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The Bridge Gazette

November, 2014 Kim Howard, Editor

1520 14th Avenue, Vero Beach, FL. 32960

772-562-3008

www.verobridge.com

From the Bridge Coordinator’s desk By Martha Glassmeyer

We are happy to see so many familiar faces returning to the Bridge Center. November will be a busy month with a STaCs tournament from the 17th to the 23rd and several other special games. We will also be starting work on the roof replacement. We know this creates unwanted noise, dust, and parking difficulties for everyone. Clearly, this is not ideal but we look forward to having this roof installed so we can move on in greater comfort and safety. We appreciate your assistance while this important project continues. The roof workers will be staging equipment and supplies on our premises. Carpooling would be very helpful. We cannot park in the dental office lot or on the grass along Old Dixie Highway. The playing areas will be changing on a daily basis depending on where the roofers are working. We all need to be flexible and positive. There are signup sheets for this year’s Mentor Mentee Program on the foyer table together with detailed program guidelines. Thanks to Judy

Melchiorre who is chairing this important effort. We welcome your participation in making this another successful event. The Indian River Shores games are held on Tuesdays. This is an opportunity for a more relaxed atmosphere at the Indian River Shores Community Center. The Student Game begins at 9 AM and the Open game begins at 12:45 pm on Tuesdays. We are hosting a Sectional Tournament from December 5 through the 7th. We are well known for providing a spectacular venue for this special event. Our membership donates a wonderful assortment of home cooked food items and the committees over the years have always done a remarkable job. We thank you in advance for helping. We are thankful for the many volunteers who work tirelessly to maintain our facility, run our

The Bridge Gazette Editor: Kim Howard Contributors for this issue:Leslie Phelps, Lyn Guiffrida,

Kim Howard, Martha Glassmeyer, and David Garfield

From the president’s desk

By David Garfield

The Board of Governors met November 10. The Annual Meeting of the Club is just a month away. The Nominating Committee , chaired by Marge Desmery

joined by Eileen Krisinski and Rob Middleman, has selected Yvonne VanNostrand and Don Tribus to fill vacancies which will be created at year end with the retirement from the Board of our Vice President Bill Poole and our Treasurer Don Brinkerhoff. Our by-laws do not require that the Treasurer be a member of the Board and it is our expectation that Don will continue in this position when officers are selected by the new Board. More information on the candidates is posted on the bulletin board. By the time the Gazette is published we should be experiencing some activity stemming from the roof project. We expect delivery of materials on November 12 and commencement of the re-roofing shortly thereafter. Obviously there will be some inconvenience but we expect to continue our usual schedule of bridge lessons and games. The time to completion will be affected by the weather but we are hopeful of finishing within three weeks of the start date. The availability of parking will be impacted and members can help by car pooling. We will try to keep everyone apprised of developments with announcements on our web site.

tournaments, organize events, donate generously, prepare food, clean up after us, plan for our future, and have established this Club as the wonderful place it is. We all thank these volunteers for their selfless efforts. We are grateful.

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November 1

Richard Crannell, Robin Dunlap, Gini Koehler November 2

Gloria Anderson, Carole Miller November 3

Bill Baum, Peggy Jesser November 4

Este Brashears, Pat Brinkerhoff, Martha Downes, Bobbie Maffei, Ginger Winkler November 5

Robert Byrd, Paul Donaghy, Robert McBride, Barry Rowles November 6

Jill Benedict, Norm Thomas November 7

Mark Earle, Carol Mahony November 8

Karen Lind, Gerry Nogelo November 9

Hazel Lacks November 10 Nona-Are Franson, Don Riefler November 11

Carol Critchell, Christine Gibbs, Phyllis Thompson November 13

Judy Alderman November 14

Lil Cornett, Kathy Gillman, Lillian Horton, Ann Sowers November 15

Janice Glenn, Donald Houpt November 16

Mary Rianhard, Helen A. White November 17

Jim Greene, Louann Yates November 18

Frances Ingraham, Douglas Johnston, November 19

Elaine Gillooly, Ellie Lloyd, Marilyn Ohring, Preston Strazza, Susie Woody November 20

