Independence Day

The club is closed on July 4.

Swiss Teams

There is no Handicap Swiss this month due to Independence Day.  The 0-500 Swiss is on 7/19.  Please sign up in advance.

4 is Enough Game

The 4 is enough game on 7/10.  Please sign up in advance.

STaC

There is a STaC on the week of 7/8.

NAP Qualifying Weeks

You can qualify for the next level of the North American Pairs on the weeks of 7/15 and 7/22.  See below for more information.

Robot Individual

The Robot Individual is on 7/13. 

0-99 Game

The 0-99 game is on 7/24.

The Longest Day is Back at NPDBC!

Our Longest Day event was a big success with over $5000 collected from our generous donors.  We will continue to collect donations until the end of July.  If you wish to donate, you have three options:

• Online by clicking here: North Penn Longest Day 2024 Contributions
• By check made out to the Alzheimer’s Association.  Checks may be dropped off or mailed to the Club at 298 Wissahickon Ave, North Wales, PA 19454.
• We will also place a receptacle at the Club for anyone wishing to make a cash donation.

We hope you will play with us on June 19 (F2F) and June 22 (Virtual) and donate in support of this worthy cause!

North American Pairs

North American Pairs (NAP) is a major tournament run by the ACBL.  It consists of 3 rounds.  Qualifying at the club level occurs in June, July, and August.  Anyone who is in the top 50% of their flight, or has at least a 50% score, qualifies for the District level.  The District level occurs in September and October and the top several pairs move on to the championship round at the Spring NABC.

The flights for the NAP are:

• Flight A: Open to any player.  The District level round occurs  Sat-Sun, September 14-15, 2024, at Game Friendzy. South Jersey Bridge Center.
• Flight B: Open to players with fewer than 2500 masterpoints (as of June).  The District level round occurs right at our club on 10/6.
• Flight C: Open to non-Life Masters with fewer than 500 points (as of June).  The District level round occurs on Sun., September 15.

Our club is running two weeks of NAP qualifying each month in June, July, and August.  All of our open games wiill qualify for all three flights. The Friday games will qualify for Flight C.  

The ACBL Conditions of Contest can be found here
The District 4 supplement to the NAP Conditions of Contest can be found here
The list of qualifiers can be found here

Happy Hour with the Robots

Our next robot individual tournament is on Saturday, August 17, at 4 PM.

You can find our tournament by signing on to BBO and clicking North Penn Tournaments.

You can check out the robot convention card by going to your account, clicking on "Convention cards" and selecting "GIB 2/1".  You can also just hover over any bid with your mouse while playing and it will tell you what it is.  Check out a video on the robots here.

Hedwig House

We chose Hedwig House as our local charity for the first half of the year.  They provide support and assistance to individuals with mental illness.  Our donation was $350.  Let a board member know if you have ideas about other charities we can support.

Game Changes for 2024

Thursday of first week of each month, we will hold a “Handicapped Teams” game in place of our Open game.  Handicaps will be assigned based on the average of the masterpoint totals of each team’s players.  Any team may enter, but the higher the average points your team has, the more IMPs you have to give to the opponents.

Wednesday of second week of each month:  a “Four is Enough (4IE) Pairs” game will replace the noon Open game.  Each individual player will be assigned a value of 1, 2 or 3 based on their total masterpoints.  No partnership can exceed a value of ‘4’.

1 = 0-300 MPs        2 = 301-1500 MPs            3 = 1501+ MPs

Wednesday mornings:  we are starting a “Stay and Play” policy.  Anyone who pays to play in Shuffle and Deal will be able to play in the open game at noon for only $6.

Finally, in January our Friday game will change to a 0-500 format.  This will allow our newer players to participate in non-life master duplicate games and provide opportunities for NLM players to qualify in the NAP C competitions leading up to NAP finals in the Fall. 

