Vikings in Space talk Bridge
Hi all
It’s time for me to go: Rock Werchter is pending. Four intense days of music, beer and people. Let’s hope the weather cooperates a little. I’ll publish my Werchter-experience on Monday (or Tuesday).
Hi all
Here’s a little gastronomical adventure that will leave you craving for more. Every time I go to the supermarket now it takes a lot of effort not to buy these ingredients, I would acquire a pearlike shape in no time.
Clean and wash the berries carefully and put them together with the ice cream in a bowl. Give it a short whizz with an immersion blendee mixer or a kitchen machine. Just to release some juice from the fruits.
The texture of this dessert is so wonderful. The physical state of the ice cream performs a balancing act somewhere between solid and liquid. Together with the tender strawberries and raspberries it forms a trinity that has no equivalent.
Hi all
Here’s a story from Dennis. I hope you like bitter, cause this baby will surely leave that taste hanging in your mouth.
Dennis opened 1
and his partner raised to 2. RHO entered the bidding with a takeout double and via 2
– 3 – 4 the final contract is reached.
Partner leads the 2 of (odd leads). Declarer asks for a high from dummy and you are on lead. Now what?
Let’s try to fill in the blanks. Partner holds the King of and some other honour. It’s either the Ace of trumps or the 
King. But without trump Ace West would hold something like:
With that he wouldn’t have accepted the invite, would he? No, I think something like this fits the auction a little bit better:
So the defence is easy now, return a to partner’s King, and when he gets in with his King of he can fire a through dummy’s Jack.
Oh boy! A combination of true macho bidding and a thoughtful opponent granted West ten tricks with Ace-King & Ace-King outside. West counted South’s points and dropped the 
Queen doubleton, instead of taking the finesse. Nice play, but still macho bidding in my book. Whenever I play this opponent I will eye him suspiciously.
Hi all
Yesterday I had a solid night with Frank, we were offered a few gifts and presents we couldn’t say no to, resulting in +47 imp. The intrinsic message in solid is lack of spectacle, so here’s a story I heard at the bar (starring Martin and Hoek).
All vulnerable you pick up this rubbish. An easy pass and your partner opens 2 (weak with or some strong hand). If you are completely cut off from any tablepresence you can add some destructive number of bids to that, but let’s stay calm and listen to what partner has to say.
1235671. Weak with or strong
2. Waiting
3. Strong with , forcing for one round
4. Second negative
5. Gameforcing twosuiter
6. I have nothing, leave me alone
7. Really?
8. What did I just say!
Declarer discarded a from dummy on his , ruffed a and ruffed a with the 8. Losing only one trick to the King of trumps, scoring +680.
So should North have raised? I think not. But making a little bit of fun because of North’s cowardness is always nice.
Hi all
Warning: this article contains spoilers.
Last week I saw the new Tarantino movie: Deathproof. His homage to ’60s and ’70s B-movies. It took some time, but now I have a clear idea about the movie. I like it, I like it a lot. It just had to ripe and settle a bit in my head.
At first the movie looked a bit schizoid, colours, clothing and dialogues straight from the seventies, but with modern gadgets, like mobile phones, Japanese cars and mp3-players. But in a strange way it all makes sense. The story is about Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a psycho who stalks women and gets innate pleasure in hurting and killing them. The movie crudely consists of two parts, the former part showcases the build-up of the first bunch of girls on the road, who are targeted by Mike and killed in a deadly car crash. The latter part brings Mike face to face with his fears, when he unknowingly encounters another bunch of girls (who are themselves stuntwomen). What happens in the end is a beautifully filmed long carchase, the balance eventually turning against Mike.
There’s one absolute memorable scene: the lapdance by Vanessa Ferlito. It’s so incredibly hot, the movie is worth watching for that scene only.
I’m really looking forward to part 2 from this Grindhouse-deal: Planet Terror (by Robert Rodriguez).
Hi all
Here’s another rabbit from Saturday, Martijn pulled a fast one on the opponents.
After pass-pass I open this hand with 1. LHO keeps silent and partner jumps to 6. Okaay, I wasn’t expecting that. Everybody is looking a bit stunned and my RHO fumbles through his cards looking for a lead. A small hits the table. Martijn eyes dummy for a second and claims 16 tricks.
West murmurs something about leading Aces against these kinds of sequences, but this gets lost in the surrounding noise.
Some uncounted number of rounds later Anna G. sits on my left. I know her from Poland a couple of years ago when I was still a junior bridge player. She’s playing with her Jeroen. I’m a bit embarrassed to show this game, it was the German beer and the friendly chatter that charmed her to her downfall.
Anna opens 1 and her partner splinters with 4. The auction ended in 4, but I gave 4 as a sacrifice a serious thought. Partner just has to have some in this auction, but I didn’t have the guts.
No troubles here as you can see. But Anna went on a little adventure. She took the lead with the Ace and ruffed a . Crossed to hand with the King of and another ruff. Ace of ( away) and a ruff with the 4, overruffed by Martijn with the 5. The trump switch ran via dummy’s Queen to Anna’s King and she ruffed another with trump Ace. This is the position:
Stuck in dummy she tried a but I rose with the Ace and played my Queen. It was a true uppercut. Looking at her unavoidable loser, she agreed she was one trick short. I’m a little bit happy our teammates went down in 6 for a wash.
