The Declarer

Board
of
Directors
The Declarer
T h e o f f i c i a l n e w s l e t t e r o f u n i t 1 3 1 o f t h e Am e r i c a n Co n t r a c t Br i d g e L e a g u e
www.unit131.org
June 2015
Dear Unit 131 Members,
TOURNAMENTS:
President
Jeanie Brown
1st Vice President
Richard Troth
2nd Vice President
Dee Johnston
Secretary
Ellen D’Amato
Treasurer
Rajeev Bansal;
Past President
Vicki Muir
At-Large Members
Term Expires 2016
Maggie Frick
Jeanne Kyte
Alan Spohn
Nancy Trager
Lynne Wenski
Term Expires 2017
Tory Billard
Jim Dingwerth
Bill Hoge
Peggy Schmiedeler
Robert Weaver
A successful Spring Sectional was chaired by Ellen D‟Amato and Maggie
Frick. If you missed the Happy Hour Pizza Party, too bad! The pizza was
excellent and the company was fun. So many enjoyed the Party that Walter Ruland and Pat Mason, are planning another HAPPY HOUR after the
Saturday Afternoon Summer Sectional Game. My favorite moment of the
Tournament was looking across the room and seeing two young boys,
about 10-12 years old, and two teenage boys earnestly playing bridge.
There definitely is hope that this wonderful game will survive.
CHAMPS VS CHUMPS:
We can help promote our game to new players by being CHAMPS NOT
CHUMPS. Marty Bergen‟s „A CLASS ACT‟, printed below, is a reminder of
how a Champion behaves at the bridge table. He did forget the reminder to
be pleasant to All. A GRUMP IS A CHUMP.
IT‟S HARD TO PLAY LIKE A CHAMPION, BUT EASY TO BEHAVE LIKE ONE
by Marty Bergen
A CHUMP
Gives free lessons
Sides with opponents
Berates partner
Dwells on bad results
Thinks he knows it all
Insists on playing only his favorite conventions
Makes partner wish he were elsewhere
A CHAMP
Does not preach
Sides with partner
Treats partner with respect
Moves on
Is willing to learn
Is open to partner‟s ideas
Allows partner to enjoy
BRIDGE----NOT CHESS ----IS THE ULTIMATE WAR GAME:
A very interesting article, written by Michael Ledeen, was published in the
May 17 Wall Street Journal. A link to this article is in under the “news and
info” tab of the Unit‟s website, Unit131.org. It speaks of President Eisenhower's love of the game and the intellectual values of bridge. Definitely
worth reading!
MISCELLANEOUS:
The revisions to the By-laws were passed. The newly revised Bylaws are
posted on the Unit‟s website, Unit 131.org. Many thanks to Steve Goodman who persevered throughout the years as By-law Chairman and to
Howard Mick who batted cleanup.
Check out the new IT‟S YOUR CALL Feature by Patti Whitaker and the
Members‟ Corner Feature by Tory Billard. They plan to include these features in each Declarer. If you know someone of interest to feature, contact
Tory at Torybbillard@gmail.com.
Play Nice, Have Fun & Make New Friends
Jeanie Brown, Unit 131 President
Kansas City Summer Sectional
July 10-12, 2015
daffo
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Stratification for Pairs Events and Swiss Teams:
Based on average master points
A: 2000+, B: 750-2000, C: 0-750
Entr y Fees*
Friday and Saturday
$12 per person per session
Sunday Swiss Teams
$124 per team includes lunch
Junior Players (18 and under)
Play for half price
FR IDAY J uly 10 , 20 15
Donuts in Morning
10:00 AM Stratified Open Pairs – Single Session
Stratified 0-299ers (3 table min)
2:30 PM Stratified Open Pairs – Single Session
Stratified 0-299ers (3 table min)
Stratified Open Swiss Teams – Single Session
*non-service fee paying LMs, non and unpaid ACBL
members pay $3 extra per person per session
NO EVENING GAME
Hospitality
S AT U R DA Y J uly 1 1, 2 015
10:00 AM Stratified Open Pairs – Single session
Stratified 0-299ers (3 table min)
Bracketed Compact Knock Out – 2 Sessions
(1 of 2) (May be handicapped if insufficient # of
teams to bracket) 2:30 PM Stratified Open Pairs – Single session
Stratified 0-299ers (3 table min.)
Bracketed Compact Knock Out – 2 Sessions
(2 of 2) (May be handicapped if insufficient # of
teams to bracket)
•
•
•
•
Coffee, Soft Drinks & Snacks throughout
Donuts Friday & Sunday mornings
Hors d’oeuvres, soft drinks, beer & wine
following Saturday afternoon session
Lunch on site available for purchase on
Friday & Saturday. Must order and pay at
time of morning game registration.
