Learning from my son

June 29th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

There were some very interesting hands last night although the opponents continued to suicide over a strong club. Here is one that got us a big number but had some interesting and unresolved questions in the auction. First here is my hand.

SKT72 H AQ6 D KQ72 C K9

In first chair with all vulnerable I opened 1C and Colin bid 1H. We are now playing what Colin calls Meckwell style and this shows either a positive with five or more spades or a balanced hand with 8-10 HCP. Remember we have not practiced this at all and never discussed what to do in competition. Now my RHO bid 2C.

What am I supposed to do? Passing here suggests a balanced hand and a willingness to defend if Colin has the right hand. But do I want to defend if he has five spades? If I bid spades now does it mean that I have spade length? I had no idea. I decided to bid 2S and see what happened. Colin bid 3C and RHO doubled. (This turned out to be a very bizarre bid as we shall see). Here’s Colin’s hand and the rest of this confused auction.

Colin held S QJ32 H J1095 D A53 C 102

As you can see Colin had the balanced hand but happened to have spades.

Colin had a problem over 2S, he wanted to show the balanced hand but he could hardly bid 2NT without a club stopper. Over 3C doubled he thought 3D was natural and 3H was an attempt to show a heart suit. By the time I bid 4C he knew we were playing in spades and just bid 4S. Neither of us had any problem with how to handle the opponent’s 5C bid thought. 5C went for 1100 and 4S will make 4. I won’t show you the hand of the 2 club bidder although suffice it to say that there is no bridge player I know that would have bid 2C if the auction had started with anything but a forcing club.

So we have quite a bit to sort out. In the subsequent discussion which still needs more work we have decided to treat 1H in competition as the balanced 8-10 until responder suggests otherwise but I am not quite sure how things would go. I would pass 2C I suppose and Colin might bid 3C to get me to bid a major and we would end in 4S as we did. 3C is a bit ambiguous. Maybe we need to play double by Colin who is under the bidder is for takeout and 3C asks for a stopper. Or maybe we shouldn’t play something as complicated as a 2 way 1H bid.

This was a sweet play hand one of several that we had last night.

Linda

S Q753

H J54

D 953

C QJ8

Colin

S KJ

H A10987

D AK84

C A5

The opening lead was the H6 and Colin won the HQ with the ace. He accurately lead the SK and East won the SA and returned a diamond, as Colin won the diamond ace. Colin cashed the spade jack to arrive at this position.

Linda

S Q7

H J5

D 95

C QJ8

Colin

S

H 10987

D K84

C A5

He is at a bit of a crossroads. What do you think the best way to proceed is? One way is to play the H10 now and pass it. If East started with KQX of hearts you are going to need the club finesse and something good in diamonds. East must duck the heart king otherwise he gives you a dummy entry. Now you cash the DK and play another heart. If East has less than 4D and the CK you are home since East must play a spade or a club into dummy. If East wins the HK (whether with 2 or 3 hearts) and returns a club you can play ace and another club giving you two pitches for diamonds. If East returns a second diamond probably your best bet is to win and play another diamond. If diamonds break you are home free and if the diamonds don’t break you will still have chances.

Another choice is to play diamonds and the line Colin chose is to play. If the diamonds break you can still try the heart play and if they don’t break the only heart higher than dummy is the HQ so you can ruff with the H5 and if it gets overruffed you will still have an entry to dummy on the HJ to throw a club on the spade. There is one fly in this ointment. Let’s look at the whole hand.

When you play the third diamond West should throw a spade and when East wins and plays another diamond West can throw another spade and you are back to needing the club finesse. The advantage of this line was shown at the table when West did not find this perfect defence and didn’t throw a spade on the third diamond. As you can see looking at the hand it can be made on this lie of the cards double dummy. The simplest way is to play the H10, win the diamond return and play West for the CK and a doubleton diamond.

I like Colin’s line but I am interested in your ideas.

Colin did so many good things yesterday that I have to pick and chose. Here is a great play on defence.

You have S A8532 H AJ D K973 C K3 and our not vulnerable versus vulnerable. The auction has been rapid.

