Playing against “the” Italians

April 17th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Francine and I had an opportunity this morning to play an online 16 board match against Benito Garozzo and his pals.  Benito has always been a hero of mine since I first started to play so it was exciting to have this chance.  Ray did remind me of a time we played against his team in a Florida regional.   Francine and I did quite well.

Sometimes simple things make a difference.  The auction has gone simply 2♠ by South and 4♠ by North

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ A4 ♥ A854 ♦ AK854 ♣ 109
Benito ♠ 72 ♥ KJ109732 ♦ Q72 ♣ 8

You lead the ♣ 8 and partner plays the ♣ Q.  Declarer wins the ♣ A.  At trick 2 declarer leads a small club from hand.  What is your plan?  If you decide to ruff what do you return?  Benito found the only plays to give declarer a problem he ruffed and returned a trump.  As the cards lie the hand can’t be defeated but it was the best defense.  At the other table West ducked and East won the ♣ Q and North had no further problems.  I have looked at this hand a great deal what do you think the best line is for ten tricks.

North ♠ A4 ♥ A854 ♦ AK854 ♣ 109

South ♠ QJ10983 ♥ Q ♦ 103 ♣ AJ53

You could finesse a spade at trick two.  You could play ace and another spade.  You could cross to dummy and lead a club or you can lead a club from hand.  You decide.  I don’t have the answer.

Francine is a strong advocate of sound opening bids.   Would you open this hand with both vulnerable in second chair?

I can see some arguments by proponents of the get in there first crew.  Anyway Francine passed and our side wasn’t ever in the auction.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ 83 ♥ AKQ42 ♦ J7 ♣ QJ52
West ♠ AQ5 ♥ J973 ♦ A2 ♣ 10982		East ♠ J9764 ♥ 85 ♦ Q1065 ♣ K4
	South ♠ K102 ♥ 106 ♦ K9843 ♣ A76

At our table North opened 1H in third and South bid 2D.  What do you think of that bid?  With Francine 1NT is semi-forcing so we can afford to bid 1NT on this hand.  At our table playing a very different system Garazzo bid 2♦ and played there.  A club lead and reasonably accurate defense beats even the master.  However, I am not convinced that we would have ended in 1NT if we had been North-South.  If North opened 1♥ in third and South bids 1NT will North pass with a full opening bid or bid 2♣ ?  I am not sure exactly what would have happened and we will never know.

In the other room the West hand opened 1♣ North bid 1♥ and East made a negative double.  Over the overcall South took the more cautious route of bidding 1NT.  1NT has 7 tricks or more on any defense.  This was a 6 imp pickup.

Bridge Disasters at the “expert” table on BBO

April 12th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

Everybody is an expert on BBO, just about.  The three disasters below all happened this morning.  Really.

There are some interesting points to be made in following some of the disasters.  How do they happen?  I think a lot has to do with male hormones.  Here is an example of male hormones run wild.  The only excuse I have for West’s bidding is that he took the colours too seriously.

West had a borderline overcall but I think it is right given the vulnerability.   I made a negative double.  Do you like East’s raise?  He has a pretty awful hand.  Francine and I found our way to the spade game.  West who had no suit, no shape and defense took the noise dive into the pool.  His hand is completely wrong for a save.  This is a case of bidding the same cards twice.

This next disaster is quite funny in a way.  It ended with East leaving the table in disgust.  It wasn’t that West didn’t understand East’s bid, he just thought that he (West) knew where to play the hand.  He was wrong.  Trust your partner.  West had exactly what he said he had.  If East wanted to consult him on the contract he would have bid it differently.

West opened a weak two spade bid.  East reasonably bid the heart game.  But West had such meaty spades and a heart void.  Could hearts really be right?  He decided to overrule his partner.  He bid 4♠. Ray and I have a rule.  You don’t put down an eight card suit in dummy unless it is trump.  I expect it would apply to a ten card suit as well.  I would have bid 5♥ over 4♠ but maybe East is right.  If he bids spades let him play there.  The heart suit did get a startled reaction from me when it hit the dummy.

