Month: June 2014

Hi all

My apartment in Amsterdam is a charm. I’m so happy with it I could burst with joy. I zig and zag thru the city on my way to work, or get lost going home after the Monday night bridge club, or just feel super snazzy on my purple street bike. Who needs a car when one can bike thru one of the coolest cities in the Netherlands? Yesterday when I biked home after work I saw this poor dude working a sweat uphill with a cute girl on the back of his (less flashy) bike, she seemed unimpressed by his efforts as she was completely immersed in some app on her smartphone. I thought it was a pretty funny sight, true in any era, guys go all in anytime for girls’ favors.

I haven’t been playing a lot at Bridge Big lately, mostly due to work and getting acquainted with Amsterdam. Here’s a nice deal. Why do I only pick up +800’s in pairs and not when playing Cash games?

This is what I hear:

West

North

East

South

1

pass

2

pass

2

pass

2

pass

3NT

pass

pass

???

I swung a speculative axe at it.

It wasn’t because I particularly wanted a lead, I’d rather preferred a lead actually. I thought it was just too high. My partner leads a and I scream at my monitor. Why? Why? Why? You idiot, you have zero entries for your suit!

I win my Ace and declarer drops his King. Ohhhhhhh. Trick one, ladies and gentlemen, we have a count! From here all is clear, I switch to a for dummy and next the Jack of wins the trick. When declarer asks for a I rise and clear my suit. After the dust clears declarer has scrambled together 6 tricks so we write +800 and a clean top.

Okay, I forgive my partner. You can lead like a simpleton but when you bring that all important Ten of to the defence I’ll offer amnesty for your sorry ass any day. Just imagine the excruciating pain I would have been subjected to had declarer put me through the wringer of six rounds of . Surely less than pretty.

Hi all

I’m excited about moving into my apartment in Amsterdam next week. No more 3 hour commutes. Yay! It’s tiny but that’s okay, I don’t need a lot of room. My only (returning) pet peeve is the low-hanging shower head. Don’t constructors/builders/architects take the taller slice of the population into account? A long hot shower in a semi-crouch just isn’t that appealing.

Talking about showers, here’s a deal on Bridge Big where my partner gave me warm and fuzzy feelings. I pick up a decent 15-count and I wonder whether I’m going to open 1 or a strong NT. My partner is way ahead of me. 

West

North

East

South

pass

1

pass

1

pass

2

pass

41

pass

4

pass

42

pass

6

DBL

pass

pass

6NT

DBL

a.p.

1. Revealing my slam ambitions with a crude jump
2. Go ahead partner, you do the Ace asking. I don’t like to do that when holding only one key card myself. 

For some reason or another East decided to alert us of  a bad split. I don’t know why partner ran to 6NT but I’m not unhappy with my balanced collection. I usually prefer strain-strain-strain over NT. East leads the Ten and this is what my partner sees:

Plenty of tricks and plenty of play. Combined with East screaming like a madman about the sanity of our contract my partner had no problems executing a safety play in the suit. He won the Ace and immediately ran the Jack. When East covered it was all over: +14 IMP and €9.97 come to papa! 

SuitPlay by Jeroen Warmerdam tells us the suit should be tackled by running the 6 or the Jack first, completely equal in odds (97,1739%) to take four tricks.

When I showed my friend Dennis this deal he offered another approach to bring home twelve tricks. Assuming East holds the King for his insane double, you can crush him by running your and and then place West with Ace and a . That’ll probably work out, too.