Richard Hunter, Judith Melchiorre, Betty Wiese, Bill Wilbur November 21

Sandra Gross, Janice Lunn, Barbara Smith

November 22

Gerry Browning, Mimi Burke, John Medley, Honey Lee Richless November 23

Betty Dalzell, Pat Pritchard, Joanne Reeves, Bob Shrauger November 25

Peggy Bradt, Robert Cronenwett, Sharon Sklansky November 26

Toni Brower, Rick Helfand, Bill Rose November 27

Eileen Sheridan November 28

Anita Stafford, Marshall Wolf November 29

Karol Lynch, Griff McClellan, Sarah Price November 30

Bizzy Cote, Lise Hounsell, Sarita Johnston, Paul Mita, Patricia White

JOE SHIFLETT

Joe Shiflett, past president (1981) and long time member of the VBBC, died October 10, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. He and his wife Nita were regular players. Eleanor Bengyak, our past manager, remembers Joe as always helping around the club, particularly after it moved to it’s current location. Before Joe retired, he was traffic controller at the Vero Beach Airport...always steady and never in a panic. Those attributes, together with a good sense of humor, made him a good president and a good partner in the game. Joe will be missed by those who knew him.

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS

HEALTH MATTERS!!!! Many of our members have serious health

issues so if you are feeling ill please stay

home. Everyone use the hand sanitizer to

wash your hands so no one infects anyone with

a contagious disease or just the common bug.

THE ANNUAL HOLDIAY PARTY The Holiday Party will be held on December 12th beginning at noon. Please join us to celebrate the season. Holiday attire is encouraged! Boots and her crew will be providing a festive feast.

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Bridge Education by Lyn Giuffrida

2015 Celebrity Series The first celebrity speaker for 2015 will be Audrey Grant. On Tuesday, January 13, Audrey will speak on "The Art of Balancing. Don't let your part score slip away!" Member tickets purchased in advance cost $40. Our mid-winter land cruise will be captained by Jerry Helms. Jerry will speak on "Defend to Win!" This two day event will kick off with a wine and cheese party Friday after the game where Jerry will do a question and answer session. Saturday and Sunday will consist of 4-sessions with Jerry. Breakfast and lunch will be served both days. Cost for members in advance is $180. March will bring us Billy Miller of "Dear Billy" fame. He will be speaking on Tuesday, March 1oth. His presentation will be both morning and after-noon. His topics will be announced next month. Our day with Billy will include both breakfast and lunch. Advance member tickets cost $90. Plan ahead and make your reservations with Kim.

Bidding Review Classes Bidding review classes are held on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11:30. No reservation or partner is re-quired and the cost is $15. Here are some of the up-coming topics:

Nov. 12 - Takeout doubles & advances - Lyn Nov. 19 - Stayman - Ron Nov. 26 - Preemptive opening bids - Gail Dec. 3 - Jacoby Transfers - Jamie Dec. 10 - Opening & responding 2 clubs- Lyn

December Classes A 5-session supervised play course will be offered on certain Mondays and Thursdays in December. The dates are: Thurs, Dec 4 - Mon, Dec 8 - Thurs, Dec 11 - Mon, Dec 15 and Thurs, Dec 18. The cost is $65 and the instructor is Gail. Please register and pay in advance. We need 8 participants to hold the course, so please sign up with Kim.

Mentoring Program The sign-up sheets on the table for the open game mentoring program. We encourage both mentors and mentees to register. If a mentor and mentee have already agreed to work together, they may sign up as a pair.

Beginners' Corner You are defending against a trump contract. During the auction your partner has bid. Which card in partner's suit should you lead?

* top of nothing - 9-3, lead the 9 * top of touching cards - QJ8, lead the Q * low from 3 or more cards - K73, lead the 3 or 864, lead the 4 Exceptions: * don't lead low when holding the ace (lead the ace) A83 * if you've raised partner's suit, lead the top of nothing-874, lead the 8 9 A.M. FRIDAY STUDENT GAME

A brief lesson at a somewhat slower pace makes this a great game for students or those who want to give duplicate bridge a try. The session is 9 a.m. until noon. The fee is members $8 and $10 nonmembers.

9 A.M. TUESDAY STUDENT GAME WILL RESUME ON NOVEMBER 18TH!!!! A brief lesson at a somewhat slower pace makes this a great game for students or those who want to give duplicate bridge a try. The session is 9 a.m. until noon. The fee is $8 And is held at the I.R. Shores Community Center.

