Month: May 2007

Hi all

Here’s a game I screwed up. Some soulsearching shows I was too busy with my own cards, instead of looking at the options dummy had to offer.

Together with Hoek I bid up to 4, plan the play!

I received a lead for the Ace and a switch. There are two suits worth developing, the suit or the suit. Are there any 4-1 splits I have to or can cope with? Maybe, but then things get vague, uncertain and difficult, so let’s not dive to deep.

I crossed to dummy in trumps to play a towards my hand, East rising with the Ace. Another and the good news is there, the do split. If I hadn’t been too busy with my semi-solid , this would have led to an easy ten tricks.

Now let’s assume East doesn’t rise with the Ace of and you take the wrong guess. West will have to tackle the problem for you, cannot be touched, and revealing the split is bad for EW. Only trumps is safe, but then you just continue yourself, and if they don’t split, you just switch back to . Combining your chances.

So the from dummy is actually a measure of control, you don’t really care if it wins or loses. 

I definitely should have made ten tricks, lousy me.

Hi all

Here are some pictures from the Dombo Tournament.

All ages and all levels of bridge were present. It’s nice to see people having fun.

Here you can observe a rare example of a Kees-Jan in his true habitat. The only thing that’s missing is a bottle of Hoegaarden (I remember something about the brewery being offline…)

Did the finesse work, Hubert?

Nira in trance. I pity her opponents, they will suffer from her deadly defensive skills.

As you can see, Wim found dummy a bit disappointing.

Patrick and I announced the results and distributed the prizes.

The highest ranking Dombo team: Frank, Lennart, Remco and Wim (with their cute little mascot).

Team Trouwborst won the event. Congrats!

Patrick giving away the most prestigious prize of all. The best story around the 8.

Hi all

Stories keep stacking. Last night was a rich night for writing content.

Sitting South I had to declare 4. These things happen when you play a big and the opponents interfere. You’re playing pairs, so you want to rake tricks from where ever you can. The lead I took and a to my King survived, I exited in . My RHO plays two top , ruffed in dummy. Ten tricks are cold now, but sometimes I just get this unsatiable hunger for more.

I cross to the Jack of and ruff another high, to the King, and I ruff my last high. Leading to this position:

I play two more rounds of trumps and watch all discards carefully. One is missing. Blood rushing through my veins I put the Queen of on the table. Covered by the King, the Ace in dummy and East apologizes to his partner while showing the Jack. Eleven tricks and eternal glory.

Here’s some candy if you’re still hungry. Relay away!

1. Big, 16+
2. Unbalanced, 5+ and 8+ hcp
3. Relay
4. 4 card suit
5. 2-4-2-5
6. 1 Ace
7. 1 King
8. I’ll ruff out those to get rid of my loser

As it happened there was no need to ruff out the . Had René held the King, he wouldn’t have sold his hand as unbalanced. We were on the same wavelength, though we had plenty of room to find out.

Still hungry? Your LHO opens a weak two in , René jumps to the game. What do you do?

I don’t like my stiff trump and my holding doesn’t turn me on as well. So a conservative pass followed. I was way off.

Fourteen clean tricks from top. Try to bid it youself, even when your partner just bids 3 it’s very hard to reach slam. The grand is just impossible to bid I think.

Hi all

Here’s a 3NT from the Dombo tournament last Thursday. I guess it has grown to one of the biggest teams tournaments in The Netherlands, 69 teams in total. Again it was a very successful event, every year I’m happy I’m part of the organisation.

We kicked off very nicely with 20, 21 and 19. But then termites started eating at our foundations. I cannot explain what happened but we drifted into a downward spiral.

My RHO opens 2NT, LHO uses a Puppet Stayman variety doubled by René (leaddirecting). I can’t remember what East answered (but it did show at least one Major). West shows no interest in East’s Major and bids 3NT. I lead a .

East takes the lead with the Ace and plays a via my Jack, dummy’s Queen to René’s King. We play three rounds of (declarer throwing a and a ) and then René’s 9 is captured by dummy’s Ten. I can spare a . Declarer enters his hand with a to his Queen and now puts a knife on my throat with the Ace.

Choose now! What do you discard?

If declarer is: 3-4-4-2
then you have to keep guard on the .

But if declarer is: 4-4-3-2
then you can dump your useless . The setting trick will be your Jack of .

I had no idea. I could see five together with dummy and seven . I estimated East having four a bit less likely than holding four . So I discarded a small . Declarer easily scored up nine tricks, for this was the full deal:

Could I have done better?

Hi all

I have so many stories, but so little time. Last week has been very busy, preparations for the Dombo tournament. Lots of planning for a big job in a pharmacy this weekend. My review of Spiderman 3. Hans and Carolien getting married. Boy, I need a vacation after this hectic week. But I’ll document it all, promise.

I’ll start with a 3NT by Hoek last Tuesday, against me and René. A fat zero for us.

