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Linda Lee — My personal bridge blog |
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Moss beats Sprung to become USA 1 (Women)
June 10th, 2011 ~ linda ~ No Comments
Congratulations to the Moss team who really poured it on in the final segment to defeat Sprung. Sylvia Moss, Judi Radin, Migry Zur Campanile and JoAnna Stansby Sprung will have another chance contesting for USA 2. Congratulations to Bobby Wolff and the Schwartz Team
June 10th, 2011 ~ linda ~ 1 Comment
The Schwartz team has defeated Lynch and is USA 1 in the Seniors Competition in the Netherlands. Our congratulations to: Richie Schwartz, Lew Finkel, Arnie Fisher, Fred Hamilton, Dan Morse and Bobby Wolff The Lynch team will have another chance when they play the finals for USA 2. As I write this we are still waiting for the outcome of the USA 1 – Women The Fourth of Sixth … Turnaround Time US Senior Trials
June 10th, 2011 ~ linda ~ No Comments
Starting the fourth segment Lynch had a 52 imp lead over Schwartz, 113 to 61 but as they say in Mary Poppins “an east wind was blowing” … change was coming and when the segment ended Schwartz had taken over the lead by 6 129 to 123. In the next 15 boards there were 7 boards with swings of 6 or more imps. Board One started the comeback. It was an interesting defensive problem in the Open Room. Let’s look at it double dummy.
Weichsel was on lead and made a normal spade lead. Fisher put up the King ducked by Lair. Fisher had a reasonable expectation that he would have six heart trick and if he could make two spades and a diamond he was home. So he played a spade from dummy winning the ♠ J. Weichsel threw a club. I think it was a count card showing three. Fisher still thinking he was in no danger played a diamond to the king won by Lair with the ♦ A. Lair switched to clubs. A small club would have been better. Not only would Fisher have to guess but it would have moved any pressure from the North hand. Weichsel had to hold five hearts and two diamonds so he didn’t have a lot of spare cards. Lair led the ♣ K and everybody followed this was the position:
I don’t know if Lair can work it out. Maybe he was playing for Weichsel to hold the ♣ Q as his only hope. After all it really looked like Fisher expected nine tricks when he got the lead (as he did.) Lair continued the ♣ A. While it is true that Fisher can make the hand double dummy now whatever Lair does in practice he will likely go down if Lair continues clubs or leads a diamond back. (It’s fun to look at how Fisher can make the hand on a club return. ) But Lair was still under the impression that the defense had to cash out and cashed the ♠ A and it was all over. In the Closed Room 3NT was played by East and Wolff started the CK. When he got encouragement he continued with a small club and it was now easy for the defense to take five tricks. 10 imps to start the ball rolling for the big comeback. In the Women’s the final has been close and continued close. Starting Segment 4 the score was Moss 95 and Sprung 94. Sprung took the lead by 5 (140-135) by the end of the segment. A Couple of Hands to try .. Segment 1 of 6 US Senior Team Final
June 9th, 2011 ~ linda ~ No Comments
Problem 1: Let’s start off with an opening lead problem. no pressure but this lead is worth 17 imps. You are EEast with all vulnerable and you are in third chair.
The auction in the Open Room where Morse and Wolff were North-South was as follows (West passed as dealer and your side passed throughout).
So what do you lead? Would you do anything different if the auction had been?
I like leading aces against slams. But the first auction really suggests to me that North has a void somewhere. When players don’t bid Blackwood and then could then that is often the case. I have a bit of this and that in all the suits. I lead a trump. And that is what Hayden did against Morse. The auction is a bit less revealing in the Open Room. North opened a strong club and South’s double showed 5-7 points. Still a heart void seems possible. I know where 10 or 11 hearts are. Maybe the same arguments apply. Maybe not. Anyway Schwartz led the heart ace and that was trick twelve. Problem 2
And here is a horrendous bidding problem for you. Nobody is vulnerable and you are in third chair. It has been pass pass to you.
