The Next MUG is TUESDAY Jan.14 at 11am, at Elgin Hall in Surrey
The Next MUG is 11am Tuesday on Jan.14 at Elgin Hall, 14250 Crescent Rd, Surrey.
To see the future MUG's scheduled: go to "Tournaments" on the left side, and select "MUG".

Please note that, for the time being, this game, and future MUGs, will be pairs.
The MUG is usually one of the strongest games of the month. Hope to see you there!

Check the VBC website, and ACBL Live, for results from recent games. For more historical information, go here.

Bridge Lessons start Jan.16th at the Kitsilano Community Centre (Thurs. evenings)
Glenda Affleck will be providing another series of bridge lessons for beginners based on ACBL's "Bidding in the 21st Century". Glenda's classes are excellent, so if you or friends have any interest in a great introduction (or return) to this wonderful game , don't delay. Classes start Jan.16th and are on Thursday evenings.
True beginners 5:15-7:15
Advancing players 7:30-9:30
For more info and to register go here and search for "Bridge Lessons - Beginners", or email Glenda at Glendaaffleck@hotmail.com.

Partnership Desk open for Jan.24-26 Trophy Sectional at Engineers Hall!
Start making your 2025 plans for the Trophy Sectional at the Engineers Hall in Burnaby: 4333 Ledger Ave.
To see the tournament flyer, go to "Tournaments" then "Sectionals", or click here, or to to the ACBL Tournaments page and flyer.
Here's the link to the Partnership Desk for the Sectional.
Please make sure you keep your entry up-to-date and remove once you find a partner. Any problems using the Partnership Desk? E-mail Stuart for help.

Also, please note that the cost is extra for those who are not current ACBL members (reduced tournament fees is one of the perks of membership!). But if you are not a member, you can get a free temporary guest membership, by going here.

JCC program for bridge lessons
Bridge classes at the JCC are open for registration. Julie Smith will be offering a new bridge class on Popular Bridge Conventions on Wednesday mornings starting January 8th, and Sam Epstein has 2 new sessions of Bridge Logic starting January 9. Please register before the end of 2024 to assure these classes are not cancelled. Find out more here.

Online intermediate bridge course: "Thinking Bridge" Defense, starting Jan.8, 2025
Al Bender, a bridge teacher in Seattle, offers online intermediate bridge courses tailored to club players that would like to improve their game. His next course, "Thinking Bridge" Defense, starts January 8th, 9-10:30am. The course consists of 8 - 1.5 hour lessons. The fee is $140. Register at Bridge Whiz.org

Unit Board Adopts Policy on how Cheating affects Entitlement to Awards and Trophies
At the May, 2021 Unit Board Meeting, the following Policy was adopted:
Unit 430 Policy - Player Expelled or on Probation or Suspension
1. Definitions
1.1 For the purposes of this Policy, a player is deemed to be not in good standing if the player is, with respect to the ACBL or ACBL events,
(a) expelled from the ACBL,
(b) serving a term of suspension,
(c) serving indefinite probation,
(d) serving a term of probation the initial term of which was twenty-four or more months or serving a term of probation following a suspension, the initial term of which was in excess of ninety days.
2. Eligibility for Subsidy, Award or Trophy
2.1 A player who is not in good standing during any part of a calendar year is not eligible for any subsidy, award, trophy or other entitlement provided by Unit 430 for that calendar year (the “Period of Ineligibility”).
2.2 The Unit Board may, by a two-thirds majority vote, in its unfettered discretion, extend the Period of Ineligibility to include additional time before or after the Period of Ineligibility if the reason the player is not in good standing is related to, or connected with, a time before or after the expulsion, suspension or probation is in effect.
2.3 For example,
(a) if a player is not in good standing because of a finding of cheating that occurred before the expulsion, suspension or probation commenced, then the Unit Board may include the time in the Period of Ineligibility during which it was found that the cheating took place or, on the balance of probabilities, was likely to have taken place, and
(b) if a subsidy, award, trophy or other entitlement is provided in a calendar year or years that commences after the Period of Ineligibility expires, but relates to matters occurring during the Period of Ineligibility, then the Unit Board may include all or part of that following calendar year or years in the Period of Ineligibility.

Scores for the West Vancouver Senior Centre
Unit 430 is happy to help ACBL and non-ACBL clubs, by posting scores on our website. Please contact Tom (text 604-987-6001, or email at andersontg@shaw.ca), if you would like us to post your club scores here (or to let us know if there are other ways we can help support your game!)

If you are looking for more bridge games on the North Shore, here are the websites for some (non-ACBL) clubs offering duplicate(for ACBL clubs, go here):
Silver Harbour
Delbrook Community Centre
Park Gate Community Centre

A. West Vancouver Senior Community Centre Duplicate scores

Partnerships Fran Hodgkins is now looking after partnerships. If you need a partner, email Fran and she will do her best to match you. Even if we can't find a partner for you right away, you should come to the game anyway - there seems to almost be someone looking for a partner!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year! See you all again on January 8th!

December 18th Scores.. Congratulations to Fran Hodgkins and Shirley Cutts - a 75% game!
December 4th Scores.
November 27th Scores.
November 20th Scores.
Volunteers using the Dealing Machine - see the info under Resources below.

Filling out a convention card: if you are playing in a tournament (or some of the special events, such as the Mentor Mentee game or the Learn New Tricks Tournament) you will need a convention card.
Here are good resources for figuring out how to do that:
- Larry Cohen's guide to filling out a convention card
- a convention card filled out with basic standard american agreements, that you can print out and adapt.
When we start a new session, everyone needs to be registered with a partner - or you need to contact Tom to see if there is any leeway (basically, if you are registered, and your regular registered partner cannot play, you can invite anyone you like and we will treat that person like your registered partner - we want to make sure you can play!) some people are looking for partners - if you want to be added to the list email Tom.

B. Resources and Bridge Info


Using the Dealing Machine:Directions for using Dealer4 and the Dealing Machine

Great bridge tips from Ed L'Heureux, a local bridge player and teacher, that will help any player play a better game. (And, if you like those, you have to check out the other materials Ed has posted on the website for the Surrey Duplicate Lite Bridge Club!)
For those who want to learn or brush up their skills using the bridgemates, here's the youtube video tutorial)
Mini-Lesson 8 hand out - Invitational Bids
Mini-Lesson 7 hand out - Cue Bidding for Slam
Mini-Lesson 6 hand out - Defending using the Rule of 40
Mini-Lesson 5 hand out - Upgrades and Downgrades.
Mini-Lesson 4 hand out - Defending based on Dummy Type.
Mini-Lesson 3 hand out - on the cuebid raise.
Mini-Lesson 2 hand out - on Balancing and the Law of Total Tricks.
Mini-Lesson 1 hand out - on competing for the 2 level and balancing.

Calculate a score