October 5th, 2009 ~ linda ~
1 Comment 
It seems like my long summer if over and its back to work. We are watching new episodes of House, Dexter and Weeds (Ray) and Heroes (me). Besides Love things are just humming at MPP. One of the tunes is “Teacher Of The Year”. You may have noticed in the new ACBL Bulletin that Master Point Press along with the American Bridge Teacher Association is sponsoring a “teacher of the year” award aimed grass roots bridge teachers. We have already got a number of nominees and we are just starting the publicity. Nominations close in April. I hope that even those teachers that are nominated will realize that it is special to have your students pick you.
While I was in university one of the major ways I supported myself was teaching bridge. I taught at Kate Buckman’s Bridge School. For a while I was the coordinator and I hired Ray as one of the teachers. That was the last time that I was the boss! Ray and I also did some practice teaching at a community downtown called St. James Town. We had a great bridge group and we ran a game as well. Once there was a fire during the game and the bridge players refused to leave until the firemen stomped in and insisted that they go. Some of those bridge players are still friends.
It was during that time that I realized what a joy it was to teach. I planned to be a high school teacher and I went to the College of Education after I got my Bachelors in Mathematics. I never actually taught though. It turned out that I feel in love with computer programming and joined a number of my friends at Crown Life Insurance company.
I am also thinking about fund raising for Canadian Teams. I am looking for people who might be interested in joining a committee to raise money. My goal will be to focus on the 2011 world championships. I have lots of ideas. (I always have lots of ideas, ask Ray). So please email me if you have any ideas or are willing to help at [email protected]. At the moment this is completely unofficial, just me and Pamela Nisbet with an idea.
Colin and I have started playing again. At the moment you will find us in the bidding room. My job in the next two days is to update the notes. I am also starting to teach again online as a volunteer tutor. That and some family matter mean this will be a busy month. But then I like it that way.
September 28th, 2009 ~ linda ~
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For everyone celebrating the Jewish High Holidays Ray and I wish all of you a happy New Year. May you all be written in the Book of Life.
Don’t you love that ram’s horn!
As we move into fall I am sad to see the end of summer. Ray is talking about putting our beautiful convertible in the garage soon. I have told him not till the end of October. He has the garage ready for the car which took quite some doing.
I am working very hard on Clyde E. Love. I am now on the chapter on Triple Squeezes which so far seems more challenging than I had expected. I looked ahead to compound squeezes and I can see that is going to take at least two weeks and possibly a new bottle of aspirin.
I finished strip squeezes and found them quite interesting. Ray loves the delayed duck squeeze which he has called at various times in the past names like the Donald Duck squeeze. It actually is one of the simpler strip squeezes but the name does have a ring to it. I have also coined a new term: CLUE. Those of you who know and ‘love” Love will be familiar with BLUE. That is mnemonic for the conditions necessary to perform a simple squeeze. Love also has the concept of CLE as the necessary condition for the two loser delayed duck squeezes. C=companion (a second card in the threat suit without a winner) L = Lead (after the squeeze has happened you have to be able to lead from the suit with the companion card) and E = entry (there must be an entry to the established threat). I thought CLuE was easier to remember. Ray pointed out that we had now created BLUE(’s) CLUE(s). For those of you without small children Blue’s Clues is a children’s show on Nickelodeon. Somehow I don’t think that will make it to the finished book.
I am pretty well at the halfway mark of Love and it really has been interesting if challenging. Today I did a class with a whole lot of beginners and intermediates. There were prepared deals and prizes. The highlight for me happened when one of the students who had been declarer on the hand and failed to make it finally realized what she had to do. The light had gone on and she got to explain it to everyone else. For her tenth trick in four hearts she needed to make a ruff in dummy without drawing all the trump. I had opened two spades and she could have ruffed a third spade in dummy but that was sure to get over ruffed by my partner. So she needed to discard her third diamond from dummy on the spade and ruff a diamond instead. It was a classic loser on loser. Those hands can be hard to see.
In the next few days I am definitely going to do a blog which features a Love hand. Sorry about that. But squeezes are fun! I have found one or two errors in the hands which makes me quite proud of myself but mostly in those days without all the wonderful tools we have now Love did a great job with his deals. The auctions however are quite bizarre. We have made so much more progress on bidding than on play or defense at least it seems so to me.
