Ray Still Has It

October 29th, 2010  ~  linda  ~  10 Comments 

It has become impossible to drag my husband out to a bridge game of any sort in recent years.  He doesn’t like many things about bridge tournaments (like people’s behavior, the frequent director calls looking for an edge, committees and the like).  And who can really blame him.  It can be a lot of work to deal with the nonsense.  But over the last while when pressed he said that he would play online.  So yesterday I took him up on that promise.

We had fun despite the fact that I was not at my personal best.  But Ray did shine.  I have found that spouses are always ready to pounce and I could hear the grumbling on this hand before dummy came down.

Dealer: N Vul: EW	Linda ♠ J109872 ♥ K10962 ♦ 5 ♣ 8
West ♠ – ♥ 74 ♦ Q943 ♣ K107632		East ♠ 642 ♥ J53 ♦ AKJ7 ♣ AQJ
	Ray ♠ AKQ5 ♥ AQ8 ♦ 10862 ♣ 94

I wasn’t sure what to do with the North hand at this wonderful vulnerability.  I considered a weak two bid in spades and maybe that would have been the best approach.  Anyway I didn’t want to take too long thinking about it and I decided to pass and await action.  East opened 1NT which was going to be a pain.  Because if West bid 3NT I would have to do something clever to get both suits in.  I could try 5♦ and when this was doubled, redouble.  Ray would know what to do.  Ray passed and West bid 2♠ , transfer.  I thought I would double this for now and then bid hearts later.  East passed and Ray made the surprise bid of 4♠ .  He told me later how he found this bid.  He figured that if I was doubling 2♠ missing the AKQ I had a lot of spade length and some other strange things about my hand.  Wonderful!  You have to admire his thinking.  West ventured 5♣ and I bid 5♠ .  East doubled to end the auction.

Ray was feeling a little aggrieved that his clever bid had been punished until dummy came down.

Ray had another bidding triumph on the last board getting to a slam in 3 bids (5 if you count bids by the opponents).  We didn’t see any results at the time since we were the first to play the board and he asked me to check how we did.  We won almost 10 imps, dear.  Here is the deal:

Dealer: W Vul: EW	Linda ♠ A963 ♥ 864 ♦ KQ5 ♣ 642
West ♠ 754 ♥ Q932 ♦ 1074 ♣ 1097		East ♠ 10 ♥ J5 ♦ J8632 ♣ KQJ82
	Ray ♠ KQJ82 ♥ AK107 ♦ A9 ♣ A5

East opened 1♦ in third.  I like 1♣ a lot better if you plan to bid at all.  Ray doubled and I thought I showed some values with 2♠ .  When East continued with 3♣, Ray thought my values were likely to be in the majors and he jumped to the spade slam.  AS you can see it did have 12 top tricks, making it Linda proof.

By the way, Ray, despite the fact that our opponents jumped to and made a very lucky spade grand not even knowing about the trump ace, we still ended up with plus imps overall.

Now I need your help readers.  Ray needs some encouragement.  He is a good bridge player and even if we only play online I want to play with him.  Wifely wiles go only so far.  Send your comments or emails his way.  Mark your ballots YES for Ray should play bridge.

A+ for the ACBL … Part 4 of the endlessly saga

October 28th, 2010  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Over the years I have done my share of whining about the ACBL and rightly so.   For one thing without some constructive criticism how can an organization improve.  But when it comes to their website I have no complaints at all.  Kudos to the webmaster.  The home page is attractive with frequently updated headlines with an emphasis on people.  There is a revolving photo album with snaps from a party for Lucille “Bucky” Buckner who turned 102 years young on Oct.1 and is still doing well in tournaments and a story about a party to honor the late Aileen Osofsky, ACBL’s National Goodwill Chairman

But mainly the site is full of stuff you want to know or might be interested in whether you are a professional, a bridge player from novice to expert, interested in learning bridge or well just about anybody who can spell bridge.  Not only that but I found it pretty easy to navigate. There is a ton of stuff on this site including all the information about upcoming tournaments and past and future NABC’s.  You can send your friends over to download (for free) the 2 Volume Learn to Play Bridge.  I am amazed to see club results from past games all over North America.  There is a tool to find a local bridge teacher.  Masterpoint race results are listed.  I find that Jeff Meckstroth just ahead of his partner Eric are one and two in the Player of the Decade (Platinum points since 2010).   Justin Lall is leading the Juniors this year.

