What a bid!

May 1st, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Sylvia and I play that two of a major shows 5/5 in the major and an unspecified minor with 4-9 HCP.  While I do like to be on the higher end of the range vulnerable you don’t get appropriate hands all that often and when you do I just think you should bid them, good suit or not.  So I opened the hand with two spades.  This was passed to my right hand opponent who had no problem with a takeout double with his 18 HCP.  His partner whose spades were much better than mine passed as well.  Now it was Sylvia’s turn.  She thought a long time but it is these judgment situation that Sylvia can come into her own.  She knew spades were bad for us (although perhaps not quite as bad as this) and she bid 2NT.  Now it was my turn to think.  Could 2NT be asking for my minor?  Not really.  I actually think that 3C in this situation is for play and that redouble asks the minor. 

You need to get going in hearts to beat the hand but on the natural lead of the club king the hand was cold when the spade suit blocked.  Sylvia enjoyed this hand a lot although she did make a disparaging remark about my anemic spade suit.  In the other room our opponents bid to 1S doubled on our hands, making.  There doubled partscore was not game though so they lost a lot of imps.

Then there was this auction which I rather enjoyed in some ways.   Let’s call this one “What An Auction”

Sylvia and I have fairly minimal notes but there is no reference to open 1D with longer clubs, something I had purposely omitted.  I suppose that Sylvia did not want to rebid the club suit, rebid 1NT or reverse into diamonds so she decide to just do it.  The three club overcall made our auction much tougher and I have no idea why Sylvia did not double three clubs.  When I reversed into spades and Sylvia bid 3NT it seemed to me that she was very likely to have five diamonds and I was not done with slam yet.   So I raised diamonds.  When she bid 4NT I had a bit of a problem.  I didn’t think it could be keycard even if I had found her diamonds.  If she didn’t want to play in diamonds she just had to have two hearts.  I bid five hearts which I hoped was a strong slam suggestion.  When she bid 5NT I bid the heart slam.  I have a feeling that this auction was a fight from the three level on about playing notrump or playing in a suit!    However as you can see from the cards we had arrived in quite a good slam and one which was cold despite the 4-2 heart break.

Slow Motion Train Wreck

April 28th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I like to watch bridge from time to time.  Sometimes you can see the disaster that will unfold in a few minutes.  (Some times you can be part of one too).  Watching Dan Morse playing with Nagy Kamel on BBO today against Mildred Breed and Marinesa Letizia I saw this layout with nobody vulnerable.

As I watching I saw Mildred think for a bit and then decide to pass the two heart contract out.  Now Nagy thought.  This is a dangerous holding to balance on with three trump, only three cards in the other major and a balanced hand.  And you just knew what was going to happen and as you can see it did.  Going three down in two spades doubled was a loss of almost 10 imps and the worse score on the sheet.

I had one myself a few days ago.  I think I could have avoided it but

In retrospect I did a few things wrong.  I should have bid three diamonds over 2NT rather than 3NT.  I just thought since I had such good major suit cards and no fit that 3NT would be the right spot but this choice led to the next problem.  When Sylvia bid 4NT I thought that my seven card diamond suit made slam probable so I bid six diamonds.  Now the trains were headed down the track.  When East doubled for a club lead I wanted to redouble, but in a new partnership I was afraid that it wouldn’t be understood.  I can’t blame Sylvia for her attempt to protect the club king.  With her pull to 6NT the trains had collided and from my South seat when Sylvia started to think I could see it happening.  The funny thing was that I was in the midst of an electrical storm.  The power had already gone down for a few minutes early and just a few tricks into the hand the power came down again.  The weather matched my mood.

Have you seen any train wrecks recently.

A Fun Deal

April 23rd, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I sat down and played a few hands against a couple of pretty good players.  My partner was a Pole who really didn’t understand 2/1 or Standard or anything similar so I got to play Polish Club for a few hands.  I haven’t actually played it before but I know the moves and I have talked about playing it with Colin.  Anyway, I survived that.  Here was a cute hand that where I actually paid attention and played the hand correctly.  Have a go and see if it makes you feel good too.

We are vulnerable

The opening lead was the ♥A.  I was going to need a lot of stuff.  The ♠A onside and a way to play clubs for one loser.  I won the ♥Q in dummy and played another heart to discover that hearts were 4-1 on my right.  East discarded a diamond.  I played a spade up to dummy and it held.  Do you see how this is going to go? Do you have a plan?

