Vikings in Space

Hi all,

At work I found a tiny corner where I get my daily shot of streams of consciousness. What? Yes, the tiny corner is dusty and mouldy and no one likes to visit it: passwords and password policies. We used to create somewhat short (technical) passwords, choosing one word and then replacing the odd consonant or vowel with a number and sprinkle it with a special character or two.  Our new policy is longer (thus stronger) passwords loosely based upon regular words concatenated with dashes or underscores.

I have to say, a moment of free association every day feels surprisingly liberating. Here are a few examples:

• enterprise-voluptuous-hummingbird
• reflection-seismology-apologetic
• deduction-magnify-gastronomy

Readable, transportable and much, much stronger than, say: “Diff1CulT?”

Anyway, let’s talk bridge. René and I participated again in the 2nd Division Pairs competition (every year two weekends in April) and these are our statistics: Above average in 7 out of 8 sessions. Win 2 out of 8 sessions. Average: 54.74%. Yes, we ended up first with a fair margin to the runners-up. Next year: First Division. Booya!

West kicks off with the 7. Losing two tricks in and three in I may not, -500 loses to their +420 in 4. 

Let’s assess our assets. The opponents have nine together and have been raised. I’d say West is 4-6-1-2. My only way of getting rid of a loser is to have West give me a ruff ‘n sluff. So let’s prepare a little ground work.

Silkily smooth I ask for the Ace in dummy and follow up with a small . East jumps in with the Ace to switch back to . I win, draw two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, ruff a and exit with the Jack of . Fingers crossed.

West doesn’t look too happy after cashing Ace and King of and there it comes: the ruff ‘n sluff. Down two. 

Of course West could have led initially. Of course East shouldn’t have risen. But .. to keep fighting for -300 while staring in the ugly face of demise, needing two errors in defence and it happens to work out: fist pump yeah.

Hi all,

House of Cards – Season 4: Complete. Must see: Affirmative. Counting down to April 24th now for Game of Thrones – Season 6.

Here’s a nice deal from an evening at HOK. At my table both declarer and defence botched things up, but during the post mortem we spotted a delicate beauty to it. South gets to declare 4 after West crowded the auction by preempting in .

West leads a top and switches to .

Plan A:

Declarer wins in dummy and plays a trump to the King. The Queen of gets ruffed in dummy and another trump to the Ten. Declarer crosses to dummy in to play dummy’s final trump. Leaving:

When the 8 is played from dummy East will rise and play the 9, tapping declarer. 

Result: Failure.

Plan B:

Declarer wins the in dummy and plays a trump to the King. Next he crosses to dummy in to play another trump towards the Ten. Again declarer can cross in to play a 3rd round of trumps. Leaving:

When the 3rd round of trumps is played from dummy East rises with the Ace and fires back the Jack of trumps. Leaving declarer with four inescapable losers.

Result: Failure.

Plan C:

Declarer wins the switch in dummy and continues with the other top and exits a to East. East might try the forcing game by switching back to which declarer ruffs in dummy. Now it is time to tackle trumps by playing one to the King, cross in and another trump to the Ten. Leaving:

On track declarer cashes a top in hand before crossing to dummy in .  The thirteenth now neutralises East. If East decides to postpone the inevitable by discarding a , South can discard his last . Coup complete.

Result: Success.

As long as declarer sets up a winner in dummy declarer can always get to 10 tricks.

Hi all, 

Some random tidbits:

• I saw Deadpool in the theatre. Verdict: Awesome!
• My friend Petra made me a salad with blood orange & asparagus and combined it with salmon & vanilla mayonaise (!). Mind blowing.
• Kees and I adopted a new system: Terrorist Moscito. Light & possibly canapé Major suit openings, boatloads of symmetric relays and gadgets to my heart’s content.
• After 2 months in my apartment I can genuinely say it fits me like a glove. Home.

Here’s a nice deal. It was the first board in one of the last matches in the teams season. Viking style.

Quite a pure 23-count. What a hand to pick up first thing.

1. 16+ hcp
2. or balanced
3. Relay
4. 8-11 hcp, 5 crd suit and 6 crd suit
5. 5-6-2-0
6. No Aces
7. King & King
8. That’s all folks!

It takes years of playing a relay system but some day it will pay off. This was one of those days.