September 20th, 2009 ~ linda ~
1 Comment
I was doing commentary on the fifth of five rounds in the Grand Prix of Poland. I believe the top 26 pairs get to go forward to the second part of the event in a few months. They were playing pairs and the boards were not be played simultaneously so we didn’t get the scores. Anyway the bidding could be strange some times, a case in point with everyone vulnerable you have
In first chair West opened 2
which showed an two suits, 5/5 and weak with a least one of them being a major. This did seem rather hard to defend against. At our table as it turned out the North-South pair had no problem, somehow. North who was 1-4-4-4 doubled. South conveniently bid 2NT and North carried on to the perfect spot the notrump game. South was 4-3-2-4 and chose to bid notrump anyway. I guess it is easier when you speak Polish.
I am pretty much in favor of allowing most things in high level matches but playing a convention with a weak hand and no known suits when playing on a few boards against a pair seems a bit tough.
But the hand I wanted to talk about was much simpler and a situation all of us see all the time. This time you have
You are vulnerable against not and in fourth chair you get to open 1. This is doubled and partner bids 1
which in your methods is four plus. What do you think is the right bid at matchpoints. It seems like your choices are 1NT, 2, 2 and pass. What do you like?
I expect that I might pass at matchpoints or maybe bid 2. Our declarer bid 1NT and I thought that was a reasonable choice at this scoring. What do you think? It does sound like the majors are not breaking and while normally you don’t mind ruffing winners in the short hand you might need the high trump. Also if you bid 1NT you are quite likely to play there while you might get too high if you bid 2.
The commentators had some discussion about this and then Ray and I later in the car. If you like 1NT you were right on the actual hand. Partner had you really covered in clubs with:
The takeout doubler is 4-4-4-1 with a stiff diamond and notrump plays better than anything else and gives you a fine score I am sure.
As someone at our table said: Bidding 2 will get you a top score at the Master Solver’s Club. But is it really going to win you matchpoints most of the time?
September 19th, 2009 ~ linda ~
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I know I haven’t blogged in a while. There are few reasons. I had a lot of deadlines, Ray was sick and needing “wifeing”, I have been jet lagged myself even though there is only one time zone to Sao Paulo Sylvia has been off on a desert island with her ancient aunt and no Internet. Colin has been working as hard as I used to when I was his age And most importantly I have been working on Clyde E. Love.
However this morning I am feeling a bit mellow. I just have been playing music from “The Peace and Love Generation”. Hey, that’s me. If you grew up in the 60’s and were a teenager in the 70’s you are with me. I have strong associations with some of the tunes. I remember a certain guy and the Leonard Cohen. He will always be “The Stranger”
“You find he did not leave you very much not even laughter
Like any dealer he was watching for the card
That is so high and wild
He'll never need to deal another”
But I admit it I am glad I didn’t miss the 60’s.
I have found that Mr. Love did write quite a wonderful work. Having work on this book for a few weeks now I find that the chapter on double squeezing was quite challenging. I thought I knew a lot about double squeezes but I now realize that I knew too little to know what I didn’t know!
Here is a fun squeeze for you. It didn’t give me too many headaches.
Exercise 15 from Bridge Squeeze Complete Chapter 2
Contract: 6NT by South
There is no bidding from the opponents your auction went something like 2NT-Stayman-No Major-6NT. They are playing standard carding
West leads the 
10. East plays the 5 and you win the J. You cross to dummy on the 
K and play a club. East wins the A and returns the 
J, West following with the 8. You play the A and the 
Q with everyone following. Obviously you have the rest if hearts run, so forget that for now. What now?
Don’t you love these hands which have so many different choices, most conveniently not mentioned by Love. Fortunately Chapter 3 on strips and endplays is not taxing at all.
September 14th, 2009 ~ linda ~
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It is so good to be back home again (thanks John Denver). Every time I go away I just love coming home. My house is the best. Kind of a Wizard of Oz thing I guess. (Too bad I had to take an eleven hour overnight plane flight instead of clinking my slippers).
