February 2020 - 8

Letters to the Editor

intellectual capacity as equal to men's,
how can winners of such events qualify
for Grand Life Master status? Don't
Grand Life Master qualifications
include winning a national title in a
non-limited event? How can ACBL
possibly characterize the Women's
Pairs as a non-limited event when they
have limited the pool of players to half
of the population? Please tell me how
any of this makes sense.
LARRY SHERMAN
San Diego CA
(Editor's note: "Non-limited" for the
purposes of this classification refer to
masterpoint limits, not gender or age.)

Nice duke, part 2

I had a similar experience to one
described by Denis Parsons in his letter "Nice duke" in the December issue.
I was playing in a team game (shuffle
and deal, not computer-dealt) in the
Tunica MS Regional, and picked up
this hand:
♠A ♥A ♦A ♣A K 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3,

when my right-hand opponent, who
was dealer, opened the bidding with
2NT! I doubled, and left-hand opponent bid 4♥, Alerted as a transfer. My
partner passed and dealer bid 4 spades.
I bid 7♣ and was doubled by dealer
when it was his turn.
As the cards lay, I could have made
7NT. Dealer's hand was this 21-count:
♠K Q J 9 ♥K Q J 10 ♦K Q J ♣Q J.
We got a good board because they
stopped at 6♣ at the other table, also
doubled.
TIMOTHY MARTIN
Fort Thomas KY

Comedian

While I was directing a weekly club
game, I noticed one of my newer players toting around a rather large book

8 Bridge Bulletin February 2020

called "Bridge for Dummies." I found
this rather odd and amusing. Maybe it
has mainly blank pages like the book
"Rebids by Preempters." What could
be in it? Always put the trump suit on
the right-hand side? If in notrump,
put the suit least likely to be trump
on the right-hand side? If partner is
on the board, watch their fingers to
prevent a play from the wrong hand?
Watch to see if someone turns a card in
the wrong direction so you can settle
the inevitable dispute at the end of
the deal? How does this fill such a big
book?
I am waiting to see how large the
sequels "Bridge for Declarers" and
"Bridge for Defenders" will be.
ROBERT SHUSTER
Montreal QC

Ain't it grand?

I enjoyed reading the letter from
8-year-old Brian Zhang in the September issue (Grand slam in three bids). It
brought back two pleasant memories.
The first was in this summer's NABC
in Las Vegas, where my 0-2500 team
had the pleasure of watching Brian
and his family compete in the MiniSpingolds. How nice it was, and is, to
see charming youngsters taking up the
game and playing impressively well at
that.
But my second memory was of a
grand slam that my partner and I bid
against a pro team in Bracket 1 of a recent bracketed Swiss teams. My partner opened 2NT (20-21 HCP), and I
gathered my composure to recount my
hand, twice. I had 17 HCP, including a
good five-card suit, so I confidently put
the 7NT card on the table. They led, I
tabled dummy, and my partner tabled
his hand, with about 14 top tricks. A
flat board, of course ... not!
What I had failed to observe was that

my partner held a stiff ace. At the other
table, the pros, with about four times
our masterpoint count, had chosen to
open my partner's hand 1♣, and they
had a much more difficult auction,
eventually stopping in 6♣.
Bridge is such a surprising game
sometimes. Chalk one up to the underdogs!
SCOTT NASON
Dallas TX

Thanks, Prez!

One Friday afternoon, a charming
lady called and asked if she and three
friends could come and play at our
Escondido CA club the next day. They
were all worried because they live in
Montana and had no real duplicate
experience! Of course, I welcomed
them and encouraged them to come
and enjoy.
Art Foeste, our illustrious unit president, was playing bridge at the time. I
stopped at his table and asked if I could
possibly impose on his time. He agreed
with alacrity to come and meet these
four Montanans and help settle them
into the routine of duplicate bridge.
When these four ladies arrived on
Saturday, Art was eagerly awaiting
their presence. He sat with them, explaining all and everything they needed
to know to have a successful duplicate
game. He guided them through the
first few rounds and only left when he
was secure in the knowledge that these
ladies were now confident with all that
duplicate bridge entails, including the
scoring process!
A true gentleman, Art proved his
real worth, and we all thank him for
everything he has done to enhance the
success of our club and Unit 549.
RUTH ARONSOHN
San Diego CA

February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2020