Partner leads the SQ and dummy arrives with

S 6 H KQ10753 D AQJ5 C 108

You win the SQ and what do you do. Colin returned the C3. He knew declarer had a spade pitch and if he threw a club from dummy things could get interesting. Declarer did as Colin expected. He won the CA and cashed the SK and now played a heart. Colin won the HK and returned a heart won in dummy as I showed out. Declarer crossed back to hand with the H9 and now has to decide whether to play Colin for the doubleton CK or me for the DKXX which did seem a bit more likely. Declarer finessed the diamond and went one down. With or without Colin’s defence I think playing on clubs is much stronger into this auction and I suppose it wouldn’t have hurt to ruff a club at trick three since declarer can play hurts from either hand. But the lure of the spade pitch was too great.

Do we get to all these interesting play hands because we overbid or are we just lucky. Here I took the wrong choice during the bidding, perhaps but Colin made a tough contract anyway.

East opened 1C and Colin overcalled 1S. West jumped to 3C and with no fit I passed. Colin reopened 3D. Do you think I should bid 3H now? Well I didn’t. I just passed. When he didn’t reopen double it seemed likely he was 5-5 but was he 5-5-3 or 5-5-2-1. Did I really want to play a level higher if he didn’t have 3 hearts? In retrospect I think that I should bid 3H because after all he was vulnerable and either had a great hand or was 5-5-3. 4H looked superficially attractive but it is not a make on most leads. If declarer leads a spade from dummy East will have to duck it. A trump lead seems normal to me and that will defeat the contract quite easily with a spade duck. If I bid 3H I am pretty sure to hear 4H, so maybe I didn’t make such a bad pass.

3D however can be made and I liked the line Colin took. He ruffed the opened diamond lead and lead the SK East won and returned a second club ruffed. Colin cashed the SK carefully throwing a heart and ruffed a spade, ruffed a club, crossed to dummy on a heart and ruffed a club, cashed a heart on another heart. At this point he had eight tricks in and was in hand with these cards left.

When he lead the S9 he ruffed with the DJ. East had to overruff with the DA setting up Colin’s DK for his ninth trick. Cute.

This final hand is one where Colin taught me a thing or two about defence. He used carding in a way I should have understood but I was in another zone, the oh no zone?

Here it is?

You hold S K86543 H 9 D J42 J75

You are vulnerable against not and RHO opens 1C partner overcalls 1D and LHO bids 1H. You can’t resist 1S for the symmetry and your opponents finish out the auction with 2H-2S-4H. This puts you on lead and you have agreed to lead low to show an honour in partner’s suit, so you lead the D2 which goes to the DQ, K and A. This is dummy.

S AJ2 H K632 D Q5 C K642

Well your side had a trick at least. Declarer continues with the K4, dummy plays the HK and partner wins the HA. You now have 2 tricks. Partner returns the D7, declarer plays the D8, you win the DJ as dummy follows. Now what?

Have you been paying attention to the diamonds? Partner likely had the D10 but he wanted you on lead with the DJ. Why? Which black suit should you lead back? If you paid attention he has told you. He lead the D7 back, since declarer had the D8 this is the highest spot he could play that would force you to win. He must want a spade return. I missed this last part. I thought, he must have diamonds higher than the D7 so this asks for a club. Anyway you need to play a spade from your side to beat it. Here is the whole hand. Well done Colin, sorry I goofed it.

Many thanks to Roy Hughes for his proof reading.  I am not quite caught up yet but I should be by the end of the day.  So if you read my blog early you may notice some mistakes which have disappeared within a day.  It isn’t the Blog fairy; its me correcting my mistakes after Roy points them out.

In search of good opponents

June 26th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

I have been thinking about bridge rating systems.  On BBO the only way to be sure that you have at least decent opponents is to play with people you know or people with stars.  It isn’t that there aren’t other really great bridge players, it’s just how do you find them.  The self rating system leads to a lot of problems since many "experts" are not such in my eyes.  Maybe BBO should post some guidelines for selecting each category.  If you use a rating system based on play like Okbridge there are some advantages but it is open to other problems especially cheating.  I suppose there is still some cheating on BBO but it seems much less than OKB.

This leads to the difficulty of picking random people as opponents.  When two strangers sit you get some very random bridge and often a revolving door of opponents as they fight with each other.   This leads to ridiculous hands like this one:

Both vulnerable the auction has started with 3 passes when Colin opened 1NT (13-15) in third chair.  Anonymous who was a passed hand saw this as an excuse to double on S AJ109 H J53 D A10 C 8742 and went for 800 even though he found his best fit, a 4-4 club fit.  This is a true story.  We soon had a new set of opponents which brings us to this interesting hand.