Judy Kay Wolff chided me a bit for saying that Sao Paulo wasn’t that bad. Okay I admit it. It was pretty bad. The immediate vicinity of the hotel was far away from anything nice. Also there probably is quite a bit of crime in Sao Paulo, although the tour guide told us not to worry, they would rob us but not kill us. But I am a kind of glass half full sort although perhaps you don’t believe that when you hear my various rants.
Can you believe I would have been tied for the victory in the Bermuda Bowl Contest if only Italy had won instead of USA 2? If you check out the results you will see that Todd Holes was the winner. Sigh. Well at least I didn’t lose by 3 imps (I mean points). I noticed that Glen Ashton in his most recent blog Book Matters has picked the Jeff Meckstroth book, Win a Bermuda Bowl With Me as his prize for the Senior’s Competition. How very appropriate.
Why didn’t I pick USA 2 for the Bermuda Bowl? I thought that with the team disruption causing a last minute change in team personnel when Dick Freeman died and was quickly replaced by Ralph Katz that USA 2 would be at a disadvantage. And to be honest I wasn’t completely sure if the Zia-Hamman partnership had totally matured. I know that Meckwell would be great but would that be enough to beat the Italians. The members of the Italian team were Maria Teresa Lavazza as NPC and players:
ITALY
Giorgio DUBOIN
Fulvio FANTONI
Lorenzo LAURIA
Claudio NUNES
Antonio SEMENTA
Alfredo VERSACE
There team includes a new partnership of Fantoni-Sementa
According to Games Forum
|
news from Italy – Fantoni-Nunes out of the Italian team
The online magazine of the Italian bridge federation published an interview with Maria Teresa Lavazza, manager of the Italian team. She is responsible for choosing the players that represent Italy in major international competitions. I thought I would relay the main bits here for the non Italian-speaking. Two main items:
1. Fantoni-Nunes will not be part of the Italian team at the European Championship in Pau in June 2008; the pairs will be Lauria-Versace,Bocchi-Duboin and Sementa-Angelini;
2. Bocchi-Duboin are terminating their partnership after Pau.
|
So perhaps the Italian team had some inexperienced partnerships to overcome too.
But somehow I don’t really think that partnership changes were the major issue, there was something else at play. It is discussed in the various interesting Blog, The Winner Take It All by Sartaj Hans, that in the end it is not only about skill, it is about delivery. As he defines delivery it is
Delivery : Being able to demonstrate the concept at the table. Mental toughness. Honesty. Integrity.
Delivery is a practical entity. Lauria mis-saw his partner’s bid, Sementa revoked as declarer, Versace made a zero percent play, Nunes failed to count his tricks, Duboin played a winner on a loser….
Thank you Imp Chimp for those very insightful comments.
In the end the Italians just didn’t ====> DELIVER. I might put it this way they weren’t focused enough. It is a matter of mental toughness.
Meckstroth and Rodwell characterize champions they have the mental toughness to win as well as fabulous technique and a well honed bidding system. Bob Hamman is one of the truly great bridge players ever, a consistent winner over many decades and with many partners. Everyone on the USA 2 seem to bring their best performance to the table almost all the time but especially Meckwell.
We all need to learn from this. When I think about events I have lost mental toughness has been my problem. If I have lost several events by 3 imps or so there is a lesson there for me.
Congratulations to the very worthy winners. Congratulations to Eric Kokish who coached two of the teams on the podium at the world championships.
September 13th, 2009 ~ linda ~
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In the end Ray and I really warmed up to Sao Paulo and I actually regret that we are going home today. Of course the weather was pretty good as it is all the time although we did have a couple of major tropical storms. (I have this tiny fear of lightning.) I knew that Brazil was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. One of the reasons things seem so expensive here is that the currency has risen 26% against the US dollar this year having doubled in value over the past few years. There were no bargains here but the food and entertainment was similar to prices in North America. You can see the effect of the rise in the economy in Sao Paulo which is a huge city which has grown very quickly, full of busy well dressed people and a lot of very tall buildings. It is now has eighteen million inhabitants, as big as some countries. I understand from the guide that life can be hard for some of the people. Taxes which are hidden in the prices of goods are very high and there is an enormous amount of corruption which means that the health care and schools run by the government are apparently completely hopeless, forcing everyone who can to buy their own.