There is a Hall of Fame page with a list of members.  Each member has a bio and a picture.  The first member alphabetically is Hermine Baron (pictured).  She won a lot of masterpoints and seems to have dominated the women’s events in her era.

Want to know about the school bridge program, teacher accreditation programs, alerts and eligible conventions, teacher’s manuals for ACBL courses, special events, places to play at clubs or online and well everything.  A+ (world class guys).

So you just know that nobody else will compare.  But let’s look at some other national sites.  So down under we go to the Australian Bridge Federation and while not in the same “league” as the ACBL it has excellent information but the design leaves a lot to be desired.  I feel like  I have moved back at least 10 years.  Lot of useful information and some interesting stuff even if you are not Australia including the newsletter which is online and excellent. C+.

I have a quick look at some other national sites and get bored (they just don’t measure up) so I decide to move on to something more fun.  I check out Justin Lall’s blog (the aforementioned star junior).  After a long hiatus Justin started blogging again in August.  His last blog was September 2nd.  So he might be taking a rest again.   His most recent blog is about this hand from a Dallas Regional (playing knockout teams):

The first set of the finals was a wild one with a lot of interesting hands. This one was definitely my favorite though.

White/Red I picked up:

T3

A862

82

AQJT9

My partner opened a gambling 3N, showing a solid 7 or 8 card minor and no side ace or king. What would you bid?  Justin bid 5D and you can hear his reasoning.  The play is fun and you can read about that on Justin’s blog.  If Justin would just write more blogs this would be a clear A site.

Just for fun here is a website from  Sid & Abby who live in South Africa.  They have a monthly quiz and this month is about a rather cute hand from the Buffett Cup.  There is quite a good archive of deals to look at too.  I am pleased to report that I found the best line (the Gitelman line.  There are quite a number of jokes too, some better than others.  I did like their offering on 21 Reasons why bridge is better than sex.  Here are a few:

Some other useful things too.  A C+ and worth a visit if only for a few chuckles.

The Energy when you connect with your partner

October 26th, 2010  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

I was playing with Francine Cimon today.  It is always a joy to watch her play dummy.  She has both great technique and she can also manufacture tricks when she needs to.  But when you and partner are on the same wavelength on bidding and particularly on defense then that can be uplifting.  It feels like you have had a jolt of energy.  Everything is fun and easy and at the end you just feel, well good.  Have you had times like that?

Here is a pretty hand we defended today with a familiar theme.

Dealer: North Vul: EW	Francine ♠ K2 ♥ 109873 ♦ Q108 ♣ 984
West ♠ Q108754 ♥ AQJ6 ♦ 64 ♣ Q		East ♠ A96 ♥ K54 ♦ J52 ♣ KJ62
	Linda ♠ J3 ♥ 2 ♦ AK973 ♣ A10753

Francine made a great lead on the hand the ♥10.  From the auction she may have worked out that I was short in the majors and could easily have a heart ruff.  Declarer had a problem.  Without a miracle in the spade suit he had four losers two diamonds, a club and a spade.  He decided his best shot was to see if I would duck the club.  He won the heart in dummy with the ♥ K and then led a small club from the dummy.  A club play at trick two certainly felt like a swindle of some sort.  Declarer might have had a club void but the play was going to net him a lot more if he had the stiff queen.  That seemed the most likely holding and the worse risk.  So I rose on the ♣A.  I played the ♦9 to Francine’s♦Q and she gave me a heart ruff.  I cashed a top diamond for the setting trick.  When declarer misguessed spades he was down 2.  In the other room they played in 3♠ and when Francine’s hand failed to lead a heart on an even more informative auction and my hand ducked the ♣A they made five.

Bridge Players At Home … Bridge on the Internet Part 3

October 26th, 2010  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Many bridge players have their own websites and for all sorts of reasons.  A lot of them are selling something, their services as teachers, professionals, their books, cruises and so on.  In many cases they also have at least some content to bring people to their site.  Some have done it for the love of the game or as a service to other bridge players.  In any case commercial or not, today many bridge players are at home on the web.

So let’s look into a few living rooms at some of the famous first.  I have reviewed Eddie Kantar‘s site before.   Eddie is a wonderful, generous man who I love dearly.  He is a fascinating thinker, a star bridge player and one of the greatest bridge teachers and writers in the world.  Some of the website is designed to sell Eddies books, ebooks, travel and related products.  But there is still a lot of good stuff.  There is a large section on bridge tips of many types and also a terrific section on bridge humor including many of Eddie’s favorite stories.  Under the learn section are some excerpts from products he is selling but there is also a large section of problems and ideas.  Pretty well everything written by Eddie is worthwhile.  This site is an A.

