Unit 207 Newsletter

Oct/Nov 08

The Unit 207 Newsletter editor is Larry Davis. The newsletter will be available on or about the first day of the months of February, April, June, August, October and December. Please let the editor know about newsworthy items so that they may be included in the newsletter.

Upcoming Unit 207 Events

18 Oct (Sat) - Bridge Center - NAP unit-level final (see article below)

- this is a change of dates (originally scheduled for the 11^th)

31 Oct (Fri) - Bridge Center - Halloween Party - time TBD

Upcoming Special Games at Clubs

3 Oct (Fri) - Senior Center - Club Appreciation game

7 Oct (Tues) - South Austin Senior Center - Club Appreciation game

12 Oct (Sun) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

13 Oct (Mon eve) - Bridge Center - Club Championship

14 Oct (Tues) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

16 Oct (Thurs) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

17 Oct (Fri eve) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

20 Oct (Mon) - Senior Center - Club Appreciation game

20 Oct (Mon eve) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

21 Oct (Tues) - Senior Center - Club Appreciation game

22 Oct (Weds day) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

24 Oct (Fri day) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

25 Oct (Sat day) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

25 Oct (Sat eve, 6 p.m.) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

27 Oct (Mon day) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

28 Oct (Tues) - Senior Center - Club Championship

29 Oct (Weds eve) - Bridge Center - Club Appreciation game

4 Nov (Tues) - Bridge Center - Junior Fund game

7 Nov (Fri day) - Bridge Center - Charity game

8 Nov (Sat eve) - Bridge Center - Membership game

9 Nov (Sun) - Bridge Center - Junior Fund game

11 Nov (Tues) - South Austin Senior Center held at home of Larry Davis

11 Nov (Tues) - Senior Center - game WILL be held at the SAC

13 Nov (Thurs) - Bridge Center - Club Championship

14 Nov (Fri) - Senior Center - Club Championship

17 Nov (Mon eve) - Bridge Center - Junior Fund game

18 Nov (Tues) - South Austin Senior Center - Club Championship

19 Nov (Weds day) - Bridge Center - Club Championship

21 Nov (Fri day) - Bridge Center - Club Championship

24 Nov (Mon eve) - Bridge Center - ACBL-wide Charity game

26 Nov (Weds eve) - Bridge Center - game WILL be held

27 Nov (Thurs) - Bridge Center - no game

28 Nov (Fri eve) - Bridge Center - Membership game

29 Nov (Sat day) - Bridge Center - Club Championship

Club Appreciation Games

These games are held every October throughout the ACBL. Each weekly game will hold one such game in October. There is no extra charge, and they award sectionally rated masterpoints (black). See above for schedule.

Future Austin Tournaments

Oct 08 (4^th - 5^th) - 0-100 Sectional - Bridge Center

Nov 08 (15^th - 16^th) - NLM Sectional - Bridge Center

Jan 09 (1^st - 4^th) - Austin Sectional and District 16 NAOP - DoubleTree

March-April 09 (exact dates TBD) - NLM Sectional - Bridge Center

May 09 (7^th - 10^th) - Austin Sectional - Bridge Center

July 09 (exact dates TBD) - NLM Sectional - Bridge Center

Sept 09 (17^th - 20^th) - Austin Sectional - Bridge Center

Congratulations!

New Life Masters: Nancy Dean, Marry Dood, Stan Kurtzer, Terry Richardson, Sandra Helton

New Bronze Life Masters (500): Diane Ebert, Phillip Jaeger, Robert Pruiett

New Silver Life Masters (1000): Beverly Geurin, Virgil Massey

Others: (2000) Jonathan Ferguson, Millie Sherrod; (750) Tom Hall;

(200) Priscilla Baker, Mark Heep, David McCarron; (100) Gayle McCarron, BJ Sanders, Clara Wood; (50) Leonard Cohnstein, Marilyn Love, Judy Parken, Dixie Richardson

Ray Robak Award Winner

The annual Ray Robak award is given to the Unit 207 member winning the most masterpoints at the Fall Sectional. This year’s winner is Pam LaShelle of Round Rock (25.8 mp’s). Unit 207 members winning 10 or more points at the Sectional were Pam LaShelle, Larry Davis, Robert Donathan, Charlene Sands, Virgil Massey, Steve Wood, Jerry Bigler, Marilou Powell, Jack Lacy, Tobi Sokolow, Karen Snyder, Gary Powell, George Pisk, Anne Cullen, Diana & Richard Frankeny.

NAP Games

The unit final (for those having qualified at the club-level) will be October 18^th (Sat) at the Bridge Center. (This is a change of date.) It will be a two-session event. You must play both sessions. For those qualifying at the unit-level (about 50% of each strat), the District 16 NAP final will be held at the Austin sectional in January 2009. District-level winners advance to the national-level, played at the Spring Nationals (Houston).

Austin 0-100 Sectional

The Austin Unit is sponsoring a 0-100 Sectional to be held October 4^th and 5^th at the Bridge Center. The strats will be: A 50 - 100, B 10 - 50, C 0 - 10. There will be one session each afternoon at 1:30. No morning or evening sessions. The tournament chairman and partnership chairman is Larry Davis (343-6942, larrysdavis@att.net.)

New Games

Beginning in October at the Bridge Center, there will a 10:00 a.m. Monday handicapped-game and a 7:00 p.m. Friday evening game. The first such games at the new site will be Education Fund games.

Mentor Program

Unit 207 will again sponsor a Mentor Program, beginning in January 2009. Program details, including information on applying to be a mentor or a mentee, will be made available in mid-October.

Changes in the Laws

The Laws of Bridge have changed. Most changes are minor. The two areas with major changes involve revokes and insufficient bids. What has changed in the revoke rule has to do with the case when the revoker later wins a trick with a card which could have been played to the revoke trick. There is not an automatic two-trick penalty when this happens. As before, if the non-offending side believes that the revoke costs them more tricks than the penalty initially prescribes, they may petition the director to award them more tricks (possibly more than two). They must state to (and persuade) the director why it is that they should be awarded more tricks.

The insufficient bid rule has been modified concerning conventional bids. If the corrected sufficient bid has, in the director's opinion, the "same" meaning as the original insufficient bid, there will not be bidding restrictions placed upon the insufficient bidder's partner. For example, if 2D is (insufficiently) bid over 2NT, and 3D would have the "same" meaning (a transfer to hearts) over 2NT as 2D does over 1NT, then the offender may correct the bid to 3D and no bidding restrictions are placed on his partner. However, remember that the director is to be called before any attempt is made to correct an insufficient bid because the opponents have the first option to accept the insufficient bid.

Deaths and Departures

Charles Cree of Austin