First what do you open? I hate opening 2♣ on two suiters but this hand is so very strong. With some partners I have an agreement that they will be over 1♣ on almost anything and there might be an argument for opening 1♣ and then bidding 2♠ over their response, I suppose. But 2♣ seems like the normal bid. It goes 4♦ on your right and this passed back to you. I am on slightly shaky ground here but pass by partner is probably forcing and shows some values. What do you do? Is there any way out of this mess? …………………… There are three bids that come to mind: double, 4♠ and 5♣ . (Don’t you wish you had opened 1C or 1S?) If you bid 4♠ as Morse quite reasonably did, too bad. Lose 10 imps. Double works fine as did 5♣ . In the Closed Room where Passell opened a strong club, Schwartz bid only 3D and North-South found there way to 3NT which makes 4.
At the end of the first quarter Lynch led Schwartz 53 to 17. What a Finish Lynch versus Deutsch
June 8th, 2011 ~ linda ~ No Comments
60 boards ended in a tie in this semifinal match. Lynch went on to defeat Deutsch in a 6 board playoff. So lets look at the board that set up this dramatic playoff. Board 60 the last board of the regular deals in this quarterfinal match. Coming in to Board 60 Deutsch was in the lead by 13 IMPS 113 to 100. By the looks of it Board 60 was a routine 4♥ contract. North-South was vulnerable against not and North, in second chair with 22 high card points would show a balanced strong hand. South would not much but 5-4 in the majors would bid find the 5-4 heart fit and the heart game would be reached. The BBO commentators were thanking each other, the operators, the audience, the USBF and BBO and anybody else they could think of. In one room Hamman and Bramley sat East-West for Deutsch. Hamman held:
Not blinded by the favorable vulnerability he made a “normal” pass and the auction proceded in normal fashion to 4♥ making 5. But something different happened at the other table where Passell held the West hand. Passell made the more aggressive call of 2S and I like it at this vulnerability. Do you? It is easier if you are playing Muidenberg 2’s where 2♠ shows spades and a minor (or possibly spades and another suit.) Now it was up to Larsen-Lall to find their way to the heart game.
With 22 high card points Larsen was too good to overcall any number of notrump so he started with a double. Sutherlin passed. If Lall-Larsen were playing no specific conventions over this sequence Lall would have been hearts and the heart game would no doubt have been reached. But they were playing Lebensohl to distinguish between a decent hand with hearts and a weak hand with hearts so Lall bid 2NT playing to eventually bid hearts. Larsen couldn’t afford to accept the transfer by bidding 3♣ because it might get passed so he bid 3NT to show a very strong balanced hand. Should Lall have pulled to hearts? I think this auction does not suggest a hand with just tricks as a jump to 3NT might. It should show a very strong balanced hand and therefore at least some heart support. Larsen doesn’t figure to have more than a couple of spades so he is quite likely to have three hearts. But playing hearts is by no means clear. You can decide if you on Board 60 of a match you are winning would have made the bid that worked. Now it was up to Passell. Having bid one suit and knowing they had that one covered, he led his second suit and the defense took five diamond tricks. 13 imps. The tired players would have to play six more boards. Can you do better? Senior Segment 2
June 7th, 2011 ~ linda ~ No Comments
Well he we are at the halfway point of the Seniors Quarterfinal. There were 4 big swings in the Milner- Woolsey match with the imps on the set totally 31 for Woolsey and 29 for Milner. But Milner leads the match 79-42. Lets see how you do on the two of the four big swing hands in the fourth set. Board 23. You hold
You work out that you have nine diamonds by subtracting the four outside cards from 13. A) You partner opens 1♣ and you hear a 1♥ overcall. I know you are planning to bid diamonds the question is how many? Have you got your answer? Now suppose that your partner opens 1NT and the overcall is 3♥ (natural) do you do something. differently. Over 1♣ I like 5♦ , the bid made at the table, and it works out just fine when partner bids 6♦ . While 6♦ is a challenge on a heart lead and a spade shift the natural spade lead makes the slam pretty much a laydown. Thats how it played out for Rosenberg-Cohen.
In the Closed Room where the auction started 1NT-3♥ Milner bid 4♦ . While I think this must be forcing it doesn’t convey the nature of this hand. When Granovetter bid 5♣ Milner converted to 5♦ and they play there. Had Milner bid 5♦ in the first place I don’t know if Granovetter could bid 6♦ . And if you want to argue that justice was not served and that the diamond slam is a poor one I won’t argue with you. The next swing is a “How Do You Allocate The Blame” hand.