Eddie as you may recall is the author of the definitive book on Keycard Blackwood so I picked out this humor story from his website.

Playing with Billy Eisenberg in a K.O match we are playing Key Card Blackwood and have a few screwups and are behind at the half. When we sit down to play the second half, one of our opponents announces, “We have decided to give you guys a chance, we are also going to play Key Card Blackwood.”

I go to visit Mike Lawrence. The first thing I notice is that this site needs some updating.  It is not a welcoming entrance.  The biggest thing on the front page is a big notice asking if you have trouble with your Mike Lawrence CD’s.  (I am sure that it bothers Mike a lot that his customers have a problem which is a credit to him.)  Mike is a star teacher, player and writer.  Mike‘s site is devoted to Mike’s products but there is quite a bit of content as well.  Good content but the site needs updating.  B.

All of the content is under the article tab.  There are over 60 mostly short articles that are have an interactive component.  They include everything from bridge trivia, lay and defense problems.  I am reproducing here a portion of one of the articles entitled a safety play.   I won’t give the answer. To see the rest head over to Mike’s site.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

A Safety Play

By Mike Lawrence

J 9 2 A 10 8 7 6 2 8 5 3 2 A K Q 6 4 K 3 A A K 9 6 3

LEAD – DQ

South got shoved around a bit in the bidding and arrived at a good slam in spite of it. How can he overcome the known terrible split in his side suit?

Good players no longer sit still when their opponents open with a strong two club bid, something I observed in a previous hand. South ended up in six spades on a sequence which had very little to do with science. South opened two clubs, West overcalled three clubs, North overbid a little with three hearts, and East went the limit with five diamonds. South still hadn’t shown his spades so did so at the five level. North’s raise to six spades was an educated guess.

South won the diamond lead and appreciating that ruffing clubs would not work given West’s club overcall, decided to set up dummy’s hearts. South played the king and ace of hearts and ruffed the third heart (East having three to the jack) with the ace of trumps.

What now?  If spades were 3-2, declarer could now win the rest of the tricks by drawing trump and running hearts.  But what if trumps were 4-1? East seemed to have a huge number of diamonds and he has shown up with three hearts. A singleton spade was possible.  Barring East’s having four spades, virtually impossible, six spades is cold. How can South arrange that?

There is a way. I encourage you to look for it.

Larry Cohen has updated his website and it has a much more modern look.  Larry is a star player and a wonderful teacher and writer.  You can read about his long and illustrious career in his bio.  Like the others his site sells his books, cruises, lectures and CD’s.  So where’s the meat?  Start with the article section.  Larry has saved and reproduced 100’s of articles written over the years.   They are rated with stars (you can add your rating if you like) and by level.  Then there is bidding practice which you can do alone or with your partner.  You bid some hands and the hands are scored based on matchpoint scoring (with 10 being tops).

Deal 1: East deals, both vulnerable

WEST		EAST
Q J 4 A K 10 9 8 7 Q 4 3 A		A 10 8 3 6 2 A K 6 5 K Q 4

I try the first hand (solo).  It’s pretty interesting and I am sure I would get the top marks but I wonder if there isn’t a cleverer way of bidding the hand then I use (or Larry suggests) if you play transfers.  The best contract is 6NT.  Would you have landed there?

Larry’s insight into bidding and play is always very good and with the wealth of the material and the new well organized site this is an A+.

Barnet Shenkin has a newish website.  He has a distinguished career as a player mostly in his native Scotland but lately has been playing in the US doing quite well on some of the top teams.  If you have watched him on BBO you will know that he likes to think deeply about the game.   There is quite a lot of good stuff on this site.  He has a fascinating addition to the story of the Reese and Shapario scandal in Buenos Aires. Barner’s father,  Louis Shenkin was on the British Bridge League Council as a delegate for the Scottish Bridge Union. He later took over the organising of the British end of the investigation, and became the Chairman of the British Bridge League.  He has reproduced some of his father’s correspondence.

