C & C Corner
7 April 2008

Greetings from "The Best L’il 999er Game in Texas!"

Hope you all enjoyed the mini-lesson series we just completed on Defensive Trump Tricks. Now we’ll turn our attention back to bidding for a short refresher on Balancing:

• Balancing at the Two-level. When the opponents are trying to sign off at the two-level with a fit, they will be protected by the Law of Total Tricks. We’ve got to get them off the two-level, and we’ll do that with our arsenal of balancing tools.
• Balancing at the One-level. When the opponents’ auction is about to die at the one-level, it becomes a bit tougher to decided whether and how to compete. We’ll discuss the principles involved and alternatives for getting into the auction.
• Balancing Summary. We’ll pull the two prior lessons together and summarize.
• Hand of the Month. We’ll wrap it up with a tough Hand-of-the-Month to illustrate the principles we’ve discussed.

We had a terrific time at the Arlington Sectional in Grapevine this past weekend. Thanks to all of you who volunteered to do the myriad of tasks required to make the tournament go smoothly, as well as to all who supported the Club by playing often. Dee has already started plans for the 2009 tournament!

Mark your calendars for the upcoming Special Events, such as the 19 April "April Fool" game with Hugh Hillaker and Rick Price and the "Diez de Mayo" game on 10 May. Watch the fliers for details. The Board is continuing to plan special activities for us in the upcoming months - I’ll bet we have another special Saturday game pretty soon! And don’t forget to start making arrangements to play often during STaC Week (23 Jun - more details as we get closer).

It’s great to see our companion game - the new 199ers in the east room - getting off to a good start. And it’s even better to see them joining us for the mini-lesson before the game. Thanks to you for making them welcome - a friendly attitude will encourage growth for the Club!

See you on Thursday!

Caron & Chuck

Webmaster: Bill White
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