CARD SHARKS FOR OCTOBER

Martha Glassmeyer

0–5 Carol Davis

6–20 Migdalia O’Leary

21–50 Matha Moore

51–100 Doug Ell

101–200 Terry Wolf

201–300 Boots VanNostrand

301–400 Sue Weller

401–500 Sandra Gross

501-750 Mike Williams

751–1000 Helga Woodard

1001-2500 Gail Reams

2501+ Ron Andrews

CLUB STATS FOR OCTOBER TOTAL TABLES - 872.5

Black Masterpoints - 1746.33

Red Masterpoints - 45.28

Gold Masterpoints - 8.84

TOTAL MASTERPOINTS - 1800.45

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New Orleans, here we come! This past Saturday (10-25-2014), my partner Christine and I qualified as one of Florida’s top two pairs in the B category in the District playoffs of the North American Pairs (NAP) competition, and now we’re going next March to the Nationals – we don’t have to pay entry fees and we’ll go with a few hundred dollars in our pockets as a travel subsidy from our District! Not bad for one of the lowest-ranked pairs in a tough field that included at least a couple of directors from the Palm Beaches and Fort Lauderdale and went up to 2,500 MasterPoints for each player – we barely have half that between both of us. At our own home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center, we’re only C players, but as Life Masters with more than 500 points, we had to compete as Bs in the NAPs. We love New Orleans. We were on vacation there this past summer and we wanted to go back really bad anyway, and now we’ll be staying at the official hotel for the North American Bridge Championships (NABC), the Marriott on Canal Street just at the edge of the French Quarter – in between bridge there’ll be time for some eatin’ and some great music! And Christine will finally get the Po’Boy sandwich she missed out on in New Orleans the last time. For several years both Christine and I had qualified multiple times with mostly different partners, first in C and then in B, first up North and then in Florida, but we seemed to be jinxed when it came to District playoffs. Once I qualified with a partner who died before the playoffs; then a C playoff had to be canceled because not enough people showed up, and finally, a venue was closed because the night before someone had made off with 80 feet of copper wire and there was no power. And once, my Delaware/Pennsylvania partner and friend John Walston and I didn’t make it to the playoffs because his wife Eileen, a photographer for USA Today, worried what we were going wear for the pairs competition (she came at a “pairs” competition from a different angle – she was used to covering figure skating at the Winter Olympics). Christine and I were not to be denied this time. The competition was held simultaneously at two sites, one on Florida’s West Coast in St. Petersburg, and one on the East Coast at the beautiful new Mandel Jewish Community Center in Palm Beach Gardens, where we saw hardly anyone from Vero, but there

was a large contingent of our friends fromMelbourne. We had people in Palm Beach from as far away as Jacksonville, and in St. Petersburg, they had people from as far away as Fort Walton Beach. In the end, two of the top three spots in the B competition went to pairs who played at Palm Beach. A husband-and-wife couple from India, Margaret and Shirish Ponda, built up an almost insurmountable lead in the after-noon part of the double session and held on for first overall with over 57%, and we were second with 56.13%. We beat out the third-place team from the West Coast crowd from Fort Myers by .21 percentage points, although three teams from Florida qualified for the Nationals so they’ll make it, too. A pair anchored by a player from The Villages, the retirement community where they do nothing but play golf and bridge all day – most people drive a golf cart to bridge – was knocked out of second place all the way back into fourth at the end and will miss the Nationals. We had placed only fourth overall in the early afternoon session, and even though our percentage in the evening session was slightly lower (54% vs. 58% in the afternoon), with a fairly consistent game avoiding the big mistakes, we managed to nail down that silver medal for second place – and earned a whopping 12.75 Gold MasterPoints in the process, our second biggest one-day haul ever. We probably made it on the very last of the 48 boards we played in the double session, when we bid 4 Spades on a very risky Game with just 22 points between us. The hand records showed that we should have been able to make only 3 Spades, but Christine made 5 with an intelligent cross-ruff that our opponents could have prevented by drawing trump when they were on lead. For that feat of stealing a contract that shouldn’t have been made (and tying for a top among all the players on both Florida coasts), Christine deserves to be Smug Sam in one more “Bridge Burglar” column as she plays South on the diagrammed hand. I’ll be North as Sam’s partner, Shy Shem, although I certainly wasn’t shy about opening my 11-point hand with a singleton and then supporting her Spade suit. Our East opponent who twice failed to lead trump to give us our coup will play the role of Flustered Flo. She was probably tired at the end of a long night.

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Phone extensions 201 Kim’s office

202 Director’s desk

203 Courtesy phone by the bookcase

204 Cashier’s desk

205 Martha’s desk

October ACBL Rank Changes Junior Master: BRENT WELCH Club Master: SID HYDER Sectional Master: RAYMOND CONTANT Bronze Life Master: JAN RUSU & VINCE SOUKUP Diamond Life Master: CONNIE SACKVILLE

North Dealer; North-South vulnerable

North SpadesQ J 7 5 Hearts A 6 5 Diamonds A 9 7 6 3 Clubs 5

West East Spades3 Spades 9 8 6 4 Hearts 8 4 3 2 Hearts Q J 10 Diamonds K J 10 8 4 2 Diamonds Q Clubs Q 8 Clubs A K 10 7 4