Still Brazil which is a major oil producer (the big reason for its rapid economic growth) has a lot going for it. If the tournament had been in a hotel in the center of the city we would all have been much happier. There are a lot of wonderful restaurants, shopping and life there. We are in the suburbs a $50 cab ride from the center. Ray and I decided to buy some coffee as our souvenir of Brazil. The picture of part of Sao Paulo below gives you an idea of the size of the city, Vince Oddy and Barb Clinton (from the Canadian Venice Cup team) did a lot of touring and Vince tells me he especially loved the Iguassu Falls.
The “Falls”
We had dinner the other night with members of the Norwegian contingent including my hero Boye Brogeland who won the 2007 Bermuda Bowl.
Last night was the victory banquet. I don’t usually go to these since I am don’t like banquets all that much so this was the first time since Rhodes that Ray and I attended. Unusually they started off the evening in the theatre where they did the prize giving. There was quite a cheer for the English Seniors who were popular winners although we were told how excited bridge players in Indonesia were about their team’s third place finish. I was happy for the Chinese Women winners of the Venice Cup. I know it meant a lot to their country and there really was quite a huge cheer for them. I know that USA 1 was disappointed but as Karen McCallum put it when I chatted with her, they were never really in the final match. When I read Mark Horton’s report of the Venice Cup Final (second stanza) it made me realize that a lot of mistakes were made by all the players. It must be difficult to keep up a high standard of play with the pressure and the fatigue.
Before dinner I met Shawn Quinn from the USA 2 Women’s team that had come in fourth place. She knew of me. I don’t know if she reads my blogs or not but I hope so because I wanted to tell her a few things if I don’t see her at breakfast today. USA lost the third-fourth place 48-board match and came in fourth in the Venice Cup. When I talked to Shawn I tried to say something I believe: there should not be a 3-4 match. It is too hard to put your heart into a match after you just lost the semifinals and besides if you do have a match it really ought to be the same 96 boards as the finals. Shawn was not looking for sympathy. Yes, she wished the match was longer but she thought you should earn the medal. She was just a bit tearful and I realized how very hard it must have been to lose at that point. But what I really appreciated was her fighting spirit.
I want to see the same thing in the Canadians. The population of Norway as of June 1 was 4,825,500 (they seem to keep a very good count). In contrast the population of Canada is 33,600,000. More people than the whole population Norway live within a couple of hours drive of my front door. If they can put together winning teams we should be able to as well. We need to come with the same fighting spirit as Shawn Quinn. We need to have the same great programs that countries like Norway have. We need to come to win and be mad when we lose. We need to buy return tickets for the day after the Victory Banquet because we expect to be playing for the whole event. We need to train seriously with long term coaching. We need to form teams in a sensible way so that we are putting out our best team not the one that happened to win an event. If we have to beat Mexico to get a place in the Bermuda Bowl we need to take that match seriously. We cannot just come to compete and be nice guys — Canadians do that too often.
We need to stop making money or geography the excuse. I understand that it would be great to have professional teams but we can still do well anyway — although it would be nice to keep our best players in Canada. If anyone else wants to create, coach and fund a team that can win the Venice Cup, let me know. I will help in any way I can. Because as Susan Culham of our Venice Cup team told me last night “I don’t want to play on a team that has no chance of a medal” and I think we should all think that way.
September 11th, 2009 ~ linda ~
4 Comments
Apparently some of the women have been disappointed at the minimal coverage of the women’s matches in the Bulletin. While some matches have been on BBO they have rarely been on Vugraph here. Yesterday was an exception. Ray and I watched the China versus USA 1 final on Vugraph with Barry Rigal running the commentary team. In the Open Room Karen McCallum was playing with Lynn Baker. Lynn is the team sponsor and played the first session also. She is very likely finished her event now. They were opposed by Yi Qia Liu -Wenfe Wang of China. In the other room Beth Palmer and Lynn Deas were in for USA playing against Ming Sun and Hongli Wang.
