A Pretty Defense – Semfinals US Trials

May 13th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

Lall and Grue combined to win 6 imps on this “little” hand.  Let’s follow the action from Lall’s point of view.  He was playing against Rodwell and Meckstroth.  Nobody was vulnerable and he was in first chair.

He opened 1♦ .  Meckstroth overcalled 1♠ and his partner bid 2♥ which was quite pleasing.  Rodwell continued 3♣ .  What would you bid?  Even though he doesn’t have a lot of points his hand has a lot of playing strength in hearts.  So he jumped to the heart game.  Meckstroth persisted with 5♣ which Rodwell converted to 5♠ .  Grue doubled 5♠ .  Grue led the ♦ Q and this is what Lall saw.

Lall ♠ 4 ♥ J953 ♦ AKJ842 ♣ J7
	Rodwell ♠ QJ9732 ♥ 4 ♦ 107 ♣ AK63

He overtook with the ♦ K and played another top diamond as both followed.  Now what?

……………………………………

He made a very nice play.  He led the ♥ J.  It couldn’t cost to lead the jack and it might gain.  When he played the ♥ J Grue played the ♥ 10.  This suggested suggesting he wanted a shift.  Lall read this perfectly and played another diamond.  Here is the whole deal.

Dealer: Vul:	Meckstroth ♠ A10865 ♥ 7 ♦ 963 ♣ Q982
Lall ♠ 4 ♥ J953 ♦ AKJ842 ♣ J7		Grue ♠ K ♥ AKQ10862 ♦ Q5 ♣ 1054
	Rodwell ♠ QJ9732 ♥ 4 ♦ 107 ♣ AK63

This allowed Grue to make his ♠ K for 2 down and +300.  At the other table the hand was played by South.  So maybe it was harder to defend with a different dummy.  The contract was also not doubled (a double is hardly clearcut).  The defense, started the same but the West hand returned a routine low heart at trick three and that was the end of the defense.  Down 1 plus 50.

I enjoyed watching this deal.  Well done.

Mid-point Round of 8 Results

May 13th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

With 60 of 120 boards complete the scores are quite close in all of the matches.  The number 1 seed Diamond has a 2 imp lead over 8th seed Deutsch in the closest of the matches.  In all other matches the lower seed is leading.  Is this a trend?

Bathurst, perhaps the youngest team is leading Nickell 161 to 125.

Wolfson is leading Aker 128 to 93

Welland leads Jacobs 135 to 103

Sometimes it seems like all I talk about is disasters and here is another one in the Nickell match. But as I look at the deal I conclude that maybe most of the result was caused by the difference in the systems played at each table.  Let’s sit in Meckstroth’s seat”

With everybody vulnerable partner passes and South (Lall) opens 4♥ .  You are in the Master Solver’s Club.  What do you decide?  The choices I see are:

a) pass b) double c) 4♠

No choice is perfect.  A couple of thoughts that come to me.   The other two players don’t have many hearts.  This suggests that anywhere you play it things will not split.  This makes bidding a spade game risky.   While partner can have “stuff” partner is a passed hand.  Rodwell is not afraid to open the bidding.  But if partner has some spades and a few high cards you might still make four spades.  A game in clubs or diamonds seems unlikely.  But with things not splitting and North likely to hold some cards there is a lot of risk in bidding too.

How much is a double of 4♥ for penalty and how much is it for takeout?  I went to a talk given by Larry Cohen a while ago that suggested it should be mostly penalty.  If you play it like that then double seems more attractive to me.

Pick a bid now before reading on and see how you would have done.

Meckstroth doubled, North passed and Rodwell had a tough bid.