I think this next hand is about deciding a bid means what you want it to mean.  I have done this myself.  In a major event playing with Ray years ago I decide that 1♠ -4♥ should be lots of hearts, to play.  It wasn’t.  But I wanted it to be that.  I bid it and bad things happened.  I wasn’t the only one to fall into this trap.  But East on this hand did it in quite a spectacular fashion.

When I opened 2♠ West decided that unusual notrump would described his hand perfectly.  (I think this is highly dubious vulnerable against not after a preempt by his opponents).  Unfortunately 2NT is natural in this auction.  West thought that if his partner had a strong notrump with a spade stopper that he had just enough to double.  Woops.

Style – Mix and Match?

April 9th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  4 Comments 

I understand that a partnership may adopt a certain style of bidding.  For example, you may agree that you play light preempts and as Marty Bergen says; “Vulnerability is for children.”  You might decide that you will follow the Roth Stone philosophy and have very good hands to open with a plan to reopen whenever there is an possibility partner might have hidden values.  Playing with David Bryce following this style I once opened a three count in third chair.  David kept forcing until we got to slam which he made.  He told me he wanted to bid a grand but he was afraid I would lose it.  You can imagine what he passed.  Irene Hodgson used to refuse to double the opponents in partscore – no matter what.  I found this out accidentally when she pulled my penalty double ( a contract going 3 down) to go for a number.   I am not sure this is exactly a matter of partnership style but you did have to know about it.

But even within some of these concept each individual player has their own style.  Having played with a reasonable number of partners I have noted over time their specific choices.  It takes a while to really get a feel for partner’s bids and that is one of the reasons that longer term partnerships have an advantage.  Of course you should disclose important information to your opponents.  Mark Horton and Ray were talking about this subject today and Mark recounted what Michael Rosenberg did when asked about their style after Zia preempted.  he pointed to something on the convention card.  When Zia preempted his style was: “depends on Mah Mood”.

If you read my previous blog and blogs you will notice that I am generally fairly aggressive when our side has a fit, when I have a hand with shape, when I have aces and not quacks.  I prefer to get in the auction early rather than waiting for the bidding to subside.   And yes Jeff Smith, I still overcall at the 2 level on decent 5 card suits.

Francine made a point yesterday.  We agreed that in the sandwich position 1NT was natural.  So if the opponents bid say one club – one heart our 1NT bid was 15-17 balanced with stoppers.  Did you wince?  Francine’s point was that people bid on air these days and the often don’t have much in the suits they bid.  (I admit that I might not venture into these waters with a balanced 15 count vulnerable unless it was very good).

As I watch world class partnerships play online I have noticed that long-term older partnerships do tend to bid fairly similarly although there are still differences.  But younger players of this caliber seem to be more likely to have different styles.  it seems fine to me as long as partner learns what to expect.  It would after all be impossible to try to do the same thing as partner on a hand.  You would be sitting there thinking about all the wrong things instead of all the right things.

How much do you think the partner’s have to have similar styles?  How much can they differ?  How do you disclose all of this to the opposition?

So do you think I bid too much?

April 7th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  5 Comments 

Francine and I had a good result in a team game today.  I looked at the hands and thought about some of my bidding choices.  See what you think.  With nobody vulnerable Francine opened 1♠ in second chair.  South doubled and I found a pass.  North bid 2♣, Francine bid 2♦ South bid 2♥ and it was my turn.

I didn’t have much bordering on nothing at all but I did have a diamond fit.  So I raised.  North bid 3♥ and this was passed out.  This was a pickup when our partners reached game except my hand didn’t squeak out a diamond raise.  Still that really had nothing to do with it.  I am willing to hear constructive crticism here.  The raise does look a bit feeble to me now.

