Month: February 2011

Hi all

Here are two slam disasters from the regional pairs in Santa Clara. It happened to be one of those days where we just should have stayed in bed, everything Drew and I tried just crumbled to a smelly pile of untouchable refuse.

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1

pass

2

pass

21

pass

42

pass

43

pass

43

pass

64

pass

… 65

a.p.

 

1. Shows extras
2. Shows shortness with support
3. Cuebid
4. Suggesting a place to play
5. I’m not playing a minor in pairs when we have a Major suit fit

Of course West (surely a son of Priam!) led a , rose with trump Ace and gave his partner a ruff. Good for us! We found the single slam out of the four possible that had an Achilles heel. 6, 6 and 6NT are all spectacularly glacial.

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1NT

pass

2

pass

2

pass

31

pass

42

pass

63

a.p.

 

1. Shows shortness with support
2. Cuebid, I still like my hand, even with those poor trumps
3. Let’s try it again

As you can see I was unsuccessful in piloting 6 to safety. The disgusting split in trumps led to down three. East surely must have felt sorry for us, I’m usually not that forgiving (in pairs) on the 6-level with five trumps to the King-Ten and an outside Ace. Both 6 and 6 are marvelous slams, but it’s far from easy to figure that out when you have established a Major suit fit already.

This weekend we’ll take a shot at qualifying for the GNT’s in Louisville. Let’s hope dark days are behind us.

Hi all

After West opens and rebids , South gets to declare 4.

West kicks off with the Ace of and switches to the Ten of . On first sight there doesn’t seem any trouble at the horizon, you can afford to lose a trump and two . But if that is a singleton and the trumps break 4-1, your halcyon days in paradise are about to be disturbed.

At the table the Jack of won the trick and so did the Ten of . Without a sign of worry you play dummy’s other trump, but East shows out. West reveals his evil plot when he cashes the King of before exiting with a to dummy.

Urgh!

So West is 6-4 in the pointy suits, and the promotion of the 9 cannot be prevented anymore if that actually was a singleton…

The antidote to that fatal trump promotion is … liberating. You need to extract West’s exit cards before continuing drawing trumps. So go back in time for a moment and right after you ran the Ten cash the Ace & King. Now you can continue trumps and West can win anytime he wants but is left toothless. Forced to play you can wrap up your ten tricks.

Unscathed you can enjoy the warm sun on your face again.

Hi all

I haven’t posted for a while. Busy with work (understanding RF technology, testing & writing python code), holidays on Hawaii, friends and friends with babies.

Here’s a nice defence from Drew and me in San Francisco. With gentle hand we set declarer in 2NT (weak NT – Invite – No thanks). Let’s look at Drew’s analysis at the table:

Drew sees me leading the 3 (3rd – 5th). He inserts the Jack and it wins the trick. So he knows instantly that I have led from KQ32. That leaves Declarer with T7. So returning the 9 is expensive, because of the 8 in dummy. The 6 hits the table via the Ten, Queen and Ace.

Declarer played a to his Jack and a to dummy’s Ten for Drew’s Jack. After cashing the 9 Drew found himself cornered. Declarer can be counted out perfectly: Ace, AJ and the King. So switching to a Major will solve declarer’s problem immediately. And even is not without danger if declarer holds the Ten. So Drew played me for that card, and returned a small via my Ten to dummy’s Ace.

Declarer could have shined now by endplaying Drew with two more rounds of , but he chose to set up his 13th . When the smoke cleared we pocketed two tricks in both black suits and one in each red suit.

Deep finesse says that South should be able to clear 8 tricks in NT … Well, you need to take the second , take a finesse and then endplay East with three rounds of . East can take another and a 13th , but then has to lead away from one of his Major suit Kings. In that suit you can endplay East again to lead away from the other King.