It’s so nice to visualise the declarer play during the auction. I knew Kees could set up my suit by ruffing twice and then draw trumps to claim the remainder. This was the full deal: 

Kees took some time after West led a , but decided any alternative plan, like setting up the suit, would run into transportation problems as well as significant dangers of running into (over)ruffs.

He ruffed two in his hand, drew trumps and found the friendly split in . Taking all.

Now at the other table the opponents found themselves in some hot water after North opened a multi 2 (intending to show a strong hand with ) and South asking with 2NT (because of a presumed 11/12 crd fit). Nobody knew how or what to bid next, so with awkward jumps things crash landed in 6NT. I guess somebody was very, very happy with that T9 combination.

Cheers!

Hi all,

It looks like it has finally happened. After some 20 years of paying rent I have finally transitioned to mortgage status. My. Own. Place. This is the street, very close to everything interesting, silent enough for peace of mind. It’s tiny, but then again, I have little possessions anyway and without room I won’t have the opportunity to hoard a lot of stuff. Neat place → neat frame of mind.

Here’s a nice deal: 

1. Limit+, usually 3-crd support, low ODR
2. Good raise

This is what Kees had to work with:

Of course the North hand isn’t exactly “low ODR” with a stiff , honour cards in trumps and prime outside values. Anticipating some heavy competition I decided to take the low road, I didn’t want to encourage Kees to bid up to the 5-level.

LHO kicks off with the 3 of trumps. The battleship plan of ruffing two in dummy has been torpedoed from the start.

Of course a mundane finesse against the Queen is the straightforward option, you will be able to claim six trumps in hand, the King of , a ruff in dummy and two top .

Kees looked a little bit deeper and found a path that would lead to ten tricks without a hook.

Trump 6 in dummy won the trick and Kees played a towards his Queen, East rising with the Ace. The Queen switch he won in dummy. Next he ruffed three in his hand using both trumps in dummy as entries (trumps splitting 3-1 and splitting 3-4). Leading to this position:

Kees crossed to dummy with a , pitched his remaining on Ten and played a to his Jack, completely unconcerned whether the hook would win or lose. West, stripped from everything but , was placed to surrender the game-going trick to Kees’ King.

Of course the more mundane plan would have worked out as well. Taking home ten was good for a three IMP pickup, our teammates took the sacrifice in 4. 

My dad took my brother and me to see Star Wars – The Force Awakens (the full Dolby 3D experience) on first Christmas Day as present. How thoughtful and sweet! And what a ride it was, just seeing Ford/Fisher/Hamill again was worth it alone. I think J.J. Abrams did a fantastic job. 

Cheers to the New Year. May it be a memorable & happy one.

Hi all,

My 39th is closing in on me rapidly but celebrating isn’t really on my mind. Triple 13, interprime, semiprime and emirpimes (google challenge), who knows what to expect!? I hope I feel like it next year, perhaps round numbers make for a better party.

Spectre, James Bond instalment #23, I have scheduled sometime this week, I’m looking forward to get blown away.

First board of the evening:

1. Only a shadow of a shadow away from a 1 opener
2. fit, usually 4-crd suit, high ODR
3. Splinter, non-minimum
4. RKC
5. 0 or 3 keycards
6. Probe

Kees bids 5 in tempo. What? Is he signing off? Of course not!

Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock. Time trickles by as I mentally thumb through our agreements.

The fog clears away, I remember something. 5NT confirms the presence of three keys but denies the possession of trump Queen. With a slight smile I bid 6. Kees gives the auction a stare and then throws the green. 

This was the full deal:

We’re cold for 13. 

I needed one more cycle. One more hard thought about the auction.

1. 5NT shows three keys without trump Queen
2. 6trump shows three with trump Queen

With this hand I could/should have bid 6, showing three keys, trump Queen and second round control in . Kees could have leapt to the grand with confidence, not afraid of some slow loser.

Hi all

Sunny t-shirt weather has been traded for shorter days, the occasional shower and wind that stings your cheeks. Autumn glumness needs to be dealt with appropriately, I suggest a nice trenchcoat and weekly ingestion of glühwein (mulled wine). Think differently, only October winds can make your scarf dance elegantly. 

This deal is from the Jaap Kokkes teams tournament (I played with Dennis) in Leiden a couple of weeks ago. 

