Robins Duplicate Bridge Club is closed for the holiday season. The last game of 2012 was December 21 and we will resume our regularly scheduled games Wednesday, January 2.

Beginning Bridge - Winter 2012-13

So, it is not feasible to truly learn bridge in a day but you can learn enough to get through a deal and be curious to learn more. 7 people attended middle Georgia's first such class last Saturday and all had a good time for 4+ hours. Follow up classes will be held mostly on Sunday evenings through February and anyone is welcome. Only a very basic knowledge of bridge is needed and these Sunday classes will be mostly reviewing and practicing the basics covered in week 1. Anyone is welcome to join in - just let me know and I'll get you up to speed. The goal is to be able to play in the Monday night novice game in a month or so.

The complete schedule of upcoming beginning bridge classes ($5 each):
1  Sunday, December 16 - 6:15-8pm    Review of opening bids, responses, rebids; takeout doubles
2  Monday, January 7 - 5:45-7:30pm    More review; opening leads, responding to 1NT
3  Sunday, January 13 - 5:45-7:30pm   More review; defensive strategies, counting the suits
4  Monday, January 21 - 5:45-7:30pm  More defensive strategies, declarer play strategies
5  Sunday, January 27 - 5:45-7:30pm   TBD
6  Sunday, February 10 - 5:45-7:30pm  TBD

Additionally, we will need a few caddies to help at the big regional tournament in Macon February 18-24. Caddies basically move boards from between tables, collect entry forms, and assist the directors as needed. These are paid positions ($30/session) and there are 3 sessions per day. Contact Andre Asbury (aaasbury @ gmail.com) if you are interested in any of the above.

Learn Bridge in a Day

December 8, Andre will be offering a workshop to learn bridge in one day. You won't learn everything you need to know but it will get you off to a good start and hopefully get you interested in learning more and making more friends through the card game. The $25 cost will include the instruction, a book, a deck of cards, and refreshments. Full time students may attend for 1/2 price. Please email Andre at aaasbury@gmail.com to register or to answer any questions.

Swiss Teams

9 teams came out for the Grand National Teams qualifying game Thursday October 11. That's the biggest game we've had since the holiday party last year. People generally like team games and the change of pace and we may start trying to have 1 team game per month with extra points available. 8 out of the 9 teams won some masterpoints, with 1st place being worth 3.17!

Since this month is club appreciation month, we can have a club appreciation team game in addition to the club appreciation pair games that are Oct 9, 17, and 18. The club appreciation team game is scheduled for Oct 25. Get your teams organized! Let Andre or Ruth know if you need teammates.

Thursdays in October

The first two Thursdays in October should be huge games - well beyond our usual 4-5 tables.

October 4 is the ACBL Instant Matchpoint game. You'll get full hand analyses after the game and first place each direction wins a gold point in addition to the sectionally rated red/black points. This game is $1 extra (so $5 per person) to cover the extra cost of the hand analyses and booklets.

October 11 is a Grand National Team qualifying game. This awards full sectional points as well. You must have a team of 4. Ruth or I will help you get up a team if you need help. You may come without a team and we will accommodate you but it help things flow better, try to have it organized before hand and let me or Ruth know so we can get an idea of how many people to expect.

Other Thursday games in October and beyond will be special games awarding double points and we will have plenty of snacks. Remember - Thursday games begin promptly at 6:15pm.

Thursday game times and facebook

Last night was the second week of having the Thursday night game at 6pm. There were still a couple of people showing up late and it took awhile to get organized at the start, which I guess is to be expected when there is a change like this. Last night's game was the biggest we have had on a Thursday all year (6.5 tables) largely due to 3 pairs from Macon who we only rarely see down here but I'm still looking for more feedback on whether this is a good start time for us as a whole.

Also, like us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/RobinsDBC and check in so that your friends see that you're playing - who knows, it might encourage one or two people to learn about the game.