Having been in the same situation I know that a player (especially one who is not used to it) can have some stage fright when they are going to be shown in the Vugraph Room. Nevertheless, the second match yesterday was hardly an advertisement for women’s bridge. All of the players make mistakes some of the time but this match had some moments that carried that to an extreme. Barry did his best to comment on the match in a positive tone although you could see it was an effort at times. At times when the bridge had moved to the ridiculous you would hear Barry heave a great sigh into the microphone.
Watching several BBO matches featuring women’s teams the bridge has been fairly good. It would probably have worked better if the scheduler had put USAI and China on Vugraph on for the third set or later when all the professionals were playing.
I found while I was watching (and at times laughing with others) that I resented what was happening. It was such a terrible advertisement for women’s bridge. I know that few take it seriously to start with.
Others will write up this match more fully and it is on BBO (Venice Cup Final 2) for anyone who would like to look Here is one hand I have selected as it is instructive.
Board 20. Dealer West. All Vulnerable.
| |
♠ A 7 5 3
♥ K 6
♦ A 5 3
♣ A K 3 2 |
|
♠ 8
♥ Q J 10 9 4
♦ 4
♣ Q J 10 8 7 4 |
 |
♠ Q J 9 6
♥ 8 5 2
♦ K 10 9 8 7 6
♣ – |
| |
♠ K 10 4 2
♥ A 7 3
♦ Q J 2
♣ 9 6 5 |
|
In the Closed Room,China sitting North-South arrived in 4♠ on this auction:
| Lynn Deas |
Ming Sun |
Beth Palmer |
Hongli Wang |
| pass |
1♣ |
1♦ |
1NT |
| 2♣ |
DBL |
2♦ |
2♠ |
| pass |
4♠ |
all pass |
|
| |
|
|
|
1♣ was strong and the 1NT bid was natural and game forcing and the Chinese women found their way to what looked like a reasonable 4♠. With normal breaks you would expect to have at most three losers, a spade, a diamond and a club, On a club lead declarer would have no chance. But Wang received a diamond lead. The bidding must have alerted her to the fact that suits were not breaking. The risk to her contract is a 4-1 trump break. She correctly started with the ♠A and both defenders followed low. When she lead a low spade from dummy I am sure she wanted to take the safety play of putting in the ♠9 but there was a significant risk of a club ruff if she lost to the doubleton spade on her left. She put up the king and the contract was doomed. Is there any chance to figure it out? Let’s consider what she knew. The opening lead is likely a singleton. It seems likely given the lack of fit and high cards that West has six clubs and a diamond. Let’s imagine West’s hand then
♠ 8??
♥ ???
♦ 4
♣ Q J 10 8 7 4
This much we know. West is vulnerable. Would she really have bid with a hand like this with a singleton in the suit her partner overcalled?
| ♠ J 8 |
| ♥ Q J 10 9 |
| ♦ 4 |
| ♣ Q J 10 8 7 4 |
It seems unlikely to me and I believe on a good day I would have got this right. But Wang’s play was reasonable.
In the Open Room Baker and McCallum arrived in 3NT, a contract which seemed destined to succeed.
| Liu |
McCallum |
Wang |
Baker |
| pass |
1♣ |
2♦ |
Dbl |
| pass |
3♦ |
pass |
3NT |
| all pass |
|
|
|
McCallum opened a natural club and Wang made a preemptive jump overcall. I am not sure why Baker chose double rather than 2♠ but a negative double is a sensible call and somehow North-South never found their spade fit. This as it turned out was rather fortuitous. Baker got a heart lead and ducked it in both hands. She won the second heart. Counting her winners she has two spades, two hearts, a diamond and two clubs off the top. While she expects the diamond finesse to fail, the diamond finesse will provide an eighth winner. The ninth will come from spades.
What is the risk to the contract? Since it is clear that the heart length is on her left and the diamond finesse can only fail to the hand on her right the contract is now ironclad if she plays spades first and she can make three spade winners. Obviously the safe way to play spades given her lack of spots is to cash the ace and then finesse the ten whether or not West has followed small or with an honor. The play did not go that way on Vugraph, which led to one of Barry’s sighs. (One of the other commentators had previously announced that 3NT could not go down but Barry had correctly suggested otherwise). This board was a push.
