Month: March 2009

Hi all

Last weekend we had our not so succesful start in (qualifying for) the GNT. Greg found one of his other partners willing to fill the gap in our team, so I could play with Foster. After 48 boards (against team Meltzer) the margin exceeded the 80 IMP already. But it certainly didn’t feel that we got our asses whooped. They went down in a cold 5 while our teammates bid to the edgy slam, they missed a couple of reasonable games and had more difficulties with junior enthusiasm than I expected. I can state that the loss was mostly self inflicted.

Your name is Woolsey, you have been a world champion and your sitting East:

 
North opens 1 and Woolsey decided to overcall 1 (nothing special so far), this is passed out to North who reopens with a double. He raised himself to 2 and walked into my knife. Double!

Okay, so the penalty was only -100, my knife wasn’t that sharp. But I was looking for some IMP to pick up. Actually I’m glad I did, because our teammates went down two in 3 undoubled.

Hi all

Things are a bit slow here. Companies still aren’t hiring, state of emergency in California because of drought (except in Berkeley, where it has been raining for 2 weeks now), I won a Friday Night Magic Event, the green asparagus now available makes my life good, and tomorrow Watchmen will hit the theatres. Next week I hope I can start with the (unpaid) internships I have volunteered for. I have to set up a database on stereotactic radiation therapy data in a hospital around the corner (yes, it’s really unpaid!), the other internship involves arrangements for events for angel investors in the Bay Area. Just read: "connecting and networking".

Here’s a nice deal from a teams event in El Cerrito last weekend.

Declarer had no problem wrapping up 9 tricks in 1NT when our defence was less than optimal. We got lazy when we noticed those 8 points in dummy opposite a strong NT. Spare energy. But there’s a nice twist to this deal. The defence really has to keep a keen eye on the ball had South declared 3NT.

West leads a for East’s Ace and East returns one for declarer’s Jack, ducked by West.

There are only eight tricks for grabs. Declarer can work towards an endplay or squeeze for an extra trick. Take five in , then exit in . This is the position with one more to go:

If West cashes the 6, dummy will discard 9 and South 8, creating a criss cross position. And East? What King will he undress?

It’s funny, because it doesn’t really matter. As long as West pays attention, declarer cannot prevail. He should play the suit where East has kept the doubleton. And I think East gets his message best across by discarding the King instead of baring it. That should steer West in the right direction.

And we got beaten by some team of elderly people (again), but that’s another story.