Hi all
Yesterday I played in a little teams tournament in Groningen. The event took place in a circle of five enjoyable bars, all serving very fine German white beer. Ouch! I played with Martijn T. (also called Groningen guy from the EGBC teams-quadrilogy I wrote earlier).
I’ll start with an apology. Sorry (again) for my preempt on Ace-Ten sixth, vulnerable against not with a passed partner. I certainly gave that opponent happy feelings with King-Queen-Jack sixth in trumps breathing down my neck.
Your LHO opens 1 and RHO bids 1NT.
This is ugly news. I have a very nice hand, but LHO opening my suit just blows my hand to smithereens. I pass and after 2 – pass – pass it’s my turn again. I have no idea what to do. With slight feelings of nausea I throw an angry pass on the table.
Declarer doesn’t break a sweat and wraps up ten tricks easily.
Our teammates arrive saying they pulled a rabbit out of a hat again. West opened 1NT (!), East transferred to and South introduced his fine collection with 3. This gets greeted by a firm double by West, but East didn’t trust this and removed to 4. West jumped to 5 and South revealed Thor’s Mjolnir ending the auction with a double that still resonates in my ears.
West had no trouble developing the suit for +550. I wonder how South felt when West ruffed the second round of .
Hi all
More Patton, from last Tuesday. There were some crazy games and a couple of fatal mistakes. This deal my opponents were playing with my head. They said they were looking for down two vulnerable, but all they did was offer me a chance to steal my contract.
RHO opens 1 and I double for takeout. I’m not really happy with my distribution, but I have good points and a four card suit. Hoek bids 2 (showing a good hand) and this gets doubled by RHO. Now I could have passed to show a minimum, but I was afraid Hoek would move on to 3, so I bid 2. Everybody takes ten seconds to think, but nobody has anything to add.
The opponents start with three rounds of (West discarding two ). East returns the Queen of . I take it in dummy and review my options and chances. Something good has to happen in , so I try a small one to my 8, losing to West’s 9. The continuation I take again in dummy and I ruff a (East discarding a ).
The distribution is still a mystery to me. Still either opponent could hold four trumps, I could not see. Now when I played two rounds of , East discarded another . What the hell? Why doesn’t he ruff for down one? The third round of also stays alive, so I’m in my hand right now:
If I had read the position correctly, East holding four trumps with King-Queen, the solution is easy. Ruff my Ace of with the trump Ten. East will have to overruff, but is then endplayed. Forced to give me a free finesse in trumps.
I couldn’t believe my opponents were this bad, so I threw the hand away for minus one. If only I had been alert enough. If only, if only! I would have loved to crack my whip on East for his greediness.
Hi all
Big updates. The layout has gone through a giant makeover, code updates all around, I think my site has been updated to the latest standards and technology. Hoek, I thank you for your help and attention, I’m happy! I will implement some other small things later this week, but they will be merely cosmetic (ajax anyone?).
More big news: I’ve opened up comments. Register first and you’re all very welcome to post your comments and ideas. First I have a small warning, I don’t like spam or near-empty comments. They will be trashed without mercy.
I don’t know, should I call this Vikings In Space 2.0 now? What do you think?
Hi all
A double shot this time. The last two slam oriented hands from the Patton matches last Tuesday.
Difficult hand to open after pass – pass. I don’t like to open these kinds of hands with some strong opening bid. You never really get your shape or strength across. I chose to open 1 and prayed that that wouldn’t be the end of the auction.
I dare not show you what happened. Let’s just say that partner showed a lousy hand with some fit and I just raised myself to slam. As the kibitzing director later said: "It’s never a dull moment with you guys!"
What can I say? Slam isn’t exactly odds on. West started with the Ace of and shifted to a trump. I draw another round of trumps (a lucky 2-2 split), and I proceed with two rounds of , discarding a from dummy. Ace of and two ruffs follow and all celebrities make their appearance on the red, bloodstained carpet.
Ugly slam to be in, but so were the opponents. So it all evens out, doesn’t it?
Two games later I pick up these cards:
I can open this hand "weak with both Majors", but I chose not to. I have no distribution and a soft hand overall. My LHO opens 1 and Hoek enters the bidding with 2 (upper cuebid, showing 5-5 Majors, could be weakish because of my first hand pass). RHO passes and I jump to 4. Either partner is strong and this will easily make, and if partner is weak I want to take away as much room as possible.
LHO isn’t done bidding yet and puts a confident 4NT on the table. No explanation, but I guess it’s a strong and minor suit oriented hand. Hoek passes and RHO finds some good news in his cards: 6.
I have strong feelings these guys are for real. Because of the double fit in and and lack of defensive values I go for the sacrifice: 6.
I lose five obvious tricks (I could cope with the trumps splitting 0-4), resulting in -1100. So I start writing down +270 (or +290 if they take the finesse) in the difference column. What a disappointment! Nira and René weren’t able to bid the cold slam. But I was still happy with our result, though it had a little less shine than it could have had.