Meckstroth ♠ KQ962 ♥ A973 ♦ A ♣ K84

Rodwell ♠ 1087 ♥ 5 ♦ KQ875 ♣ J532

East hand presents another master solver’s club decision.  One choice is to pass.  This is way too risky for me.  North could easily have a bunch of hearts.  Another is to bid 5♦ You would normally expect partner to have a tolerance for both minors and you do have five good ones.  Rodwell found the best bid on the cards.  He bid 4♠ .  Not that this was going to be easy to play but it is the best place to be.  But Rodwell had one more decision to make.  North doubled the spade game when the bidding came back to him.    It did present Rodwell with a chance to let partner pick his better minor.  So he bid 4NT.  In the end 5♣ doubled went for 1100.

Things were easier for East-West at the other table.  In the Closed Room Zia’s 3NT bid showed a major suit preempt.  The flaw in this approach is that it gave East-West more space.  Wooldrigge with the West hand doubled and Hamman bid 4♣ , possibly lead directing as much as anything.  East, Hurd, got to show his diamond suit and now when Wooldridge bid 4♠ and it was doubled it was easy to pass him.   But from the West side things work out quite well for West who can get out for one down -200.  Even if Rodwell passes out 4♠ doubled it will still be a bad result.  Here is the whole deal.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ AJ53 ♥ – ♦ J632 ♣ AQ1096
West ♠ KQ962 ♥ A973 ♦ A ♣ K84		East ♠ 1087 ♥ 5 ♦ KQ875 ♣ J532
	South ♠ 4 ♥ KQJ108642 ♦ 1094 ♣ 7

Played by East, if South leads a club then the defense starts off with two club tricks and a ruff.  Now South plays a top heart and North can ruff that.  So we have four tricks in with two more trump tricks to come.  Down 3.  Played by West, the best I can see for the defense is to start with the ♣ A and another club ruffed and then the ♥ K ruffed.  This leads to two down (and it is impossible to find that lead anyway).  What happens if Meckstroth passes out 4♥ ?  The diamond suit is blocked and South can take a club finesse to pitch a diamond loser.  It does look like a winner.  So the winning call by West is 4♠.  Did you pick that one?  I wouldn’t have.  Congratulations – you push the board.

Pass is second best.  You lose 620 for a net of 420.  9 imps away.  (This was my pick).  Once West doubles the minus gets bigger.  If Rodwell passes 4♠ doubled you would lose 11 (but that is not going to happen).  If Rodwell sits for 4♠ doubled than he goes for 800.  12 imps.  And the table result of 5♣ doubled down 4 ,-1100 for a net of -900 is 14 imps.

Some days things just don’t work out for you.  I would be interested in your comments on this deal.

A first board disaster – USBF Trials

May 12th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

The Wolfson and Silverstein team sat down to play segment 8 in the Round of 16.  Silverstein led by only 2 imps so this figured to be an exciting final segment.  Silverstein (Silverstein-Rosenthal, Levin-Meyers) had to be considered the underdog.  They were the eleventh seed playing six seeded Wolfson (Wolfson-Cohen, Ekeblad-Rubin, Garner-Weinstein) and they were playing four handed which probably wasn’t too much of a disadvantage this early in the event but still means the players had no opportunity to rest.  On the first board Jill Levin, an American internationalist with an incredible bridge pedigree was first to speak with everybody vulnerable.

What do you like as an opening bid?  There are some that like to open this type of hand 1NT even with the stiff spade honor.  That is not my style.  Levin made the normal 1♦ opening bid.  Partner responded 1♠ .  I think this hand is good enough for a reverse, just and so did Jill.  She bid 2♥.

Now over to Jill Meyers who held:

She is going to raise hearts with four of them.  The question is should she bid 3♥ suggesting extra or 4♥ , a minimum.   You have just enough to make game opposite a minimum reverse.   Of course a lot depends on partnership style.  I think it is borderline.  She does have a potential source of tricks in the spade suit and some fillers in the minors if they are useful.  The problem with bidding 4♥ is you have taken up all the space.  I really don’t like doing that so given a borderline decision it seems reasonable to go more slowly.