Dealer: North Vul: None	North ♠ QJ102 ♥ K105 ♦ 6 ♣ J10932
West ♠ 86 ♥ QJ6 ♦ J952 ♣ 8654		East ♠ A9754 ♥ 92 ♦ AK843 ♣ 7
	South ♠ K3 ♥ A8743 ♦ Q107 ♣ AKQ

Then later on:

I was in fourth chair vulnerable against not.  South open 1♠ in third and yes, I overcalled 2♥.  I know this will not be a favorite with some of you.  At the other table my hand passed.  I found Francine with not much but a heart fit.  This seemed to have the effect of pushing the opponents to a poor spade game which went 2 down.  At the other table my hand passed and the auction continued with 1NT by North and 2♠ by South.  Now you really can’t bid and that ended the auction.  I know that on some occasions you can go for a number by bidding but that doesn’t happen all the often.  More constructive criticism?

Now you tell me would you really pass out 1♥ on this hand (as happened at the other table).  Everybody vul it was easy for me when South opened 1♦ in third.  I think most people would bid 2♣ as I did and end up in a club partial.  But I would have bid at the other table too.  Here South opened 1♣, West passed and North bid 1♦.  South bid 1♥.  I am in there with 2♣ now.    Our opponents just passed out 1♥.

The last board was naughty too.  I held

I opened 1♣ in first at favorable vulnerability and North overcalled 1♦. Francine bid 1♠ and I was contemplating bidding 1NT when South beat me to it. I just decided that I didn’t want them to play 1NT and the vulnerability was good so I bid 2♣. I admit my clubs should be better, much better. Anyway North bid 2NT and I sold to that. Down 2 for plus 200 was a small pickup.

Bridge as a social game

April 6th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

Playing online is fun, but it doesn’t replace playing together.   For years and years my mom has played bridge together with a small group of people.  They each put money in a pot.  Some goes to the winner and some to a bank account which funds a cruise together!  There are refreshments and gossip.  When my mom loses, she is never upset, she just says that she didn’t get the cards, and when she when she thinks she is lucky.

We sometimes get a group together and have a nice dinner and play bridge.  We draw cards for partners and we have a very good rule.  You can’t play with your spouse!

There are many small social clubs and meet-up groups where people get together to play bridge.  In my new home in Sarasota there is a community bridge club that meets once a week.  And yes, I plan to go.  I think it will be a nice way to get to know my neighbors.

Then there are the hundreds of bridge clubs all across North America where people come to compete.  It can be competitive, and even cut-throat, but these still tend to be social friendly places where you can have coffee and a snack and look over the boards after the game.

In Canada, we are having a special game in September to celebrate our bridge clubs.  It will be a simultaneous game matchpointed across the country.

But none of us need an excuse.  We just need to remember that bridge is about getting together, enjoying each other’s company and exercising our mind.  Except in some very serious competitions, it isn’t about winning.

So thanks, to all of you who operate bridge clubs and provide a place for all bridge players to learn and enjoy each other and our wonderful game.

Back home a lot poorer

April 1st, 2011  ~  linda  ~  7 Comments 

If you have been wondering why there have been no blogs recently Ray and I were in Sarasota Florida, one of the loveliest small cities I have seen.  We were there to buy a winter home and mission accomplished.  I was reminded during this process that buying a home is quite stressful but perhaps not as stressful as selling one in a poor market.

There is a large bridge club in Sarasota called the In-Between and it turned out that the seller’s real estate agent was a bridge player and played at that club.  I am sure that I will too and who knows maybe I can drag Ray along.

We are in a lovely gated community called the Landings.  The Landings is built around a tennis club which was exactly what Ray wanted.  I have been thinking about volunteering to teach bridge since they do have quite a few bridge players.  It is a long time since I have taught “in person”.

Meanwhile I have been working through the mysteries of 2NT auctions using Francine’s system.  It actually works fairly well when you consider that you are starting at the two-level.  It incorporates a version of puppet Stayman.  I have never actually used puppet before except in casual play.  Does that make me a dinosaur?  Here is the version Francine likes (and I have now mastered).

