Psychs continued!

January 27th, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  No Comments 

I am very much impressed with Judy Kay-Wolff’s account of Bobby’s solution to psyching at the 1990 WBF championships in Geneva. Should the ACBL institute such a rule requiring that (a) any psychic bid be “exposed” to the opponents at the table at the completion of the hand by the person who made the bid, and (b) that the details of the bid be reported to the director at the end of the session by the person who made the bid for inclusion in a “psychic bid file” indexed by player names? There would be a penalty (matchpoint or other) for failing to comply with either (a) or (b) above.

In a slightly different vein, I am surprised that of all the issues I have written about, such as the implementation and effectiveness of the ZT policy, the removal of the right of club players to lodge complaints with their Unit, the election of ACBL BoD members by Unit board members rather than by the membership at large, the largest number of comments has been on the issue of psyching, and the nature of those responses in general has been to praise the value of pyschs and insist on the right to use them. Should we be concerned that this topic seems to be of more interest to players than other topics that, IMO, affect the future of the game in a much more important way?  

To psych or not to psych, that is the question!

January 23rd, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  12 Comments 

Much interest lately in our club as to whether psyching should be allowed or not. Some players feel it should only be barred against newer players, others that it should be barred in all cases, others that it should be allowed in all cases, etc. Would love to get some feelings from players at large as to their opinions.

Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die.

December 19th, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  4 Comments 

For a long time, club players had the right to file reports or complaints with their Unit Recorder. This right was taken away by the ACBL. Why?

TDs at Nationals are mandated by the ACBL ZT policy to make ZT announcements before every session. They don’t. Why?

ACBL Board members are elected by the Unit Boards rather than by the membership at large. Why?

Just wondering!

Just Cruisin’ Along

December 17th, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  3 Comments 

Just back from the third annual “Regional at Sea” bridge cruise. This year was with Audrey Grant and David Lindop, whereas the first two years were with Larry Cohen. Much bigger ship this year – the “Allure Of The Seas”, with 5000-6000 passegers. Learned a new bid, as in the following auction

Partner    RHO    Me       LHO

    1D        2C     2H        DBL

I inquired what the double showed, received a pitying look, and had my question answered with the question “Have you ever heard of a negative double”? I opined that indeed I had heard of it somewhere, but was a little confused as to what suit(s) the double showed inasmuch as three suits had already been bid. RHO gave this considerable thought, while probably wondering how I had ever found my way to the playing site, and replied “Spades”. Did not then have the wherewithal to ask why LHO didn’t simply bid spades, as sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

Also learned something about the laws of bridge I hadn’t known – was declaring a spade contract, and the opening lead by LHO was the ace of diamonds. I asked RHO what their agreement on leading from AK was, and before he could reply LHO loudly announced “You don’t have to answer that!”.

We lost a Swiss team match when our partners failed to make their 3NT contract. After comparing scores, I gently inquired what the problem had been, and was told “Unfortunately I received a spade lead which I had to win as my king was the only honour I had”. On taking the hands out of the box to have a look, I found them to be

Dummy   xxx    Axx     KQx     AQxx

Declarer  Kxx    xxx     Axxx    KJx

I ventured the opinion that perhaps rather than being the undoing of the hand, the opening lead of a spade had been a gift from the bridge gods, as there were now nine top tricks. Declarer gave this a lot of thought before ruefully concluding “I think I should have made it”.

All in all, great fun! But a shame that next year’s date will be December 16-23 – Ho, Ho, Ho!

And congratulations to our good friends, Ed and Jeanne Lucas from Arizona, who topped the masterpoint winners list with 60.09. Well done!

Wadda ya think???

November 3rd, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  4 Comments 

Ran into an “unusual” bid yesterday – let me know what you think:

South opens 1C in first seat, West passes, and North bids 2C holding  AJ842   98   K9743  Q.

East bids 2H, South 3C, West 3H, North P, East 4H, and all pass.

East, never dreaming that North has a singleton club, badly misplays the hand.

When the debacle is over, East asks North what the 2C bid with a singleton club was about, and North replies “competitive”.

Does “competitive” make any sense when only your side has bid?

Wadda ya think???

Results of the ZT poll

September 15th, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  2 Comments 

Below are the results of the ZT poll, and your comments are requested. #4 is particularly interesting in that directors are mandated by the ACBL to make the ZT anouncement before each session at all NABCs.

                                                                                                                                   Yes%     No%

(1) Do you see a ZT policy in effect at tournaments in your Unit/District?         44        56

(2) Are the directors making a ZT announcement before each session                19        81

     at tournaments in your Unit/District?

(3) Have you seen the ACBL ZT policy in effect at NABCs which you                 43        57

     have attended?

(4) Did the directors made a ZT announcement before each session at                14        86

      NABCs which you attended?

(5) Have you seen ZT penalties being assigned at club games or                          21        79

      tournaments?

(6) Do you know what the ZT matchpoint penalties are?                                      40        60

(7) Have you encountered behaviour which interfered with your                        87        13

      enjoyment of the game at clubs or tournaments?

(8)  Would you call the director if you encountered behaviour which                 56        44

       interfered with your enjoyment of the game?

(9) Do you think the ZT policy in your Unit/District is effective?                        20        80

(10) Do you think the ACBL ZT policy is effective?                                                27        73

Zero Tolerance Poll

August 15th, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  No Comments 

In addition to my Zero Tolerance poll at   http://www.bridgewinners.com/ , I have created a new Zero Tolerance poll at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XGSQM3Z . Please take a few moments to answer the questions and give us your feedback on ZT.

Zero Tolerance Poll

August 4th, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  8 Comments 

My Zero Tolerance poll is at Bridge Winners  http://www.bridgewinners.com/  – please take a few moments to let us know how you think Zero Tolerance is working out.

Please contact your District Director

July 31st, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  No Comments 

Here is the list of current directors on the ACBL Board

Please contact them by e-mail to ask that players at clubs be  given back the right to submit complaints or reports to their Unit Recorder. To contact your District Director, just click on their name in the list above.

Just ask them to please reconsider the following motion at the Seattle Board meeting:

Item 112-87  Player Conduct/Misconduct at clubs

Moved that: Player conduct and/or misconduct occurring at any ACBL Club is hereby made subject to actions by Units, Districts, or the ACBL to enforce any violations of the ACBL Code of Disciplinary Regulations. This is applicable to any actions and/or conduct in violation of the Code

Defeated!

July 30th, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  8 Comments 

My motion

Item 112-87  Player Conduct/Misconduct at clubs

Moved that: Player conduct and/or misconduct occurring at any ACBL Club is hereby made subject to actions by Units, Districts, or the ACBL to enforce any violations of the ACBL Code of Disciplinary Regulations. This is applicable to any actions and/or conduct in violation of the Code.

was defeated at the Toronto NABC ACBL Board meeting. The purpose of the motion was to once again give players at clubs the right to submit complaints to the Unit Recorder, as has been their right since (ACBL) time immemorial. If you think that players should once again have this right, please contact your District representative and request that the motion be reconsidered at the Seattle NABC ACBL Board meeting. The current situation of having to report complaints to club management is simply not fair, particularly in cases where players in small towns end up having to submit a complaint against the club owner to the club owner, and cannot vote with their feet if there is no other club in town.