Month: October 2011

Hi all

My bridge has been slow and uneventful, but the Dutch are on fire in The Bermuda Bowl. The ladies ended their streak in the semis against France. And in an extremely tight match (semi-finals) the guys secured a win in the last session by bidding & making two slams missed by the Italians (“Eat Orange Dust!). Only USA 2 is standing between them and the title. For Vugraph schedule and bulletins: http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Veldhoven.11/Veldhoven.htm

On the deal below I don’t know what happened. Maybe I got jedi-mind-tricked myself, or a sneeze blocked my train of thought, or a cow flew by, or the magnetic pull of an uninteresting side suit diverted my attention from the important one.

West

North

East

South

–

–

1

21

pass

4

a.p.

 

1. Intrepid

My LHO started with the Ace and a . Unthinkingly I pitched a from dummy (setting up my Queen) and that was the beginning of my downfall. I will not reveal what happens next, but my line of play mostly depended on trumps splitting 2-2.

Had I pitched a instead, this story would have been rosy and filled with chest beating pride. Instead I’m kicking myself for playing before thinking, wallowing in self pity and having fleeting dreams of a Bermuda Bowl far beyond my reach. I know it’s just a learning opportunity, but still …

Life gets so much easier if you discard the other red suit instead. You can ruff a low without too much fear of getting overruffed. Comfortable communication still intact, and virtually a cloudless sky to soar home through. You can count six in your hand, two , the Queen and a ruff in dummy.

Cheers!

On a side note: the comment section is fixed again after a permissions problem.

Hi all

This deal is from the BBQ Swiss in El Cerrito. We started the first round (7 board match) with a 71 – 0 imp win. That’s a record for me, too bad there’s no carry-over. Later in the day an expensive bidding misunderstanding and a defensive error by me basically cost us the overall victory.

This deal is … spectacular:

West

North

East

South

1

pass

4NT

pass

5

pass

5

a.p.

I had a nice, distributional hand, but entering the 5-level at unfavorable vulnerability seemed not … imp positive. The auction ended abruptly in 5. Andrew led the King and dummy puts down:

Really? 4NT? Sure, East has awesome trump support, but that flattish distribution doesn’t guarantee safety above game level, any safety actually. Andrew’s King wins the trick and so does his Ace. Later I get my Queen of trumps and Ace for down two. East glares at her partner and inquires about her partner’s high card points. This was the full deal:

As you can see we could have extracted a couple more points from this deal. A lead by North and NS can take the first six tricks against any contract. But there’s an even bigger bounty for NS! With the working voids, great fit and the Queen dropping there are twelve tricks for grabs in . I guess East blasting to 4NT had its merits after all, it completely obfuscated exploring our potential. I’m pretty sure this was not a conscious action by my RHO, though.