Finishing my blogland journey right here on Bridgeblogging

I realized that I had been talking about some of the great bridge bloggers across the web and I hadn’t mentioned any of the bloggers on Bridgeblogging. So I am going to remedy that right now with a discussion of some of the more frequent bloggers. Michael Yuen blogs a lot and all of it is interesting. It only has a little to do with him being captain of the Canadian Youth team, a lot of it relates to his knowledge and love of the game. I am starting with the problem in the most recent blog. You are supposed to bid the north-south hands. You get to bid the north hand and I will bid the South hand for you but you have to play my system. (Warning we play 12-14 notrump). I open 1◊ which shows four diamonds. You have

♠ 2

♥ K1086

◊AKJ8

♣K1052

Your turn. I am pretty sure you would bid 1H and I bid 1NT. This promises 15-17 HCP and a balanced hand (obviously). I can still have three hearts. Here are your choices. You can bid 2◊ Game forcing and asking about majors initially

3NT You probably have spades and I don’t have enough for slam

3 of a minor would be invitational so I am guessing you don’t want to do that.

You bid 2◊ and I bid 2♥ showing three hearts but I could still have four spades. Here are your choices

3♣ Emphasizes your fear of spades and directing the lead for the opponents against 3NT

3◊ Diamond support. Maybe expressing uncertainty about 3NT or looking for a diamond slam

3NT You probably have spades and I don’t have enough for slam

I assume you bid 3◊ otherwise why didn’t you bid 3NT in the first place. I bid 3♥.

I am willing to cooperate in a diamond slam if that is where you are heading and I have a heart control. Here are your choices

3♠ I will take it as a last try for 3NT but if you pull 3NT to 4D I will know it is a cuebid

4♣ Cuebid and pretty serious slam interest

4◊ still some slam interest but looking for opener to really take a push I would think.

5◊ Diamonds are likely better but I don’t have enough for slam

You bid 3♠ going for it and over 3NT by me you bid 4♣. I bid 4♠. What do you do? Do you bid the slam? Of course you do. There we are Michael. Partner has the right hand for you. I admit it is harder over a strong notrump

♠ A874

♥ AJ2

◊Q1097

♣ A3

Next is my husband Ray. Ray’s best characteristic is that he can write very well and he is one of the best editors on the planet. He does however lack my imagination. His most recent blog talks about Frank Vine. I remember reading Frank Vine’s humorous stories and I am looking forward to this collection. I haven’t seen any of the stories yet. The story about North from the Bridge World Master Solvers’ club sounds like fun. The solver is always south and north is his long suffering partner. Ray likes to blog about books and the problems in the bridge world but when he blogs about championships he is very good. I hope I can convince him to do some blogging during the world championships. Our son Colin also blogs about the development of our system (which is on temporary hold). He should be back at it after Boston.

Judy Kay-Wolff has just started blogging. If you don’t know Judy let me telling you that besides being married to Bobby Wolff and being an avid bridge player Judy has several other wonderful characteristics. The first is that she is about the same height as me. My height is top secret but what Ray always says is that I dream of being five feet. Judy is an incredible shopper and bargainer. She is one of the most determined people I know and one of the nicest. In her latest blog she draws such a wonderful picture of bridge in the 60’s and 70’s that it makes me long to go back. I would definitely trade hand records for playing charades with the Truscotts. I read the comments and see that others also long for the old days.

Bob Mackinnon is for the technically inclined. If you want to be a better bridge declarer you can certainly learn something from him. He also has a lot to see about bidding. Bob and I have been in correspondence for several years and I enjoy the discussions. The problem in the current blog is how to play hearts missing five to the ace jack. You are in a slam and can only afford one loser. First I think about it in my non-mathematical way. The closed hand has all the trump and when you lead up to the KQ LHO takes the king with the ace. Would an expert declarer duck the ace with Ax? Playing against weak opponents I think I would take the finesse since AJ doubleton must be less likely. Anyway, read Bob’s blog for the answer.

Cam French would be censored in most bridge magazines. His articles are triple X rated about the dark side of bridge. He is an entertaining writer. Professor Silver is an occasionally blogger but his stories are always fun. I have played with him on BBO and he really plays just like he writes.

Bobby Wolff doesn’t blog that often but when he does it is always very interesting. I have (sadly) learned that there is much more cheating in bridge than I ever thought. I always knew there was a lot of politics. I responded to his last blog about bridge and the Olympics. He makes the important point that bridge is one of the few competitive activities that you can compete at the world level and still be comparably old. He also talks about how wonderful it is to represent your country. I know this to be true.