Vanderbilt Day 4

I have been watching (and commenting) on so much bridge that the word squeeze is starting to trip from my tongue with great regularity (thank you Clyde E.) The bridge is so very good most of the time its a pleasure to watch (except some times when the players go into deep meditation).  If you haven’t watched up till now … jump on in.

I have talked about avoiding grand slams but some times keeping out of even a small slam is the challenge.  In this hand from the third quarter yesterday the imps went to the team that didn’t get to slam.

Nobody Vulnerable

	T. Bessis AKQ8542 4  K6 987
	M. Bessis J103 AK5 Q754 AQ10

Casen	T. Bessis	Krekorian	M. Bessis
2 (weak)	3	pass	4
DBL*	pass	pass	RDBL
pass	4	pass	5
DBL	pass	pass	?

Casen having opened a weak two bid in hearts got to tell partner to NOT lead a heart (the double of 4) and to ask for a club lead (the double of 5.  M. Bessis had already shown slam interest, the A, and a club control.  In fact one might argue that he could have passed his partners sign off in 4.  I know that he was thinking that partner might not realize he had the club ace (not the king) and that partner’s pass of 5 was somewhat encouraging but he can now throw away (see card hurtling into the air) the Q.  I think he should signoff in 5.  But he redoubled now to show that he had a first round club control T. Bessis bid the slam.  On a club lead with the king offside (as expected) the slam had no play.

In the other room where they also had some warning about clubs (Helgemo got in a lead directing club bid) they managed to stop in five and win 11 imps.

I am much more in favor of being in bad game especially vulnerable.  The odds are way more in your favor.

Let’s tale this example

Both Vulnerable

	T. Bessis AJ AK6543  2 AK52
	M. Bessis Q1065 J2 J107543 3

North made a very strange bid these days.  He opened 2 showing a very good hand with hearts.  I thought that bid was completely obsolete.  South thought his rubbish might be just enough for game and bid 4.

Looking a the two hands 4 seems a bit of a stretch.  You are going to be able to ruff one club, so if hearts break and the spade finesse works you might lose a club, a diamond and a heart,  But there are other changes.  A spade lead will make life a lot easier.   A red suit lead is less friendly.  Here the opening lead was a trump and the spade was offside but the hand was cold.  Why?  The Q was singleton.  Here was the whole hand.

	T. Bessis AJ AK6543  2 AK52
Casen 9732 Q  A98 QJ1098		Krekorian K84 10987  KQ6 764
	M. Bessis Q1065 J2 J107543 3

I like the clean simple auction.  With less to work on you might get a helpful lead.  This was worth 10 imps when the other table struggled to 2.

I had a look at the second segment with Lynch against Strul yesterday.  The score on 16 boards was Lynch 24 Strul 84 which averages out to an astounding 6.75 imps per board.  

In some cases I would say that the Strul team did something good and in some cases they had the luck.  How would you bid this hand.

I have rotated the hand but Brogeland and Saelensmith were vulnerable against not with no opposition bidding.

	Saelensmith AKQ106 83  AQ92 64
	Brogeland 75 A1074 KJ75 A109

Brogeland (who I could watch any day) open 1 and heard 1.  He bid 1NT. 2 was game forcing and Brogeland showed his hearts.  Now Saelensmith bid 3 and they more or less cue bid their way up to 6.   If spades work  you are a pretty good candidate to bring this home.  Even if diamonds are 4-1 if you can navigate a ruff you will have five diamonds, two aces and five spades.  Still it isn’t a great slam.  Is this another example of don’t be too aggressive in the slam zone.  As it turned out the Lynch team had a disaster in the other room and had a minus playing in a bizarre spot.  So had slam not made the Strul team would have converted a big plus into a push. 

There were a lot of bridge gremlins lurking around the corridor on this board.  I was doing commentary in the De Kniff-Zaleski.  In the OR they managed to get all the way to 7.  I am sure they are not reading my blogs about grand slams!  In the CR, Bompis and Quantin for the Zaleski team managed to play in a sensible 3NT.