• Attendance
• Today In History
• Daily Deal
• Masterpoints
• Today's Results
• Brain Workout Puzzles
• Coming Events in District 19

Alert: your browser may be showing you an old version of a page which is updated often. F5 (computer) or the ↻ button (phone or tablet) will get you the most recent version.

Today in History

First DINO Regional in November allows us to do the "this date in history" quiz again without repeating previous material Here are five news items from November 10: how many can you recognize? Answers near the end of the page.

• 249 years ago today, at the Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, Samuel Nichols founded the United States ???.
• 73 years ago today, the North American Numbering Plan began to allow ??? long distance telephone service throughout the United States.
• 55 years ago today, National Educational Television, the predecessor to PBS, aired ??? for the first time.
• 49 years ago today, the sinking of the freighter ??? on Lake Superior was the inspiration for a Gordon Lightfoot ballad.
• 41 years ago today, Bill Gates introduced the first version of ???.

Today's Daily Deal

A Little Bit Of Actual Bridge Content

Simple Finesses: Keep Them Simple Please! As an online director during the pandemic lockdown, I was watching a table that was running a bit low on time. Declarer had pulled trumps to the point where only one high one was out, and was cashing winners to extract it, rather than using two trumps to remove one. With four small trumps left in declarer's hand, declarer led the jack of a side suit from QJxx towards ace doubleton in the concealed hand. RHO played low in tempo. Declarer now spent a full minute, with time running out, before deciding to play the ace, assuring a loser in the suit at least 98% of the time. The BBO Robot of Unfinished Deals eventually decided the result when time expired.

Not the first time I have seen this non-play. Many of us seem to be addicted to the idea that we can work out from the cosmic rays whether to finesse or play for an unlikely drop, even over the internet, by taking some time to take the atmospheric temperature. Some players seem to enjoy basic finesses so much that they waste minutes examining the defender who has played low smoothly, looking for a tell that will let them know when it is right to go up. If the fourth player has the singleton king, that's where the tell will be if there is one. Looking at the player who has already played in tempo, who has seen the QJ in dummy for most of the deal and has been ready to play in tempo for two full minutes, just isn't going to help.

I've asked about such plays politely in the past, not online, but on the rare occasions when I was playing. Newer players will say "I was hoping for a cover" (not explaining why they paused when it didn't happen) or cite the famous Zia tip "if they don't cover, they don't have it," remembering only the catchphrase and not realizing that it doesn't apply when the honour led is supported by another. In the position above, you get two tricks if the king is onside (about 50%, more in this case since the other defender had the long trumps), or if you abandon the finesse and play the ace, dropping the singleton king (a 50-1 shot at best, the suit splitting 6-1 and the singleton is the king).

There's nothing in the Laws preventing a player from playing bad bridge. If you want to gift tricks to the opponents by playing for the once-a-year drop of a singleton king offside, you have every right to do so. Just do it quickly and don't waste everyone's time. In basic finesse situations like this, you should expect the first defender to play low, in tempo—and since that is what happens the vast majority of the time, you should know what you are going to do when it happens. When you lead the queen (or the jack, as here) and they don't cover, that is not breaking news, that is the expected play, whether the defender has the king or not. Now is not the time to think about what happens if the finesse loses: you should have foreseen that possibility before leading. Now is not the time to take inventory to see if the defender who played low must have the missing honour, you should have done that before leading the suit. It doesn't much matter whether you go up with the ace or finesse, it doesn't even matter whether you get it right or wrong: if you take all day over it after the trick has begun, you look like a palooka. And if you cause the round time to run out, or leave the rest of the table with very little time to complete other boards in the round, you are a palooka and a PITA (look it up).