With everybody vulnerable you are in second chair, Milner opens the nuclear weapon: 2♦ weak. It’s your turn. Stewart ♠ A972 ♥ K98 ♦ Q92 ♣ A43 Do you pass or double? Is there anything else? I think pass is right (just my opinion) but I can understand double as a choice. How bad a choice you decide? Now Granovetter bids 3NT to play and it is up to Woolsey. Woolsey ♠ K853 ♥ Q643 ♦ 6 ♣ 10752 You have good shape for a bid. Partner has to fit at least one of your majors. How good will partner be to make a takeout double? Are you going to let a little thing like 3NT (vulnerable) by a sane opponent bother you? Do you bid or pass? If you bid you do have 4♦ available – pick a major. Woolsey bid. So each partner chose the aggressive auction. I think Woolsey’s bid was more aggressive than Stewart. Anyway when Steward bid 4S Granovetter doubled and the result was sticks and wheels. Worst if you keep quiet you are quite likely to defeat 3NT. (They played 3♦ making in the other room.) So it’s up to you to assign responsibility. I still want some players to be talking to me when this is all over.
US Senior Teams (Round of 8)
June 7th, 2011 ~ linda ~ No Comments
With two teams to select out of the 12 entered there seems to be a rather byzantine plan of matches. It started with a Round Robin and now they are playing a 60 board quarterfinal. You might think with “Seniors” we would have nice sedate auctions. But that has certainly not been the case. In fact with this event being held in Motor City we might call it NASCAR. (Ray pointed out that they don’t have NASCAR in Detroit but I wanted something to compare with that was full of action, risk and male hormones … and cars.)
Lets look at the Schwartz – Levine match. It started quietly enough in the sense when 3NT was made at both tables after both Souths made a natural club lead which gave declarer his ninth trick. Then, you are not vulnerable versus vulnerable and you have in your mitt this brilliant collection (one that could have won a big son of money from the Earl of Yarborough).
Partner opens 1♦ . RHO passes. Call me conservative but I don’t see the attraction of 1♥ . If I was going to pysche something a spade is more appealing. But both youngsters in the West chair bid 1♥ . In the Open Room Morse-Wolff then arrived in 4♠ after Gertman, East showed three card heart support. Gertsman doubled and after long thought West, Clerkin, decided it was better to take his chances than risk the five level. Down 1.
Here was the auction in the Closed Room
This auction is more typical of what happens when I pysche 1♥ . We end in an unmakeable 3♦ and our opponents can’t make anything. 7 imps to Levine. The imps came back and then some on Board 2. What would you open (playing strong notrump) on this hand in fourth chair, read versus white?
I have 17 HCP and a balanced hand I open 1NT. Yes, I have aces and kings, yes I have a 5 card suit but my spots are non-existent. I don’t upgrade. Besides auctions always seem to work more easily after that descriptive bid. Gerstman opened 1♦ . Clerkin responded 1♥ and Morse overcalled 1♠ The Caution Flag is up. What now? You are missing that pesky spade stopper. Anyway East-West ended in 3♦ which seems okay because you don’t have a spade stopper and the opponents do have five spade tricks to take. BUT in the Closed Room after a 1NT opening, spades were not bid, and the lead was not found. Interesting because this is one of those hands where 4♥ on the 4-3 is a pretty decent spot.
Here was the auction in the Open Room. Can you get to 4♥ after the 1♦ opening?
Of course having seen the 1♥ bid on the previous deal by Clerkin perhaps caution was advised. I am a fan of opening light and I have noticed that most experts (and others) are following this same trend. But when Clerkin opened 1♥ on this hand he was speeding:
It did make it easy to get to 4♥ though, a vulnerable game missed in the other room. Partner has four clubs to the ace for you, the top two spades and two hearts. So you are off a diamond and two clubs. You need a club break and a heart break or the stiff heart Jack. 10 imps for Levine. One more heart pounding race around a tight corner… first take the wheel as Morse/Levine
Vulnerable against not you hear 1♠ by West, Clerkin. Your turn. You decide to bid Michaels with your 6-5. It now goes 4♠ -5♣ -5♠ to you. I don’t know their rules about forcing passes but I think that when our side bids a vulnerable against not game pass here should be forcing and show some extra offense. Either way do you bid or pass? Morse bid 6♣ and Levine passed. I think I would have passed at the table but I am not sure and I can’t really say which bid is right. At Levine’s table McGarry, South doubled and the auction ended there. When Morse bid it was now back to Clerkin.