After pass – pass I decide to pick up the glove. Passed partner, my wildly distributional four-count … for sure the opponents have a vulnerable game! At all red it might not be everyone’s choice but I drop my 3 bid on the table. If I had played Viking Precision this would have been a standard 2NT opening (both minors, weak). Unexpected things happen.

1. I tread otherworldly paths occasionally
2. Old fashioned Leaping Michaels’, showing 5-5 Majors
3. Lead-directing/fit-showing
4. I’ve done my work, let the disaster unfold onto my opponents
5. No more pulse, he’s a goner

Dennis added some fuel to the fire but suddenly aware of the vulnerability I was not to be moved. I was both lazy and wrong.

As you can see 5 was not in trouble. But … neither is 6! To be precise, East had better led a to prevent the overtrick. North’s loser swiftly disappears on the fifth after a restricted choice decision. I don’t know what happened at the other table, but my team mates ended up defending 5 (undoubled!): 15 IMP down the drain.

Closing with something old and something new.

The original one is high-adrenalin, progressive and in your face:

This cover by Torre Florim is delicate, introverted, intense and just as awesome:

Hi all

Still a bit befuddled about the news where the absolute cream of the bridge crop has been using signals outside of the legal zone. Heh, try adding that to your convention card: Full Tray Relay and Orientation Slavinsky Leads. Major kudos to all who helped uncover, crack codes and assemble evidence, you did the bridge world a huge favour. Opponent wise there are and there always will be plenty of formidable ones left to enjoy.

Here’s a deal from HOK:

1. 16+
2. 5+ , 8+ hcp, unbalanced
3. Relay
4. 4 crd
5. 8-11 hcp
6. 4-3-5-1
7. 1 Ace
8. Queasy

When Kees showed his 4 card suit I had palpable visions of a grand. Just imagine a 4-1-5-3 with the Ace of and KQ-5th of and I’m willing to bid up to 9, counting six trumps in my hand, five tricks in dummy, both round Aces and two more ruffs in dummy.

Kees showed exactly what I didn’t want to hear, revealing duplication in and ! My initial elation replaced by genuine abhorrence. My skyward glance accompanied by something blasphemous. Come to think of it, I genuinely loathe stiff honour cards, both on defence as well as declaring, inflexible as hell and not worth full bang for your buck.

In my head I rotated thru some sample hands and deemed the 5-level unsafe. Kees could be looking at QJ-4th, J-3rd, five small and the stiff Ace. He would be quite embarrassed to be at the helm in 5. Even adding the Queen of does not increase the health of the contract to more than 50%.

I decided to sign off in 4. This was the complete deal: 

West found the lead and Kees was unable to figure out the whereabouts of the Queen so we wrote just one overtrick. Loss: 10 IMP. 

The majority of the field was playing in small slam, most of them took twelve tricks because North usually declared a contract. A couple pairs reached for the stars, though only one pair was able to cross-link undaunted bidding bravado to competent Queen-discovery. Reward: 15 IMP.  

One lesson to take away. It is not too much to relay once more to ask for Kings. Then if Kees shows one (5 to 3 it is the King) the deal revolves around locating the Queen (if it happens not to be in our possession). If you do, you’ll take all thirteen tricks. If you don’t, well … it’s five or seven. I know what I prefer.

Hi all,

I played both the Butler Pairs (with Kees) and the Open Pairs (with René) in Scheveningen. Last time I played there is a long time ago, in my greener junior years. Both tournaments (not limited to those) I suffered from the same affliction. Years from now scientists will confirm the existence of the “ante meridiem syndrome,” I’m sure. Before lunch I can summon no magic, none at all (emphasised with swiping arm movement). At best I’m rubbing against Zia’s second heat. After lunch the gloves come off. Butler before lunch: +3. After: +49. Pairs before lunch: 47%. After: 60%.

So far I’ve tried to remedy that with varying amounts of coffee, light or heavy breakfast, holistic herbalism, divinatory shamanism and [insert random “ism” here] …  It seems a Karapet-esque curse. 

Here’s a cute deal:

1. raise with top honor

West leads the 9 and this is what I see:

We’re deep in the afternoon already, so things click. West is holding exactly four , that leaves East with two. The 9 has the smell of a doubleton, so the layout condenses to West having a 4-3-4-2 and East with a 2-2-4-5. I have two losers in , one in and one in . That means I have to tackle the trump suit for one loser.

