Tom Gandolfo

October 20th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  4 Comments 

Sorry to inform you our good friend Tom Gandolfo has passed away on the 19 th October 2009 after a lengthy illness. He will be greatly missed. My condolences to Leslie and family. 

From the Edmonton Journal.

GANDOLFO, Thomas (Tom) Albert June 22, 1943 – October 19, 2009 Thomas (Tom) Albert Gandolfo of Edmonton passed away at the age of 66 years after a valiant struggle with ALS. He leaves to remember him; his partner, Leslie; his children, Trevor, Tracy (Shane), Kyla (Wayne); his friend and the mother of his children, Diane; his daughter, Margaret (Mark); his grandchildren, Alix, Corbin, Nathan, Sydney, Marina and Shawn; mother, Ivy Gandolfo; sister, Margaret “Midge” (Brian). Predeceased by his father, Bert Gandolfo. Memorial Service Wednesday, October 28 at 3:30 p.m. at Park Memorial Chapel, 9709 – 111 Avenue. Cremation has taken place in the Park Memorial Crematorium. In lieu of other tributes, memorial donations may be made directly to the ALS Society of Alberta, Suite 410, Jasper Centre, 11456 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5K 0M1. To send condolences, visit www.parkmemorial.com Park Memorial Edmonton 780-426-0050 Family Owned Funeral Home, Crematorium, Reception Centre.

This article about Tom is reprinted from Edmonton Bridge Club site.

Tom was born in Vancouver B.C. but has lived in Edmonton for a long time, now with his significant other, Leslie Pettie. Tom was a successful businessman in the lumber business; he still runs a mill part-time but has essentially retired from the work force.  

Tom’s main hobby is bridge. As for activists outside bridge, he says “Not much now.  Golf once a year. Used to curl and play hockey a lot.”  Tom describes his start in bridge: “I played one game of bridge around 1975.  It was a regional at the Macdonald Hotel.  I knew this guy, Jack Smith, from one of the construction sites I worked on.  He was a bridge player and needed a partner for the Saturday game.  He knew I played a lot of cards and he talked me into playing.  On the way to the tournament he taught me Stayman, Blackwood and NT requirements.  I had no idea how we were doing but he was excited as hell. We actually qualified. That was it for my involvement in bridge until 1982 when I just walked into Peter Jones’s club.” 

As for his attitude or philosophy towards bridge Tom says, “As far as club games go, I’m not very serious.  I laugh and have a few drinks.  Other games such as CNTC, GNT, I try to play well.”  And play well he does.  Bob Crosby recalls playing with Tom in the 2003 CNTC in Pentiction. “Tom held ♠xx ♥x ♦KQ10xxx ♣KQJx.  I opened 2♣, vulnerable.  Tom replied 3♦ and I bid 3NT; Tom bid 4♣ and I responded 4♦, followed by Tom taking control of the hand and placing the contract in 7NT.  After the opening lead by Paul Thurston, Bob claimed 13 tricks without playing a card.  Paul’s teammates were in 3NT at the other table, so we won 17 IMPS.  Tom’s hand evaluation and judgment impressed Paul so much that he wrote up the hand in his bridge column in the National Post.”  Tom has had numerous successes at the national level, has won countless regional and sectional events, and is a very popular partner.  He says, “My favourite partners are Piotr Klimowicz, Kiz Fung, Maurice de la Salle, Susan Culham, Doug Deschner, Bob Crosby, and Debbie Corse, to name a few.”  Nobody would be surprised if Tom was on anyone’s list of favourite partners. Tom has a reputation of playing the hands “double dummy”.  In club games, you can often tell Tom’s pair number by the results on the score sheet: everyone is scoring -630, except for one -660.  That pair had the bad luck to defend the hand against Tom! 

Tom recently returned from the Detroit Nationals where he and his partner, Kiz Fung, were leading the NAOP at half time.  They eventually were 10^thoverall, which attests to Tom’s skill at match points.  He recently returned from a regional in Lethbridge where he won 76 master points, plus funds to compete in the GNT super flight finals at Las Vegas this summer, having been on the winning zone team. Tom is a treasured member of the Edmonton bridge family.  His bridge skill and love of the game has no equal in these parts. 

