Board A Match

Yesterday we played in the qualifying round of the Women’s BAM.  It was a first for me in this event and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  The field was very good especially in the evening.  There were women from all over the world, many I recognized from various World Championships.  We played one round against Danny and Sabine and another against Catherine D’Ovidio and Daniele Gaviard, two top Russian ladies, a surprisingly strong Japanese team.a top Swedish pair and of course many strong American women’s pairs.  Because we got to play the whole field and not just one team it was apparent how strong the field was.  This made it a lot more fun for me.

Generally most pairs were quite well behaved although one or two had trouble with Sylvia’s noise problem and slow play was consistently a problem. for us too.  The whole field seemed to need a little bit longer than the round time.  This actually causes me to speed up which in general doesn’t seem to reduce the caliber of my play.  As I told Ray my brain seemed to move faster and instead of actually counting a hand I could see the whole distribution as a unit.  Playing this event reminded me of how much I like playing as part of a team.  We had wonderful teammates Diana Schuld a bridge club owner from New York who was attractive, witty and spirited and Ljudmila Kamenova, a young women originally from Bulgaria now from New York.  We had a wonderful dinner between sets at a fine fish restaurant.  We had some fun chatting and also discussing the hands and I did make the mistake of having a lovely glass of white wine.  During the conversation Diana mentioned that her husband was John Schuld who had written a book about simple squeezes quite a long time ago.  When Ray found out who I was playing with he immediately asked if Diana was married to John (who died a while back), the one who wrote the squeeze book.

As always there were many hands to love and to forget.  I had two quite interesting hands I would like to discuss right now.  The first was in the afternoon and it was a strip squeeze.  Looking at the hand right now it doesn’t seem so remarkable but at the table where I had to figure everything out in the short time available it left me quite pleased with myself.

S 854 H AK962 D 109 C K52

S AKJ H 108 D A832 C A1063

I opened 1C with the South hand playing weak 10-12 notrump in this position.  Sylvia bid 1H and I rebid 1NT (13-16).  Sylvia showed a game force with five hearts and the auction ended in 3NT.

The opening lead was the DK and RHO played the D5 playing standard carding.  I ducked the first diamond and one the second and ran the H10 which held.  I played a heart to the HJ and the HA, cashing the HK throwing a club and played another heart throwing another club.  On the play of the hearts RHO threw one spade and two clubs.  If West cashes a diamond now she concedes four but she didn’t she got out a club.  This was the ending

S 854 H 9 D – C K52

S AKJ H – D 83 C A10

The best approach now is to cash two clubs ending in dummy and then play a hear throwing a diamond from your hand.   But I won the club in dummy and played a heart throwing a diamond as did both my opponents.  Now I do have to guess the ending.  There are a number of spades left and also a club winner and a diamond winner. From all that had happened so far it seemed to me that LHO had the SQ guarded so I played a club to the CA.  When West showed out in clubs at this point I could claim three of the last four tricks by endplaying her in diamonds.  If I cash the top clubs first she should hold on to her diamonds and bare her spade to a doubleton which will still leave me with some card reading to do.  Maybe it was an easy one and maybe cashing the clubs is a bit better but I still enjoyed a strip squeeze and endplay at the table with almost no time to work it out.  Here was the whole hand

	S 854 H 9 D – C K52
S Q962 H QJ74 D KQJ4 C 9		S 1073 H 53 D 765 C AJ874
	S AKJ H – D 83 C A10

 

I am quite convinced that strip squeezes are the most common of the squeezes.  I personally seem to have a chance to execute one with a fair amount of frequency.  I did have a chance to have an easy simple squeeze on Catherine D’Ovidio but as the cards lay a finesse would have worked just as well.

Anyway we did win this board but my squeeze was completely irrelevant.  My opponent misplayed the hand against partners, blocking the heart suit and did not even make 3NT. 

On the same hand against D’Ovidio I had to decide whether to finesse clubs or not.  I did it was right and Catherine was not a happy camper (that was before the squeeze).  This decision did win the board.  Here is the hand.  I will give you my reasoning and let you decide.  This was Board 28 our last board.

	S 93 H Q76 D 8 C AJ98542
	S A874 H AK104 D AJ4 C K7

 

I arrived in 3NT after West had opened 2S white on red.  I know this French pair to be sound bidders.  The opening lead was the SK, East play8ing the S10.  I decided to win this since I was certain that West had six spades anyway.  I now played the CK, West the C3 and East the C10.  When I played another club East followed with the C6.  Who has the CQ?  If I play the CA and am wrong West will have two spades to cash and then I will make the rest of the tricks.  If I finesse and I am wrong I will make six or so.  (I still have to make an extra heart or diamond trick).  I know that West has a lot of spades and there are fewer vacant spaces in her hand for the CQ.  But I decided to finesse since I didn’t duck a spade.  My thought was I was still a strong candidate for 6 and my opponent would have to have also won the first spade and also find a trick in the reds if she played the top club and it was right.  So making 6 might win the board anyway.  And if I finessed I had a likely win.

I finessed and I made 7.  My opponent did not finesse and made 4.  Here is the whole hand.

	S 93 H Q76 D 8 C AJ98542
S KQJ652 H 3 D 765 C Q63		S 10 H J9852 D KQ10962 C 10
	S A874 H AK104 D AJ4 C K7

As you can see the heart finesse is marked.  That is if you cash the HA and then the HQ.  I was mentally already claiming on the squeeze (which is almost surely unnecessary) so I cashed the HAK and the the HHQ and ran clubs.  East is marked with the top diamonds so hey why not.

Ignoring the frivolous squeeze what do you think about the club play?  Maybe I was just lucky.

The weather is incredible and I am having a very good time but I am glad today is my last play day.  We are going to be playing a lot of board today and my jet lag is still limiting my sleep time.  Tomorrow we rent a car and visit the area.  Ray I know is looking forward to some together time.