You have S 76 H A9764 D Q102 C Q108.  This time your excuse is that you are not vulnerable against vulnerable.  You pass and I open 1S, partner passes and Colin bids 2C game forcing.  This is your moment.  You bid 2H!  Here is my hand

S K10953 H K10 D A983 C K3

I passed which I thought showed some desire to defend but not a penalty double and Colin doubled on S A84 H QJ52 D 64 C AJ76.  On my club lead this hand went 4 down for 800.

Here is yet a third set of opponents going for a number and I even took a trick in notrump with S 1083 H 10987 D 8432 C 98

Colin held S 742 H AK62 D AK65 C A6.  At favourable vulnerability Colin opened 1C and saw the opponents crawl up to 3NT.  Colin made a sporting double and when I lead a heart we were able to set up the heart suit so I took a fourth round heart trick with my 10!  The culprit was East who invited to game over a strong notrump by his partner with S KQJxx and no other high cards.

Believe me there were more like these.  Here is a happier moment.  I am beginning to like the opening 2D bid and I learned a little about the dreaded Falenius adjunct.  Here is Colin’s hand:

S KJ7 H AK96 D A C 65432

Linda        Colin

2D             2NT

3C              3D

4D              ?

2D showed a limit hand with short diamonds, no 5 card major or 6 card clubs.  2NT asked and 3C showed 3-4-1-5.  3C asked controls and 4D showed 6 2-1 points.  Colin started mumbling about asking bids which will get us to the Falenius adjunct in a moment when he realized I could not have both the A and K of diamonds (holding only one) so to get to 6 controls I needed the SK, HAK and DA.  That meant we had 3 spades, 4 hearts, 6 clubs and 1 diamond amounting to more than enough tricks to claim in 7NT as dummy hit. 

Apparently the Falenius adjunct uses 4D as a way to set the trump suit and continue exploration for slams.  Assuming my response is below 4D, Colin would bid 4D as a relay to 4H (which can now be passed).  Any other bid sets the trump suit and allows further exploration.  Well, one way or another we might need some more methods here.

The European championships are on vugraph now and I would like to watch Catherine D’Ovidio but I am off to the dentist and I know this one is not going to be pretty since one of my teeth hurt, a very bad sign.

So many interesting hands to chose from

June 24th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

Playing with Colin last night I said that our table was wild and wacky and that was certainly true.   I enjoyed this one and I noticed we weren’t the only East-West to have a similar result.  South opened 1NT vulnerable against not and I doubled showing a major and a minor.  I held S AK976 H 5 D 7 C AK10653.  North bid 2D a transfer to hearts and Colin bid 3C pass or correct.  South bid 4H and I "corrected" to 5C which South doubled.  Colin held just enough with S3 H842 D K10853 C Q982. 

Shortly thereafter North white on red opened 4H and I heard Colin double.  Do you like pass on my hand, vulnerable?  I held S K103 H 97 D83 C A108753.  I passed and it went for 800.  5C is on the diamond finesse which works.  Colin held S QJ7 H AJ6 D AQ106 CKQJ.

However we did have a little system thing on this hand.  I held S Q1086 H 2 D 5 C Q1098632.  Colin opened 1C and RHO bid 1S.  I would have liked to bid several clubs but I wasn’t sure what that meant.  I decided to pass showing less than 5 and then bid clubs at my next turn.  This was the auction in the end and it was less than satisfactory because we make 5C.

I thought this auction would show a very distributional 3 or 4.  Anyway we are going to try to play weak jump shifts in competition after we open 1C.  So here I would bid 3C over 1S.  It sounds reasonable to me but would be interested in comments.

The opening 2C bid held up well on this hand.  Colin opened 2C and I held

S A1054 H Q8542 D 72 C A5

RHO bid 3D.  I doubled and raised Colin’s 3S to 4S.  Colin held SKQ76 H K3 D 10 C KJ10984. 

Colin played this hand against Pamela and "Sabba" an Australian expert who joined us and played nicely.  Our auction went

As you can see this is a total tricks hand and if you want to keep competing in spades you better continue all the way to 6S if needed which is going 2 or 3 down depending on whether we find the diamond ruff.  What do you think of the auction, by the way.

Too bad we weren’t in 6 because Colin played it well to make it.  The defence started with 2 top spades Colin ruffing the second with the H7.  HE played a diamond to the DK and played 3 top diamonds ruffing the last in dummy.  He continued with the H10 and then played a heart to the Q as Sabba showed out.  On the last trump Sabba threw a spade.  Colin had a count on the hand.  He knew Sabba had six spades, 3 diamonds and therfore 4 clubs.  Colin laid down the CK and saw Pamela play the club 8.  He now led the C10 and let it ride when Sabba ducked making 12 tricks.