There are about a dozen “newspaper clippings”, stories written about Barnet in various newspapers and then about 20 articles Barnet has written.  I ha to read the one labelled “Oh Canada“.  It is a story about the 1990 World Championship in Geneva.  The protaganists in the semifinal match between Canada and Germany were:

The Canadian team had Mark Molson playing with Boris Baran,Eric Kokish with George Mittelman and Arno Hobart playing with Marty Kirr. MarkStein was the non-playing captain.The German team was ,Georg Nippgen,RolandRohowsky,Bernard Ludwig,Jocken Bitschene.  This is the match that Canada lost due to a scoring error.  I am almost sorry I read it.  It has been a sore spot for so many years.  The Germans had to accept the late scoring change.  They refused and in the end in what must have been a close decision the committee ruled against Canada.  Sigh.  Barnet seems to be adding these stories at a good clip.  Lots of them are analysis of hands and description of matches.  Another highlight of the site is brief descriptions of some of the top bridge players (many deceased).  A good solid B+ site if you want to read some interesting stories and blogs.

There are so many of these sites I realize it would take me years to review them all.  I will do some quicky reviews in the next blog and maybe some longer ones later on.  If there is any personal site you would like reviewed send me an email.

The Bridgeverse Encyclopedias and more … Part 2 of Reviews

October 24th, 2010  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

First on request I look up a blog called Ask Doctor Robert.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the doctor has been out … since  2003.  It has a certain British humor and if you like that you may want to visit it for a “ha” but definitely not a “ha ha ha”.  (No Grade due to obsolescence).

When I was a child my parents bought a copy of Britannica and for 10 years update volumes arrived at our house.  Being the reader that I was at times I decided I would read a portion.  I would pick up a letter and start at Page 1.  You may not be surprised to learn that I never made it to the end of any volume.  Still I could find some of the articles quite fascinating.  How great it is to have so much bridge information online now.  Let’s say that you that an online partner really wants to play Ghestem.    Now if you are like me you have heard of it but you don’t really know what it is.  Wishing to appear all knowing I type this is my browser and voila a whole bunch of sites that describe this convention.

The Bridge Guys have quite a nice writeup complete with a picture the author.  (For the record it is a method of showing 2 suiters after the opponents open the bidding).

Mr. Pierre Ghestem

This site has some fun information especially if you like reading encyclopedias.  It is not so much a site to read but more a place to go and look things up.  The site which was started in 1998 has been updated 12 times apparently but basically it still looks like 1998.  They have actually made things less useful by adding a front page to their front page which has nothing extra on it but a couple of adds.  The link I gave you takes you to the “real” home page.  Because all of the button are very very large it takes a while to find what you are looking for.

The best thing about the site is the glossary which has an amazing collection of bridge terms, conventions, organizations, trophies and well everything listed in alphabet order with a brief explanation.  It is fun to browse and the explanations are much shorter and less academic than the Britannica.  There are some pictures but more would be welcome.  In many cases there are links to other sources (some broken).   (A similar approach is taken to bridge systems).  There are a number of pages to links in various categories including blogs, junior bridge, bridge travel and more. If you google most conventions the bridge guys explanation will likely be the top of the google list.

I would give this site an A just for the glossary and definition of bridge terms but the confusing menu structure, double home page and so on downgrade it to a B+.  I know you put a lot of work in this fellows but you need to improve the ease of access for readers (you can still do advertising.)  Until then, the best way to find something is to just go to your favorite web browser google the bridge term or convention (with the word bridge) and the Bridge Guys result till probably come up.

Now if you want to find out about a play or coup (say a trump squeeze) you should wander over to Bridge Hands.  It too has a bridge encyclopedia.  It has less obscure trivia but lots of obscure useful stuff often provided by a link to another source.  Want to see all of the ACBL appeal books, a list of bridge books on avoidance plays rated by level?  The best part for me is the play encyclopedia which has most standard plays and many obscure ones listed with an explanation and an example.  They also have a good selection of books with a synopsis and a level.  They really haven’t rated the book and the stars just tell you if it is beginner to expert.  Warning this book list seems quite out of date.  For example the world championship books end in 2003 and I see many missing books.

They do have a blog (I think this is one and the same as their online emagazine).  They seem to have divided the online newsletter into novice and intermediate and advanced.  Newsletter suscriptions are free.  One blog/newsletter I read had an online quiz on losing trick count which was done with audio.  It seemed quite professional.  The blogs are frequent in October but there was a gap of more than a year previously.   They are also now on twitter http://twitter.com/bridgehands with a link to the blogs.  What they are doing must take a huge amount of work and I wonder if they plan to keep it up.