Hors d’oeuvres, soft drinks, wine and beer following game
CHAIRPERSONS
NO EVENING GAME
S U N DA Y
Walter Ruland 913-631-1922 Rulands@everestkc.net
Pat Mason
816-942-2332 pmason@kc.rr.com
Ju ly 12, 2 01 5
10:00 AM & TBA
Stratiflighted Swiss Teams
Flight A/Ax: Unlimited/<3000
Stratiflighted Flights B, C & D
B: 750-2000, C: 300-750, D: 0-300
Note: No player with more than 2000 points
may play in Flight B of the Stratiflighted Swiss
PARTNERSHIPS
Peggy Schmiedeler 913-451-1175 pschmied@sbcglobal.net
Linda Fell
913-362-7275 lindafell41@sbcglobal.net
Online Partnerships at:
http://bridgefinesse.com/D15PDeskIndex
DIRECTOR-IN-CHARGE:
Chris Patrias
U nit Web Site: www .unit131.org
Sanction #1507023
Nearby Hotels
Senior & AARP Discounts available
A Loft -116th & Ash – 913-345-9430
Holiday Inn – 119th & Nall – 800-315-2621
Hyatt – 5001 W. 110th - 913-491-9002
Courtyard by Marriott – 110th & Woodson –
913-317-8500
JEWISH COMMUNITY
CENTER
5801 W. 115TH St ● Overland Park, KS
Between Nall & Lamar on 115th Str
Directions
Take I-435 to Nall/Roe Exit
Turn South (Exit 77B) onto Nall St. &
go .8 miles to 115th Street.
Turn West onto 115th Street.
Approx .3 miles & on the left.
Spring Tournament a Success
KC Summer Sectonal
By Chairperson: Ellen D’Amatto
Over 320 players attended the
Spring Sectional tournament last
month and 256 of them earned silver master points. We were
pleased that almost half of these
attendees were among our up and coming
players - those with fewer than 300 master points.
Sectional attendance on both Friday and
Sunday exceeded that of last spring, and
while attendance on Saturday was down,
this year we hosted the District 15 Grand
National Team (GNT) finals that began
Saturday. Many Unit players participated
in this event which totaled 26 tables.
Congratulations to our GNT winners:
Flight B - Lily Chan, Paul Chan, Mark
De Garcia and Gregory Barnes.
Flight C: Peter Schaff, Gary Urkevich,
Robert Tung, and Judith Walter.
IT’S YOUR CALL
When is a card played?
While defending a hand, a player accidentally
pulls out 2 cards, then tries to put one of them
back. Declarer calls the director to see if the
2nd card should be a penalty card. Which is the
correct ruling?
By Chairperson: Pat Mason
I wonder if you saw me at the sectional in May?
Was I chatting with my partner as
we prepared to play?
Was I munching on a donut, sipping coffee in the hall?
Was I walking with an old friend, making
sure she didn't fall?
Did I smile and greet each couple that
was sitting down to play?
I should have cause I'm hoping to be
treated that same way!
On Saturday we all enjoyed pizza, wine
and beer,
Discussed the hands that we misplayed,
and wished that you'd been here!
Bridge players from nearby towns were
giving us a try,
So we invited them to join us for our Sectional in July!
Yes! The second weekend in July we
plan to play again!
That's July 10, 11, 12! You should come,
cause you could win!
I'll just bet on Saturday, you'll be glad
you came!
Hors d'oeuvres, soft drinks, wine and
beer are following the game!
So dust off those old bridge books, if
your rusty we don't care!
Just grab your favorite partner and I
hope to see you there!
Seventy Percent Club

Ellen D’Amatto & Alan Hierseman 70.19%,
4/10/2015

Jerry Mandelker & Jim Dingworth
4/30/2015

Jules Moskowitz & Ellen D’Amato 73.38%,
5/18/2015
E. As soon as two cards are pulled out by defender

Don Stack & Don Brooker 75.83%
5/31/2015
(Answer on page 7)

Michael Hughes & Roy Coplen 70.42%,
6/10/2015
A. When the card hits the table
B. When the Declarer can see the card
C. When the card is in a position that partner
can possibly see the card
D. When partner sees the card
3
75%,
MEMBER’S CORNER
By Tory Ballard
ALAN SPOHN
Someone once said, “It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts
while eating a homegrown tomato.” And there’s no one better who lives
by this saying than Olathe, Kan., resident and bridge player Alan Spohn.
Each year, Alan singlehandedly supplies the Kansas City Bridge Studio
players with a variety of vegetables for the entire summer.
And we’re not talking a few tomatoes or cucumbers. Alan’s garden is massive in size -- about 100 feet by 140 feet. One year alone, he planted 28
“hills” of zucchini, with each hill housing three plants. That’s a whopping
84 plants. Needless to say, he was carting 30 to 40 pounds of zucchini to
the studio a day to share. That’s no easy feat for someone who turns 88
this year.