To anyone contemplating learning the game of bridge, Tom says, “Just get in there and play.”  Tom lists his favourite tournaments as Victoria and Penticton.  Tom offers this advice to bridge players: “If you want to improve at a faster rate, work with the director and come down on weekends to play rubber bridge.  He will find you a suitable game at your level.  You play many more hands and when you’re sitting out you can watch the better players.  When I started, I just watched for a couple of months.  That was Peter Jones’s advice.  It worked.  Thanks, Peter.”    Boy, did it ever work!

Lederer 2009

October 17th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

The Lederer Memorial Trophy is an annual event for eight invited teams from England and abroad.  This year It takes place from 17th to 18th October, at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club, in London England.

They play a complete round robin. Matches are broadcast live on BBO Vugraph.

Zia Mahmood, fresh from winning his first Bermuda Bowl in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is playing with English experts David Bakhshi, Andrew Robson and Alexander Allfrey on the Holder’s team-last year’s winners, with Zia replacing Tony Forrester.

Zia (South) playing with David (North) demonstrated good technique on this hand. For this match their opponents were the Young Chelsea Knockout-Richard Hillman (East), Jon Green (West), Keith bennett, Paula Leslie and Niel Rosen.

At trick eleven, Zia played the diamond nine from dummy, East was squeezed between spade and heart. If East discard a spade, Zia would discard the heart two, then his spades would be good. If East discard the heart queen then Zia’s heart two would be good.

Zia made twelve tricks for +490 and won 2 imps for his side. The other declarer made only ten tricks for +430. Alas, all this was for nought, The Holders lost the match, Zia won the battle and lost the war.

For more information about this tournament please see

http://www.metrobridge.co.uk/

Champion’s Cup

October 17th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

For those of us that appeciate good bridge on BBO-Vugraph, we are in for a treat. The 8th European Bridge Champion’s Cup is being played in Paris, France from the 15th to 18th October 2009. Thanks to BBO we can watch the action from the comfort of our homes.

For up to date results, detail information and bulletins please visit http://eurobridge.org/competitions/09Paris/Paris.htm

Here is an excerpt from the site.

The European Champions’ Cup is a competition between the elite teams of European bridge, i.e. the national team champions of the top ten coun­tries at the most recent European Team Championships. The defending champions and the host country representatives are also invited, but no country may send more than two teams.

Accordingly, this year, the top ten contenders of the 49th European Team Championships 2008, held in Pau, France, are invited to participate in the European Champions’ Cup: Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia and Sweden. Italy’s’Tennis Club Parioli Angelini’, the defending champions, and the host team, bring the total number of contesting teams to 12. The format will be a round-robin qualifier, followed by semifinals, a final and playoffs.

The winning team takes home gold medals and 5,000 Euros.

Round robin Group B Round 2. In the match between Bamberger Reiter-Germany and Allegra Torino-Italy. This hand caught my eye.

Board 19. Dealer South. East-west vulnerable.

You hold as East ♠ J107542 ♥ A ♦ QJ96 ♣ A8 

What is your bid?

In this match both East bid four spades and were doubled by North. 

 This were the hands. 

Dealer: South Vul: E-W		North Gromoeller
		♠	KQ63
		♥	83
		♦	AK84
		♣	J42
West Duboin				East Sementa
♠	A			♠	J107542
♥	72			♥	A
♦	732			♦	QJ96
♣	Q1097653			♣	A8
		South Haeusler
		♠	98
		♥	KQJ109654
		♦	105
		♣	K

The German declarer got the club king lead, saved him the club guess. After setting up diamonds went down three for -800.

The Italian declarer got the heart king lead, won that with heart ace. Also went after diamonds with queen, five, two, North won with diamond king, forced declarer with a heart, East ruffed with spade two, heart four, seven. Played diamond jack, ten, three and Ace. North give south a diamond ruff. South played heart queen, club six, North discarded diamond eight and declarer ruffed. Crossed to dummy with spade ace, He now had the south hand counted out, ran the club queen-catering to the possibility of south having the singleton club jack, lost that and got tapped again. Ended down four for -1100. Got full style points but lost 7 imps for his efforts.

After the hand was over, someone in the peanut gallery commented about the four spade call ” They are making bids a novice wouldn’t.”

That got me interested in finding out if anybody else made the four spade call in this championship. So I went to the match records. 

This is what I found.

Group A.

Host-France vs Iceland. Both East bid 4S. France was doubled, got club king lead and went down two for -500. Iceland was only team not doubled, got club king lead and went down two for -200. Winning 7 imps.