Okay one last hand.  The auction was:

The defence started with 2 top diamonds ruffed by Colin. He played the SK and Sabba played the SJ presumably to scare him.  It did cause a significant pause but Colin continued with a spade to the SA.  LEaving out the long spade Colin played the CA and another club to the C9 as Sabba ruffed,  However the defence is now helpless and can only take the HA.  Bidding and making 4S was worth more than 9 imps

Best beginner bridge books available – for a change of pace

June 24th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

A while ago Sylvia Summers asked me to suggest the best bridge books available for beginners.  I thought it was an interesting question and I gave it a bit of thought.     For now I am just focusing on people who know how to play, have played for a while but are what some people call intermediates.  I see the list people put out and they seem to be 25 or 30 years old or more, often the books I read when I was learning… like Claude Watson on the play of the hand.  But in some cases those are still pretty good.  Here is the list I gave Sylvia

The "25 series" by Barbara Seagram and others has some good book for beginner except for 2/1 and myths.  I would recommend

25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know – ABTA book of the year

25 Ways To Take Tricks as Declarer

25 Ways To Be A Better Defender

25 Ways To Complete In The Bidding

Eddie Kantar’s Modern Bridge Defense (ABTA Book of the Year) and Introduction To Declarer’s Play

Standard Bidding With SAYC

Audrey Grants edition for beginners of Bridge Master Software is good

For those who want to learn 2/1 I like Paul Thurston 25 steps to 2/1 but it is not for complete beginners.  By the way I attended Paul’s bridge workshops and they are good.

Anyone have any other thoughts on some intermediate books?

Barbara Seagram and I jointly wrote a new beginner book which is coming out in a week or two.  It is called Barbara Seagram’s Beginning Bridge.  I am not going to talk about it today except to say that my dedication was to my mother Toby Waldman.  My mother loves to play bridge and plays with her friends twice a week every week.  She loves it when she gets the cards and wins the pot (about $5 I think).  I like to think that there are still a lot of players like my mom who love the game.

Late evening bridge with the kid

June 20th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

After the end of the US seniors trials, I found Colin online so we settled in to play bridge for the rest of the evening.  As always the forcing club seemed to be a red rag to the bridge player’s bull.  Here is an early example of one of our 1C openings red on white.  How would you bid my hand.

I held S K52 H AKQ9654 D void CKQ9

Colin opened 1C and North bid 1S (could this be psychic? ha!) anyway you bid 2H and partner surprisingly raises you to 3H.  What now?  I just bid 5D exclusion Blackwood.  Now over to Colin.  He held S A1087 H 832 D AKQJ102 C void.  Now I know I just showed a void in his solid seven card suit but they are a source of tricks anyway.   I can easily have a hand that will make 7 all I need is 6 solid hearts.  The truth is I am not sure how we show a void over exclusion.  Guess we are going to have to expand on our 4 pages of notes.  Anyway, he didn’t feel he could commit to a grand slam and who can blame him.  He showed his 2 keycards and I couldn’t go missing an ace.  I think we can get there by cue bidding though.  If I bid 3S he will bid 4C, I can bid 4D and he bids 4S anyway and I think we can manage it.  Did the spade psych hurt us I don’t think so.  But we found out the North who held S Q96 H 107 D 643 C AJ1043 had never psyched in 10 years before that moment!

Which brings us to the second psyche of the evening.  This time I put you in the deviant mind of the psycher.  You have S2 H QJ92 F J1065 C K1087.  You are at your favourite colours.  After 2 passes your red RHO (me) opens a precision 1C.  Can this be your moment?  You can’t let this opportunity pass, but what to psych.  A lead directing spade, perhaps.  The auction goes 2C, by LHO (Colin) and partner who can’t take a not vulnerable joke jumps to 4S.  RHO looks just too happy (me) when she cracks this. You can’t really blame partner who puts down S Q108653 H K8 D A7 C 42.  This is not going to play well.  As it turns out you go 5 down for 1100.  And what can East-West make?   Nothing at all (well 2NT but the field is generally going down in 3NT or something like that).

So far my experience has been psychers – none, forcing club at least 3.  So there.