I crossed to my hand with another heart as LHO threw another diamond.  This time she won the ♠A and got out a spade.  Spades were 3-3 so she was likely 3-1-4-5 especially after she discarded two diamonds so painlessly.  I now cashed the fourth trump and she threw a club.  On the last spade however her discard wasn’t so painless.  This was the position.

Whatever she throws the hand is over.  At the table she threw a club so I simply gave up a club and then a diamond.

This was the whole hand

It wasn’t really all that tough but I did have to pay attention to discards something I find I am not that good at on BBO.

Practicing With Sylvia

April 23rd, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Several people have asked me how Sylvia and I got together.  It was an accident really.  Our teammates needed another pair at the last minute and Sylvia and I were available.  I confess I wanted to go to Penticton anyway but I couldn’t convince myself to make the trip just to be a reporter.  Of course Sylvia and I were on the same team in Shanghai.

We have been practicing fairly diligently and today we were lucky enough to have some very good opponents at our table in a 14 board team-game today.   Here, Sylvia and I ended up in a slam when Sylvia made a gutsy bid.

I

Sylvia got a small spade which should have made her a bit anxious but she really had no choice but to take the finesse.

I also like her take charge bid on this board.  5◊ didn’t make but it had a chance.  3NT (played at the other table) was DOA.

I admit that we don’t have a lot of science in our bidding as you might in a long-term partnership but we should do fine on card play.  And if there are some deals that require good gutsy bids you know that Sylvia will be there. 

A Bridge Filled Day

April 22nd, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

It seemed like I was playing bridge or something like that most of today.  I played with Marshall and it was a lot of fun.  What do you think it would be like to play with a star who has written lots of books on bidding?  What would he do in first chair all white, board 1 holding

We are playing 2/1 with weak 2’s and a weak notrump.  Okay Marshall explain to me why you picked 3◊.  Was it to let me know that you were going to be out there?  This had the effect of propelling the opponents into a somewhat ambitious 4♠.  It wasn’t a bad contract but it went down on the lie of the cards.  Next up we had rather a nice auction (I got to cuebid a very useful queen) to get to a good spade slam.  This was a good start to the day.  I also was starting to feel a lot more confident. 

In the latter half of our session against new opponents we had a poor score although we couldn’t do much about a lot of the deals.  Here is one for Marshall’s panel.  What do you think?

Maybe I should have started with Michaels.  It just seemed like I would be really guessing what to do later.  I think in retrospect I should have bid 4♥  not 3♥  which is the bid I made at the table.  That is where we played it.  Marshall had

He had some good card in a way but I can see that it is not enough to raise hearts.  I am certainly 6-5 but it seems that if I had a hand good enough for game I should have bid 4♥.

I hope we can play together again soon.  It was a lovely afternoon.

Colin and I are back with forcing club.  It does seem easier the second time around.  We have decided to keep it fairly simple in the first pass but trust me, simple with Colin is most other people’s way too much system.

For example we are working on the sequence 1♣-2◊ showing 8-12 balanced (no 5 card suit).  We have relays to ask about range and shape etc.  I admit this sequence needs to be thought through in detail because it comes up a lot.  I am sure Colin will start blogging the system again so you can see some of his ideas (I get to make a contribution too).

I have decided any day playing bridge most of the time is a happy day (except when you lose an important event!)

An Interesting Deal from BBO to play and defend

April 20th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

While this deal is mostly about card play the bidding is not without interest.  First what do you think about my bid?  I held

The auction had started with 1♥ from my partner and 2◊ on my right.  I have no sensible bid as far as I am concerned.  So with some guilt I bid 2♠.  I know this is wrong but those spades were so lovely.  I was about to get what I deserved.  (Note: at the other table they made the same bid).  Here is Sylvia’s hand

She made the very reasonable bid of 4♠ (not reached at the other table).

Looking at her hand you are aware of all the reasons why I shouldn’t bid 2♠.  Ah but the opponents are about to cooperate.  I don’t get a diamond lead; I get a heart lead.  Now you need to visualize the lie of the cards that will allow you to make the hand.

I

I am going to need some luck and some good guessing to make it.  After the opening lead of the ♥9 I played the top two hearts and the ♥J fell.  I now have to guess the hearts and the rest of the distribution.  On the cards the winning line is to play two rounds of hearts, ruff the third heart in hand and play the ♠K.  You will need a spade entry to dummy to get to the established hearts which means the ♠10 has to come down in no more than two rounds.  Beyond that you need North to have the missing aces.  I played the third round of hearts.  If hearts are 3-3 this is the right play because it works on all the same cases as a heart ruff but also when North has the singleton ♠A or when South has the ♣A. 

