia-

tion subside, Geoff hopes to be transferred to a rehab facility where he can regain strength and mobility.

Journal entry by Elaine Wynn — 1/19/2017

This afternoon Geoff Greene passed away in his home. Geoff was a Director at ACBL and loved

by many. While his cancer came suddenly and unexpectedly, his passing was quick and he was surrounded by family and close friends. He treasured his time at ACBL, both the work that he did

and the friends that he made. He will be missed greatly. There will be a service come Spring time

and will take place in Geoff's real home - the Smoky Mountain National Park. Details for the ser-

vice will come at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Geoff's name to the

Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Ambassador Program Update (May 31 – December 31, 2016)

The Ambassador Program “kicked” off on May 31 and it has been a great success. For this time period,

87 people have taken advantage of the Ambassador Program! June had 20 players coming without a

partner- the highest number in a month.

It has also benefited the club financially although this is not the primary focus of the program. So far, the

net number of people playing without a partner has been 31 resulting in $155 in additional monies for

the club. I derived at this number by taking the total number of players coming without a partner then

subtracting the number of times in which the Ambassador left but receiving a “Free Play” or one player

came and played with the Ambassador.

This program has enabled members to play who otherwise may have had to go home. Some of the pos-

itive benefits mentioned by players needing a player include:

I found a new partner for other club game.

Uh-oh, I forgot and booked 2 people on the same day and both showed up.

My partner called this morning and couldn’t play and it was nice not having to call several people to

play.

I just wanted to play today but I didn’t have a partner.

If you haven’t tried this new program, I encourage you to give it a try! You are guaranteed to play and

you may play with someone you haven’t played with previously. In order to discuss your convention

card with the Ambassador, we are asking those needing a partner to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to

the game or call the club saying you are on your way and need a partner. We will accommodate those

who are at the club and unexpectedly need a partner at the last minute.

Also, a big THANK YOU to the following people who volunteer as an Ambassador!

Bruce Antman Iris Abelson Alice Greenleaf

Nancy Fletcher Ann Keown Janie Hunt

Mary Pierce Suzanne Atchley Gerry Jones

Susan Kimm Pat Whitaker Allison King

Bucky Hughes Joan Talley

Harriett Hereford Cal Brassfield

NOOGA BRIDGE EAST NEWS

Nooga Bridge East celebrated their first anniversary on January 9, 2017. Nine and a half tables helped the festivities proceed. If

CLEVELAND NEWS

Below are the last two letters from Cleveland. Some of the information may be dated but there is still much to be gained

from reading the notes.

CLEVELAND NEWS

I bring you greetings from Cleveland. It’s hard to believe, looking at the calendar, that

we are already in the month of August. Many of us who have been sweltering these past

several months have enjoyed playing bridge in our nicely air-conditioned venue at the

Cleveland Senior Activity Center. We are averaging nine or ten tables each Tuesday.

We welcomed a new Board member, Janice Cruden, earlier this summer. Janice is a

new player at the Cleveland Club. We look forward to getting to know her better

and to working with her on our Board of Directors.

We are proud to announce that we have a new Life Master. Kay Martin earned the five

points she needed to put her over the top at the Chattanooga Regional. Her partner for

the tournament was Pam Guy who had achieved her Life Master at the Gatlinburg

Regional in 2015. Team members were Linda and John Burns and Marilyn and John

Murphy. Kay recommends – and I concur – that it is a good idea to get your gold early

on if possible. It seems to become more difficult to grab that elusive “Gold” the nearer

you are to reaching that magic number of 300 – or 500, if you recently joined ACBL.

Congratulations also go to Jim Mercer and his partner, Walt Zobel, from Oak Ridge.

They won the Gold Rush Pairs in Gatlinburg this past April and were awarded 21.02 gold

points. Jim is already a Life Master, but Walt needed 18 more gold points to earn his, and

this win put him over the top. Jim, who makes his home in Athens with wife, Beth, often

plays in Oak Ridge as well as in Cleveland. He met Walt there in Oak Ridge and often

played against him but never as his partner. So, their Gold Rush win was the first time

this partnership ever competed.

