Published – 19 November 2007
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Manager’s Desk:
Teachers Corner: Schedule changes
Hondo’s Quiz:
Articles:
Helpful Hints: Answers to FAQs
Useful Links: Links members/teachers recommend
Members Corner:
Tournaments: Reports from TDs
Notices: For NEW members
Funding: Premier Membership
Bridge - is knowing that the more you know, the more you know you need to know - that is it's fascination
Start getting used to logging into the BIL Library website – www.bilbridge.com and keeping up with the NEWS on there . The Gazette is on the way out and will not be published in 2008 unless there is some very specific reason for me to do so .
Listen to the Experts Session
On Sunday we had another visit from Inquiry and Mishovnbg with guests mcphee and rmac who shared their thoughts as they bid and played a dozen hands - this is the first of what is to become a twice monthly visit on 1st and 3rd Sundays – 15:30 ES – mark your diaries now .
Miksa will prepare a bridge movie of the session for the Library.
Bob Mcphee is a long time friend of the BIL and in the BIL SHOP http://bilbridge.com/BILShop/BILShop2.php you can purchase copies of his books on an Introduction to 2 Over 1 A must for the Upper Intermediate and Advanced players. Includes Forcing 1NT, Bergen raises, Smolen and lots of examples. Bob McPhee is an international professional player and bridge teacher for over 30 years.
and Doubles, Doubles, Doubles Takeout , Negative, Responsive, Balancing, Support, Maximal, Overcall, Snapdragon, Lead Directing Doubles! Co author: Canooz – Drew Cannell is one of Canada's leading bridge players and renowned teacher.
Rmac - Ralph McNeal - has volunteered to do regular open sessions for members to attend - details will be posted as soon as date/times have been arranged.
CALENDAR CHANGES:
I have made some changes to the layout of the Calendar
:: the Calendar will , by default, display a month but it will now start with the current week
:: the Help for setting the time offset is now at the top
:: the Display options are also now at the top - experiment with the drop down Menus to view the Calendar in various ways - you may prefer something different to the default.
Day – Week – Month (as above the default) – Year you can then choose - Block (as above the default) – List - Condensed – Time Plan
Note There is a programming glitch which appears sometimes on the calendars which have been set to an offset time (not displaying in EST) When I make changes to an existing repeating event or delete an event the old and the new may display for the next week or so . If the solution is not found soon I may switch to a different version of the Calendar in the new year.
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CAITLIN: session Tuesday 20th postponed - it will be held on Thursday 22nd at 15:00 EST
SDOTY : cancelled 24 Nov
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Howard is now loading the QUIZ directly onto the BIL Library website log into www.bilbridge .com > Explore BIL > Bridge Quiz
I will leave a broadcast message on BBO when he loads a new Quiz - there is one there now ! When a new one is loaded the answer to the previous is added - to look that up just click on Previous Quiz . If you haven’t done all the ones Howard has provided in the past they are now all on the website – just click on Past Quiz Listings (whenever you see yellow text on the Library website that is always a link to more information.)
THE ANSWER to the Quiz in the last Gazette
North
ªAKQ10842
©AK2
¨AQ
§6
South
ª7653
©6543
¨KJ4
§AJ
If you examine these two hands, you see that a grand slam in either spades or NT is cold. Construct a bidding sequence, using cue bids rather than Blackwood, that will get you to the grand slam.
The Answer
Here is a reasonable sequence:
North East South West
2C P 2D P
2S P 3S P
4D P 5C P
5H P 6D P
7S
There are a number of ways to play cue bids, but a common way is to bid your cheapest first round control (A or void) the first time you bid the suit. Once a suit has been bid, if it is bid again, it shows second round control (K or singleton).
The first few bids are standard. When South bids 3S, that is stronger than 4S, since 2C is a game force once a suit is agreed upon.
North now cue bids the cheapest first round control, diamonds (denying first round control of clubs). South shows first round control in clubs (and also denies first round control in hearts). North then shows first round control in hearts (and denies second round control in diamonds). South now shows second round control in diamonds (and denies a second round control in clubs).
North can now count 13 tricks, 7 spades, 2 hearts, 3 diamonds, and a club. Or, looking at it another way, South can pitch his losing heart on the K of diamonds.
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(send in your news to share with members )
One member tells me she knits for fun and plays bridge on BBO for work !! J
Not Bridge but Useful Information
Do you really know how to forward e-mails?
50% of us do, 50% DO NOT.
Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?
Every time you forward an e-mail, there is information left over from
the people who got the message before you--- their e-mail addresses
and names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list builds and
builds and builds, and all it takes is for some poor person to get a
virus and his or her computer can send that virus to every E-mail
address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all
of those addresses and sell them, or send junk mail to them in the
hopes that you will go to the site and that person will make a
cent for each hit.
How do you stop it? There are several easy steps:
1. When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses
that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right,
DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut
them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second.
You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full
editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If
you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the
message at all.
2. Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use
the "To" or "Cc" fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the
"BCC" (blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses.
This way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail
address. If you don't see your "BCC," option click on "To" and your
address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose "BCC."
It's that easy. When you send to "BCC" your message will
automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients" in the "To" field of the
ones who receive it.
3. Remove any "FW" in the subject line. You can re-name the
subject or even fix spelling.