Fall bridge classes

Andre Asbury will offer an intermediate bridge class Sunday evenings, 6-8:30pm, throughout the fall at the Robins Duplicate Bridge Club. The format will be a 10-15 minute lesson with 2-3 deals related to the lesson followed by some supervised play, where I will answer any questions and offer some guidance. If there are at least 2 tables, this may be an 8 board duplicate game. Each lesson will be a stand alone session and it is expected that attendees have kowledge of basic bidding. The cost will be $5 per week per adult or $40 for the whole series and free for kids 18 and under. As usual, I'd like to know ahead of time how many to expect so email me at aaasbury @ gmail.com or fill out the form at the bottom of the lessons page if you plan to attend. Here is the tentative schedule (if there are other topics you want covered, let me know):

August 12 - Declarer play: Plan the play and maintain control
August 19 - Negative and responsive doubles
August 26 - Defense: Attitude and count signals
   (no class September 2 - Atlanta Labor Day regional)
September 9 - Law of total tricks: when to compete
September 16 - Cuebids: Michaels, Limit raises, Western Cue bids
   (no class September 23 - Seaside, Oregon regional)
 September 30 - Declarer play: Ruff in dummy and crossruff
   (no class October 7 - Columbus Day)
October 14 - Defense: Opening leads and suit combinations
October 21 - New minor forcing and its implications
October 28 - Reverses and jump shifts
   (no class November 4 - Augusta regional)
November 11 - TBD

Jerry Peavy is set to teach another beginning bridge class, open to anyone. Classes will be 2.5 hours, once per week for 8-10 weeks, starting around August 10. Topics include hand evaluations, basic bidding concepts, finesses, opening leads, and basic declarer play. After competion of the class, students should be ready to play in the novice duplicate game, Mondays 7-10pm. Potential times for the class are Sunday 2-4:30, Tuesday 10am-12:30, Thursday 10am-12:30. Try the first lesson for free and if you take the whole course, it's $40. If interested, please contact Jerry directly at gpeavy4 @ cox.net or 478-396-4182 or 478-922-0943.

Club Results for July 2, 5, 9, and 10

Bridgescore.com is down. Results for July games so far and probably for all future games will be on clubresults.acbl.org.

http://clubresults.acbl.org/club-results.php?id=MTIzOTI3

Independence Day

Have a Happy Independence Day! There will be no bridge at the RDBC Tuesday July 3 or Wednesday July 4 but the novice game Monday night July 2 will take place as usual. Games will resume Thursday July 5. With many of us out of town, Jerry Peavy will be in charge and if you're in town, come play!

Youth Bridge Camp

 Last week, we had 7 children ages 10-16 at the bridge club to learn how to play. By the end, after 10 hours at the bridge club, they had played about 25 hands and learned lots of fancy things including Stayman and transfers, preempts, finesses, basic card play strategies, and bidding.

We covered material quickly and they were all attentive. Four of them have since been to the club to practice, thus making the class a success, on Monday nights and will hopefully join us in the regular games soon.

I had hoped for a better turnout and hoped to get 30 deals in but I realize my expectations are often too high. The amount taught and learned and played exceeded that of most beginner classes. Most beginning classes get through about 2 deals per hour and don't even think about preempts, and most only have about 10-20% come back for more bridge.

Youth bridge camp June 11-15

Currently 7 students are signed up for the beginning bridge for youth camp June 11-15. That's nice but we'd still like more talented young minds to join us in learning this wonderful game. Like us on facebook and get yourself/kids/grandkids to register here.

Class registration

Hopefully there will be enough interest to have two sessions of the FREE beginning bridge class for youth (all kids 10-18 years old are welcome). The dates are June 11-15 and June 18-22.

I have set August 6 as the start date for the next adult beginning bridge class. That is also the first week that Houston County schools start so summer travels won't interfere. The class will run for 10 Mondays, skipping Labor Day and Columbus Day, and cost $50

If you would like more information, please read peruse the website and links or email aaasbury@gmail.com.
To register for any upcoming bridge classes, please fill out this form.

Online Form Maker

Youth Bridge Class

Any middle or high school student is welcome to attend. Print out as many flyers as you would like and distribute them wherever there are kids who like card games. Officially the classes are free but since we are teaching for free and the bridge club and ACBL are paying for the materials, any donation would be appreciated.

New club website

This website (http://wrbridge.blogspot.com/) will serve as the new main website for the Robins Duplicate Bridge Club.
As of 1 April 2012, the old website (http://www.bridgescore.com/rdbc) will still contain game results but will not be updated with club information, announcements, newsletter, etc.