Responses to Puppet Stayman over 2NT

• 3♦ an unknown 4-card major
• 3♥ no 4 or 5 card majors
• 3♠ 5 spades
• 3NT 5 hearts

The responses are designed to economically allow responder to show their shape too (5-4 majors or 5-5 majors or 5+m with something in the majors).  There is more than just puppet Stayman and its continuations, of course.

I have found when I learn something new like this I have to think it through.  How do you handle different hand patterns and strengths.  What do various continuations mean?  Like what is 4NT in a complex auction.  I can’t remember it unless I completely understand it.   I know we will bid some hands when Francine is available but I feel a lot more confident about it now.  Of course chances are that it will be a long time before any of it comes up,

I am glad to back home but I keep thinking about my beautiful new home in Sarasota.  There is a lot of furnishing to do.

Siesta Key … not far from our condo.

Yes another slam from the Vanderbilt final

March 22nd, 2011  ~  linda  ~  4 Comments 

Oh no another slam.  Board 23 in the final was a loss for Grue.  It was the board just before the board where both pairs reached 7♦ down 1 and perhaps influenced the bidding on Board 24 in the Open Room.

Dealer: Vul:	Delmonte/Levin ♠ AQ5 ♥ 3 ♦ AJ ♣ AQJ10765
Stansby/Cheek ♠ 1095 ♥ A10854 ♦ Q85 ♣ 98		Martel/Grue ♠ K3 ♥ KQJ9762 ♦ 963 ♣ 4
	Bakhshi/Weinstein ♠ J8742 ♥ – ♦ K10742 ♣ K32

With both vulnerable North, Delmonte opened 1♣ in third.  Martel bid 3♥ and Bakhshi made a slightly aggressive bid of 3♠ which gets high marks with me.  Stansby supported hearts and Delmonte reasonably bid 4NT keycard.  What should Bakhshi respond?

Do you show the heart void or not?  He chose not to and then ended in 5♠ .  Of course the best contract is 6♣ or even 7♣ .   It may be impossible to get to 6C from here though since if 6♦ is the response to show no keycards and a void.  I was trying to think about how this could have been handled differently.   One answer comes from the other table.

Here Weinstein with the “holey” spade suit made a negative double over 3♥ When Cheek bid 4♥ Levin just bid the club slam.  After all he didn’t need much from South.  So that brings up the next question.  If Levin bids 4NT now is it keycard for clubs, a grope for the right denomination or even (shudder to play).  I don’t think it is one or three so Levin really didn’t have a way to ask for keycards.  But if he had they would still have ended in the club slam.

So what do you think of bidding the not so hot spade suit with the South hand?  And how would you assign the blame for missing the slam in the Open Room.

Bridge is a tough game…the grand that wasn’t in the Vanderbilt final

March 21st, 2011  ~  linda  ~  9 Comments 

Both North-South’s faced a bidding challenge on Board 24.  See what you think.  Take the South hand for a moment.

With nobody vulnerable you are in fourth seat.  The opponents are silent.  Your partner Delmonte opens 1♠ and you bid 2♦ game forcing.  the next thing you hear is 4♦ keycard.  What do you do?

I am old fashioned.  I answer keycards and I do not show the void in spades.  Here I have two keycards and the trump queen so I respond 4NT.  But then again I have such a great hand.  What could partner possible have that will not make the grand a possibility?  Is that what South was thinking when he bid 5NT which showed 2 keycards and a void.  This does give North a problem.  Where is the void?  How good are South’s trump?  Or perhaps he wasn’t even quite sure what 5NT was.  Maybe North who must have wondered what to do now should just have bid 6♦ .  If that is keycards South will have to hold a heart void and the AKQ of diamonds to make the slam.  Maybe if North bids 6♣ showing the ♣ A North can decide if his void is really useful (a club void would be a problem).  This bid propelled South to be the diamond grand (maybe he thought that North was looking for the trump queen).  This now received a sporting doubled because these were the two hands:

Delmonte/Levin ♠ AKQ75 ♥ K5 ♦ J654 ♣ A10

Bakhshi/Weinstein ♠ – ♥ AQ94 ♦ KQ873 ♣ KQ63

Now what was going on in the Open Room.  Things moved a little bit more slowly in the open room.  Over 1♠ -2♦ Levin just raised diamonds to 3♦ .  South cuebid hearts and North cuebid clubs.  At this point the auction from my viewpoint as a spectator gets confused.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if the players were confused too.