Jill Meyers raised to 3♥ .  Before reading on decide what you think of this bid.  Levin chose to ask for keycards (using 4♠). I am more conservative.  Even if I expected partner to have more I don’t see the harm in cue bidding 4♣ .  I think Levin has a minimum and if partner has the hand she expects Meyers will push forward.I am not certain this would have helped but Meyers probably would have slowed things down.  Meyers responded 5♣ (1 or 4).  North doubled.  Levin holding the ♣ K might have realized that this had to be the ♣ A and that they were off three key cards.  She might have bid 5♥ and hoped the ♥ K  was one of the missing keycards and it was onside.

Dealer: Vul:	Cohen ♠ Q10963 ♥ – ♦ 9843 ♣ A764
Meyers ♠ AJ8754 ♥ 10986 ♦ Q ♣ QJ		Levin ♠ K ♥ AQJ5 ♦ KJ1072 ♣ K32
	Wolfson ♠ 2 ♥ K7432 ♦ A65 ♣ 10985

Did she panic now?  Was she so certain that in their system Meyers would not have bid 3♥ with only one keycard?  For whatever reason she bid the grand slam in hearts.  In the end Levin got out for two down doubled as the defense faltered a bit.  While 4♥ can be made there was some chance that had they reached that contract (as they surely would have) they might have still gone down.  In the other room Wolfson made a terrible overcall of 1♥ which meant that East-West landed in 3NT which is easier.  If they failed in the heart game they would have lost about 12 imps anyway and instead they lost 15 imps.

However you rationalize it this was a terrible way to start the session.   They did well to regroup and play their best the rest of the session.  In the end Silverstein lost the set 41 to 7.

We have all had nightmare boards.  Sometimes it is interesting to think about what causes them.   Perhaps, a lesson here might be to take things slowly even when you are certain you know what to do.

Despite this board I think the two Jill’s played well in tough company.  It is a shame that their tournament has ended so soon.

USBF Round of 16 Winners

May 11th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

In the end well some top seeds fell, the seeding held up pretty well.  Second seed Nickell bested 15 seed Ivatury.  The 4th seed Jacobs, the fifth seed Welland, the sixth seed Wolfson and the eight seed Deutsch won their matches.  But the third seed Gordon fell to the fourteenth seed Aker in a close match.  So Jeff Aker, Brady Richter, Walter Johnson, Doug Simson, Josh Donn and Barry Goren will take over the third seed.  Bathurst will now take over the seventh spot.  Diamond will join the seven winners in the Round of 8 starting Thursday.

USBF Open Championships 2011 – an interesting “small” deal

May 11th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

The team trials to fill the second Bermuda Bowl spot started yesterday.  Diamond who is the number 1 seed has a bye to the round of 16.  Meanwhile as I look down the scoresheet I see that at the halfway point there are a few surprises.

Nickell (Nickell-Katz, Hamman-Zia, Meckstroth-Rodwell) seeded two is in a dogfight with the number fifteen seed Ivatury playing four-handed Ivatury (Ivatury-Henner, Chan and Lee).  Nickell leads by a mere 2 imps 108 to 106.   The good news is that they will likely be on BBO so I can watch Meckwell some more.  (I like doing that).

There are some interesting hands from their match in the Bulletin

The number 3 seed Gordon (Gordon-Pratap, Berkowitz-Sontag, Rosenberg-Willenken) is faring worse.  They trail 14th seeded Aker (Aker-Richter, Johnson-Simson, Donn-Goren) 152-120.

Bathurst (10) (Bathurst-Zagorin, Grue-J. Lall, Hurd-Wooldridge), a young team has a nice lead over Mahaffey  (Mahaffey-Passell, Cohler-Seamon, Lev-Pszczola) 159 to 100.

As you go down the table the top seed is losing or narrowly ahead in every match with the exception of the eighth and ninth seed (which you would expect could go either way).

