Month: December 2011

Hi all

Sanne and I are mere hours away from our trip to Belize. Snorkeling gear packed, sun screen & glasses, and no phones or digital communication equipment at all. Just us, the beach, Maya temples and a couple of malaria mosquitoes. Life’s good.

Here’s a cute deal from a home knock out. After the busy auction below I found myself defending.

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1NT1

pass

2

Double

2

Double

pass

2NT

pass

3

a.p.

 

 

1. 11-14

Geoff (North) leads the 3 (3rd and low) and I zone out to figure out a defence. I win the Ace and declarer drops the Jack. If I switch to now, it’ll be too late. My king is very poorly placed, and if declarer has a problem, the in dummy will provide a parking spot. No, I need Geoff to hold the King, accompanied by three little ones.

Play proceeds, Ace (Geoff encourages), Queen, and a third for Geoff. In full grasp of the position he puts down the poisonous 13th . Declarer has an unsolvable problem. Ruff low in dummy and my 9 forces out the Ace. Ruff high and I will refuse to overruff. Promoting a trick for my 9. Down one, left and right.

Happy holidays all!

Hi all

I don’t often put brands, recommendations or advertisements here, but for Tap House in downtown Seattle I make an exception. With 160 beers on draft it was a pleasure to cool off after a day of bridge. The picture below shows their Honor Society selection. I’ve experienced most of them from bottle, but some of them I didn’t even know existed on draft. The Gulden Draak was out of this world!

This deal is from the Open Swiss. I wasn’t full awake yet (no beer cause!). Geoff leads a high-ish after the opponents bid 1NT – 4NT – 6NT.

Declarer wins the in dummy and asks for the King. Sleepily I win my Ace and return a . Subsequently I see declarer hooking the Ten and then squeezing Geoff out of his red suits so the suit comes in for 4 tricks and the contract.

The solution is easy: duck the Ace twice. The count not rectified, declarer is unable to get to more than 11 tricks. I’m glad the opponent in my seat was just as awake as I was.

6 is on ice, though. And in my mind a Baron-esque sequence should get an IMPs player to the safest contract. Here’s what I suggest:

West

North

East

South

1NT

pass

4NT1

pass

5NT2

pass

6

a.p.

1. Quantitative
2. Accepting the quantitative raise, requesting to bid four card suits up the line

Cheers!

Hi all

So Geoff and I teamed up with Bill & Drew to stretch our muscles in a compact knockout a week ago on Thursday. Our teammates have the slam engine on and we easily make it to the semis. This is what happened when we’re two boards into the match.

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

11

???

 

 

 

1. 15-17 bal, or stronger any shape

Geoff opens 1, showing a 15-17NT or a stronger hand of any shape. West now decides to consult his partner about their defence against such a opening. All of us are baffled at the question, but East is awake enough to respond that discussing this during the auction is not appropriate. West continues with the words: “So we have no agreements whatsoever?!?”. By now the director is present at the table and after hearing what happened, strongly reprimands West with the words:”You have single handedly made sure this board is almost unplayable. If you make any more noise, I’ll cancel the board and hand you a procedural penalty.”

The board was a flat 3NT, so nothing happened. But consider this, we’re playing in the 17,000 to 30,000 masterpoints bracket. Unreal!

That we didn’t win the event is mostly on my account. I failed to compete to a vulnerable 3 of a minor on a sub-minimal hand and I paid the price with a double part score swing. That was the difference and we settle for a 3rd place overall.

Here’s me having a full grasp of what’s happening at the table. I had all my antennas out.

West

North

East

South

 

1NT1

pass

pass

DBL

pass

pass

22

DBL

23

2

pass

3

pass

4

a.p.

1. 11-14
2. + higher suit (running scared)
3. Genuine suit, redouble would have asked for my 2nd suit

I knew that Geoff was short in , and dummy would put down reasonable power. So I decide to underlead my Ace, to give declarer an immediate guess. I knew I hit the jackpot when dummy came down. Full deal:

Declarer tried the Jack but Geoff won the Queen and we quickly cashed out. Later in the play declarer would have gathered some more information, and he might as well have taken the right guess. On the lead that is so much more difficult.