The heart situation is not really pretty since it suggests that hearts might work out for declarer. Spades are not likely to produce a trick. So this looks like one defensive trick to me. I can see why he decided to bid 6♠ . That was doubled by Morse. Wolff-Morse found the heart overruff by Wolff for 800. At the other table, in 5♠ doubled they didn’t find all their tricks and it went for 300. 11 imps.
Big Bad Misunderstandings … the better players have them too (more?)
June 5th, 2011 ~ linda ~ 4 Comments
In the last while I have seen a lot of misunderstandings during bidding when watching the USBF team trials and other high level events on BBO. In some cases the pairs have played together for years. Then there is the problem of having to remember pages and pages of complex sequences. Rhoda Habert told me that she and Sylvia threw out a lot of the system notes to make their life easier. I read an article in Bridge World on this topic. (Unfortunately right at the moment I can’t remember who the author was but I think it was Danny Kleinman). The basic thesis was that if you have good instincts and judgment than you may be best to let yourself work things out at the table. If you have a great memory than you should have all those notes . I think it is clear that top players today have made things so complicated that the “system” will sometimes cause problems, one way or another. I use to think that having hundreds of pages of notes was a good thing. I am changing my mind though. The longer the partnership has played together, the more practice, the more hands they have bid the more the system becomes routine. Things obviously seem most complicated when you are learning them. It isn’t really that playing Lebensohl is less complicated than transfer advances, its just that we are more used to one than the other. Another article talked about how your best partner is one that shares your philosophy. That is true in bidding and defense although maybe the rules around defense are simplier and more forgiving thatn those around bidding. One of the ways that I have attempted to solve some of the problems about system holes is rather than trying to work out every case my partners, Ray and I or Colin and I for example have worked out overriding principles to handle what happens when you are out of system. I call these metarules. For example, if a double might be penalty or might be takeout than if you are sitting under the bidder its takeout and over the bidder its penalty. You might not like this particular rule but it does clarify things some times. Of course both partners need to understand the metarules and agree to them. On his website MIchael Lawrence has an example of a spectacular bidding misunderstand revolving around Blackwood for you to try. Ace asking bids (especially now that people play all sorts of things as ace asking) is one of the worse culprits. I have seen a lot of pairs get into trouble when something as simple as a double of Blackwood happens at their table … these are experts. We have over these years managed to take a very simple (if not all that useful convention) where 4NT asks for aces and make it so complicated that Eddy Kantar has written a large book on the topic which he has updated many times. So now I am coming around to a number of conclusion. Don’t feel that long detailed system notes are necessarily a good thing. Play with a partner with a compatible vision of bidding. Recognize it takes a year or two to really build a partnership (and even then you will feel you have a long way to go). Don’t expect system notes to take the place of judgment. What do you do when you are not sure? Make the safest bid you can and try to hedge a bit. If you are not sure than partner probably isn’t either. Try to make it easy for partner. There is an interesting article on the Bridge World website about partnership styles by Larry Cohen who played with Mr. Conservative (Ron Gerard), Mr Aggressive (Marty Bergen) and Mr. In-Between (David Berkowitz). Here’s a recent example of an auction that could have two different meanings. You have agreed to play that when you double a weak notrump it is shows strength (at least the top of their range). You have also agreed that now your side will keep bidding until you the auction reaches 2♠ . You must either double them or bid before that. You have had no further discussion and have never had this auction come up. Second hand doubles and third hand (the partner of the 1NT bidder) is forced to bid in their system. He bids pass which forces a redouble. Responder redoubles and the notrump side bids back and forth until they reach 2♠. You are now out of the force. First, does fourth hand (the partner of the doubler) show some values by passing thoroughout? Does the fact that they passed 2♠ knowing it could be passed out mean anything? What do subsequent bids by the doubler mean? Clearly there needs to be some mechanism for the doubling side to stop bidding. After all the double really only shows 15 HCP points and advancer can have zero. Do you think responder should bid over the redouble to show “nothing”? What does a bid by responder show at any time during this sequence? I am not going to give you an answer. I think there is more than one way to play this sequence. You might argue that one way is better than the other or more common than the other. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you and your partner come up with the same answer at the table and that you do your best to be “forgiving”. If you can find a way to do something that lets partner clarify the situation that would be a good thing to do. Partnerships that work best are those that are on the same wavelength. They won’t always figure these things out but they usually will. They are compatible bidders. I would love to hear what you think about this. It will be interesting in the upcoming US Senior trials and the Womens trials to see how many system problems occur. We certainly saw a few in the Open Trials. Thanks Dave Smith