This makes one wonder.  Is the competition that tight?  Are all the teams that equal?  Is the seeding process working?   Its good the matches are as long as possible in a knockout making it more likely that luck will even out and the best team win.

Kevin Bathurst

There were of course many interesting deals from the Nickell-Ivattury match.  But here is a little quiet hand from the third segment.  Both tables played 1NT.  Lee made it for Ivatury while it failed at the other table.  In the Open Room West bid 1♣ and North bid 1NT ending the auction.  In the Closed Room West opened 1♦ (which is a “nebulous” diamond and can be two and is often short) and the rest of the auction was the same.  Here is the deal:

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ Q2 ♥ AJ6 ♦ A9542 ♣ AK8
West ♠ KJ106 ♥ K7 ♦ KJ6 ♣ Q953		East ♠ A8753 ♥ 10532 ♦ Q8 ♣ J6
	South ♠ 94 ♥ Q984 ♦ 1073 ♣ 10742

A spade was lead and in the Open Room the defense cashed five spades.   Lee pitched two diamonds from hand and a diamond and a club from dummy.  On the fifth spade this was things were a bit tight.  West threw his ♣ 9 (discouraging) and Lee decided to throw another diamond leaving himself with A9 alone.  East returned a small diamond and West hoping to avoid end plays rose with the ♦ K.  Here is the end position.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ – ♥ AJ6 ♦ 9 ♣ AK8
West ♠ – ♥ K7 ♦ J6 ♣ Q53		East ♠ – ♥ 10532 ♦ Q ♣ J6
	South ♠ – ♥ Q984 ♦ – ♣ 1074

At this point declarer has one trick and the defense has five.  It seems hard to see how he can make seven tricks.  Lee cashed his top two clubs and exited a diamond to East.   East had to lead a heart and it is impossible to prevent Lee from making the last four heart tricks.  An endplay that was worth a lot of tricks!  It turns out that East must return the ♦ Q.  It is true that West will be endplayed eventually and have to give Lee two heart tricks, but that is a lot better than four heart tricks.  When West is in he can cash the long diamond and a club.  Such a small decision by East and such a big change in the outcome.  This little board was worth 7 imps to Ivatury when 1NT went down 2 at the other table.

Online from Sarasota

May 7th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Ray and I have been pretty busy getting our new condo to the point where we could live here.  We still lack furniture.  The “great room” is notable for its great emptiness.

Meanwhile I have still been practising with Francine.  At the beginning I was so tired after a long car ride, the closing, and emergency bed buying that it is a wonder she was willing to play with me at all.  Recently we played a couple of team games with our teammates Sylvia and Rhoda.

Oddly in both games the opposition seemed to have a knack for bidding and making slams that were well lets call it what it was … horrible.  They also managed to avoid a fairly good slam that was on finding the trump king missing three.  It was doubleton offside.  This can be pretty depressing but there were some brighter spots amd interesting hands which would could learn from.

So here is one of the hands

 from the set that I messed up.   North opens 1♥   in front of you.  You are vulnerable against not.  What do you like here?  I considered double and 1S.  In retrospect I think 1S is clearly better.  I thought we might still have something in the minors but I may be able to get them in play later anyway.  Francine had ♠ Q97 and it becomes very hard to get to the spade game thereafter.  At the other table North passed and my hand opened 1♠  so there was no issue.  I suppose this is similar to hands where you are 5-4 in the majors and you overcall the long major rather than doubling. 

In an earlier match our opponents made a much worse bid than me though.  Francine opened 1♦  in third chair and South a passed hand held:

Overcalling 1NT was not a good idea.  The problem with a bid like this is you may have trouble finding a spot to play the hand and it is easy for the opponents to double.  This went for 800.  Being aggressive works some of the time but you have to pick your spots.  This bid wasn’t really aggressive it was suicidal.

We are headed home Sunday afternoon and should be back late Tuesday.  It will be good to be “back home again”.

