Newsletter 07 August 2025
In our newsletter this week...
- Beginners Class starting in August
- New Members
- Online Lessons with Will Jenner-O'Shea
- Canberra In Bloom - Early Bird Entries
- Free Ongoing Bridge Lessons at Canberra Bridge Club
- Rank Promotions for July
- Upcoming Events
- Results
- What do you mean I hesitated….Aren’t we allowed to think?
- Lighter Moments
Beginners Class Starting in August
New players are essential to the club. Most of our beginners learn bridge because a friend or family member suggested they should learn. So pick up a flier next time you are in the club and please encourage your friends and family to come to our lessons.
Our next beginners lessons start on:
- Wednesday 13 August 2025 at 7:30pm OR
- Friday 15 August at 10:00am.
The lessons go for 6 weeks and the cost is $90 which includes a book and detailed notes.
New Members
Canberra Bridge Club welcomes the following new and returning members to our club:
- Lesley Still
Online Lessons with Will Jenner-O'Shea
Did you know that Will's last lesson "Defend Better by Knowing What to Do!" is available to purchase online? This lesson and many other topics taught in his workshops can now be viewed online with notes to download and practice hands to play over and over again.
On our website under the "Essentials" menu or under the "Lessons" page there's a link called "Online Lessons". This link will take you to the North Shore Bridge Club's education site where Will has uploaded his recorded lessons. As Canberra Bridge Club is an affiliate, please make sure to sign up via our own website by going through the link below:
Canberra In Bloom - Early Bird Entries
Canberra's own national gold point Congress, Canberra in Bloom, is being held 3-6 October. There are events for everyone, with pairs and teams events across novice, restricted and open categories, as well as a mixed teams event. Early bird entries close on 15 August so get in quick. For further information, see myABF or contact Roger Brake at
Free Ongoing Bridge Lessons at Canberra Bridge Club
Did you know that we provide two free lessons each week aimed at beginner/intermediate/developing players? Even if you’ve been playing for years, we all have gaps in our knowledge or things we used to know but have since forgotten. The lessons are usually written and delivered by Steve Geddes and are free.
The lectures begin half an hour before the session (and finishes 10 minutes before sessions starts, allowing time for a coffee and to find a table).
They are currently held on:
Wednesday evenings 6-45 until 7-05 (Session starts at 7-15)
Friday Mornings 9-00 until 9-20 (Session starts at 9-30)
If you are interested in seeing what topics are coming up, you can find the schedule here:
If you miss a lecture, the links on that page will take you to the lecture notes that you can read, download or print out.
I hope to see you there.
Steve
SUMMARY OF RANK PROMOTIONS FOR MONTH OF JULY 2025
Graduate
- Dal Pozzo, Jen
- Hook, Vivienne
Club
- Vardy, Sally
Local
- Sainsbury, Jeanne
Bronze Local
- Phillips, Sue
- Renfrey, Gary
- Renfrey, Karen
- Vincent, Margaret
Silver Local
- Di Franco, Carla
- White, Jann
National
- Grant, Simon
- Hajela, Atul
Upcoming Events
The next Tuesday night event is the ACT Swiss MP Pairs:
- 12 August and 19 August
- Click here to register
The next f2f GNOT Qualifier Gold Masterpoint competition will be run on Thursday:
- Thursday Aug 21 and 28 - 10am DUP
The next RealBridge GNOT Qualifier Gold Masterpoint competition will be run on Saturday:
- Saturday Aug 23 and 30 - 1:15pm RB
Results
The winners of the Tuesday night ACTBA Open Butler Pairs are:
- JACQUES CHERBUIN / LIAM MINOGUE
What do you mean I hesitated….Aren’t we allowed to think?
Imagine you are playing in a congress pairs event and you hold the following hand.
♠ 95
♥ Q2
♦ AKJ8765
♣ Q3
With them vulnerable and you not vulnerable, your partner opens Three Clubs. Your Right Hand Opponent overcalls Three Spades and you choose to bid Four Clubs. Your Left Hand Opponent now joins in, bidding Four Spades and this is passed around to you. What do you do now? Sit Four Spades and defend or bid Five Clubs?