The double finesse only works if the 9 is doubleton. I can do better.

I win the lead with the Queen and duck a to East. The King of hits the table and I win the Ace, West completing the doubleton echo. I cross to the Ace of and request a little trump away from the Ace. East gives away the show by rising with the King.

Later I finesse against West’s remaining Queen doubleton, losing just one trump. Taking eight, for a 3 IMP gain.

Magnus is performing at Paradiso September 26th. I invite you.

Hi all

I’ve enjoyed way too many “M”‘s in Finland: Munkki, Muikku, Marimekko, Marieke, Makkara, Mansikka and more. The weather wasn’t very cooperative, the worst summer in 40 years I’ve heard. It had no impact on my mood, though, I was up all the time. I could even muster a teensy smile when I had to pump the air bed in the middle of the night for the third time. Brand new with a cursed tiny leak. Marieke still cracks up when she so vividly remembers me “enthusiastically” pumping the air bed while fending off waves of interested mosquitos.

Here’s a nice deal from HOK last Monday.

Just a random balanced 18-count. With a former world champion on my left of course things don’t get to pass uncontested.

1. 16+
2. Majors or minors
3. Any 5-7
4. 17-19 bal

West leads the 4 of (odd leads) via the Jack for my King and this is what I have to work with:

Here’s an excerpt of my train of thoughts (cravings for beer, improper thoughts and other non-vital musings omitted): The suit is my main source of tricks. If I find the Queen I still need to avoid East gaining the lead because of my single positional stopper. So West needs to hold the Ace of . To even get close to nine tricks the hook needs to be onside.

Because West is holding both Majors (the leads suggests it) I’m going to take a finesse against East’s presumed Queen-third. West discards a on the second round of . 

That’s hurdle #1. 

Three more rounds follow, West discards some more and finally a . Hurdle #2 coming up: The 3 to my Queen survives, West surrendering the Jack. This is the position now:

Trivially academic by now. I cash the Ace and exit with the  3 towards the King. If West ducks I have nine already and if she rises she can pick her poison granting me my contract with either round Queen. 

Taking 9 was good for the same number of IMPs.

I leave you with a recommendation to watch the Danish/Swedish crime drama “The Bridge”. In a genuine Netflix binge Marieke and I finished season one in three days or so. What a ride!

Hi all, 

I wonder what I should share with the world today. The Imitation Game (about Alan Turing’s life) was a more than satisfying movie experience, or my attempt at spicy chicken soup (chili, sesame, garlic and ginger are such a tasty marriage), or my upcoming holidays in Finland (I haven’t been there in more than 20 years), or the odd news of the day that watching cat movies might be beneficial to my and your day.

Or I could just share two nice deals from last time at HOK. All good things come in two, not?

South decided to pass first hand, though it seems like a very reasonable weak two or even preempt to me. I could even be persuaded to open 1. Kees opened 1 and North decided to overcall 2. Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! I pass and patiently wait for hammerfall. South introduced his beautiful (though I might consider a natural 2NT myself). North had but a meager singleton and seemingly carefree rebid his suit. 

I said “No!” and pressed my X on the table, disclosing my trap pass.

Kees won my lead with his Queen and switched to the Jack of . Three rounds stand up and I move back to , completing my echo. The third round I ruff with the 6 and I get a strong Lavinthal signal from Kees, so I play my stiff for his Ace. A fourth round of (yes, in the triple chicane!) and my trumps get blessed with golden rays of sun. Declarer in panic ruffs with the 9 which I overruff with the Jack.

Now here’s the creamy cherry on top:

Kees ruffs my 3 with the 5 in front of declarer, promoting my K87 into two more tricks. Dust settles and we write down 6: +1400. Double digits imps, anyone?

A walk in the park:

1. 16+
2. 8+ hcp, 4-5 or 5-4 minors
3. Relay
4. 8-11 hcp, 5-4
5. 3-1-5-4
6. 1 Ace
7. 1 King
8. That’s all I need

Declarer play pretty much took place during the bidding. If Kees had held just the Ace of and the stiff King of taking thirteen would still be odds on. Here the Queen of just made life a little easier. Picking up a hand with 50% face cards usually gives me a warm glow inside, but more than 60%? It’s like being on a diesel powered acid trip (or so I imagine). Another double digit pickup, for there was only one other pair that reached the grand.