I did notice that the recommended books are not exactly current.  I see some out of print books, books with newer editions, and books that should be there that have been published in the last couple of years.  Still this is a wonderful effort.  One of the other highlights of this site is an extensive list of audio interviews.  I do wish the home page was more organized and attractive but it is not hard to get where you want to go and find what you want to find.  This sit is an A+.   Two quibbles are the look of the home page and the fact that the books (and other things) are not all that currently.  But this is not important beside the terrific information available.

Another great place to find out about everything bridge is of Wikipedia. Now you may say “of course” but as recently as last year I found Wikipedia to have very little about bridge on it and I added some stuff myself.  Now the bridge Wiki fairies have been very busy and the bridge entries are much much better.  Still there is a lot of work to do if you want to get in there.  I noticed that the 2010 ABTA book of the year are already there under list of bridge books and magazines.  Rating the wikipedia bridge entries is sort of silly but its good to see how much it has improved in a year.

Bridge on the web Part 1 of too many

October 22nd, 2010  ~  linda  ~  7 Comments 

This year I am up for a REAL challenge.  I am searching the web to look for bridge sites and review them.  I know there are some old favorites like BBO, Swan Bridge, Great Bridge Links, Bridge Guys and many other but there are a lot of new sites and some really improved websites too.  I will rate the sites from A to D as I go along.  If I find anything worse than a D I won’t include it.  Even a D site has at least something of interest.

The challenge is so big I almost don’t know where to start so I just google bridge blog and see what emerges.

One new website I found was http: Bridge Union.  I rate it a C.  It labels itself as a website for bridge players around the world.   This page appears to belong to Bridget an attractive young Russian women now from New York City.

All the content appears to be from Bridget although you can become a member and write a few words.  She has a brief and infrequent blog and about some photos mostly holiday snaps it would appear with one or two bridge pictures.

One interesting thing is 60 videos; mostly interviews with a variety of bridge players from teachers to bridge starts.  My problem with them is that the sound quality is very bad.  I don’t have the best hearing but there is often a lot of background noise and I can hardly make out the words which is unfortunate.  But I do think the idea is very nice and it is fun to see Bill Gates at a tournament.  Great concept I just wish the execution was better.  Still fun.

Perhaps the most useful feature for some is a download aimed at teachers in the bridge school program.  There is a well thought out and attractive word document with lesson plans for after-school teachers.

Bridget has a number of links (not any of ours) so I follow one of them to something called Bridge Meetup Groups.  Actually this is a sit on meetup.com.  I had never heard of this site before but when I just look at local meetup sites I find dozens near Toronto.  There is a meetup group foo just about everything.   There is a new group for Movie Night, Financial planning and fitness.  A meeting for advanced lottery players (I didn’t know you could become advanced, theater, yoga, lots of food adventures, international stuttering awareness day and a climb up the CN Tower which I know I will miss.  Anyway there are 28 bridge meetup groups almost all in the US with 1725 members.  The biggest is Boston Cards and Conversation

Boston, MA which is a group who likes to play all sorts of game, bridge included.  The New York Bridge Meetup group has this to say.

Welcome, New York Bridge Players!

Meet other local bridge players in the area to play games, discuss strategies, and plan tournaments.We can try to match players according to their skill levels.  This is all not really a “website” but I like the concept so worth a B.

Catchall Bridge has interesting blogs with discussions of Vugraph deals.  There is no way to tell who the author is.  I even try to ask him.  He has an ASK me anything about bridge button but to the hangup is to ask anything you have to join tumblr.com as a blogger.  I do it but it is a pain since I don’t want to blog there.  I find out his name is John Catch with a bit of research.  He tweets his blogs too.  The blogs are good but infrequent.  John if you read this email me ([email protected]).  A B- for Catchall.  More frequent blogs would make the grade higher.

By now I am ready for an A so I go to a familiar website that I know and love.  I have just played some ridiculous bridge on BBO with an even more random collection of partners than usual.  I need some fun.  Anyone who read last year’s webseries (or the previous years) will know that Richard Pavlicek has a wonderful website.  It still looks the same which is just fine with me.  It is easy to find things and has terrific content.  I see in the headlines a new sure-trick problem called Two-Way Finesses.  Woops maybe its me but I can’t get it to work.  I just don’t see how to enter the answer.

I see that there is a new feature Ask Richard.  It has been designed to allow you to submit a problem and makes sure that the deal has the right number of cards and all the information.  I try it by entering too many spade jacks and it does in fact catch my error.  Cool.  Next I try the little deuce problem.  Here are part of the instructions:

Construct a deal where South can make 3 NT and all four deuces win a trick.  The defense need not be perfect but must be legal.