Bridge and the New York Times

April 26th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

Just as I was getting ready to leave for Florida I opened up my ipad to the New York Times, my favorite newspaper.  One of the headlines was this

Yorktown Heights New York…. For Students Raised on ipods Lessons in Bridge.

Eileen Crowley-Bloss their teacher explains that dummy in bridge means silent partner – not the “other meaning” to her grade school class.  I quote the article  “Lakeland district in Westchester County began teaching bridge this year as a way to reinforce math and problem solving skills and to socialize a generation of children raised on solitary pastimes like video games and ipods.”

Hurray for them.

Warren Buffet in an article I read fairly recently said that he had ended the school program because sadly it didn’t work.  Pooh!  It works.  We need to teach kids bridge.  Let’s find a way to get more schools interested.

To see the whole article: New York Times Bridge Story.  You will love the picture of second grader Max who says “Bridge is more fun than chess.”

Tight Doubles and Francine

April 25th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

You NEVER want to make a tight double of a part-score Francine Cimon is declaring.    Francine finds a way to make it somehow.  Here is a case in point.   With nobody vulnerable North passes.  Your partner opens 1♦ and South (Francine) overcalls 1♠ .  This is your hand

You are playing in an established partnership.  I would probably raise diamonds myself but you decide to make a negative double.  When partner bids 2♥ (not extra – partner thinks you have hearts)  East comes back in with 3♣ .  What do you do?  West has too much to pass.  He wasn’t keen on playing in the 4-3 heart fit.  Do you double for penalty?  That is what West did at the table.  He probably didn’t consider that Francine was the declarer.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ J9 ♥ 108762 ♦ AJ2 ♣ 1062
West ♠ 63 ♥ K53 ♦ Q764 ♣ AJ73		East ♠ AQ74 ♥ QJ4 ♦ K10953 ♣ 4
	South ♠ K10852 ♥ A9 ♦ 8 ♣ KQ985

West led a diamond and Francine won the ♦ A.  She led the ♠ J from dummy and East won the ♠A.  East found a reasonable shift to a club.  Francine played the queen.  What should West do now?  West erred by winning the ♣ A.  Now the contract cannot be defeated if declarer does everything right.  At the table West returned a high diamond which Francine ruffed.  She cashed the SK and led another spade.  There is no use in trumping so West discarded a heart.  Francine returned to hand with the ♥ A and played another spade.  West discard again.  Francine ruffed a diamond.   West with three trump to the jack and a high heart can be endplayed and forced to lead into Francine’s Q9 of clubs for a win of 11 imps.

As it turns out the contract can be defeated after the opening diamond lead.  West must duck the ♣ A when East’s returns a club.  Now when Francine tries to ruff the first spade West ruffs in on the ♣ J and plays ace and another club giving up any chance of making three club tricks on defense.  But declarer has no way to avoid a heart and another spade loser.  West’s goal is to prevent two club ruffs and this is the only way to do it.

The moral of the story: Don’t double Francine in a partscore when she bids strongly.

By the way if you look at the North hand would you pass 3C or would you have converted to 3S when 3C was doubled?  As it turns out 3S has not much play at all.  My reasoning in passing 3♣ was that Francine was 6-5 or 5-5 for this auction.  We don’t have an easy way to show spades and clubs over 1♦ .  Even if she was 6-5 it might play okay in clubs and it would likely be a lot better if she was 5-5.  I don’t know if my reasoning is perfect but it did work on this deal.

I am off to Sarasota tomorrow so the blogs may be few for a while after today.  I hope all of you had a good holiday season.  I just ate a yummy chocolate cream Easter egg which Sally brought into the office.

For students only … don’t play for a nullo

April 19th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

This hand occurred in play recently.  I am sure that bridge students will get this one right.  Here goes.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ J4 ♥ KJ64 ♦ KJ2 ♣ Q1082
	South ♠ AQ ♥ AQ3 ♦ A75 ♣ J7643

The opening lead is a spade.  East plays the ten and you win the queen.  How do you proceed?  Don’t continue without a plan.  This is a good idea when you are playing a hand at the table too.