Netherlands vs Sweden. Swedish East was doubled in four spades, got club king lead and went down two for -500. The Dutch East bid four spade, got doubled, West pulled to five club, also got doubled. The lead was the diamond king and went down two for -500. They pushed the board.

Russia vs Angelini-Italy. Italian East bid four spades, was doubled got the lead of club king, went down two for -500. The Russian East played four spades doubled, got the lead of heart king. he went down only one! Lost -200 and won 7 imps.

Group B.

NC-France vs Denmark. The Danish West pulled to five clubs doubled. Got the diamond ace lead and went down one for -200. French East played four spades doubled, got the lead of heart king, went down two for -500. 7 imps to Denmark.

Norway vs Bulgaria. The Bulgarian West also pulled to five clubs doubled. Got the club two lead and went down one, -200. Norwegian East played four spades doubled, got the lead of club king and went down two for -500. 7 imps to Bulgaria.

Germany vs Allegra-Italy. Italian East played four spades doubled. Got the lead of heart king and went down four, -1100. The German East played four spades doubled, got the lead of club king, went down three for -800. 7 imps to Germany.

Of the six matches, to a man, all the East took action over four hearts. The four spade call is normal at this level of competition. Nice to know there is pretty good field protection.

Youth Bridge

October 16th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  1 Comment 

According to World Bridge Federation, the new definition for under 26 youth players-formerly Juniors are players born in 1984 or later. Under 21 youth players-formerly School Players are players born in 1989 or later.

Youth bridge is alive and well on the Internet. Most days there are many young players having fun on BBO. Canada’s own Daniel Lavee-The kid1 has been holding games on the net for interested juniors.

I watched this exciting hand at his table yesterday. 

Imp pairs. Board 23. Dealer South. Both sides vulnerable.

As South, you hold ♠ AKQJ6432 ♥ Void ♦ J876 ♣ J

What is your bid?

Snystrom-Samantha Nystrom opened one spade. She had a side four card diamond suit and as she own the boss suit, not worried about any heart or club preempts.

As West, you hold ♠ Void ♥ AJ107542 ♦ 1032 ♣ 1054

What is your bid?

Zind-Gordon Zind bid three hearts. Nothing wrong with making a book bid. Holding a seven card suit and no defense, jammed the auction.

As North, you hold ♠ 95 ♥ K98 ♦ KQ954 ♣ 987

What is your bid?

The Kid1-Daniel Lavee passed. Holding a good-bad hand for the auction, he decided to wait for more development.

As East, you hold ♠ 1087 ♥ Q63 ♦ A ♣ AKQ632

What is your bid?

Sabourin-David Sabourin made the great bid of five hearts! He could see their partnership may have a slam if Gordon held reasonable hearts and a spade control.

So far so good. What happened next was exciting to watch, well worth the price of admission.

Unlucky for David, that message got lost. Gordon passed five hearts.

Daniel, not in on the joke, made a speculative double. Can’t blame him, his partner opened the bidding. He had the king of trump behind the heart bidder and a possible trick in diamond.

David looking at the best hand at the table, not wanting to stampede the opponents into a five spade save with the blue card, passed. This was Imps after all.

The spot light was on Sam and she came to the rescue with a five spades bid. She must have remembered Kokish telling her repeatedly-never defend with a eight card suit and zero defensive tricks or maybe she picked up a tell-that five heart bid.

When this got back to David, he doubled five spades. He was right in a way, this was their hand for six hearts.

Sam, in five spades doubled, made eleven tricks for plus 850 and 10 imps.

Those that are interested in International competition, please check out this site. http://www.wbfyouth.org/

Anna Boivin (nee Kapelus)

October 5th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Sorry to inform you that one of the great players in Canada has passed away last week.

Reprinted from Victoria Times Colonist.

Anna dies suddenly September 27,2009. She is survived by her two children Catherine and Keith McRae, Her grandchildren Katelyn and Kym, and her brother Gordon Kapelus. Born in St.Claude, Manitoba, Anna lived most of her life in Montreal and retired in Victoria in 1999. She took up the game of Bridge in 1968 and became very passionate about it. She ultimately achieved in the designation of Grand life Master and was one of the highest ranked Bridge players in Canada. She reached her personal goal of 10,000 Master Points. Anna loved to travel and was an energetic,Vibrant woman. She had a strong sense of family and loved not only her immediate family but also her many relatives and friends who reside in Winnipeg, Montreal and Victoria. Her death comes as a shock to all of us. She left an imprint on many lives. She was a woman of strong faith and we take comfort that she is now in the hands of the Lord.