Hoek (South) chose to play 3NT after his partner Nira had shown an invitational hand with three card support.

Okay, the brilliant defence is leading the Queen of . But we wouldn’t be playing 2nd division if we could think up a lead like that on the right moment. René led a .

Hoek took it in hand and played a to the Jack for my Queen. I switched a low for René’s Queen. René estimated Hoek’s hand to be a little heavier than this shallow thirteen count and cashed both his minor suit Aces before giving back the lead to Hoek in . Hoek now cashed his Jack and crossed to dummy with his last , leading to this position:

First the King of and then the thirteenth hit the table. It brutally squeezed René out of his guard and a succesfull finesse in gave Hoek nine tricks. With the magic 8 in the last trick. Chapeau!

Hi all

Last night I gave advanced course again. I like to see my students struggle with the problems I serve them. The discussion afterwards and the insight and alternatives they offer, it surely makes me feel rewarded.

This game I just asked for their opinion, the diversity in answers, plans and ideas surprised me.

Your LHO opens 1, partner (Dennis) doubles and RHO jumps to the game. Now what? To make things a little bit more complicated: you’re vulnerable against not.

I cannot stand it, I just have to bid 5, passed out. After discussion last night, I think I have to agree that pass is the long time winning decision. Partner just has to have the perfect set of cards to make 5 the right decision. But it’s definitely not clearcut.

So play 5:

West led the King. I took it, ruffed a  and played two rounds of trumps, East on lead. A small entered the arena and I hesitated for a moment before I played the Jack (I wanted to suggest I was taking a finesse). West covered with the King (ducked in dummy), but my hesitation was noticed and West returned the Queen. 

Now it all comes down to the suit. It has to split 3-3 with the Queen onside. It’s not big a chance, but apart from a reverse finesse or dropping Queen-Ten doubleton it’s all I got. I took the straightforward finesse and ended up down two.

One of the suggested options was to let West have his King of , to give him a feeling of being thrown in. Maybe he opens up the  suit, you can’t tell. One other suggestion I’m very happy with is to play the Jack from hand. If covered then finesse the Ten on the way back. But that’s not all, now there’s another distribution you can tackle: East holding  Ten-doubleton. And it’s true gallery play, that too!

Hi all

I’ll start with one of the biggest games last night. At my table the bidding was quick ‘n easy:

1. Weak with both Majors (I surely must have felt invulnerable)

Thirteen tricks from top.

At another table however, NS had an undisturbed auction involving minor suit ask and South ended up playing 7. I guess South must have felt sick when he saw the bad trump split. But don’t let your head down, all is not lost. Take the  lead in dummy and next the Ace of  (yuck!). Seek inner peace now to overcome the bad split. You will soon find out thirteen tricks are there to take if West holds three . Cash two more rounds of and ruff your third in dummy, leading to this position:

Now clean out the rest of the garbage by taking your King and Queen of and play the thirteenth . West is caught between Scylla and Charybdis.

Hi all

There were a couple of biddable slams last Tuesday, a Viking’s cup of tea. Here’s one where our opponents helped bidding it.

My RHO opens 1 and I introduce my suit. LHO bids 2 and René jumps to the game (we were vulnerable against not). RHO isn’t done bidding yet and raises his partner’s to the five level. Well, I’m not done too yet, so 5. I wasn’t horny enough to "see" the singleton together with the  Ace in René’s hand and jump to slam. LHO raises another level and René said something like: "What the hell? 6!". Right he was.

What a difference it makes if EW keep silent after 4. René and I both have extras, but without the opponents pushing us, we would never have reached the slam.

Another one, in two minutes we had to relay to slam (due to slow opponents).  

If only we had time. With a little more than 20 seconds on the clock René decided me holding the  Queen too unlikely, he jumped to the  slam and claimed twelve tricks. But as you can see above, if he had continued relaying up to the superrelay, he would have gotten the (pairs)treasure he was looking for.

Hi all

Here’s a 3NT from Star yesterday.

West opened a Muiderberg 2 and I (South) ended up playing 3NT. West kicked off with the  Queen, East taking the Ace and I dropped the King. I did that to create another entry to dummy and to disrupt EW communication. East played back another and West ducked after a two minute pause (good!).

The King of has to be onside so I played a small one to my Queen, it survived. Now when I cashed two top , I see West showing out on the second round. Now I have (near) complete count, West is 1-5-4-3. So I cashed Ace and the King made his appearance. The rest was easy, leading to 11 tricks.

What did I do? What did I do? Where did I deserve 90% for this play? I don’t know, it all feels very natural, dropping the King to create an extra entry, taking two rounds of to get more information about the distribution. When West showed out on the second round it was like lighting a dark room. All became clear.

Kudos to Martin for digging up 11 tricks too on a lead. I would go blank for 10 minutes and start playing without a plan. I would have no clue where to start. Big kudos!