This is what happened to a Canberra Bridge Club Pair in the recent Orange Pairs Congress. The player holding those cards chose to bid Five Clubs. This was passed out and the pair went two off for an exceptionally good score (most of the room bid Four Spades making anywhere from Ten to Thirteen tricks. Minus One Hundred is considerably better than Minus Six Hundred and Eighty!
Unfortunately for our intrepid pair, during the next round the director came back and advised he had adjusted the score – forcing them to defend Four Spades and conceding twelve tricks. What was going on?
Well, the director had determined that during the auction, the Three Club Opener had hesitated over the Four Spade bid. This he deemed as “Unauthorised Information” (namely that she had something to think about and potentially was interested in bidding on). Although we are allowed to think as long as we like during the auction, in situations like this it does sometimes put pressure on your partner.
The director deemed that the above hand may have bid Five Clubs or may have chosen to pass Four Spades. The laws say that if you are in possession of unauthorised information, you have a choice of bids available and the choice you make is potentially suggested by the unauthorised information (not that it was influenced by the information). You may have that score taken away from you.
In this case, the director reasoned that you may well have decided to pass (Perhaps planning on getting a couple of Diamond tricks, a club trick and either a Heart or a ruff). Usually, a pre-empter would not bid again, so the fact she hesitated suggests she has something unusual in her bid – that unusual feature may have influenced your choice to
press on to Five Clubs. Thus, the score was taken away.
In my experience, arguments over hesitations are amongst the most heated of director rulings. The pair who have a good score taken away often feel they have been accused of cheating. There is rarely any agreement as to what happened “Was she hesitating or was she looking in her purse for a mint?” And everyone has a very different story about exactly what happened.
I personally am a very fast bridge player (too fast, probably; many of my partners would prefer I put much more thought into my bids!) That means that in places where I do stop and think, the break in tempo is very obvious and we are at significant risk of having the score adjusted. Accordingly, over the years, I have developed a few habits in order to minimise the risk of score adjustments:
Firstly, don’t wait until it’s your turn to bid before you start thinking. Most of the time, even if I just make some innocuous bid, I will be thinking about what I’m planning on doing next. I might open One Spade and think “If my partner invites with Three Spades, I’m going to game. If she bids Two Spades, I’m going to invite HER to game. If they bid over us and I find a fit, I’m going to bid once more. If they bid Hearts, I’m going to double…..” and so on. Usually, by the time it comes around to me, I’ve had plenty of time to think in everybody else’s turn. That means my bids are quick and in tempo all the time and my partner is rarely in the position of having to factor in my hesitation.
Secondly, when I do find myself in the situation of being on the fence and pausing for a while I will usually select the bid that puts minimum pressure on my partner. If we’re in a competitive auction and I realise that I’ve been thinking quite some time now about whether to bid on or whether to pass, I will err on the side of bidding. Slow passes (and slow doubles!) are the most commonly adjusted actions and rather than have my partner sweat through whether they should force themselves to pass or whether they are allowed to take action, I will generally take the plunge myself to keep their options open.
Lastly, when a director call comes about, I try to keep these sorts of interactions super, super friendly! If I call the director over you hesitating I am not calling you a cheat. Similarly, I try to remember that when they call the director on my, they are not calling me a cheat either. I will tell the director the events as I saw them and be aware that other people will have different perspectives. If they disagree they are not calling me a liar…..they are just disagreeing.
These calls can be upsetting (especially in “important” events like congresses) and the pair have my sympathy, Nonetheless, we all have war stories about great scores taken away from us. The lesson to take away is for both
partners to be aware of tempo, their likely options ahead of time and the ethical pressure they may be placing on their partners. (This includes not looking in your bag during a competitive auction!)
If you have any interesting hands that come up (or hands you wish you’d known how to play) we would
love to hear about them at:
Steve Geddes
Lighter Moments
- Walking home last night I passed an apple pie, an ice cream sundae and a lemon cheesecake. I thought to myself these streets seem strangely desserted!
- The worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades.
- Charade: "What brand of desserts will tie the above two totally unrelated jokes together?"
Have a great week everyone!
Elizabeth