A Prayer Service was held in Winnipeg this week and a Service will be held in Victoria on October 10, at Church of Our Lord. 626 Blanshard Street at 11 AM.

Wash Your Hands.

September 30th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  4 Comments 

Memphis MOJO  http://pokerandbridge.blogspot.com/search/label/bridge reported that Curtis Cheek was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus-Swine flu while playing the Transnational Teams, in Sao Paulo. It is very scary personally, because I was standing next to Joe and Curtis after the matches. I am glad to hear Curtis is on his way to recovery.

Tournament after tournament I see that many bridge players don’t wash their hands after using the washrooms! Germs get passed around and often healthy people get sick by the end of the tournament. Washing hands with soap and water is the best defense against spreading germs.

Just an idea-Now that ACBL uses cameras to record play, I suggest, it is time they use cameras in washrooms to record the guilty parties. Call them up for sanitation hearings. If found guilty, make them take a shower.

Back in Sao Paulo, we were talking about this hand, while Curtis was healthy.

Match 14. Board 20. Dealer West. All Vulnerable.

As East You hold,

♠ A6 ♥ AQJ105 ♦ Void ♣ K109864

Your partner-West bid 1♠ North jumped to 5♦  What is your bid?

At Joe Grue (North) and Curtis Cheek’s (South) table-Open room, their opponents holding the East hand doubled, all passed. Defeated five diamonds doubled, one trick for plus 100.

In the close room, their partners got to six spades, down one to lose 200. Curtis’s team lost a total of 7 imps on this board.

These were the hands.

Dealer: West Vul: All		North
		♠	103
		♥	74
		♦	AKJ876542
		♣
West Maurice				East Michael
♠	QJ9872			♠	A6
♥	K8			♥	AQJ105
♦	103			♦
♣	AQJ			♣	K109864
		South
		♠	K54
		♥	9632
		♦	Q9
		♣	7532

In our match, the auction was the same in both rooms. I had the East hand. I bid six diamond over five diamond. Maurice bid six spade. Both tables went down one for a push.  

In six spade, the best shot for declarer is ruff the first diamond. Heart to the eight for another diamond ruff with the spade ace. Now heart to the king, draw trump with the spade queen. However South can win this and give North, either a club ruff or a heart ruff-a trump promotion with the spade ten! 

Afterwards I thought five no trump was the right bid with my hand. Even though we had no partnership agreement as to what 5NT means. After the opponents preempted, It should be two places to play or pick a slam, rather then Grand Slam Force. That would workout well for this hand, as you can see, both 6♣  and 6♥ are cold, if declared by West.

Paradise West

September 28th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  2 Comments 

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of playing bridge with my friends, new and old, on Vancouver Island. Victoria is very beautiful this time of the year.

Is this a opening hand in your book?

On Saturday. Open Pairs-1st session. Board 19 E-W vulnerable. Dealer South.

As south you hold,

♠ Void ♥ 843 ♦ KQJ95 ♣ KJ1097

Debbie Wastle playing with Sharon Eddy thought so, opened this hand 1♦

North Sharon
♠	AKQ962
♥	AKJ6
♦	2
♣	A4
South Debbie
♠
♥	843
♦	KQJ95
♣	KJ1097

Sharon was still counting her points when Debbie opened one diamond. Took the simple and direct route via Blackwood. Discovered the partnership was missing one ace, settled in six no-trump.

These were the hands.

Dealer: South Vul: E-W		North Sharon
		♠	AKQ962
		♥	AKJ6
		♦	2
		♣	A4
West				East
♠	J108743			♠	5
♥	Q2			♥	10975
♦	A8643			♦	107
♣				♣	Q86532
		South Debbie
		♠
		♥	843
		♦	KQJ95
		♣	KJ1097

The lead was the heart five. With the friendly placement of the cards, made six no trump +990. That was good for 22.5 match points out of 31.

There were a few interesting situations on this hand.

-At some tables after two passes North bid one spade. South had a problem as they play two way reverse Drury. In their system two club-three card spade raise, two diamond-four card spade raise. They were snookered and could not bid their hands naturally.

-Those Norths that insisted on a spade game or higher spade contract were disappointed to find themselves making only nine tricks!