Weinstein bid keycard (4♥ ).  Remember Weinstein holds the void.  Well at least I think he bid keycard.  4♥ was alerted and it is often used as kickback.  Maybe it was something else?  Weinstein bid 5♦ .  Now if he though 4♥ was ace asking then normally his response which is 5♦ which is the fourth step would show two keycards and the trump queen.  Maybe they play it differently.  South made a grand slam try with 5♥ and North bid the grand.  Maybe 4♥ had a different meaning?  Maybe it was just another cuebid, alerted or not.  Something went wrong that I know.

In any case we had two expert pairs playing the final of the vanderbilt get to a grand slam opposite the ace of trump.  This has one important lesson.  Don’t let a really bad result get you down (at least not until the session is over) and bridge is one tough game.

If I got the meaning of the auctions wrong I am sorry but the main point is still there.  Try bidding this one with your favorite partner and see if you can beat the Vanderbilt finalists.

The Final Quarter of the Vanderbilt – Missing a grand

March 21st, 2011  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

By the start of the second board of the last quarter the Vanderbilt was tied 88 to 88.  The teams included the 7th seed Grue and the 21st seed Fleisher.

Martin Fleisher, New York NY; Michael Kamil, Holmdel NJ; Chip Martel, Davis CA; Lew Stansby, Dublin CA; Robert Levin, Henderson NV; Steve Weinstein, Andes NY

versus

Joe Grue, New York NY; Leslie Amoils, Toronto ON; Ishmael Delmonte, New South Wales Australia; Curtis Cheek, Las Vegas NV; David Bakhshi, London England

Les Amoils is from my home town, Toronto, and he is a friend.  So it is exciting to see him playing in the final but he is sitting out this round.  Grue picked up a game swing when Stansby-Martel got too high so they take the lead 101-88.  But on the next board Levin and Weinstein bid a thin 3NT missed at that the other table.

Board 21 contains 13 top tricks in 7NT for Weinstein and Levin.  You don’t even need ANY suit to break.  Kind of cool.  Of course they have to get there.

Dealer: Vul:	Levin/Delmonte ♠ AKJ1092 ♥ Q8 ♦ KQ ♣ 872
West ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣		East ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣
	Weinstein/Bakhshi ♠ Q ♥ AK1092 ♦ A9853 ♣ AQ

So the question is with the defense quiet throughout how to get to the grand slam.  North is vulnerable against not in first chair.  The first four bids were the same at both tables and I think there were somewhat instructive.  North started with 1♠ and South who has an enormous hand bid a game forcing 2♥ .   You could bid 3♠ if it means very good spades (six or more) and extra.  But maybe with Qx of hearts that might be the better trump suit.  Once you bid 3♠ you are pretty well going to play there or notrump. It might be better to go slow and that is what happened at both tables.  Both North’s bid 2♠ and both South’s with good cards in every other suit bid 2NT.  I wonder about whether 3♦ was a choice for them.  It would have been for me.  I am not too worried about getting passed 3NT with 19 high card points.

