Bridge, hockey, bridge, oh my … Olympics!
Today was a day full of bridge and HOCKEY and bridge and cheering and the closing ceremonies. I realized something, this Olympics really brought Canada closer together, it really brought out our patriotism. We went from polite and deferential to proud and boisterous. Don’t worry it won’t last but it has been fun. My daughter who lives in Vancouver saw it all. She was near Stephen Harper (the P.M.) at the curling. She cheered Canada in the Canada-Russia hockey game. But she decided to watch the final hockey game at home. I think the pressure (and the ticket prices) were too much but she did go downtown afterwards to celebrate with her whole family. I was playing bridge during the hockey game and giving the table updates. “It’s 2-1 oh no they tied it with a few seconds left and so on.” I played some “hockey” bridge too i.e. a terrible bid just about the time the US tied it. Sorry Sylvia.
Tonight I played with Colin and Isabelle and Sondra in a team game and later head on head. Colin and I did have a good set. Here is a bid that Colin got right. I don’t make these bids with everybody! Colin held
K7 
AK52 
AKJ 
10964
White on red he opened 1 strong and artificial. Sondra bid 2 majors or minors and I bid 3 natural and positive (game forcing). Isabelle bid 3 pass or correct and Colin raised clubs with 4. Sondra passed and I bid an undiscussed 5. Back to Colin. My terrific son bid 7. He was quite happy about it when dummy came down. I held
void Q6 Q762 AKQJ852
When the opening heart lead was not ruffed Colin claimed saying “Glad we were on the same wavelength!” It was my highest ever splinter. Do you like it?
We had another cool slam during the team game. I held
K102 AKQ10854 void J85
Nobody was vulnerable and I decided to open a slightly light Namyats showing about 8 tricks with hearts as trump. So sue me for 1/2 a trick. Colin bid 4 over 4 showing a slam try with controls in two suits, spades and another. I show my diamond control and Colin bid the heart slam. He had:
AJ3 J 10875 AKQ72
Now you may notice that seven is very good. And we discussed how to get there afterwards. Colin’s first problem is that he doesn’t know if I have first or second round control of diamonds. He also doesn’t know my trumps are solid. At the other table my hand opened 1 which I can hardly argue with and Sondra bid a very aggressive 2 on Q98754 and out. Colin’s hand bid clubs which should have made it easier. Anyway this was there whole auction
| Linda Opponent | Sondra | Colin Opponent | Isabelle |
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
pass |
| 3 |
pass | 3NT | pass |
| 4 |
all pass |
Their auction doesn’t seem that bad although the heart hand should really like the K102 of spades after partner bids notrump and the nice juicy club fit. Partner almost certainly has a heart for the notrump bid….hmmm.
Anyway I think seven is hard to get to. Does anybody see the way?
Isabelle and Sondra got to some nice slams too. They had a nice auction to their own grand slam. We were silent throughout.
Sondra held
AKQJ AK AQ7 J1094
She opened 1 which is forcing and shows a variety of different hands. Isabelle showed a limit raise in clubs. Sondra relayed asking Isabelle about her hand and Isabelle showed some values in hearts denied values in diamonds and showed a maximum. Sondra bid keycard and Isabelle showed all the missing ones. Sondra could them bid the grand. Isabelle held
9 J86 10864 AKQ63
Colin and I would probably have a decent shot at this playing forcing club after I showed a positive with five clubs. But how do you get there in a different system. Playing with Julie, we can show a balanced 24 count and South can show 5 clubs, that might work. North is awfully big. A nice auction ladies. This was not reached by the BBO field. Funny in 12 boards we played 7 once each way. Amazing.
And then Neil Young sang as the Olympic flame when out Long May You Run
"Long May You Run"
We’ve been through
some things together
With trunks of memories
still to come
We found things to do
in stormy weather
Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes
have come
With your chrome heart shining
in the sun
Long may you run.
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Congrats on putting on a real show — the Olympics were just terrific. Oh Canada
5-3, then 2-2, then 0-1.
Well, we scored more total points, but lost the gold in the end. Kind of a parallel to the olympics, generally. I guess I have to suck it up and congratulate my dear brothers to the north. 🙂
The USA was awesome in the Olympics overall, really dominating. It will be interesting to see what happens in 4 years. My guess is that Russia which was really embarrassed by its showing will decide that they want to “own the podium”. Will Canada continue to put funding into the winter game sports at the same level? It hasn’t been decided yet and I suppose that we are likely to have lots of cutbacks with the need to balance the budget.
Still, it was great to do so well and it was great for the country to come together. I know that years from now people will still remember “the game”.
No law suit on the K102 AKQ10854 void J85 ( though71/2 seems the real count ). Since he has 4 to 4+ tricks opposite an 81/2 trick hand, Colin should bid 5NT over 5 diamonds. With AKQ of hearts and the diamond void you have an easy bid of 7 hearts ( your right, 3NT, bid at the other table, implies a heart card ). That’s how you would get there. Belladonna and Garozzo have argued whether the J of hearts is of necessity. Belladonna would say yes, Garozzo would tell you that it’s not needed, so easy can be taken with a grain of salt………
The tragedy of this hand is the failure for the heart hand at the other table to bid even a simple 6 hearts over 3 clubs. It also could have bid exclusion Blackwood over 3 clubs, or splintered and then over 5NT, which would have elicited a 7 clubs bid, corrected to 7 hearts. Three hearts and the four hearts rebid over 3NT at the other table are both very poor bids, ergo, their auction was awful. Your right again, at the other table they should have had no trouble getting to 7 hearts, and on a bad day, seven clubs. Very nice finish to the winter Olympics by Canada ( though the Stanley Cup will live for most of its life in the USA )…….
Thanks for the beautiful song. It made me choke up, reminding me of my little sister who died 9 months ago. She loved to watch the Olympics, we both had skied at Grouse Mt. many years ago. The words are perfect for her. Wasn’t the backdrop of mountains, trees and snow just stunning? Another thing I loved was KD Laing, singing Leonard Cohen’s “Halleluia” during the opening ceremonies. What a poet laureate!
Colin’s 7 club bid was ballsy – well done!
Yes I have asked several people about the hand where Colin bid 7C and nobody else bid 7C except for Ray (with a tiny bit of prompting). Ray thought I should have just bid 4S and maybe he is right. he thinks after that Colin can blackwood. So perhaps it was -1 for Linda and +1 for Colin.
Funny how the old guys have the best songs. KD Lang’s version of Hallelujah is amazing. Apparently Lenoard Cohen was asked to perform and he suggested KD Land instead.