Here is one hand where the kid showed some confidence in his mom.  All vulnerable South opened 1NT and Colin had S AKxx H void D 108643 C Q843.  He passed, North passed and reopened 2D showing one major.  South passed and he had to decide whether to play 2D or bid 2H (my probable suit).  Deciding I wouldn’t reopen on a bad suit vulnerable he bid 2H and played it from the short side.  I held S J93 H AKQ973 D K2 C 75.  The opening lead was a spade and

the S9 from dummy held.  He played 3 rounds of trump as everyone followed leading to this cute position as he lead a club from dummy.

South won the CK and played back a spade.  Colin cashed the top spade and ruffed a spade and played another club, South discarding a club during all this.  North won the CA and continued the CJ allowing Colin to cash the top high remaining clubs throwing diamonds from dummy and losing only the H10, making 4H!

But here is a truly nice hand Colin declared.  We both enjoyed this one.  Colin held S A96 H K94 D K94 C KQ73.  This was the auction (we were vulnerable against not).

I rotated the hands here.

By the way did you notice that South has psyched a notrump.  Better then some since it did very little harm.  Colin got a club lead and he won the CQ.  Wanting to keep South off lead he played a diamond to the DQ and a spade the S9 North winning the SJ.  North tried a small heart which went the H10 and the HK.  Now Colin cashed the diamonds and arrived at this position as he crossed to his hand on the SA.

On the play of the spades North had to discard the HA but he didn’t and Colin endplayed North for 10 tricks and all the match points.  Okay I think it is clear to throw the HA but the kid played the whole hand well, didn’t he and bidding and making 3NT was worth more 5.25 imps just by itself.

One last little play point.  Here Colin made a play without any thought that I missed in the round robin in Montreal.  Paul pointed it out to me.  Your clubs are AJ1087 opposite K9.  You need to find the CQ.  Your plan is to cash the CK and then finesse the CQ.  But it costs nothing to lead the CJ.  Maybe LHO will cover.  Colin made this play in a millisecond and North who held the CQ3 obligingly covered and 3NT came home very easily.

Blogging in realtime

June 19th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

It is the final of the U.S. seniors and I am rooting for my friend and our author Bobby Wolff.  At the moment the score is very close with the Milner team up by 14 imps with 15 boards remaining.  The next round will be starting in 1/2 hour and I intend to Blog it live.  Obviously I can’t comment on every hand but I hope that I can give you some highlights and the excitement of watching a serious event as it happens.

Its 7pm and we are just starting.  I am in the open room watching Bobby Wolff (North) and Dan Morse(South) play Matt Granovetter (West) and Russ Ekeblad (East).  I really like watching Vugraph on BBO although I have to confess that I don’t enjoy all the commentary.  Sometimes Francine Cimon is online and her messages to me are much more insightful then the most of the online chatter from the "commentators". 

The first hand is interesting and Francine said is here.  Bobby held S10xxx HKJxx D Jxxxx C void.  All white partner opened 1S and it went 2C.  What do you bid?  Bobby made a "value" bid of 3S but Francine and I (and the commentators) like 4S with that much offense.  Well we could see 4S made I confess.  Matt had 9 points in top clubs and we were playing with a 31 point deck.  Partner had only the CJ wasted   Partner had S Axxxx H Ax D A109 CJ83 and easily made four.  Perhaps not the best start.  Yes Lev bid 4S in the closed room so a loss of 6 imps, at least it wasn’t vulnerable.  The margin is now 20. 

We skip over a dull board 37 a push.  To balance or not to balance.  You are Matt Granovetter and you are red on white on board 48.  Your hand is SAK6 Hxx D 1098643 C 109.  You pass and it goes 1C pass 1H pass 2H back to you in balancing chair.  He is still thinking.   There is an argument for 3D.  Your suit quality isn’t there but you do have six.  As Pamela Granovetter is saying "it is a little scary".  He did it; he bid 3D!  Were you there?  Bobby balanced 3H which is in danger on the right defence.  You lead the SA and partner plays the S7 playing standard carding as Dan follows with the S7.  Dummy holds:

SJ97 H AQ51 DA5 CK653

Matt is thinking again.  So far his thinking is pretty good.  He switched to the C10.  Woops they let them make 3H.  Ekeblad ducked the first club but he has to duck the second club as well to beat it and he didn’t.  5 imps back to Onstott since 3H went down in the other room.  Here are the North-South hands

The next board was an easy 7NT at both tables.  The most interesting thing was the opening bid.  What do you open with S2 H A7 D AKQ10853 C A85.  Lev opened 2C and Bobby opened 1D and rebid 3NT. 