Some of you may remember Walt if you have ever played in Oak Ridge or in Knoxville.

He has quite a story to tell if you ever get a chance to meet him. He grew up in Germany

during World War II. His parents, realizing that the situation in Germany was becoming

more threatening, sent Walt and his sister to the United States to live before joining them

a year later.

In closing, please know that all are welcome at the Cleveland games. We have had

several Chattanooga players join us these past few weeks and some that come on a

regular basis. If, like me, you Chattanooga residents have another commitment on

Tuesday mornings until noon, we hope you will consider joining us for one – or more –

of our games. We also have a game on the second Friday of each month and welcome

you there, as well.

On behalf of our Board of Directors and our Cleveland players, we welcome your input

and support.

Thanks,

Pat Whitaker

CLEVELAND NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

Hello from Cleveland,

Hope you are all enjoying this pretty (if dry) fall weather. Such a nice time of year to

play in the great outdoors – and to play autumn bridge. Just came from the Brats and

Beer party at the Chattanooga club which was attended by 60 players. Wow! Great

game!

We have a lot going on in Cleveland. First and foremost, I want to introduce our new

Club Director and Club Manager. Bob and Alice Greenleaf have been on board for a

couple of months now and are doing a fantastic job keeping our club moving and

growing. Our new Bridgemates arrived a few weeks ago, and our members are glad to be

using them again instead of the paper travelers. Thanks to Myra for meeting with Bob

and Alice several times to help acclimate them to the Bridgemates.

We have several plans in the works. We are working on an Ambassador program similar

to the one enjoyed by the Chattanooga Club. At present, we have most of the days filled

but are still looking for a couple of volunteers to become Ambassadors once each month

or once every other month. Plans are also in the works for implementing a Zero

Tolerance policy.

Our Christmas party will be held Tuesday, December 13, at the Golden Chorale in

Cleveland immediately after the game that day. We have reserved a room and have been given a special senior rate of

Winning team of Monday Mid-Flight Swiss at Atlanta Regional, left to right, Sophie Field, Judy Kemp, Pat Whitaker, and Iris Abelson

$11.99 for their yummy buffet. Our annual meeting will be

held at this event, and we promise to make it short and informative.

As some of you know, our game was cancelled last Tuesday, October 25, because the

Senior Center where we play had filled up with smoke. The fire department was called

and discovered that the problem was attributed to the motor that operated the hood fan in

the kitchen. No permanent damage was sustained, and we will be back in business as

usual this Tuesday, November 1. There will be no game the following Tuesday,

November 8, however, due to Election Day. The Senior Center is one of the polling

locations in Cleveland.

We look forward to seeing many of you at our games in Cleveland each Tuesday and on

the second Friday of each month.

Best regards,

Pat Whitaker

SPOTLIGHT ON LINDA AND JOHNNY BURNS

Johnny and I met in Huntsville, Alabama while both were working in the space industry; Johnny as a contract draftsman for Tagg Engineering, me as a secretary at Boeing. The engineers at Boeing enjoyed playing bridge dur-ing their lunch hour and graciously agreed to teach me. Johnny had learned while attending college at Florence State Teachers College. Bridge was not much of a mainstay in our lives for the next few years as we married and moved from Huntsville to Peoria, Illinois and Fort Wayne, Indiana. In Peoria I worked for a while at Bradley University and then Caterpillar; Johnny also working a contract job at Caterpillar. After Johnny’s contract was up, we moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana where he worked for Magnavox. While living in Fort Wayne, we vacationed in Niagara Falls over Memorial Day, because in famous last words “we’d never be this close, again”. More on that later. In 1968, we returned to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to the University of Alabama so Johnny could complete his degree. This entailed a change of major and