But would South really have lead a heart from three little?  I am not sure why he lead a heart at all to be honest but leading from three little seems strange.  So in retrospect I should have played the correct line.  There was one little vigorish in my line though.  It is very hard to find the correct defense from the North hand.   At the table North ruffed low and I overruffed and played a top spade.  North won the ♣A.  No matter what he does he has to give me an entry to dummy in a minor suit to establish the heart winners and the ♠9 provides a second entry. 

The winning defense is to ruff with the ♠A and get out a spade. 

Thanks Bridge Base for the chance to use your amazing new movies!

Playing with a legend

April 20th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I am going to be playing with Marshal Miles on BBO tomorrow at 2PM Est.  Am I nervous?  Of course.  But I am excited too.  Here is a little bit about Marshal.

AGE NO BARRIER TO NEW CHAMPION

(reprinted from the Daily Bulletin of the 12th World Bridge Olympiad, issue #10, Brent Manley editor)

Marshall Miles

Many, many years ago, Marshall Miles and Eddie Kantar were on an airplane heading for a tournament, and Kantar was giving Miles a bit of a hard time. Kantar knew Miles favored weak 1NT openers, so Kantar asked Miles a question: “If you had a weak notrump opener but you knew that if you opened 1NT it would cost you a world championship, what would you do it?”

Miles, going along with the joke, said,”Open 1NT.” Now that he has won a world championship, does that change his view?

“I guess it does,” said Miles shortly after receiving his medal as part of the USA team that rallied on the final round of the 2nd International Senior Cup to edge the Netherlands for the championship.

At 77, Miles is one of the oldest players ever to win a world title. He is also highly respected and well known in the USA as a player and author, contributing regularly to the ACBL Bridge Bulletin. He has also written 10 bridge books.

Miles took an unusual route to his bridge expertise. His interest was piqued as a youngster

when he overheard his mother discussing the game with a friend. He went to the local library where he lived in California and retrieved old newspapers so that he could read the bridge columns, learning how to play without reading a book. He earned a law degree in 1954 and practiced in Southern California until he retired about 10 years ago.

He played a lot of bridge with his wife, Betty, until her death about four years ago. When he first got married, Miles said, he was afraid his bridge playing would be curtailed, “but Betty actually pushed me out the door to play with her.”

Miles considers bidding his strong point as a player, “although my partners might not agree with me.” Interestingly, Miles brought along one of his books – Reisinger Challenge – to read while at the tournament, “and I found the problems very difficult.”

Miles isn’t all that impressed with being one of the oldest players ever to win a world title. “I would rather be the youngest,” he said. “I would like to have another 50 years to play bridge.”

Master Point Press is proud that we have published Marshall’s recent books including:

Competitive Bidding in the 21st Century

Inferences at Bridge

Modern Constructive Bidding

My System: The Unbalanced Diamond

But I wanted to mention another book.  It is called

All Fifty-Two Cards: How to Reconstruct the Concealed Hands at the Bridge Table

The ability to visualize all 52 cards, and not simply the 26 displayed, is a mark of distinction which divides the expert player from the novice in the game of bridge. In this book, the author shows readers how to place the cards in the two concealed hands. This book is now out of print and the used ones I found on the web were going in the fifty dollar range.  Fortunately we have a copy  Its a beautiful hard copy book (the 4th edition).  The first printing was in 1963.  Reading from the jacket I learned: Marshall a lawyer by trade apparently learned to play bridge by reading books and playing autobridge (for those who remember that lovely solo game).  He first played duplicate while in the Navy and published his first bridge article in Bridge World at the age of 22.  This book is very nostalgic for me.  I read this book when I first learned to play bridge in the middle 60’s.  I was still in high school and I played with my next door neighbor Mark Cosman (who I recently ran into at the Toronto Regional).  This book was one of my favorites.

I still think that I am an intuitive player.  When I am playing well I try to visualize my opponents hand and think about what they did in bidding, play or defense and place the cards.  It is probably my greatest strength as a card player and I suspect that reading this book in my formative days may have helped me to develop these skills.  So thank you Marshall.

While you can no longer get a copy of All Fifty-Two Cards, Marshall’s newer book Inferences at Bridge covers the same ground.