These two conditions must also be met:

If you want to try your own hand (a friendly pun) head over to the site. Entries close on Halloween.  There is so much wonderful content on this site I won’t even try to list it all but of you want a bridge calculator Rich has one for you.  I try the hand evaluator calculator and get back more than I was expecting.

AKQ98    KT32    Q2    J5
Evaluation	Hand
High Card Points	15	9	3	2	1
Total Points	15	9	3	2	1
Playing Tricks	7.5	5	2	0.5	0
Defensive Tricks	2.5	2	0.5	0	0
Losing Tricks	6	0	2	2	2
Controls	4	3	1	0	0
Stoppers	2.5	1	1	0.5	0
Freakness	3	1	0	1	1

Check out systems and conventions, bridge humor, puzzles, articles, bidding practice and lots more.  With the bidding practice you can compare to bridge stars including RP himself but also many of the world’s top pairs.  Want to compare how you do with Meckwell or Martel and Stansby etc.  I could say more but just visit this site.  you won’t be disappointed.  A+  ( I am going to try a poll/contest.  They are fun and there are a lot of them.)  Be right back.  Ray and I scored 55 out of 60 on the Deutschland’s Vienna Coup.  See if you can beat us.

So now a big test.  I used Swan Games (as did many of you whether you know it or not) to get the running scores.  I am going to see what it its like.  It says that no fee is required.  It takes no time and I am on.  the hardest part if to come up with a user name that nobody has taken.  I  sit down to watch a pair and find that I can work the controls without any difficulty.  It would take a bit of time to learn everything but you could be playing (or watching) in minutes without reading a manual.  That works for me.  There is a rating system with all the pluses and minuses that brings but there is also a self rating system too. .The best thing about Swan though is not playing the game it is the scores from the tournaments.  They have live running scores.  They are board by board and they keep them around so you can look later.  Every deal, the deal, what contract each pair played, the butler and everything else you could want.  If you looked at the running scores during the World Champioships this is where you were.  The running score website is definitely an A+.  I suspect the game is just fine too but I can’t give it much of a rating without spending more time on the site. If you like a rating system based on results this may be the site for you.  Go here for all the benefits of the free membership and the paid ones if you want to play for points.

One last site for today.  How about Marty Bergen?  This is a very busy site.  It is full of stuff Marty wants to sell you.  Online lessons, cruises, books, seminars and other products.  If you want something Marty this is a good place to see what is available.  You can even get a personally autographed book.  Not much here if you are not in a buying mode.  There are a few sample chapters and some free downloads to enhance your purchase.  This is a D unless you want to a list of Marty products.  I am impressed with the sheer volume of books and other products.

I am not going to end on that note.  I find something rather cool

ELLIOTT AVEDON VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF GAMES

I had no idea that the University of Waterloo (my son went there) has such a museum.

In 1971, the Universiy of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada established a public museum dedicated to research and the collection, preservation, and exhibition of games and game-related objects from around the world. The Museum was established and operated by the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, under the administration of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences.

It turns out the University closed the Museum in 2009 and transferred the exhibits to a museum on Ottawa.  So heading over to the card section. I arrive at this page.  There is a lovely soft sculpture of “The BRIDGE PLAYERS”.  There is Archie Bunker’s Card Game.

And some contract bridge teaching machines (from the era before computers) and quite a lovely whist trick counter.  This site is worth a virtual visit and rates a happy C.

A Fun Game on BBO

October 21st, 2010  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I play with lots of partners on BBO.  Some are students and I learn from them, when I try to explain things, when I comment on what happened when we play and when I too make mistakes.  Some are random partners who I play some hands with.  I learn from them too.  Here I don’t explain things but I think differently: rubber bridge judgment is more important.  You have to figure out what the *@&!* is going on and how to manage things to get to where you want to go in bidding and in defense.

I have also played games with many good players as we say; “for fun”.  No pressure.  No long-term plans.  No system.  Just enjoy the bridge.  Some games are planned and some just happen.  Last night I played with a good partner “for fun”.  And you know what it was fun.  It reminded me about how much I like to play bridge with people who do play well and where you can have a real partnership.  I was tired.  I had an exhausting day dealing with family matters I rather not think about; aged parent, sibling in trouble and so on.  I wasn’t sure I was up to playing but once it started I forgot all about it.  Sometimes that’s why you play bridge isn’t it?