Why can't I think, you ask indignantly? Two reasons. First, if time is running out, everyone needs to expedite their play, especially in online bridge where the rounds are rigidly timed and we can't borrow from the next to finish this one. (Offline, that 'borrowing from the next to finish this one' far too often leads to getting further and further behind, inconveniencing innocent pairs.) You simply don't have the luxury of taking extra time on something that should be obvious when the clock is about to run out, or too much time has already been used on this board with more to play. Second, this pause makes no sense: there is no news here that requires a rethink, the defender did exactly as expected and gave you no new information. If you take a moment or two before leading for the finesse to decide what to do when the second player plays low as expected, you will find that your thoughts will be clearer, since you're not distracted by "was that a tell?" considerations that seem to throw finesse lovers into catatonic fits. Thinking in advance is far less frustrating for the opponents, and makes you look like you belong at a bridge table rather than a bingo hall.

When the missing honour is offside and you are the defender who can win the trick, the same ethics apply. Once in a while, it may be right to duck when you can win the trick. But ducking after a pause for thought doesn't fool anyone. If you see QJxx in dummy on your left and you have Kxx, the possibility of declarer leading the queen from dummy and running it should be in your mind from trick one when dummy appears; you should know when it will be right to duck and do it smoothly for best effect. If dummy on your right includes AQxx and you have Kxx, you should be aware that there may well be a finesse at some point, and keep in the front of your mind if it is advantageous to duck, so you can do it smoothly. When you duck only after a clear pause for thought, it is clear to all who has the missing honour, and this information is unauthorized to partner. It's bad enough that you've told declarer what's going on, even worse that you've let partner know where a key missing card is. As for those sneaky types who hesitate before playing low without the missing honour, or play the winning card from a singleton or doubleton (where ducking would risk it being dropped on the next round) after a significant pause: that's totally out of bounds ethically, and you should know better.

In over thirty years of play, I have seen the singleton king drop work once at the table: the expert who pulled it off later told me he had led towards the ace-queen in dummy knowing that it was quite possible from the distribution so far revealed that my partner had the singleton king, and he knew that partner could switch to a dangerous suit if he got in. But he was still going with the odds until he saw my partner partially detach a card before he called for the queen while 'looking like he was going to his own funeral.' The expert decided that even if the finesse worked, it was worth the insurance to keep my partner off lead, called for the ace, and down came the king. His change of plan, fortified by forethought and locked in by observation, took two seconds, not sixty.

Brain Workout Section!

For those of you who used to like the puzzles I printed in the old bulletins, here is a link to an online version: one of the puzzles that I used to feature in the old paper Bulletins, but it is easy to play on a computer as well. Not so easy on a tablet or phone, since most of the puzzles require right-clicks, not easily done in a tablet or phone environment. Keen is a Sudoku variant with a little math involved. Like Sudoku, you must fit numbers into the grid (from 1 to the number of cells in a row or column) so that there are no repeats in a row or column. As well, you must ensure that the numbers placed into each block (those groups of cells bounded by heavy lines) match the number and the arithmetic operation at the top left of the block. Subtraction (-) and division (÷) are always two cell blocks and the numbers can be in any order. Addition (+) and Multiplication (×) can be three or four or more cells and some of the products can be surprisingly high! In larger blocks it is permissible to have a number duplicated as long as the duplicates are not in the same row or column. These puzzles come from Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection (see below) and there are links there to apps for most devices. Doing these types of puzzles on a regular basis helps you train your brain to think logically, to devise plans and strategies for each different puzzle type, and to distinguish between true and false in a world where facts are increasingly hard to come by. Assembling, choosing, and combining facts to form new insights and information is the basis of thinking logically, and playing better bridge.	Easy puzzle (McBruce's time: 8min 51sec)
	Medium puzzle (McBruce's time: 11min 48sec)
	Tricky puzzle (McBruce's time: 25min 56sec)

Today In History — Answers

The five November 10 stories hinted at above were:

• 249 years ago today, at the Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, Samuel Nichols founded the United States Marine Corps.
• 73 years ago today, the North American Numbering Plan began to allow direct-dial long distance telephone service throughout the United States.
• 55 years ago today, National Educational Television, the predecessor to PBS, aired Sesame Street for the first time.
• 49 years ago today, the sinking of the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior was the inspiration for a Gordon Lightfoot ballad.
• 41 years ago today, Bill Gates introduced the first version of Windows.