From San Diego

Now while I say from San Diego at this point I might as well be anywhere in North American except that the weather is quite lovely.  If I ever decide to live in a warmer climate for part of the year maybe San Diego is the spot.  It is a long way from Toronto though.

Many people here have recognized  me from my blog.  This is really exciting for me.  So if you are here and see me say hello.  I’d love to meet you and talk about bridge and blogging.  I met some very nice young men who were playing an interesting system based on a precision club with relays.  There responses to a club showed four card majors but they did not open a four card major.  We had quite an interesting system talk and I would be interested to share ideas.

There were some interesting hands and some bizarre ones.  Have you ever looked at a scoresheet and wondered how on earth someone could get such a result?  Well here is one of the answers.  Our opponent, lets call her Wow, who perhaps had missorted her hand had this beauty in fourth chair vulnerable against not.

S –

H AQ10732

D –

C AKJ9532

Sylvia opened 1D and her partner bid 4S.  I bid 5D and our hero was in an awkward position I admit.  What would you do?  I might just shot 6C myself.  Anyway she doubled.  Sylvia couldn’t quite make it and went one down.  Wow’s partner held

S KQJ98742

H K8

D 9

C 64

Neither of Wow’s suits break but as it turns out the HJ comes down singleton and you can make 6H or 6C.

We had a most unusual ruling yesterday.  I started out today with the resolution of being as positive about people as possible but I will make an exception of this couple who did not obey the niceness rules. 

It started out when the man who was sitting North bounced the boards on our table when he passed the boards in the previous round leading to an unpleasant exchange between him and Sylvia.  I don’t know why it offends people so much when Sylvia asks them, always nicely, to be quieter because she has a medical condition.  When we arrived at their table the couple was fighting with each other in a most unpleasant manner.  During this exchange I glanced around for a convention card but could see none on the table.  Eventually the bidding started.  My LHO bid 1NT and this was my hand

S 102 H 1072 D A432 C K963

We were vulnerable against not and Sylvia doubled.  We play this shows a longer minor and a major although only against strong notrump.  The man passed which was alerted.  I assumed they played some sort of runout and perhaps I should have asked but I didn’t.  I just bid 2C.  It went pass, pass and my RHO now asked what Sylvia’s bid meant and I explained.  He bid 2H.  At this point Sylvia likely had spades and clubs and I decided not to sell out to 2H.  I had not shown any values yet.  So I bid 3C.  This was passed to my RHO who bid 3D which was passed out.

Now Sylvia did something I really didn’t like much.  She left the table to talk to the director.  The opponents grabbed for the card.  It turned out that LHO’s 1NT was 10-12.  RHO had announced it but not so I could hear it.  Although he was still screaming at his partner he decided he said later to the director to announce the bid very softly because Sylvia had trouble with loud noises.  Anyway, I didn’t hear it.  I know it is my responsibility to ask questions and to check the notrump range and normally I would.  But in this event, against this pair I just wanted not to be there.  This was the whole hand:

	S K8764 H 64 D K109 C A85
S 102 H 1072 D A432 C K963		S AJ3 H A83 D J5 C QJ1072
	S Q95 H KQJ95 D Q876 C 4

In looking at it I notice that Sylvia had an odd hand for doubling a weak notrump.  It is supposed to be stronger than this.  But it is matchpoints and I suppose she wanted to get in.  3D went 1 down while 3S would likely have made.  I will also say that South made no effort to make this contract he obviously expected an adjusted score.

With the director at the table North-South started a screaming match to the point where the director said he wouldn’t listen to either of them until they stopped talking at the same time.  It appeared that North who did not ask what the double was at her turn would have bid 3S over her partner’s 3D bid if she had known that Sylvia had a good hand rather than a major and a minor.  Hmmm. 

Sylvia had of course left the table before the director came and did not return.  The yelling and screaming continued until we had to move to the next table, missing the last board of the round.  I did not take very much part in the action although I did try to say that I found it unlikely that North would really have bid 3S and that yes, I was at fault for not finding out what their notrump range was.  I should also explain that I have a bit of a hearing problem.  Under normal circumstances I have never failed to hear any announcement.  LHO among other things suggested I carry a sign saying I had a hearing problem.  (Give me a break). 

In the end I thought the ruling was okay.  The North-South pair were actually supposed to tap the alert button when they made an announcement (or at least make some effort to make sure you know what that they have actually said something) In addition the directors thought it most unlikely that they would get to 3S even if they had been given the correct So they kept their score, a bottom and I thought that was well deserved.

Our score was changed to 3S making which was the normal and almost the only result on this board.  It is true that if I had known what Sylvia’s bid meant I would have passed and North might have just bid 2S (although she is asked to redouble by the pass). 

I was dreading the idea of playing a late play against our opponents but they had already left when we finished the round and we just got an average plus.  Well worth it when you consider the idea of another board against these two.

I am sure they came to enjoy bridge.  I am sure they had a bad day but I wonder did they have to take it out on us.  I noticed that after we left there was another fight, another director call and another bout of screaming.  Whatever happened to the idea of zero tolerance?  I don’t believe in absolute zero tolerance but I do believe that some times players behavior crosses a line where they should be told to cease and desist or they will be penalized and then this action should be taken.  The club directors seem to handle this better than the tournament directors.

Finally last night I had the chance to play against Stacy Jacobs.  I have to say that I quite like her and I can see why others do as well. 

I have had some really fun hands (maybe I will describe some later) and Sylvia has starred several times.  I am having quite a good time except for that one awful moment last night (my ears are still ringing).