How did Alan get his farming start? It all began in his home state of
Texas as a young lad of 10 years old during the Depression years. He said,
“My family lived on a rented farm, and I started playing in the dirt. I realized I loved to plant and garden.” As a teen, he experimented with developing his own seedless watermelons, and soon, Alan knew that he had a green thumb.
Once Alan grew up and left home, he took up duplicate bridge. That was nearly 55 years ago, but he
didn’t give it much attention back then. Instead, he embraced his other love besides gardening -- raising
quarter horses for show. At one time, he owned Peppy Boy Two, the world champion Western pleasure
stallion. When he moved to Olathe in 1972, he made sure he owned plenty of acreage for a big garden
and room for his horses to roam. Six years ago, when Alan finally retired, he came back to bridge. He
became a life master in less than three years and is now a silver life master with over 1,100 points.
Summer is upon us, and players have already started asking Alan when his crops are coming in. He
takes orders -- Marianne Payne likes Swiss chard, Don loves okra, and everyone wants his tomatoes and
zucchini, his most successful plants. He also shares his edible riches with a food pantry and the mother
of a bridge player who makes bread with his zucchinis “on steroids” (5-10 pounders!).
Maintaining such a big and successful garden requires a lot of work. First, Alan has to till the soil in the
spring, then order plants, put up fences, plant everything, maintain the plot and keep out the critters.
Then he has to pick it all! Spinach and lettuce, planted in early April, are the first to come in. Alan gets a
lot of questions about his vegetables. For example, how does he keep the animals from gnawing on the
tomatoes? His answer: spray them with a water and cayenne pepper or mustard mix. He doesn’t use any
insecticides, just a liquid fertilizer.
Alan’s tried and true system of planting and growing has been hugely successful. As he approaches his
ninth decade, the big question is: how long will he keep his garden growing when it’s so much work?
Alan said, “I do it for the bridge players. I like what I do, and I like to share all the food. And I’ll keep
doing it for as long as I can.” That’s great news for everyone at the KC Bridge Studio who can’t wait to
enjoy Alan’s crop this year.
4
MEMBER’S CORNER
By Tory Ballard
CINDY SMITH
Cindy Smith has spent many years with either a paintbrush or
playing cards in her hand. The Poplar Bluff, Mo., native is a
well-known face around the bridge table in Columbia, where
she now lives with her husband, Doug. She loves the game
and has spent countless hours teaching many of the bridge
players in the area. But Cindy has another passion -- painting
pictures -- which allows her to embrace her more cerebral
side. Both loves are reflected in her email name of
“Bridgeartster.”
Cindy met her future husband in a zoology class at the University of Missouri in 1969, and they’ve been married for 43
years. Their love of the school and its sports program called them back to Columbia in 2008, and they
still go to all the school basketball games. One day, while vacationing in Savannah, Ga., Cindy wandered into an art gallery and saw a painting with a hefty price tag. She thought to herself, “I can paint
that.” And from there, a lucrative hobby was born. She went home, signed up for painting lessons from
three different teachers and eventually became a master of the palette and canvas.
Cindy has painted everything -- from a self-portrait for a class assignment to a commission from a
friend. But she especially enjoys painting landscapes. This is how she described one of her favorite
paintings: “I made up the scene in my head. It’s of two girls looking at the ocean, with the wind is blowing their hair and dresses on their backs.” Where is the painting now? An acquaintance saw it hanging
at the senior center where Cindy plays bridge, and he bought it.
Cindy’s house decor reflects her artistic skill; she has over 30 of her paintings hanging on the walls.
She’s also displayed and sold her works at various venues. She showed her artwork at a Columbia exhibit and received an honorable mention.
Cindy doesn’t paint much anymore, which gives her more time to focus on her other passion: duplicate
bridge. Her bridge-playing roots date back over 50 years ago. She said, “I was around 13 years old, and
my great-uncle taught all the cousins bridge at a family reunion. I was the oldest, and I got hooked.”
She stopped and started playing over the years, mainly to raise her two children with Doug, a retired
doctor. But once her children were grown, she had the time to take up duplicate bridge in the mid1990’s.
When Cindy moved back to Columbia, she started giving lessons to beginners and intermediates, which
were a huge success (one session alone had over 50 sign-ups). From there, she began a novice duplicate
bridge club, which has grown into one of the most popular duplicate sessions in the area. “I’m very
proud of my previous students, and just recently two of them beat some of the open players. I encourage
people to come to the game, and I match up players or I play with them myself.”
Cindy is both a successful painter and an accomplished bridge player. But she has had one failure that
she laughed about when I asked her if she and her husband play bridge together. She reminisced: “Oh,
Doug was my biggest failure as a teacher. He’s a doctor, and he was still working when I started my lessons. He gave it a try, but said that bridge required too much thinking!” Thankfully, that didn’t stop her
from passing on her bridge expertise to so many others.