How did she play it? After winning the heart in dummy she led a diamond from dummy — incorrectly attacking the entry to the safe hand, since the diamond finesse would always lose to East, not West. East won and cleared hearts. Declarer had now created a new problem for herself since if West got in on spades she could run the hearts to defeat the contract. If she had decided to cash ♣A at this point she might have been able to count the hand and deduce that luckily East had four spades. But the advantage of playing a club winner may be hard to see at the table. Instead she tried cashing the ♠K in the hope that spades split 2-3 and she might be able to lose a spade to East.
In the end USA had some good results to go along with some poorer ones and the segment ended 33-32 for China.
September 10th, 2009 ~ linda ~
4 Comments
Whoever you were rooting for the final 16 boards of the two senior matches were very exciting. Ray and I decided to watch the USA 2 versus Poland final in our room. This allowed us to watch both sides of the match. Ray watched the Closed Room and I watched the action in the Open Room and we kept each other informed of events. Meanwhile we tracked the rest of the results on the handy in-room television station which displayed the current set.
Let me say that things have picked up around here in the last little while. Last night we went to a very good and relatively inexpensive restaurant and met up with a lot of German players and Mike Yuen. Joan Eaton had recommended the place called Sunday’s. Beside an extensive salad bar they brought slabs of yummy cooked meat to your table and cut you pieces to order. It was all a lot of fun. Then today Ray was interviewed for the pre-game Vugraph show. He did very well and I even got a mention. Not about the fact that I had put up with him for 37 years.
The last round started with the USA holding slim 2 imp lead. This was not to survive the first board. It seemed to me that Mike Passell had that extra bit of adrenalin going that you some times have in this situation. In tennis I imagine that in a similar situation you put too much power in your swing and hit the ball out of bounds. Mike perhaps, did something similar. In fourth chair the auction had started 1♣ on his left and 1♦ on his right. His opponents Apolinary Kowalski and Jacek Romanski were playing Red Polish Club. Their Convention Card. Kowalski opened 1♣ which showed a balanced hand outside their notrump range (either 12-14 or 18+) or any strong hand. Romanski bid 1♦ showing 0-7 HCP or various other stronger hands.
I am sure that Passell and Sutherlin, his partner had a defense planned and maybe it said be aggressive with overcalls over 1♣-1♦. Anyway the auction started that way and it was Passell’s turn. Do you bid on the West hand into that auction.
Board 17. Dealer North. Nobody Vulnerable.
West
♠ 5
♥ K 6 4 3 2
♦ K 9 7
♣ A Q 10 6 |
|
Passell decided to overcall 1♥, despite the anemic heart spots. This was the whole hand.
| |
Board 17.
| |
Kowalski
♠ K J 6 3
♥ A Q 9 8 5
♦ A J 2
♣ K |
|
Passell
♠ 5
♥ K 6 4 3 2
♦ K 9 7
♣ A Q 10 6 |
|
Sutherlin
♠ Q 9 8 7 2
♥ —
♦ Q 10 6 4
♣ 9 7 3 2 |
| |
Romanski
♠ A 10 4
♥ J 10 7
♦ 8 5 3
♣ J 8 5 4 |
|
|
The bidding proceeded
| Passell |
Kowalski |
Sutherlin |
Romanski |
| |
1♣ |
pass |
1♥ |
| 1♥ |
pass |
pass |
dbl |
| pass |
pass |
1♠ |
pass |
| pass |
dbl |
all pass |
|
Even later in the deal, down 3 was possible but it is not always the easiest thing to defend these strange contracts and the defense slipped a bit to let Sutherlin out for -300. But unfotunately for USA nothing really makes North-South on the lie of the cards and at the other table North-South went down 3 in 4♥. Poland now lead 217-209.
The next board was a total disaster for Passell-Sutherlin. It was perhaps set up but the use of a version of a Muidenberg two bid where 2 of a major shows 5 of that major and a minor They play it in a similar way to the the way I like to play it although perhaps their bid can be a bit stronger. Two of the major shows 6 – 11 HCP and at least 5/5 in that major and one of the minors. Sutherlin passed and Romanski opened 2♠. Passell held
Board 18. Dealer East. North-South Vulnerable.