I have to admit that my daughter called during the game and I did split my concentration.  A couple of times she must have wondered why I was making repetitive comments.  But then she is used to me.  I wonder if she suspects I am playing.  Some times during these calls she does accuse me of being distracted.  My children are much better parents than I ever was and pretty darn good people too.

The only negative about the game was that opponents came and went at the drop of a card.  The very first board was fun on defense.  Declarer is best known as EAST for reasons which will be obvious

Dealer: N Vul: None	Linda ♠ 9732 ♥ A72 ♦ A1054 ♣ QJ
WEST ♠ AJ43 ♥ K6 ♦ 98732 ♣ A7		EAST ♠ Q ♥ Q10843 ♦ KJ ♣ K8654
	Fun Partner ♠ K1086 ♥ J95 ♦ Q6 ♣ 10932

Would you open EAST’s hand?  I know it’s 5-5 but its aceless and the ♠Q is not the best card.   Still the heart spots are nice.  If I had the West hand I would not have been willing to settle for partscore.  EAST passed 2NT out of fright with the 5-5 hand.  FP led the ♣10 and came close but failed to find the only lead that would have guaranteed a set (a small club).  Declarer hoped with the ♣A.  Declarer led the HK and I had to decide whether to duck or win.  I still thought I might have to clear clubs while partner had an entry so I decided to rise and unblock clubs.  EAST could have won the ♣K and all his spots were high with the exception of the ♣10.  Now declarer was in trouble.  I switched to a diamond and EAST played the ♦ J.  I won the diamond return with the ♦A felling EAST’s ♦K.  I returned a small heart not wanting to set up the diamonds in dummy at this point.  East reasonably played a small heart and FP won the ♥ J.  Now this is where it is really nice to have a good partner.

Students pay attention.  Here is the ending:

Dealer: Vul:	LINDA ♠ 9752 ♥ 2 ♦ 105 ♣ –
WEST ♠ AJ43 ♥ – ♦ 987 ♣ –		EAST ♠ Q ♥ Q84 ♦ – ♣ K84
	FP ♠ K1086 ♥ 9 ♦ – ♣ 93

FP had a count on East’s hand.  From the bidding and the plays in the club suit FP knew that EAST was 5-5 in clubs and hearts.  East had played two diamonds and so could have at most one spade.  Just in case the spade was the queen, FP carefully laid down the ♠K.  Now all we had to do was keep EAST out of his hand and we had 3 down.  East won the spade and played a diamond.  I won and returned a diamond and it was all over.  By the way, the defender left the table before the last trick.

Thanks FP.  Let’s do it again.

Phinal Philly Phun

October 19th, 2010  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

I thought I would do a round-up of Philly.

From what I gathered the tournament was a lot of fun and a great success although perhaps the organizers would have wanted just a few more participants.  There were some complaints from some booksellers who were located far off where the junior events were held and the tournament covered a lot of territory.

The USA as I would have expected did wonderfully winning many events and having high places in all of them.  The star for Canada was Kismet Fung who was second in the Mixed Pairs and second in the Women’s Pairs.  Well done.

The Chinese continue to prove they are a major force in Women’s bridge.

The whole thing makes me think that maybe when this all rolls around again in four years, this time I really really will play!  This year other travel and work responsibility (and a bit of illness) made it impossible for me.

The Open Teams was as exciting as they come and the bridge was terrific.  I enjoyed watching so many wonderful young players on the Diamond team win in a close final against the fabulous Nickel team.  The Women’s final was mostly solid bridge with China defeating the Netherlands.

Summary of Some Remaining Events

In the open pairs Bobby Levin and Steve Weinstein, one of my own personal favorite pairs won.  They were more than a full percentage place above the Chinese second pair Lixin Yand and Bang Zhang.  A Bulgarian pair came next Jerry Stamatov and Vladomir Mihov and one of my other favorites Fulvi Fantoni and Claudio Nunes of Italy were fourth.

Lynn Deas and Beth Palmer had a huge score to win the Women’ts Pairs.  Kismet Fung (who had also been second with Brian Glubok earlier in the tournament) and Susan Culham were a clear second.  Next was a whole clump of pairs with a Dutch pair, Russian pair, three Chinese and three additional American pairs rounding out the top ten.

The winners of the IMP Pairs were

1 Wolfe THOMPSON – Marc ZWERLING

2 Joao-Paulo CAMPOS – Miguel VILLAS-BOAS

Winners of the Mixed Swiss Teams were:

Greg Hinze (Captain), Shane Blanchard, Connie Goldberg,Dale and Lynn Johannesen and JoAnn Sprung.