5
Hesitations & Havoc - Law 16 (Part 2)
Why Your Tempo Can Cause Your Partner Grief
By Chad Fisher
North Deals
N-S Vul
 K J 10 9 8
Q2
 A 10 9
Q43
4
NN
WE
KJ9
KQJ7
 A 10 9 8 7
AQ653
A764
832
5
E
S
72
 10 8 5 3
654
KJ62
North
East
1
Pass
Pass
1 NT
2 
3
South
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
West
1
2
2
4
* Long hesitation before this bid
Opening Lead 10 of spades
Table result: E/W +420
Director ruling: 2 diamonds made 3, E/W +110
Committee Ruling: 2 diamonds made 4, E/W +130
The long hesitation made it more attractive for West to change suits and bid 2 Hearts, which resulted in the
final contract of 4 Hearts. The player used "Unauthorized Information" for this bid. The director, and later
appeal to committee, ruled that without the hesitation it would not have been reasonable to introduce a
new suit into the auction. The most logical bid would have been to pass. The score was adjusted.
WHAT CONSTITUTES AND BREAK IN TEMPO? The law does not specify, but based on Casebook appeals,
normal tempo is considered:
--- About 2-3 seconds in normal auction
--- About 8-10 seconds following a skip bid* * Player should study their hand and count to 10 after a skip bid
This obligation applies whether the Stop card is used or not --- Extra time may be allowed for “unusual
actions”
Law 16 defines many types of unauthorized Information, such as “a remark, a question, an unexpected alert
or failure to alert, unmistakable hesitation, unwonted speed, special emphasis, tone, gesture, movement or
mannerism.”
6
Milestones and Achievements
New LIFE Masters
Jules Moskowitz
Mary Schneider
Mini-McKenney Masterpoint Race
Hong Chen 0-5
Marna Cole 5-20
Peter Schaff 20-50
New BRONZE LIFE Masters
Mary Ann Pinkerton
Ernest Rosenthal 50-100
Samuel Lane 100-200
New SILVER LIFE Masters
Howard L. Kalender
Shirley Meuschk
Robert Post 200-300
Ellen D’Amato 300-500
Herbert Rosen 500-1000
Alan Hierseman 1000-2500
Beckie Stasi 2500-5000
Victoria Muir 7500-10,000
Don Stack Over 10,000
Ace of Clubs
Richard Focht 0-5
Mr. & Ms. Bridge
Gary Ecklund 5-20
Peter Schaff 20-50
Fred Lambert 1st
Ernest Rosenthal 50-100
Vicki Muir 1st
Elizabeth Herbert 100-200
Jack Spear 2nd
Robert M Post 200-300
Beckie Stasi 2nd
Jules Moskowitz 300-500
Bill Muir 3rd
Harry Satterwhite 500-1000
Marti Malcolm 3rd
Mr. & Ms. Rookie
Robert E Williamson 1000-2500
Beckie A Stasi 2500-5000
Howard Mick 1st
Victoria A Muir 5000-7500
Hazel Kuhn 1st
Linda H Eakes 7500-10,000
Robert Tung 2nd
Paul A Pressly over 10,000
Sherry Quackenbush 2nd
IT’S YOUR CALL
ANSWER: C
Law 49 of “The Laws of Duplicate Bridge” states “If a defender’s card is in a position in which his partner
could possibly see its face, it becomes a penalty card.”
7
Lynne Wenski
PRSRT STD
7620 Haskins St
U.S. Postage
Paid
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
PRSRT STD
Lenexa, Ks
EUDORA, KS
Kansas City,
MO
PERMIT NO. 3
66216-5438
Permit No. 754
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
8
Schedule of Future Events
Unit Events Scheduled
Kansas City Sectional Tournaments
Jewish Community Center
5801 W. 115th St.
Overland Park, KS
July 10-12
Nov. 20-22
Unit 131 l/N Sectional Tournament
August 28-30
STaC 2015
December 7
Kansas City Regional Tournament
December 26-31
Declarer Editors
Patti Whitaker: pattiwhitaker@kc.rr.com
Kathy Allan: kallan@kc.rr.com
Other Area Tournaments
Regional Tournaments
June 22-28
Effingham, ILL
June 22-28
Crystal Lake, ILL
June 29-July 5
W. Des Moines, IA
July 13-19
St. Louis, MO
July 20-25
Council Bluffs, IA
Sectional Tournaments
July 17-19
Little Rock, AR
July 17-19
Cedar Rapids, IA
August 2-4
Crystal Lake, ILL
August 21-23
Hot Springs Village, AR
August 21-23
Oklahoma City, OK
August 22-23
Clive, IA
NABC August 5-16
Chicago, ILL