West
♠ A Q J 6 5
♥ K J 10 4
♦ K
♣ K 10 6 |
I know he is not vulnerable and he does have 17 HCP but the spades look a lot better on defense than on offense. This whole hand looks like it could be a misfit and he has only seven cards in the offsuits presuming that South has spades. Besides the stiff diamond king is not likely to be that valuable as declarer. Anyway he doubled and by the time the auction drew to a close he was in 3♥ doubled.
East held a terrible hand and this went down 5 at least (there was some confusion and it did appear it might have been down 6.) As you might guess nothing split. A the other table 3NT was very awkward with the misfit and bad splits and ended up down 1. 15 imps to Poland.
| ♠ 9 3 2 |
| ♥ 8 6 2 |
| ♦ 10 7 6 |
| ♣ 9 8 5 4 |
And despite 14l more boards to come that was really the end of the match.
The France-China Venice Cup match was also quite exciting with China having taken the lead with a big fifth session. They started the sixth session 30 imps apart and the match ended with France having made up only 6 imps of the deficit. France would have been my pick to win the event and both of these teams could easily have been the winner. So China will go on to face USA1 tomorrow and France will have to fight it out for a bronze.
We are trying to get hold of a copy of Ray’s interview and if we can we will find a way to post it somewhere.
September 7th, 2009 ~ linda ~
2 Comments
Today the International Bridge Press Association (IBPA) announced its awards for 2009. We were pleased that North Of The Master Solver’s Club deservedly won (in a tie) the Book Of The Year Award. We accepted on behalf of Ron Vine, Frank’s son, a cheque and a plaque. Tied with the Vine book was Ron Klinger’s Right Through The Pack Again. Below is a picture of Ray presenting his award to Ron Klinger. (Master Point Press sponsors the award each year but has nothing to do with the selection process, obviously).
photo courtesy of Carol Folhasi and Tatiana Barreto
I have talked about both books at length in previous blogs. But I just want to say one last time, North Of The Master Solvers Club is a terrific book, it is very funny and you will learn something from it too. It would make a great gift. It was my favorite book not just of this year, but of many years.
There are quite a few other awards as well for bidding, play and defense/ Rose Meltzer won the award for bridge personality of the year. They acknowledge her record over the last ten years with winning results in international play and at the NABC along with other contributions to bridge. We should all remember that Rose Meltzer is not a player of the caliber of other world champions. She is a sponsor. But perhaps being able to put together great teams and play the boards she must to win is an achievement worthy of recognition. I think it is. Still it is disingenuous of various organization for suggesting she is one of the top bridge players in the world.
The people recognized in the other awards are not just the players who make the bid play or defense but the journalist who wrote it up. In the end the award is actually to the journalist. One of the winners was Heather Dhondy of England who submitted the Precision Best Bid Hand of the Year. The players were Stuart and Gerard Tredinnick of England playing in the 2008 Gold Cup final.
Here is their rather nice effort.
Dealer West. East-West Vulnerable.
| |
♠ K 9 8 7 5
♥ Q J 5
♦ A Q 7
♣ Q 9 |
|
♠ Q 10 3
♥ 9 6 3 2
♦ J 9 2
♣ J 7 5 |
|
♠ J642
♥ 84
♦ K1043
♣ 1063 |
| |
♠ A
♥ A K 10 7
♦ 8 6 5
♣ A K 8 4 2 |
|
| North: Stuart |
South: Gerald |
| 1NT (14-16) |
2♣ |
| 2♠ |
3♣ |
| 3NT |
4♥ |
| 5♣ |
5NT |
| 6♥ |
all pass |
3♣ was natural and forcing and implies four hearts. When he bid four hearts it was also natural and suggested four good hearts. 5NT asked Stuart to pick a slam and he chose hearts. This is a very good slam that did not require a club break.
What is nice about the bidding is that it isn’t so much about system but rather about good judgment.
Then Ray and I decided to watch the bridge in our room rather than in the press room or on Vugraph. This allows us to be as comfortable as possible, talk as loud as we want ad especially to control the temperature which seems to vary in the press room from boiling to freezing. I will try to write up some more award winners at another time. But there is so much incredible bridge to talk about from a very exciting final set of deals in the quarterfinals that some of that will have to come first.
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