Hi all
My trip to The Netherlands was great. I saw my family again, got to hang out with wonderful friends, played both top and bottom bridge, bought some snazzy shoes and the 2 weeks just flew by. Of course I didn’t forget to bring treats back to Berkeley, so if you get to see me I might offer you a “stroopwafel” or black liquorice if you’re lucky.
Something totally random… my friend Wouter wore a t-shirt with the following text:
Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator
I think that’s just plain awesome!
Here’s a deal from a Friday night (Patton at BCO). I wasn’t successful in bringing the contract home, but in the post mortem I spotted a rare bird.
1- Invitational with
Perhaps my jump to 4 was a bit … unilateral, in retrospect bidding 3NT certainly has some appeal.
Anyway, my LHO thinks about her lead for a while and then puts down the 
Ace. Hmmm, leading an unsupported Ace? A low follows and I rise with dummy’s Ace intending to pitch a couple losers in my hand. But… East ruffs.
Excuse me?
Back comes the 
Queen and I’m in reasonable trouble. I have a and two losers, and then there’s the issue with trump Queen too. I let all the information sink in, and I figure West has led the Ace for a peek. Her switch worked out miraculously, I can’t draw trumps anymore and enjoy dummy’s suit.
All is not lost, though. Dummy can take care of my losers. But when I set out to ruff both of them, West ruffs the second one in front of dummy and I’m down one, losing the Ace, a ruff, a ruff, and a . Sigh!
This was the full deal.
Now let me tell you that West’s Ace of handed me the contract. If, a big IF, I had assessed the deal correctly.
So Ace of , then a ruff and a switch for my Ace. Now I ruff exactly one in dummy and then I drop all trumps on the table. On the play of the last this is the position:
West can miss a , so can dummy, and East has to let go of a (else my suit comes in). Now I exit with my 3, and West has an insolvable problem. Playing low will get East placed, while rising will eat East’s Jack, skyrocketing dummy’s Ten to stardom. And I can shake hands again with the King who was locked away like Rapunzel.
I guess this bird is called a winkle squeeze with a stepping stone element.