The auction continued along the same vein.  In the Closed Room Levin bid 3♦ which showed two to an honor in HEARTS.  In the Open Room Delmonte bid 3♥ amounting to the same thing.  Now who should take charge?  In the Closed Room Weinstein bid 4NT.  I think that was intended as keycard in hearts.  North who had this semi-solid undisclosed 6 card suit bid 6NT.  Maybe Levin wasn’t sure whether 4NT was keycard  or maybe he just wanted to get to slam and thought notrump was best.  I don’t know.  That ended the auction.  Could Weinstein have been on?  He might have reasoned that if Levin wanted to be in 6NT and he had 19 high card points all in controls with a heart fit and a spade fit of sorts that 13 tricks was likely but that is probably something that you just can’t take a chance on.   I do understand that when you get into a complex auction like this it is pretty impossible for a spectator (namely me) to understand all the nuances of this auction.

In the Open Room Bakhshi bid a quite 4♣ cue bidding in support of the heart contract.  Now Delmonte took control and bid keycard.  In the subsequent auction he could demonstrate that there side had all the keycards and make a grand slam try which Bakhshi was pleased to accept.  Getting to 7NT was worth 13 imps.

How would the bidding go after 1♠ -2♥ -3♠ ?  South might have started with some cuebidding and North would have shown the diamond control.  Keycard would have revealed they had them all and South would have made a grand slam try.  North might show the ♦ Q and that would be enough for South.

Here is the auction in the Closed Room.

A fascinating hand

March 19th, 2011  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

In the third quarter of the semifinal Eric Greco  had this defensive problem at trick one.  Greco was sitting South, not vulnerable versus vulnerable.  West, Stansby opened 2♠ .  Hampson passed and Martel bid 3♠ .  This was passed to Hampson who surprised with a 4♥ bid.  Martel took up the challenge and bid 4♠ .  Greco doubled.  The opening lead was the ♦ 7.  And this was what Greco saw.  What is your defensive plan?

		Martel ♠ AJ72 ♥ Q32 ♦ KQ92 ♣ Q10
	Greco ♠ K6 ♥ K ♦ A10853 ♣ K9762

Greco took a very long time, maybe as much as eight to ten minutes at trick one.  He rose with the ♦ A and returned a diamond playing Hampson for a singleton.  It does seem possible but Hampson is known to have a singleton spade.  It just doesn’t seem all that likely that he has a singleton diamond as well.  He might have bid 4♥ in the first place if he was 7-4-1-1 but then again he might have bid 4♥ even if he was 7-3-2-1 but maybe a bit less likely.  Rising with the ♦ A produces an extra diamond trick for East if Greco has the 76 or 74 doubleton.  The defense actually starts with a spade trick a diamond trick, two heart tricks and a club trick but two discards from the West hand are not enough – unless they are heart discards.  Unfortunately the defense cannot untangle their heart suit at trick two.

To beat the contract you have to duck.  After winning the second round of diamonds with the jack Stansby could play a spade to the ace and throw away his heart losers to make the hand.

Dealer: Vul:	Hampson ♠ 8 ♥ AJ109654 ♦ 76 ♣ J84
Stansby ♠ Q109543 ♥ 87 ♦ J4 ♣ A53		Martel ♠ AJ72 ♥ Q32 ♦ KQ92 ♣ Q10
	Greco ♠ K6 ♥ K ♦ A10853 ♣ K9762

Suppose Greco ducks the diamond.  It appears that Stansby can endplayed Greco by playing the ♠ A and another.  But Greco can cash the ♥K when in on the ♠ K and then the ♦ A.  Now Stansby does get two discards a heart and a club.  But a single club discard is useless.

Is there anyway to work this at trick one.  He can figure out that Stansby likely has six spades and two hearts and either three diamonds and two clubs or two diamonds and three clubs.  If you work it out if Hampson does have a singelton diamond and Stansby has three diamonds and ace little club, you don’t have to rise to beat the hand.  In a way Hampson is ruffing your club trick.  But if Stansby has three diamonds and AJ alone in clubs then you must get the ruff in because you have no club trick.

So what is the most likely holding that Hampson could have do you think he is one – seven – one – four (with xxxx in clubs) or one of the other options.  Getting this one wrong cost a lot of imps but it was no shame and getting it right would have been a candidate for defense of the year.