A trip through blogland…day 10 of my Internet journey

Since this is the weekend I decided to make today a personal blog day.  I am going to search the web for more bridge blogs and see what I can find.  Someone created a domain name called

 

http://www.doublesqueeze.com

 

Admit it, that is a cool name.  I also see that the authors have divided their post into categories.  (Aside: I really need to do a much better job of that.  My software/host is slow so it will take a while and I am a person of limited patience still I see the value of it and I am going to work on it.)  The bloggers are Meg and McKenzie Myers.  McKenzie is a bridge pro.  I find the Blog interesting and amusing.  The September 12th column followed Meg’s adventures with a new partner at the instant match point game.  They also have a list of their top bridge books.  I do like most of them but naming no names there is one that definitely wouldn’t make it to my list.

 

                                                              

            

  

A blog “roll” wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Danny and Susie Korbel

 

http://korbelbridge.blogspot.com/

 

 

I love the picture.  This is a very active blog but two expert players who play a lot of tournaments.  In fact they have organized their blog by tournament.  The first hand in the most recent blog is a triple squeeze.  What is most interesting about it, other than relatively poor defense, is that the whole squeeze works on the players tempo.  The auction started 3♠ pass 4♠.  West paused for a lot time over 4♠ which marked him with some cards.  If he bids and plays in tempo declarer is going to have to decide whether he stiffed his offside club king (which he should do) or whether he was squeezed in three suits (much less likely).  The other thing I notice is that Susie does the same thing I do saying East when she means West, making the play description a bit tricky.  Overall this is a very good blog.

 

Over to Stacy Jacobs blog site

 

www.stacyjacobs.com

 

 

and I am jealous.  Why?  She asked a bridge question and got eleven replies.  That never happens to me.  Here is her question published on September 9th.  What do you open on this hand

 

♠ A

♥ AQJxx

◊ AKxxx

♣Ax

 

It is an interesting problem.  Without looking at the response I think that I would open 1♥ but I have agreement with all partners that with an Ace (not applicable here) or a King-Jack or better you keep the bidding open so it doesn’t get passed out very often.  Most people seem to like 2♣ and there is a reference to Gazzilli.  I decide to find out what that is.  

 

There is an explanation of Gazzilli on her blogsite.

When you open one of a major and partner responds 1 of a major or 1NT (1♥-1♠; 1♥-1NT; 1♠-1NT), opener’s 2♣ rebid is either natural and weak (11-12hcp, 5+ major and 4+♣ ) OR any strong hand, 16+.  I need to think about whether I like this.htt.

Stacy is an active blogger and her favorite color is yellow.

Next up is Jeffrey Miller and “a coup for you”.

 

 

I notice he has an investment blog too.  I bookmark that I love investing even though the market is terrible right now.  From his bio, he obviously knows more about it than me.

 

 http://www.oldprofbridge.com/

 

He has a few problems posted and I notice that each blog is very short and contains only the problem.  Maybe that is the best way to get replies.    Here is the most recent blog problem.  Vulnerable at imps you have

 

♠76 ♥ 109 ◊ KJ1076 ♣ K1095

 

Your partner opens 1NT.  Do you bid?  I guess the main question here is do you have enough to invite to 3NT.  The spot cards are very attractive so yeah I suppose I do and I would bid 2NT in this situation.  While I am not sorry I visited there are few posts and this is not an active blog site at this time. 

 

He leads me to an excellent and active blog by Dave Smith

 

http://pokerandbridge.blogspot.com called Just Sayin’ and this site is a twofer.  You get bridge and poker about equally.  All the posts I look at feature a hand with some interesting comments or analysis. And best of all he reads bridge.blogging… high five Dave.

 

 

 

There are many more blogs out there.  I didn’t have time today to visit more but I will soon.