-After South passed, some West got to open two spades-weak, that gave North a headache. They got no higher then three no trumps.

-At other tables, after two passes, North got to open two club strong. They were hard pressed to locate South’s values for slam.

Team Garrincha

September 26th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  1 Comment 

Susan, Maurice, Dan, Josef, Pony and Michael.

It was a lot of fun playing in the Transnational Teams with my friends. We got to play with and against many world champions. The competition was of high standard and the atmosphere was congenial.

Lead directing doubles can be effective when used in the right circumstances. This time our opponent’s lead directing double, created a swing, came back to haunt them.

Round 5 of the Transnational Teams. Board 20. Dealer west. All vulnerable.

West Pony				East Michael
♠	AQ6			♠	95
♥	8			♥	AQ104
♦	KQJ52			♦	A1076
♣	AJ98			♣	Q104

2♠ – 4th suit game force. 4♦ – RKC ask in diamond. 4NT – 2 key cards in diamond without the queen.  5♣ – King ask. 5♦  – no king.

These were the hands.

Dealer: West Vul: All		North
		♠	J87
		♥	K32
		♦	84
		♣	76532
West Pony				East Michael.
♠	AQ6			♠	95
♥	8			♥	AQ104
♦	KQJ52			♦	A1076
♣	AJ98			♣	Q104
		South
		♠	K10432
		♥	J9765
		♦	93
		♣	K

South’s double of 2 spades told Pony where the King of spade was. She went slam shopping. After checking for key cards, settled in the small diamond slam. 

The lead was the spade seven. As you can see with the club king onside there was nothing to the play, making seven for +1390. At the other table our opponents settled in 3NT making all the tricks for +720. We won 11 Imps and with that we won the match 16-14 VP.

Prize Giving Ceremony.

September 13th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  1 Comment 

The Bermuda Bowl.

Gold Medal-USA 2. Donna Compton-NPC, Eric Kokish-Coach, Bob Hamman, Ralph Katz, Zia Mahmood, Jeff Meckstroth, Nick Nickell and Eric Rodwell.

Silver Medal-Italy. Maria Teresa Lavazza-NPC, Massimo Ortensi-Coach, Giorgio Duboin, Fulvio Fantoni, Lorenzo Lauria, Claudio Nunes, Antonio Sementa and Alfredo Versace.

Bulgaria.

The Venice Cup.

Gold Medal-China Long Zhu Women’s Team. Yongling Dong, Yi Qian Liu, Ming Sun, Hongli Wang, Wenfei Wang and Ru Yan.

Silver Medal-USA 1. Sam Dinkin-NPC, Lynn Baker, Lynn Deas, Irina Levitina, Karen McCallum, Beth Palmer and Kerri Sanborn.

France.

The D’Orsi Seniors Bowl.

Gold Medal-England. Peter Baxter-NPC, Paul Hackett, Gunnar Hallberg, Ross Harper, John Holland, David Price and Colin Simpson.

Silver Medal-Poland. Wlodek Wala-NPC, Julian Klukowski, Apolinary Kowalski, Krzysztof Lasocki, Victor Markowicz, Jacek Romanski and Jerzy Russyan.

Indonesia.

World Transnational Open team.

Gold Medal-Zimmerman. Franck Multon, Adam Zmudzinski, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness, Cezary Balicki, Pierre Zimmermann.

Silver Medal-Apreo Logistic Poland. Piotr Gawrys, Krzysztof Kotorowicz, Grzegorz Narkiewicz, Jacek Kalita and Krzysztof Buras.

Germany.

Sao Paulo City Cup.

Gold Medal-Oyzum. Ernesto Muzzio, Alejandro Bianchedi, Marta Putz, Dragan Markovic.

Silver Medal-Mark Gordon. Joe Grue, Curtis Cheek, Pratap Rajdhyaksha, Mark Gordon.

USA 1.

Thank You.

September 12th, 2009  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  2 Comments 

Now that the 39th World Team Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil is drawing to a close. The Canada MPP Women’s Team would like to say a big Thank You to all that supported us.

Especially Canadian Bridge Federation, Master Point Press, Unit 430-International fund, Unit 166, Unit 246, District 18, The Bridge Connection and Vince Oddy Books.

On a personal note, I would like to thank Barb, Joan, Karen, Kiz, Susan and Pamela for having me as their captain. It has been a pleasure.