Canadian Team Championships

April 19th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

As many of you know I am planning to go to the Canadian team trials in British Columbia in a while.  I would like to do something to let people know about the trials.  I am going to think about how I can profile the teams a bit and maybe publish some material from the site.  It may be a bit hard when I am playing but I am on a six person team so I should have some time.  I compare this to the US trials and it is pretty sad really.

Our team trials are basically self funding, using mostly the player entry fees (and some profits from an adjacent regional) to produce the money the teams get to go to the World Championships.  It is not nearly enough, even flying on the cheapest charter to cover expenses.  All our teams pretty well, are amateur teams.  This I suppose in some ways is a blessing and a curse.  Some years I have done some fund raising but I am going to be too busy this summer to help out much and the event is earlier than usual and closer to the trials.

Of course I love this country but sometimes it does make me sigh just a bit.  I was thinking about the characteristics of Canadians.  In general you could say we are rule abiding, honest, polite, a bit cautious and have a strong sense of fair play.  I am not going to use the word nice because it makes me shiver.  I remember when Michael Moore was shocked to come to Toronto and find that most people left their door open, often even when nobody was home and pretty well always when someone was.  Toronto has been called New York if it was run by the Swiss.

I was listening today while walking in the gorgeous weather to a Canadian humorous singing group called the Arrogant Worms.  They have this song called Proud to Be Canadian.  Here are some of the lyrics:

We know that you’ve got Disneyworld and you keep it very clean

We don’t have Bob Dole and we can drink when we’re nineteen.

We may watch your TV shows for hours and hour and hours

We’ll give you Allen Thicke but Shania Twain is ours.

We’re proud to be Canadian

We’re awfully nice to strangers, our manners be our curse.

It’s cool in many ways to be Canadian

We won’t say that we’re better, it’s just that we’re less worse.

I think that is the problem with our teams is that we do try to be “less worse”. We produce some talent, it would be great if we could produce a really good team or even teams this year and be better than less worse.

He Can Still Play

April 17th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  6 Comments 

For the first time in a long time I managed to convince Ray to play a game of bridge.  I am not sure why he doesn’t want to play any more and maybe you can convince him.  If everyone who read this sent him a little bit of encouragement it would help.  Here is one of the deals from tonight.  You might not love the bidding but the defense was cool.

HIs hand was

Nobody Vulnerable

If you think Ray underbid just a tiny bit than you have probably guessed who overbid (a tiny bit?)  Anyway I led the ♣ Q and this was dummy

Ray won the ♣ A and from Ray’s hand it was pretty obvious what I was doing.  He returned a heart and I trumped it the ♠ 10 went to the ♠ J and his ♠ Q and I ruffed another heart.  As it turned out I still had the ♦ A to come.  I had overcalled on:

Do you hate my bid?  I didn’t want to bid 3♣ and lose the spade suit.   Plus 500 was worth a bit more than 6 imps.  Ray had an all round good set with good dummy play, good defense and good bidding.  He put up with me too.  So come on Ray you can play a bit more.

This and that

April 15th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  7 Comments 

Playing in the Regional with Colin I was surprised maybe shocked that people had such trouble with the fact that we were playing Multi.  I think if I said that we were playing that two diamonds showed a weak two bid in a major they would have been okay.  I think it is the word Multi.  Even though we provided a defense which they could read during the auction they were not at all happy.  In fact one very experienced pair complained and couldn’t believe that we would be allowed to use such a difficult convention in the top flight of a compact knockout teams.  People play all sorts of really weird things and nobody complains.  What is it about ‘multi”? 

Playing a team game recently this interesting deal came up.   I am going to simply tell you that at one table the East-West pair went for a large number.  This is what happened at the other table. 

South’s Story

With everyone not vulnerable.  The auction starts off like this:

What do you think the right call is now?  What is going on?  Everyone has a suit of their own but partner did open the bidding, you have a ten count and the clubs sitting over East.  One choice is to double.  Then their is the three card diamond support another choice is to raise diamonds.  You could pass and see what happens next.  What will it be?

I don’t really like pass much but if you do partner will balance 4◊.  Do you raise or is this hanging? 

Your best result is double 4♣.  Passing throughout gets the worst result.  Here is the whole hand.

East-West’s Story

I am not sure I am crazy about East’s bidding.  It sounds like the spades lie very badly.  The club suit is good but  4♣ seems a bit rich to me.  He was probably influenced by West’s weak negative double.  If South doubles and you go for a number in 4♣ how would you assign the blame? 

North’s Story

What about North?  If South passes 4♣ I think North might balance double.  Will South pass then?