July 2013 - 7

Letters to the Editor

an LOL of the Year award. I put my
money on Billie.
DAVID CAPRERA
Denver CO

Learning experience
To the Editor:
Your editorial on Little Old Lady
reminded me of a humbling experience from my days as an intermediate
player. My partner, Bobby Belt, and I
were trying to become Life Masters
and were playing up in knockouts in
the Atlanta Regional. In the second
round, we sat down against two LOLs
from Macon GA. We thought it would
be a cakewalk.
During polite introductions, we
found they had been playing together
for 40 years! Their demeanor and
sweet nature disarmed us. After 12
boards, we realized we had been
taken to the cleaners.
We meekly returned to our teammates to score the fiasco and discovered that the two pairs had sat
in the wrong direction. The director
required us to replay all 12 boards,
so we felt we had escaped having to
confess that we had been drubbed.
Returning to the scene of the disaster with hope for better results, we
proceeded to get our clocks cleaned
again.
I left the hotel that afternoon with
minimal masterpoints but significant
respect for the seniors who play and
the wisdom and experience they
possess. I'm grateful for that learning
experience.
MIKE BENOIT
Sandy Springs GA

The right way
To the Editor:
Kudos to Steve Landen and Bill
Pettis for not accepting my claim of
down one in my major-suit game in
the Swiss teams at the Charlottesville
Regional. It was actually four of a
major making.
R.J. KUTI
Carteret NJ

Just the one

Teach!

To the Editor:
During the Spring NABC in St.
Louis, I was playing in the Jacoby
Open Swiss Teams when I picked up
the worst hand I have ever held:

To the Editor:
As a young player - I'm 23 - I
started out putting all of my time into
learning all the latest conventions,
reading about play techniques, etc.
Recently, I have switched my focus
to the perpetuation of the game I
love so dearly. Using meetup.com, I
started the Chicago Social Contract
Bridge Club, a club focusing primarily on teaching bridge to young adults
(20-40 years old). My question is,
what are you doing to help spread
bridge to people my age?
Parents, teach your children!
Grandparents, show your grandchildren! And, young players especially,
enlighten your friends and your community! My goal for now is to put less
time into learning about Ghestem
jump overcalls (my favorite) and
more time into bringing young minds
to the table. Thirty years from now,
the ACBL community can be as strong
as ever!
MICHAEL MEHRINGER
Chicago IL

6 5 4 3 6 4 4 3 2 6 4 3 2
A player might be forgiven for not
paying much attention with such a
hand, but - believe it or not - I actually took a trick. Really, I did.
On lead against 6NT, I started with
the 6. This was the layout of the
suit:
A J 7 2
6 5 4 3

Q 10 8

K 9
Declarer played the J at trick one.
During the play, my partner had to discard a spade to protect another suit,
but declarer had to overtake the 9
to be able to take three tricks. I won
the 13th trick with the 3!
DREW CASEN
Las Vegas NV

Friendly Canadians
To the Editor:
In April, my husband, Moises, and I
traveled to Victoria to play in the regional tournament. We took a boat up
from Seattle, so we had no transportation once in Canada. We used buses
to arrive at each day's games, but they
were not available in the late evening.
Lucky for us, Tournament Chair Jan
Galenza and Rideshare Chair Coreen
Hamilton helped us secure rides from
local bridge players, saving us more
than $60 in cab fares by the end of our
four-day tournament. Our volunteer
chauffeurs were all incredibly kind
and witty, and we left Victoria thinking that some stereotypes are true:
Canadians truly are civilized, generous folks.
ELIZABETH SAUL
Bellevue WA

Watch out for JoEd
To the Editor:
Several experienced players from
out of town attended a recent sectional in Temple TX. In the Swiss teams
on Sunday, a player on a local team
had to leave. The tournament directors asked a caddy, JoEd Gonzalez, to
fill in.
JoEd is a high school junior just
learning to play bridge. He is very enthusiastic about the game. The team
he joined had lost all three matches in

Letters to the editor are welcome
by regular mail, email editor@acbl.
org or fax 662-253-3187. Brevity is considered a virtue, as is subject matter with
relevance to a majority of ACBL members.
Unsigned letters are not considered for
publication, so please include your name
and hometown. Letters may be edited.
All letters will receive a response.
July 2013 Bridge Bulletin

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2013