June 5th, 2011 ~ linda ~ 4 Comments
It was exciting to see that BridgeBlogging was featured in this months ACBL Bulletin. Dave Smith wrote a wonderful description of our site. Have a look… the article is called Log On For Bridge. The article also features a blog written by Mike Yuen. Let me say that articles from our bloggers have (with permission) been reused in magazine articles and bridge bulletins. Of course a highlight of the site is Aces on Bridge. Thanks to the syndicate and of course to Bobby Wolff we are the web archive for all of these columns. Why do we do it? Really this is NOT the way to make money. We don’t take almost any ads. We don’t want them to distract from the contents. We are not selling anything although we do draw your attention to some of our latest books. We do it mostly because we want to provide a place where talented people can share their ideas. We are always happy to have new bloggers and to listen to your ideas and suggestions. We are proud of all of our bloggers young and old, famous and not so famous. Thank you for making bridgeblogging one of the best bridge sites on the web. Busy Time at the old MPP
June 1st, 2011 ~ linda ~ No Comments
Well I think I am now finally recovered from Bridge Week. There is a lot happening at Master Point Press. We are planning for the ABTA meeting in the summer where Ray gives his annual talk on books for teachers. This year we will be talking about a terrific book called Bells and Whistles which is an intermediate book. There was a need for a well done modern intermediate book. I will be part of the team presenting the MPP ABTA Teacher of the Year award. I am looking forward to that. I know it will be emotional and the winner will be wonderful. I have seen the finalists and all of them deserve to win. This year we will be more prepared to take pictures. Maybe we should take a video. We will be hosting a breakfast to honor all of the nominees during the ABTA meeting. We have four books going off to press in the next day or two. Besides the Rodwell files, there is a bridge mystery called Deadly Endplay, a Pemberton Bridge Club mystery by Ken Alan. Ken will be known around here as the man who taught us how to care for and select tomatoes. He is an expert tomato gardener. Ray thinks the book is very good and it is on my list to read. He said the bridge newspaper columns in the book were particularly fun and that the mystery was good too. Besides that we have another terrific book for students called Take All Your Chances 2 by Eddie Kantar and a themed collection of bridge columns from Paul Thurston, he who promises (but doesn’t deliver) to write 2/1 Advanced. A Pemberton Bridge Club
mystery
Ken Allan
Getting books off to press means creating ebooks, sending out review copies, uploading PDF’s, updating Amazon and so on. It is a busy time but rewarding. We still get excited when a box of each new book arrives at the office. Then there are many book signings planned for the Summer Nationals. Sally is busy planning and organizing them. We will be delivering thousands of books to the organizers and celebrating Master Point Press day and there is a Ray and Linda event as well. We have many visitors during the Summer Nationals including Mark Horton. Afterwards we are taking Mark and my grandson Cassidy to Gettysburg and to Washington and to the highlight of the visit – a Manchester United preseason game (we have jersey ready for all the Lees). There is a lot of behind the scenes work too as Luise and John Goold have revamped the infrastructure of all of our websites. Luise is working on a plan to update the joint ABTA/Master Point Press teaching bridge website. We are getting ready to discuss it with the teachers at the ABTA meeting. We also are working on more and better ways to make ebooks available to readers. I got a new Ipod Nano and loaded it up with my favorite songs. The sun is warm and my lilac is glorious so it is time to walk and enjoy spring listening to my favorite upbeat walking songs. A lot of people took the time to send me emails and give me encouragement. I want to thank all of them for that. As I look back on all the time I have spent playing bridge (and not playing bridge), writing, teaching and so on, I have no regrets. As Edith Piaf sang so beautifully; Non, je ne regrette rien. Oops, I forgot to mention that Luise, Ray, Colin and I have just started playing a game (read time sink) called Rift. And I have to say it has amazing graphics and is a lot of fun (too bad). |
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