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*NEW* It's Your CallJune "It's Your
Call" Top 10
Twenty-four players participated in this first
edition of It’s Your Call for Unit 429 members.
Congratulations to Sheldon
Spier who won with an excellent score of
470.
Thanks also to all participants for playing the
game.
If you would like to see what the experts bid on
these deals, look in the July 2017 Bridge Bulletin
(page 40). The e-version should be available around
July 1st. (logon to MyACBL on ACBL‘s
website), whereas the print edition usually arrives
in your mailbox a week or two later.
The July edition of It’s Your Call, Unit 429 will be
posted by June 24.
All Unit 429 members in good standing may
participate. To do so, just click on the link,
found at the top of this page.
Most players are familiar with "It's Your Call", the
popular bidding quiz found each month in the ACBL Bridge
Bulletin. If you're not, open any recent Bridge Bulletin
at page 40 to see what it's all about.
With the help of JP Weber, Unit 431's webmaster we've
set up a local version of the game, which can be played
directly from here (click the link above). You are then
temporarily taken to the game page, hosted on
bridgevictoria.ca.
Once you've entered your results, click the "Back"
button, and you will be brought
back to Unit 429's website.
It's the same game as ACBL's, the only difference being
that instead of competing against all of North America,
you only play against other ACBL Unit 429 players, which
greatly improves your chances of winning.
The deadline for submission of results is June 20, 2017.
You can play as many times as you wish before then,
however only the last set of bids you submit will be
considered when results are compiled.
Parksville Unit 429 of the ACBL serves the needs of Canadian duplicate bridge players who
live on Vancouver Island north of Victoria as well as Powell River on the mainland.
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 7-22-2. “All of this has to do with your
agreements,” Weinstein noted. “That doesn’t prohibit an out-andout
psych, but you can’t keep doing that or it becomes an agreement, 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.
This website is updated at
least quarterly, and more frequently if the need arises.
Please feel free to submit your comments, suggestions,
articles, links, etc. to the
Webmaster.
If you would like further
information about our unit, or one of the local clubs, please
send your request to the President.
We'll try
to get your request to the proper authority for prompt
reply!
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UNIT
429