……………………………………………….

Clubs are an attractive source of tricks.  The problem is that you have to force out the ♣A and the ♣ K.  While you do this East-West will set up their spade suit.  Since there are nine missing they have at least three spades to cash along with the top clubs.  If this was your plan you will go down as did declarer at the table.  This plan fails.  Do you have another idea?  Make sure to count your tricks.

You have two spades (after the lead), four hearts and two diamonds = eight tricks.  If the diamond finesse works you will have nine.  That is a much better chance than hoping the opponents somehow won’t take three spades with their two clubs.

Vul:	North ♠ J4 ♥ KJ64 ♦ KJ2 ♣ Q1082
West ♠ K9872 ♥ 95 ♦ Q643 ♣ A5		East ♠10653 ♥ 10872 ♦ 1098 ♣ K9
	South ♠ AQ ♥ AQ3 ♦ A75 ♣ J7643

When you play notrump you should count your tricks.  But in 3NT you need to make sure that the opponents can’t take five tricks before you take your nine.

It looks easy but this really happened at the table and it will again, even by relatively experienced players.  Taking your nine tricks in 3NT will go along way to having a good bridge game.

Not dull

April 19th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

Do you ever find that some days all the hands seem kind of boring and other days so many of them are really interesting.  Yesterday the hands were interesting.   Here is an example.  In first chair with favorable vulnerability you have this hand:

I think there is an argument for opening it.  But if you open 1♣ and partner bids 1♠ are you going to reverse into 2♥.  So I suppose if you open it you are going to open 1♥ .  It seems to me that sometimes it is better to come into the auction later on when you hold this sort of hand and I decided to pass.  I am not sure this is the right approach.  Any thoughts?

Francine opened 1♦ in third chair and once again I had a dilemma.  To bid 2♣ or to bid 1♥ .  I can see an argument for both.  We do have a system over 2♣ which might make it easier to handle.  2♦ by Francine shows four diamonds or more and a minimum (and not the right hand for 2NT).

ould be a reverse showing extra and might present a problem.  So my plan was I bid 2♣ Francine bid 2♦ and I bid 2♥ .  There!  Do you think 2♥ is a better choice?  Anyway Francine inconveniently bid 2NT bud it does promise a heart stopper of some kind and two (and quite likely more) hearts.  So I decided I was safe enough as a passed hand to bid 3♥ .  This worked out well when Francine bid 4♥ .  Somehow I wasn’t sure my plan was that good even though the result was fine.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ 6 ♥ A8542 ♦ 4 ♣ A108653
West ♠ J985 ♥ K ♦ Q10763 ♣ J74		East ♠ AK1072 ♥ J76 ♦ J98 ♣ Q9
	South ♠ Q43 ♥ Q1093 ♦ AK52 ♣ K2

Perhaps the most bizarre hand was this one.  Here is my hand:

I passed in first chair with nobody vulnerable.  I am not opening a weak two in first with four good spades.  Our side was silent and this was the auction.

My thinking (which you might characterize as “strange”) was that I was going to get a diamond lead which was not likely to be good for our side.  East didn’t have many spades and a spade lead seemed the way to go.   I knew hearts wasn’t breaking.  On a very good day they run to something we can really take care of.  Declarer redoubled and so the game was on.  Francine led a spade which I ducked to the ♠A.  The hand is cold for two down.  1000 for the good guys.  Francine thought the bid was gutsy.  What do you think?  Oddly a diamond lead doesn’t change anything.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ K1096 ♥ K105432 ♦ 2 ♣ Q3
West ♠ QJ632 ♥ 9 ♦ Q9754 ♣ 96		East ♠ A ♥ QJ876 ♦ A106 ♣ AK54
	South ♠ 854 ♥ A ♦ J10872 ♣ KJ83