he earned his degree in 1971 as a Chemical Engineer. We are both from Alabama; Johnny from Russellville in North Alabama and me from the Tuscaloosa area. Hence, our choice of university and the reason we are both avid Alabama fans. I earned my PHT (putting hubby through) while working at the Farrah Law School while Johnny went to classes. Our son Scott was born in Tuscaloosa and when Johnny was offered a job with Olin in Augusta, GA., the three of us moved on. We were in Augusta for about three years when we had the chance to transfer to Cleveland in 1973. By this time, our daughter, Lee Ann, had joined the family, so I had become a stay-at-home mom. I still found time to play a little bridge here and there. In 1976, Johnny was transferred to Olin’s Doe Run plant in Brandenburg, KY. This plant is in the back of beyond, so I was in despair of finding a bridge club, not to mention daycare and babysitters! Never fear! Bridge abounds about anywhere and so does childcare. About the most exciting thing that happened to us in Brandenburg was several heavy snows which interfered greatly with the local school schedules and Johnny was locked into the plant during one of these times due to a plant strike.

During this time in Brandenburg, Johnny was sent to work at the Olin plant in Rochester, NY to help devel-op a process for that plant. This in turn led to his transfer in order to run the process. The children and I had been to visit during the summer and decided we might be able to survive the unknown “North”, so off we went. Having started school early in August due to lots of snow days and moving over Christmas break to a state where school didn’t end until the end of June, our kids went to school for 11 months that year. Needless to say, they were not happy! Our neighborhood in Rochester was very transient with lots of Xerox, Kodak and Olin families. There were lots of activities and opportunities to mingle and bridge, bridge and more bridge! This was our first introduction to duplicate bridge and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Even back then (late 70’s, early 80’s) there was a group who played “weak-twos”. I would occasionally be invited to play with them and my knees would knock, but I don’t think I embarrassed myself. Back to Niagara Falls -- while working at other Olin plants, Johnny was occasionally sent to the Niagara Falls plant to do some work. Once we moved to Rochester, Niagara Falls was only about an hour away. Needless to say, we spent a good deal of time there during our stay in Rochester. We’ve seen the Falls under just about all conditions and year round!

Finally, after we had been in Rochester our obligatory three years, Johnny was offered a position at the Charleston plant, so we returned to the sunny South. Almost as soon as we returned to Cleve-land, Johnny was assigned to work with the Environmental group and the job was to dismantle and clean up the closed plant in Saltville, Virginia. This was an ongoing project that took us through our children graduating from high school and going off to college. Johnny’s favorite achievement of that job was actually moving a branch of the Holston River in order to clean the riverbed. After finishing that project, he continued to work with the Environmental group on other site clean ups in New York, Virginia and Mobile, finally reaching retirement in 2007. While Johnny travelled with work, I was challenged by a friend to enroll in classes at Cleveland State. I did and wound up completing my Associate of Applied Sciences in Accounting. Since our son and daughter were of college age, I decided a job was in my future and I went to work for Bradley Hos-pital Home Health, working there for nearly eight years before deciding bridge and golf were more im-portant. Since I joined several bridge groups when we moved back to Cleveland in 1982, I have played bridge with some of the same group of ladies for over 30 years. I have had some great friend-ships and experiences playing with them. After retirement, Johnny discovered the Cleveland Bridge Club and began playing during the summer with Lloyd Mangrum. He and Lloyd earned over 10 points during the summer and I decided it was time to give up golf and concentrate on my bridge. Couldn’t let Johnny get too far ahead!. We both joined ACBL and began playing duplicate on a regular basis and attending tournaments. We didn’t know when you went to a tournament, you should play all day, every day, so the first tournament we went to in Tunica, MS, we played a total of 5 times during the week, but we had a ball playing golf, gambling, going to the spa and generally having a great vacation. We did come home with 8+ points for our first tournament excursion. After that, we got a little more serious about attending the tourna-ment for the bridge! We both earned our Life Master in 2013 and had many good partners and met lots of nice people along the way. We continue to play at the Cleveland Bridge Club and attend several tournaments a year. I serve on the board in Cleveland and Johnny helps with hospitality. We look forward to many more years of competition.