If you plan to play in Handicapped Teams (1^st Thursday) or 4 is enough (2^nd Wednesday) games, please sign up in the book at the club or send an email to the club at northpennbridge@gmail.com.  If you want assistance finding partners or teammates for these events, contact northpennpartner@gmail.com.

We are now an official IRS Charitable Organization

This is the time of year when many folks are thinking about giving to charity.  Would you consider including North Penn as one of the organizations to which you give?  By doing so, you can help us continue and expand our education efforts, grow our games, and provide assurance that this great bridge club will continue to thrive in the future.

Earlier this year, the IRS officially recognized North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club as a 501c3 charitable organization.  That means that your donations to NPDBC are fully deductible for federal tax purposes.  A link to the IRS Approval Letter can be seen here.

There are many ways to give to the club, including

• Cash or check made out to North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club.
• Online via PayPal or credit card by clicking on Donate
• Through a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) 
• Through use of a Qualified Charitable Donation (QCD) from your Retirement Account.  Donating as a QCD counts towards “withdrawing” your RMD for the year. And the amount of your donation isn’t counted toward your taxable income, which may help you save on income tax.

All donations to NPDBC will be acknowledged with a thank you letter that can be used as documentation when submitting your tax returns.  If you have questions or need assistance with planning a donation, please let Dave, Pat or Beth know.  Thanks in advance!

Partnership Desk

We are in the process of re-activating our online partnership desk and will now be monitoring it on a daily basis.  Please use it for requests for our Open games; partner requests for Tuesday and Friday limited games should go directly to Mitch Snyder. 

If you are in need of a partner for a Monday, Wednesday or Thursday Open game, please email northpennbridge@gmail.com.  We will do our best to match you up with others who are looking for someone to play with.

Come to "Shuffle and Deal" Wednesday mornings from 9:30-11:30!

NPDBC is offering a casual day of bridge (no scoring, no masterpoints) on Wednesday mornings for $8 a person.  Just drop in.  No commitment or advanced registration needed.  Singles are welcome!  Mentors will be available to answer any questions that may arise.

It's a great way to improve your bridge bidding and play while meeting other advancing players in the North Penn community.

This is our general schedule. Go to the Calendar to get details for individual events.

All online games use BBO.

Save Your Club (SYC) games are available online, playing anytime with robots.

Competitions have been updated.  Competitions should reflect those individuals who are or were eligible for the limited competitions.   If you aged out of a bracket last year, i.e., you now have over 100 points and aren't considered a novice, you will not appear in the rankings for the novices this year but you should appear in the competitions for last year if you had less than 100 points last year. 

Competition brackets are as follows:  Novice under 100 points, C players under 500 points, Intermediate players under 750 points, B players over 500 points and have less than 1500 points  and the A players.  Brackets were set January 12 based on the masterpoints earned last year.  Aging out of brackets during the year is based on points earned at the club and ignores points earned elsewhere.  

For instant, if you started the year with 490 master points and earned 10 points in club play and you will be excluded from the monthly competitions once noted.  The fact that you earned points elsewhere would have no bearing.

If you join the club and believe you should be appearing in one of the limited competions and aren't sent us a note.  It is likely your brackets have not been set. 

For just $20.00 a year, you can support North Penn and save on every game we play at the club.

Join online: Go to our membership form

Join by mail: New members should send your name, address, telephone number, email address, ACBL #, BBO name, and birthday (not year) and a check for $20 made out to the North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club.  Returning members whose information hasn't changed can just send the check.  Send it to:
    Membership
    Norh Penn Duplicate Bridge Club
    298 Wissahickon Ave., Suite B
    North Wales, PA  19454

New members: Apply during a bridge session; just ask the director.  Put your dues in an envelope and into the red mailbox by the restrooms.  We will contact you about creating a password for the Member Area.

Renewing members: Use the red mailbox, too.  After renewing, please verify your contact information by logging onto the Member Area or by sending an email to bethmilton49@gmail.com