May 2020 - 8

Letters to the Editor

Matt's demeanor at the table is truly
a model for all us to emulate. As expert
Steve Weinstein once said, you might
have a ruling go against you, but Matt
always presented it in such a manner
that you knew you had received a fair
and well-thought-out decision.
Congratulations, Matt. The honor is
truly well-deserved.
SHERRI MORGAN, DON MARSH
Eugene OR

Well-deserved honor, part 2

I want to congratulate the ACBL on
the excellent choice of Becky Rogers
as 2020 Honorary Member of the Year.
She is a class act both inside and out.
I remember a few years ago when my
partner, Teri Atkinson, was running
the Ventura Regional, and I was partnership chairman. Becky invited us to
be her guests for dinner as a thank-you
to show her appreciation for all the
hard work we did. Both Teri and I ran
many tournaments in the Southern
California area. We were never honored in such a lovely way. I will remember that gesture for as long as I live.
The cover photo is completely natural of her. She is incredibly gorgeous at
80! So many outstanding contributions
to the bridge world. Thank you, Becky,
for your tireless efforts on behalf of
bridge. We love you.
JAN WICKERSHAM
Sierra Madre CA

Another limerick sadist

There was an editor named Paul
Who had to judge limericks all
Their meter was bad
And no rhyming they had
So he said, "Screw it. I'm not doing this
again."
DAVID CAPRERA
Denver CO

8 Bridge Bulletin May 2020

A better way

I have a slight improvement to the
solution given for March's Challenge of
the Month (p. 56).
♠A843
♥J98
♦654
♣J62
♠5
♥ A K Q 10 5
♦AK7
♣AKQ3
The contract is 7♥, and West leads
the ♠Q. The solution correctly suggests a dummy reversal, so declarer
should ruff a spade high at trick two.
Declarer should then use trumps to enter dummy at tricks three and five for
further spade ruffs, and wait until trick
seven to use the ♣J as a dummy entry
so that the last trump can be drawn.
This costs nothing and guards against
the defender with two trumps being
void in clubs.
BILL WEINGARDEN
Santa Monica CA

Color coding

The ACBL membership is vastly
comprised of senior players who, due
to aging, are likely to have diminished
vision, resulting in missorting their
hands.
This problem can easily be solved
with the decks having each suit a different color. I believe that all of us,
from time to time, have experienced
such a situation, when a club was
mixed in with their spades, causing them to revoke or bid something
ridiculous. It certainly would be an
improvement to the game to reduce the
number of irregularities caused by this
problem.

I do not perceive any problem having
spades black, hearts red (as they are
now), clubs blue and diamonds orange.
The ACBL did experiment with such
decks about 20 years ago in the major
team events, but then they disappeared. I would hope that we could try
them again.
JEFFREY POLISNER
Walnut Creek CA
Editor: The ACBL has tried these on
several occasions, but the reaction from
members was generally negative. Perhaps it is time to reevaluate.

Remembering their
accomplishments

In my region (Unit 230 in Atlantic
Canada), I've noticed that some members stop playing after many years,
sometimes decades, at the table. I suspect they do so for a variety of reasons.
But I know that many drop out for
health reasons, all too often because of
some form of dementia.
Whatever the reason, their accomplishments at the table were (and are)
real. And, in my opinion, should not be
forgotten.
Unfortunately, current ACBL policy
appears to be to treat these former
players as non-persons. When they
stop paying their dues, they are simply
dropped from the lists of masterpoint
holders at the unit and district levels.
Those lists do include the achievements of players who have passed on.
Their names are all there with the
simple descriptor "Deceased" included. So I would suggest that, in the
future, Life Masters who drop out also
be included in those lists, perhaps with
a simple descriptor such as "Inactive"
beside their names.
JOHN STEEVES
Sussex NB

May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2020