HATS OFF to the District 223 players who have reached bridge milestones !

    NEW SECTIONAL MASTER: David Williams, O’Fallon

    NEW  GOLD LIFE MASTER: Ray Sigler, Highland

Bridge Updates

I know we are all anxious to get back to “normal” face-to-face bridge, but unfortunately, we are still struggling with the pandemic. Some clubs in our unit opened only to close again. Other clubs have not played face-to-face bridge in close to two years.  And a few clubs have reopened and are able to stay open.

No matter what the status of your club, there is still virtual bridge. The Central/Southern Illinois Consortium is committed to providing a fun way to continue playing bridge with people from the area. The Consortium is providing an array of games for all levels. These games are held on bridgebase.com (BBO). There are even classes that are online and easy to assess.  Janet Jones is wrapping up a beginner’s class, but will begin a new one in a few months. Eunice Patton is beginning Intermediate Lessons and Kyle Blocher has been teaching on the advanced level. To see what is still being offered, check out virtual.illinibridge.com .

The Unit 223 Board has not been able to meet face-to-face, but is planning to meet virtually sometime in March.  The big item on the agenda will be whether to hold the Regional which has been scheduled for September.  Champaign has already canceled its Regional, which is usually held in May. We will keep you posted..

Lastly mentors are STILL needed for the mentor/mentee virtual game. This game is held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month at 6:50 pm.  It’s a great way for inexperienced players to be paired with more experienced players.  There is a waiting list for mentors, so if you are willing to be a mentor, please contact Lori Moore or Mary Stuart. You don’t need to be an expert to be a mentor. You just need to be able to give some suggestions to a player who is not as experienced as you. 

Ray Sigler, Gold Life Master

Ray Sigler from Highland just made gold life master! What an accomplishment.  I asked him to tell a little about his bridge journey and this is what he said:

I just made gold life master. When I joined ACBL, I had no thought of ever making life master, much less gold. This journey led me to dozens of partnerships. My favorite of all - my wife of 62 years, Elaine. I shall name several but not all others: Virgil Holderman, Virginia Zeigler, Ruby Nelson, Paul Tarpy, Carol Warner, and Paul Bridges. The pair that Elaine and I played with in Lake Geneva to get the gold points for life master escapes me. :

Several years ago, Virgil Holderman was a member of our area ACBL board and encouraged me to run to be on it. Virgil warned me of some serious monetary problems. At our first meeting it was more than serious. It could have been disastrous. By the next board meeting, a series of changes was proposed that were adopted that kept us from ruin.
 

Knowing What to Bid

Sometimes bridge bidding is hard. My partner and I had a hand that I didn’t know what to do with. (I seem to have several of those hands)!

My partner opened 1S. I had no spades but 7 clubs. We play that a jump in a suit is saying, “Partner, I don’t have many points, but I have at least 6 of this suit”. 

The problem was that my right hand opponent overcalled 2D. For better or worse, I said 3C. I was hoping my partner would take it as weak and the bid was “to play.” My partner went to 3H and I passed. She ended up going down one, which wasn’t a great board for us. 

I just read that I could have made a negative double and then bid my suit later. What I read was that when responder makes a negative double and then bids a new suit, it is “to play.” Responder is saying he did not have enough high-card points to bid at the previous level of bidding, has a suit that is good enough “to play” but not interested in anything higher. I will probably never get another hand like this again, but I thought it was a very good tip.