Month: May 2010

Hi all

I think it’s official, I’ve tapped too much from my barrel of luck. This deal is from a pairs night in Piedmont. Sitting South I opened a weak NT and Geoff raised me to game.

West led a small and East played the 9 for my Queen. I can count five tricks in , one and two if the finesse works. My only sensible legal chance for nine is finding West with exactly KJ stiff.

I lead a small and West throws the King in the arena. I glance at West and decide it’s an honest card. I see no alternative than going for a flaw in the defence. I rattle off all (pitching a and a ), leading to this position:

The opponents kept all their and RHO has pitched two and a on the choo-choo train. So now I have East almost where I want him. Still in tempo I request a from dummy and when East follows with a small one I feel victory approaching.

West in with the King, pounces with the Ace of and another one for his partner’s Jack. With a sigh East acknowledges defeat, he can take the Ace, but then has to lead away from his Jack of .

So if East had risen with the Ace of they can keep me to seven tricks. Not a bad reward if you pay some attention. My fields of luck are now infertile, desolate and loveless, I fear.

Hi all

Here’s a spectacular deal from the BER sectional last weekend. This was the auction from Geoff’s point of view:

West

North

East

South

1

Pass

1NT1

2

Pass

5

5

Pass

Pass

…6

Pass

Pass

Double

a.p.

 

 

1. Semi-forcing

Dummy puts down a monster.

You ruff the Ace lead in dummy and start on trumps, West showing up with all three of them. You just have to find that pointy Queen to claim your twelve.

Geoff took what seems a fifty-fifty guess by finessing over East (because of the overall freakish distribution), but here the ball bounced the other way: down one.

The cleansing clue is West’s inability to bid over 2!
So he doesn’t have a six card suit, or a four card suit. Combine that with West holding all three trumps and it’s easy to smoke that Queen out of her palace.

Some other contemplations: My 5 call was far from an expert bid, it just happened in the heat of the moment. I don’t really care for a fit showing jump in because of the poor suit quality, but a 4 splinter to show extra strength looks reasonable. I wonder whether Geoff would have believed that considering he was holding a singleton himself.

Edit: Corrected deal after comment.

Hi all

On Monday I returned to Quick Tricks again, this time to ravage the field with Sanne. I promised her and myself to be a good and understanding partner. Of course my not so hidden agenda was to brutally extract points from my opponents. I was successful a couple of times.

West

North

East

South

1

2

31

pass

pass

Double

pass

4

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Weak

Now to find a lead. A trump looks way too passive because I can see the suit can be set up easily. A might work but also could allow declarer to add some easy ruffs to her balance. So I decided to lead a , my 6 of to be precise.

This was the full deal:

Declarer glanced at me for more information, but I just sat there with a beatific smile. She played low from dummy and eventually ended up one trick short.

There are a couple of winning routes if you get a lead. You can ruff it in dummy with a top trump, then draw the outstanding trumps by hooking the Jack. Next duck a to take the finesse against the King later (communication baby!). You will score five tricks in , four trumps in your own hand and a ruff in dummy. An alternative is to set up the suit after drawing trumps, just play a small one to the King and pray for a 2-2 split. Scoring four trumps, a ruff, four and the Ace. I’m pretty sure this competent opponent would have found one of them at the table.

By the way, did you notice Sanne’s 3 call with six trumps? A fine decision, even with eleven trumps together there are just seven tricks in the bag for EW.

The first one might have been a bit lucky, this is a whole different league:

Your LHO opens a strong 2 and your RHO (me) brusquely jumps to 7NT. What do you lead?

My friend Bruce decided to lead a .

Too bad, three tricks in , seven and four add up to more than thirteen already. Dirty epic!

Hi all

My brother got me a nice present this week. He registered and forwarded the .com domain for my site: www.vikingsinspace.com. So now I won’t have to explain anymore where the .nl comes from. And it gives my site some global allure, don’t you agree?

Here’s some deep water experiment in Piedmont.

West

North

East

South

 

pass

1

1

2

Double1

pass

32

pass

3

pass

5

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Responsive
2. Showing a good hand

Geoff propelled himself to a fairly high contract. Now how to scramble together eleven tricks?

He ruffed the second round of and played a to the King and Ace. The third he ruffed again in his hand, and now he was at a crossroads. Establish dummy’s or his own ? The answer lies in the quality of the suit. Where the have to split 3-3 to set up the suit, the may split 4-2 too as long as the Queen resides in the doubleton. Both routes require a friendly trump split.

This was the full deal:

It was a little fortunate that the Queen came tumbling down. Geoff was on the right track, though, entering a dummy reversal for eleven tricks.