Month: November 2009

Hi all

Here’s another deal from Oakland. This time my partner Geoff was at the helm of a slam.

1. Unscientific

I’m the first one to agree my jump to slam was unnecessary and unscientific. At least I can say I was accurate. I saw problems arise when I would start with 4 (allowing partner to cooperate, or sign off in 4NT or 5), because I would bypass the cuebid. After a minute and a half of deep thought I just caved and jumped to 6 seeing no solution to my bidding problems. This is what Geoff could see:

When East led a into Geoff’s Ace – Queen all troubles were gone. He drew trumps, led a to his Queen and when that won the trick was able to pitch his loser on dummy’s high for a nice +1390.

Had East led something passive (like a or a trump), Geoff would still have come home though. After drawing trumps he would lead a towards his Queen, if West ducks than the loser goes away on dummy’s long . If West rises then the King and the 13th provide a parking spot for both losing . And if the Ace of proves to be offside, you have the finesse as ultimate resort.

Hi all

Last weekend I played the teams sectional in Oakland. Unfortunately we were not as successful as in El Cerrito, as we had to yield to team Meltzer. In the match-up (2nd round) we beat them by a fair margin, but overall we were not able to keep pace with them.

In the first round my LHO put a pass on the table, said “Oh crap, I wanted to open” three seconds later, and the director ruled a mechanical error without penalty. Right! I’m sorry, but I have very little sympathy for such a ruling. If you’re not paying enough attention to this beautiful game why should you go free? Stop wasting my time.

This deal is funny. I was playing a partscore, my opponent was in game. But where I effortlessly managed eleven tricks, my opponent ended up one trick short. Pat myself on back big time (for play, not for cowardly bidding).

1. Forcing

The lead was a small that ran to my Queen. I played a small to the Ten in dummy and it won the trick. A back was for LHO’s King and she persisted in for my Jack. I exited in again for LHO and now she put the Ten of on the table.

I took that one for real, so I didn’t try the Jack but took it with my King. I crossed to the Ace of (everybody following suit), and asked for the Queen of . She got covered by the King for my Ace. Two rounds of trumps later I had reached this position:

On the last trump I pitched the Ten from dummy, witnessing RHO discarding another . Innocently I played my remaining to dummy’s Ace and down came the Queen. I wiped some dust from my shoulder and asked for the next deal.

My opponent probably saw some ghosts at the other table (on a lead) and crumbled.

Hi all

The teams tournament in El Cerrito was a big success. I teamed up with Drew Hoskins, and with Hansa & Andrew as teammates we rolled to victory after a blitz in the last round. The team with Ron Smith came close, but not close enough.

Here’s a deal where Drew and I were exactly on the same wavelength. The relaxed smoothness of the auction is what I like best here.

1. Slam try
2. Cue
3. Two keycards
4. Looking for the grand
5. I have extras, but probably not what you’re looking for ( King)

There was nothing to the play.

Hi all

The deal I wrote about yesterday was worth all match points, this deal was worth exactly zero.

South opened 1 and when North raised to 2 South singlehandedly carried on to slam. I don’t know why he even bothered to ask for keycards, as South was holding them all himself.

I led my 3rd and turned at least two shades paler when dummy came down. Complete and utter garbage, but it’s working all perfectly: trumps splitting, extremely convenient singleton , and a well placed King of . Sure, everybody gets lucky once in a while, but this makes me feel a bit nauseous and jittery.

Hi all

Last weekend was filled with bridge. I played two events in El Cerrito, pairs on Saturday and teams on Sunday. We didn’t do too well in the pairs event, but there were a couple of nice deals:

I opened the South hand with 1 and over Elenalani’s 2 (?) response I cooked up a cunning plan. Those solid surely look nice in NT too, so I rebid 2NT. Elenalani raised me to 3NT. As you can see we’re off just two Aces for +660, and all match points.

I tell you, if I did this on a regular Dombo club night it would be an average plus, maybe. Basically every solid and semi-solid suit gets promoted to source of tricks in NT. It might not be good bridge, but in the US it still sure is worth a helluva lot of match points.

Hi all

This deal is from a teams tournament in San Jose. Same setup as in Santa Cruz. On the deal below I got a bit carried away and left Greg playing in a borderline slam.

1. 14-16
2. GF relay trigger
3. Four card suit (!)
4. Relay
5. Four card suit
6. 4-2-4-3
7. 0 or 3 Aces

Greg and I are trying out some inversions over 1NT – 2 and 1 – 1NT relay auctions to see whether we can maneuver contracts more often into the strong(er) hand. It is a little bit more ballast, but so far it has been working out fine. During the auction I could see Greg would have to tackle the trumps for one loser and the rest of Greg’s cards would take care of losers in my hand.

When dummy hit the table Greg could count to eleven tricks. Number twelve should come from a squeeze. But East found a nasty lead: the King of . Nasty because it attacked a vital entry. Basically Greg could work to a position like this:

On the last trump West would have to let go of a , then North can pitch the Jack but East is in no pain yet. North still has to cash the Ace of to complete the pressure pack on East, but then communication is gone.

There is one route that might have succeeded and that is to duck the first . Unless East has nerves of steel (to continue with a small ) he’ll probably switch to another suit, and then you can unblock and cash the before clearing and running trumps. Greg would have been able to work to a position like this:

On the last trump first West gets squeezed out of and then East.

Greg immediately took a lot of blame for not ducking the lead and not recognizing the proper route to twelve tricks. No problem. Eventually this board proved to be a 6 imp loss. Yes, you read it correctly: 6 imp. At the other table North opened 1, South introduced his and over the 1 rebid South took a very pessimistic view and reverted to 2 (making 5). What an endeavour!