Month: April 2014

… while I kiss the sky.

Here’s a final deal from Purmerend, Kees (South) in action. Phantom Club home brew gives us this:

1. Takeout of a 1 opening, 15-17 NT, or any stronger hand
2. 4+ , 8+ hcp
3. 15+ NT, GF
4. Repeated transfer, showing 5+

Interesting inference here is that Kees knows I have a poor suit, with 8+ hcp and a good suit I probably would have opened. West starts with a small and this is what he sees:

With his usual eye for detail Kees wins the lead in hand, plops down trump Ace (safety play), crosses to dummy with a and then plays a trump to his Queen (West surrendering the Jack). He exits with his final trump to East who flicks a on the table.

The runs via the 5, West’s Jack to dummy’s Queen. With silky smoothness Kees takes a finesse against East’s presumed Ten and all depart on the train. Taking 12.

Immediately burly East yells at his partner (a subdued looking female) for inserting the Jack. If she had played low then there wouldn’t have been a finessing position etc etc … I intervene and tell him in strict words:

1. not to castigate partner
2. he would have a hard time finding an expert partner who would recognize the situation and ignore the hardwired “3rd man high” law
3. if he had wanted to prevent the 2nd uptrick he could/should have cashed the Ace of

I’ve been playing quite a few Cash Games at Bridge Big. It is big, big fun and currently I’m €31.97 in the plus. Supple interface, support for multiple devices, cheat-impossible and extremely addictive. Disclaimer: I do know both founders personally. 

Hi all

Welcome back. Here’s another deal from the “Koemarkttoernooi” in Purmerend. Kees and I sit down against two middle-aged ladies and we inform them of our ghostly agreements. Our mention of 12-14 NT openings gets greeted with: “How illogical!”. I snicker inside, that is what you find intriguing about Phantom Club? Oh boy! Sitting South I pick up:

A lot of action during the bidding.

1. Good hand, weak hands go through Lebensohl 2NT
2. Slightly insane, but white in pairs I am Iron Man
3. Emotional

I lead my singleton and a scary dummy comes down.

I admire the raise on West’s beautiful 3-piece. I wait until Kees wins his Ace of to give me my ruff, but all he offers is a measly Ten and declarer wins it with the Queen. Yikes! How are we going to beat this? Declarer unperturbed starts on trumps and I win the second one. I can cross in to get my ruff but that’s equivalent to throwing the towel.

I take stock and visualize the play. If I cash my Ace and continue declarer will have to ruff with dummy’s final trump. In order to extract my last trump she will have to cross to her hand. Of course a ruff is the way to go, but maybe she’ll take the easy route by trying a . Then if I get my ruff we can cash another for down one.

Full deal:

It works out as I visualized. East apologizes and though I can tell West shows some signs of disappointment she doesn’t berate her partner. That’s how I like to see it. Of course I myself don’t hide my anguish & distress over Kees’ takeout double of 2, I even document it here: Garbage Royale!

On a serious side note, I’m still hunting for a job. If you happen to be in need of an Oracle Developer/DBA with affinity for wireless tech spiced up with a tad of Java, or if you give me a little time to acquire whatever skills necessary (I learn fast!), take a look at my LinkedIn profile, or shoot me a message through the contact form in About Me. Thanks.

Hi all

Kees and I played in Purmerend last Saturday. Not too high profile, elderly opponents abundant, hopping from one bar to another on the “Koemarkt”, enjoying the sun, drinking Estaminet Premium Pils, and generally having a blast.

Did I mention we agreed to play Phantom Club? It’s a system that revolves around assuming your RHO has opened 1. So you can open aggressively having just overcall values and then practice all your partnership bidding agreements. Adam Meyerson wrote about it here. Spooky!

This was one of my grande moments:

That’s a fairly pure 17-count. RHO opens in 3rd hand 1 and I have an easy overcall.

I decide we won’t get rich by defending 2, so I rebid my . LHO starts with a and dummy comes down.

It seems defending 2 would have been the right choice after all… RHO plays her top 3, and on the last one I have a decision to make. LHO has echoed a doubleton so I pitch a instead of ruffing, LHO discarding a . The lady on my right ponders for a while and puts down a 4th , looking for a promotion but giving me a sluff & ruff. LHO’s 7 forces dummy’s King while I pitch my last small .

By now I’m fairly confident LHO is holding both missing honors for her 2 call and probably some cards, too. I wave to the waiter to order two beers and a strip squeeze with split fork. Come again? On my 5th trump this is the position:

I pay close attention to LHO’s final discard, here’s the little “if-then-else” I visualized:

If ( discard)
  then cash Ace and exit , use Ace as entry for free ;
If ( discard)
  then cash Ace to strip West from , exit Queen to place West;
Else
  Fatal Exception("Revoke bridge license");

I take 9.

Without the sluff & ruff I can work towards the same position for 8 tricks, East doesn’t have a to fire through me to prevent the placing.

After 32 boards Kees and I end up with 63.73% and a 5th place, good for some “Jonge Jenever” and Italian delicacies. We didn’t encounter any Ghost Busters… fortunately.