South SpadesA K 10 2 Hearts K 9 7 Diamonds 5 Clubs J 9 6 3 2

The bidding: North East South West

1 Diamond 2 Clubs 2 Spades 3 Diamonds 3 Spades Pass 4 Spades All pass Opening lead: Q of Clubs

Here’s a rule of thumb: When your opponents seem to be stumbling into a suit which appears to be a second preference for one or both of them, lead trump on defense. They probably don’t have too many trumps, and leading trump will rob them of the opportunity to use all available trumps for cross-ruffing, since they’re probably short in each other’s first suits. Flustered Flo kind of forgot that rule at a recent District North American pairs playoff when she sat East on the diagrammed deal. She was excited to be able to overtake her partner’s opening lead of the Queen of Clubs with her Ace to lead back her singleton Queen in the Diamond suit that her partner had bid. She couldn’t resist that temptation. Sam took the trick with dummy’s Ace and correctly judged that his only chance of making the contract would be a cross-ruff. The opponents’ only chance of setting him would be to lead trump to foil that plan, but they hadn’t led trump the first time, and maybe they wouldn’t do so the next, time, either. Sam was careful to collect his Ace-King of Hearts before the opponents sloughed all theirs, finishing up in dummy, and started his cross-ruff by leading a Diamond. Flo ruffed, and she couldn’t believe it when Sam over-ruffed – what a split in Diamonds! Sam continued ruffing Clubs in dummy and Diamonds in his hand, forcing Flo to under-ruff on the last couple of tricks. In total he garnered 11 tricks with 8 trumps, the Ace of Diamonds and the two top Hearts to make his contract with an overtrick. On the last trick, when he had a to lead a losing Heart, he let the opponents’ last two trumps – the 9 and the measly 3– fall

impotently over each other in a perfect loser-on-loser scenario. “We could never get in to stop you,” said a despondent Flo afterward. “Sure you could have stopped me – twice,” said Sam, looking like the cat that just swallowed the canary. “How?” Flo asked. “You had the perfect cross-ruff.” “That’s what you could have stopped,” said Sam, smug as always. “Your partner should have led a trump on the opening trick. But you’re just as guilty. When you took that first trick with the Ace of Clubs – and eventually you were going to get it anyway, you should also have led trump. If you take two rounds of trump out, I can get only six tricks out of my trump suit, not the eight I got. So instead of making an overtrick, I go Down One.” “But I wanted to lead my singleton in my partner’s suit,” Flo protested. “How can that be wrong?” “Everything in bridge is situational,” Sam explained. “We had settled for a contract in a suit that was our second preference, so we were probably 4-4. You had 4 trumps yourself. That’s when you start leading trumps to take out ours and prevent us from cross-ruffing. And that consideration trumps leading a singleton in your partner’s suit – pun intended.” “So the bottom line is that you shouldn’t have bid the 4 Spades,” Flo demurred rather petulantly. “You were too high and you should have gone down.” “Well, if you’re going to make a mistake, Flo,” said Sam. “I’m going to take advantage of it – and in this case I thought the chances were pretty good you were going to oblige me.”

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Visit our web site at:

www.verobridge.com • for daily game results

• for tournament schedules

• to locate a member’s e-mail address

• For hand records

• For partnership’s

2015 Mentor/Mentee

Program Information Sign up sheets to register for the OPEN Games are available now at the front table. Please register beginning November 1, 2014 through December 15, 2014. The partnerships will be posted by January 1, 2015. OPEN MENTORING PROGRAM GUIDELINES:

• For Mentees with 25-100 points and Mentors with 300 plus points.

• Mentees are players with more than 25 points who do not play regularly in the OPEN games.

• Mentors are players with 300 plus points who regularly play in the OPEN games and who feel they are prepared to help players make the transi-tion from the limited games.

• Mentors and Mentees are members of the VBBC and the ACBL.

• The program will run from January 1, 2015 thru March 31, 2015.

• Each partnership is expected to play in three regularly scheduled OPEN games during that

program and will be eligible to play in the Mentor/Mentee Championship Game held

April 2, 2015.

• A Mentor and Mentee may agree to prearrange partnership in this program. • All other partnerships will be assigned. • Each player will pay his or her own game entry

fee. NOTE: Sign up sheets to register for the

NOVICE Program (Mentee with 0-25 points

and Mentors with 150-300) will be

available beginning January 1, 2015 with

Guidelines in the December Gazette. ——————————————————————— For more information to register by phone or email please contact Judy Melchiorre @ 772-569-2557 or jsorr67839@aol.com.