For all the results.

Kismet with Dan Jacob, Penticton 2009

Sorry Michael and more

October 14th, 2010  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

The World Championships are coming to an end with some pairs events still to finish. The pairs events are of less interest to me although apparently there may be some on Vugraph.

Bridge at the Commonwealth Games will be shown online. All of us, even those not eligible to play being non-Commonwealth, should encourage and cheer for this event. It is the only major sporting event I know that include bridge as part of the competition. I will no doubt write about it and I have hopes for the Canadian team. For more information: Commonwealth Games Bridge.

Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships

The Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships (CNBC) involves the game of cards known as Bridge. This championship event is held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Games where athletes from the different Commonwealth countries participate. The first Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships were held in the year 2002 in Manchester, England.

Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships 2002

In 2002, the first Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships were held where many Commonwealth nations participated.

In 2006, the participating nations were: Bermuda

, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Australia, Canada, Guyana, England, Guernsey, India, Jamaica, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malta, Malaysia, Kenya, Mauritius, Pakistan, Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Wales, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, Scotland, and Saint Lucia.

The Canada and Wales teams were the finalists. In the final, the players of Canada (Keith Balcombe, Judith Gartaganis, Gordon Campbell, and Nicholas Gartaganis) defeated the players of Wales (Dafydd Jones, Adam Dunn, Gary Jones, Peter Goodman, Jim Luck, Tim Rees, and Filip Kurbalija) and won the gold medal. India was in the third place and won the bronze medal.

This World Championships has been a very good tournament for North America with the US being the dominant team in the Open teams. It is interesting that in the ladies this was not really the case despite the fact that many strong European players were on sponsored US teams. I am not sure if this means any thing important.

In the instructions on the World Championship contest I tried to make it clear that players would be counted from the country that they declared (as the WBF reported) rather than the land of their birth. This was confusing to a few people and I think in the end that this year’s contest did not work out very well. The biggest problem was the domination of players with an American flag playing in the open. In particular I confused Michael Yuen who reasonably (and perhaps wistfully) still sees Fred and Geoff as Canadian. While I am sure both of them have not forgotten the maple leaf like many greats in all areas of life who have immigrated to the land of opportunity they are now Americans.

A lot of the time I see Canada and the United States as almost one country. Our ties are so great. Our lives are so interwoven. Our cultures are related. Our families cross borders. We are the big country with the cold winds and a lovely addition of French flavor at the top of the continent. Our American brothers are much more numerous friends with a huge mix of terrain from snowy Buffalo to warm Miami who excel in most things and seem to get the technology first (I had to go South to get my ipad early). Yes I am proud to be a Canadian but I am also proud to be North American with a lot of family on both sides of the border (like most Canadians). And I know that in times of trouble we can both count on each other.

So if we some times have trouble decided whether some of our native sons are still Canadian it is understandable.

Coming of age

October 13th, 2010  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

The Diamond team brings together a bunch of men of an age.  They played juniors together and now they are grown and entering middle life, the prime bridge playing years.  Together they represent the best in the American junior program and the best in American bridge.  Some of them have been bridesmaids in the other big events and of course, they have won their share, but now the first time they are world champions.

For the most part they swept through the field like butter to reach a showdown with one of the great American teams of the modern era, the Nickel team.  The Nickel team was weakened a bit perhaps by some recent changes in personnel.  But their team included some of the greats of the game including perhaps the world’s best imp pair, Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth – Meckwell.  And although Jeff and Eric played all four sets of the 64 board final and although all teams members of both teams played high quality bridge this year was a Diamond year.

Will winning this championship change their lives?  Perhaps not very profoundly because they are professionals any way but it will get the monkey off their back.  They will be the team to beat.

Because the bridge was so very professionally played the game was low scoring and slams and a bit of luck played a significant part in the result.  The third quarter result over 16 boards was a remarkable 14 to Diamond and 13 to Nickell.  This brought the total to Diamond 90 and Nickell 69.

The final quarter contained very few swings as well, perhaps fitting for such talented teams.  There were two slam swings both in favor of the Diamond team and both involving finding the trump queen.  Some days you not only play well but the bridge gods are smiling.

On a day when American technology and American know-how combined with Chilean courage to save 33 trapped minors two American teams faced off in a great bridge event, the Rosenblum.  Both teams played very well.  America should be proud of her sons.