4. ALWAYS hit your "Forward" button from the actual e-mail you are
reading, not from the one who sent it to you!! Ever get e-mails
where you have to open ten pages first to read the one page with the
wanted information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you
wish to be viewed, it eliminates extra e-mails people have to wade
through.
5. Have you ever gotten an e-mail that is a petition? It states a
position, asks you to add your name and address and then requests
that you forward it to ten or 15 people or your entire address book.
As it is forwarded on and on it can collect thousands of names and
e-mail addresses.
FACT: That petition is worth a couple of bucks to a professional
spammer because of the wealth of valid names and e-mail addresses on
it. If you want to support the intent of the petition, send it as
your own personal letter to the most effective source. Your position
may carry more weight as a personal letter than does a laundry list
of names and e-mail address on a petition.
And think about this---Who is supposed to actually send the petition
in after the names are collected? And don't believe the ones that
say that the e-mail is being traced. It just ain't so!
6. One of the emails I hate is the one that says something like,
"Send this e-mail to ten people and you'll see something cute run
across your screen," or sometimes they just tease you by saying
something really good will happen soon. IT AIN'T GONNA!!!!! Trust
me, some of the same ones went around ten years ago!
I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed
(could be why I haven't won the lottery??)
7. Before you forward an Amber Alert or a Virus Alert, or some of
the other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you
forward them. Most of them are junk mail that have been circling the
net for YEARS! Is it real or not? Almost everything that is
questionable can easily be checked out at by looking on your own Virus
programme’s webpage.
Take that moment. If it's not real, don't pass it on.
Please, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses!
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Read some of them in the Library this week -
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Read the FAQ section in the Library – it is in the About BIL Menu
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There are pages of Links in the BIL Library - Bridge Notes – Topics in the EXPLORE BIL section
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All BIL tournament results can be accessed for up to a week on BBO
Main Lobby > Useful Links & Information > BBO Masterpoint Organisations > BIL > Recent tournaments
The list of currently loaded tournaments is there too
IF for some reason a TD is unable to be online when a tourney starts - all you have to do is click on the Lobby button on the right of your screen and ask a ‘Yellow’ to cancel the tournament for you to be released.
If it is a Pay tourney a simple message to tell me of the cancellation and I WILL REFUND the $1 as soon as I get the message.
The Tournament on Sundays at 14:00 EST (20:00 CET) TD – waldheini will continue (with a new name ) We hope this will prove to be a good time for the UK/European members
Rob’s Fun House Sunday 22:00 EST
11 Nov
1st: rivalta - gusvete 62.50%
2nd: stanira3 - darlynn22 61.81%
3rd: nk_kudva - maye 9 61.11%
4th: gomela - trev-au 59.72%
18 Nov
1st: Lu9158 - DMMac +39.25
2nd: cloee1125 - ranisyam +21.00
3rd: bubbieof5 - marylema +14.00
4th: csue - ruleof20 +2.75
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People’s reasons for joining the BIL generally fall into 3 categories
1. Beginners - having had a few lessons and needing somewhere to come to grips with the Basics
2. Intermediates - who just want to enjoy friendly social games with maybe a tournament now and again , looking for a space in which to escape from the often viciousness of the MBC Advanced players
3. Intermediates – who have ambitions of going on to higher levels and see the BIL as offering lessons which may give them the skills with which to bridge the gap (which is a very large one) between Intermediate and Advanced.
I like to think the BIL caters for each group and I am always pleased for those who come and go even if all the BIL could offer was a temporary space in which to adjust to the complexities of coping with a global online environment.
BIL - Club News: (enter the BIL click on the rhs button labelled Club News) Key personnel Links to Event Calendar, the Gazette, the Rules, Helpful Hints . FAQ and Mentor information,. accessible whenever you are on BBO all day, every day and ofcourse a link to THE LIBRARY
Event Calendar: - www.bilbridge.com > About BIL > Event Calendar - http://bilbridge.com/BILAbout/calendarframe.php
There are numerous options for different views - months etc - explore.
Click on the name of a session to open a description of the session You can order an emailed reminder - provided you access the description from a future date.
The times shown are EDT/EST (New York) time HOWEVER you can have it convert the times TO YOUR OWN TIME. Click on Options Click on time offset . Select the number of hours difference between the Server time and the time on your PC clock . Click on "Change Time Zone", click Done, Close. Click the Refresh button on your browser’s tool bar and the times will change to your time J
Broadcast Messages: We send broadcast messages to announce sessions, advise you of cancellations etc. These messages go to each and every member every time we send them. (e.g. we will send a message asking for Subs for a tournament - even though you may already be playing in that tournament you will still get the message, we cannot filter them ) If you are playing in a non BIL tournament we CANNOT respond to your messages.
Finding a BIL Event:
All BIL tournaments are held in the BBO tournament room – Main Lobby > Click to Play or Watch bridge > click on Free Tournaments for the BILs FUN and Teaching tournaments OR click on BBO Masterpoint tournaments for the BIL Pay tourneys . Scroll down to the one you are looking for and click on the listing. That will put you in the tournament lobby . Be sure to read the tournament description. Click on Rules to read the rules particular to that tournament. Click on Partnership Desk to add your name or to invite another to play in a Pairs tournament. Click on Register to sign up to play. To play in a Pay for tournament you must have $$s in your BBO$ acct – Main Lobby > Manage your BB$$ to add funds. The entry fee is deducted after the start of a tourney.