ABC CLUB Kim Howard

Congratulations to the following C players who came in first in

all strata (C, B, A) in an open game during October:

10/1 Jane Garr & Audrey Fetter

10/6 Norma Quinn & Gloria Anderson

Michael Williams & Doug Ell

10/9 Gloria Pappalardo & Margaret Mary Zoltak

10/12 Christine Matus & Peter VanBennkom

10/15 Helga Woodard & Sue Weller

10/16 Rob Middleman & Tom McManus

10/18 Heidi Stott & Dell Hatten

10/23 Jim Andre & Barbara Bromberger

10/24 Helga Woodard & Gloria Sinni

Kathleen Catanzaro & Sally Goodrich

10/25 Jean Kay & Martha Glassmeyer

MP

Level

ACBL-

Wide Rank

Ace of Clubs VBBC Member

MP thru

Sept 2014

100-200

5th Boots VanNostand 120

2500-5000

22nd Ron Andrews

200

5000-7500

21st

Bill Poole

208

Ace of Clubs and Mini-McKenney Leslie Phelps

Here are the Ace of Clubs ACBL nationwide (not Unit) standings of our members for points earned at the club level through September 2014 for the top 30 in each division. Our club should be proud of the fine accomplishments of these members.

MP Level ACBL-Wide Rank

Mini-McKenney VBBC Member

MP thru Sept 2014

N/A

70% for October Congratulations to the following who achieved 70% or more

games in October:

10/07 John Hagood & Bunny Frey 70.19%

10/10 Tom Johnson & Joe Davis 75.83%

10/27 Jay Baum & Jay Prillaman 71.00%

ACBL-wide Master Point

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BOB SCHIVES Bob was born in Chatham, Ontario Canada. He spent his youth playing sports, wrestling and cross country, and you guessed it-playing cards. His parents and Aunt and Uncle played bridge every Saturday night and at age 10, Bob started sitting in for the person responsible for serving food. Other favorite games were cribbage and hearts. Bob spent his career in public accounting working mostly in the health care sector. At age 35 he met Karen, the love of his life. He taught her to play better bridge. They also played competitive Backgammon. Bob lost Karen to cancer five years ago but stays close to her three daughters and their families. Bob and Karen spent ten years wintering in Fort Myers, Florida. When Karen died, Rob and Jeanne Colton invited Bob to visit Vero Beach. The lack of traffic and the friendly reception at the Vero Beach Bridge Center sold him. These days Bob gets his exercise by parking on the far side of the parking lot at the Bridge Center (he allows me to write this). He is a night owl, often playing games like Dungeons and Dragons until 2 AM. He continues to summer in Ontario. Bob has two trademarks-his cutoff shorts and his friendly manner at the table. He plays 7 days a week in Vero.

Slow Play

The ACBL Board of Directors has passed a policy regarding slow play which states in pertinent part: “In the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary, the director should presume that a pair finishing a round late by more than two or three minutes on more than one occasion during a session is responsible for the lateness. There is a strong expectation that the director will penalize such a pair. The size of a penalty will tend to increase for subsequent instances of slow play and for chronic or egregious slow play.” There are several ways players can speed up their game, including: 1. Lead before you write. Opening lead should be

made before you attend to your paperwork. 2. Save the socializing until your table has caught

up. 3. Claim when you are absolutely sure of the rest of

the tricks. Be sure to clearly state your line of play.

4. Review prior play after the last board of the round.

5. Get the hand over with. Stalling or otherwise putting opponents to sleep is poor sportsmanship and unfair.

Most of this is common courtesy. No one is trying to remove thinking from the game. However, it is the director’s responsibility to maintain a level playing field and avoid any player having an extra advantage.

Victor Nicholas Bengyak,

89, passed away unexpectantly, October 31, 2014 in Vero Beach, FL with family by his side. Victor was born in Jackson Heights, NY and lived in Vero Beach for 37 years. He was a graduate of Newtown High School, Queens, NY. He was a veteran of the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946 and served during World War II. Victor was a retired New York City Firefighter for 20 years, serving Lower Manhattan with Engine 24 as a First Responder, efore his retirement in 1978. Survivors include his wife of 37 years, Eleanor M. Bengyak and his beloved service dog, Mitz ; stepson, Patrick M. McCalister, Sr. (Elizabeth); and several other family members. Victor was pre-deceased by his parents Rudolph Bengyak and Theresa Radakovics, both of Jackson Heights, NY; 3 brothers: Frank Bengyak, William Bengyak and Edward Bengyak. Any memorial contributions may be made to Dogs for Life, Inc. for the "Eleanor Bengyak Legacy Society” in memory of Victor N. Bengyak.

PLAYER PROFILE

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