1 imp on an extra overtrick and the score is 89-73 to Milner on Board 50.  Board 51 is not looking food.  Ekeblad is in 3NT after Morse opened 3D  At the other table East-West went down 2 in the same contract.  Quite interesting play on this hand by Ekeblad and he is going to make it.  Not a good trend – we need some imps our way now.  Interesting play is why I watch these matches so I am not complaining.  Here is the hand.

Dan lead the DK won by Ekeblad as North threw a club,  Russ now played a spade to dummy and Dan won and played 2 rounds of diamonds.  When Wolff threw clubs unwittingly the hand was over.  At the other table declarer played a heart to the H10 at trick 2 when Lev switched to spades and there was no chance any more. 

The next board is a push but on Board 53 Wolff and Morse are in 3NT when the other trouble made 140 in hearts.  Here is the situation with GIB saying the hand goes down on perfect defence.  Wolff (North) is the declarer after Ekeblad opened 2S and Morse overcalled 3C.

Bobby got the H8 lead and when he played the H10 from dummy it held.  He now played the CK and Matt won the CA.  When Matt returned the HQ Bobby played him for the HKQ (is Matt really that devious?) and ducked and then when Matt continued hearts he finessed the heart 9.

Well I don’t think he was making it anyway but he is now down 2 and a loss of 8 imps and down 37 imps with 7 boards to play.  When things are not going well then ….

Board 54 has an opportunity for the good guys.  In the closed room North South got to 6D and were down one.  You need to guess spades missing the AQ but they are not actually guessable with both offside.  Let’s see if Wolff and Morse stay out of trouble.  Morse holds S K1063 H void D AKQ643 C AKJ

He bid 5NT he was just not staying out of slam.  Bobby bid 6C to let him pick the slam.  It doesn’t much matter.  Morse bid 6H I think that is awfully aggressive but Bobby will just bid 6S I am pretty certain.  Yes they ended there.  6S is not a great slam since you need to play the aforementioned spade suit for one loser but we already know that all the slams go down.  Apparently Matt said he would have lead the offside spade A against 6D which would have let them make it.  Easy to say now.  A lost opportunity and I know it is just feeling really bad to North-South.  

It’s starting to feel like it is over.  East-West in the other room just had a poor result on Board 55 and it is going to cost another 9 imps.  46 imps now.  too many with 5 boards left.  The other table has finished and looking ahead there are no significant swing hands left for Onstott.  This match is truly over.  Well Milner did play well in the boards I saw and should be a good team in Beijing.

Even a wolf needs a little bridge luck

June 19th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Over the last few days the theme of bridge luck has come up a number of times.  The first time was when I happened to go for a walk ending up in Lawrence Plaza, a small outdoor mall in Toronto which happens to be the home of the Regal Bridge Club.  The Regal has been there as long as I can remember.  While it is primarily a rubber bridge club in the last little while Barbara Seagram has been running duplicate games there five nights a week.  Just outside the Regal was standing Franco Bandoni.  Franco is a longtime bridge player who had a lot of success in tournaments in the 60’s and 70’s, a fiery Italian who has lately spent his time playing rubber bridge in at the Regal.  While we reminsced a little he talked about the rubber bridge players.  How when new blood comes into the game they get eaten up until they learn the ropes but the importance of luck in winning, in rubber bridge of course but also in tournament bridge.  Skill wins in the long run but even over a few weeks luck is a more important factor.  Franco talked about how he might bid to a great game and down it went, while all the opponents bad games came home.  Both of us agreed, luck ran in streaks.  Comments mathematicians!

Last night I watched the last round of the semi-final match in the U.S. Senior trials.  One of our friends and a Master Point Press author Bobby Wolff was playing.  It looked like things were locked up when I left the computer for a while.  When I came back I saw they were playing the last board up only 5 imps.  The last hand it turned out was a "story hand".  This is what happened.

In the open room Drew Casen for team Onsott opened pass and Ed Wojewoda held S 92 H AJ94 D AQ872 C J2.  He opened 1D vulnerable against not.  The auction continued as follows

Now this was the last hand of a long match.  No cracks about thes fellows being seniors.  I am very sensitive about "old" jokes.  Wojewoda forgot that Assemi was NOT a passed hand and therefore that the pass was forcing.  He passed!  This actually got a director call when Assemi shouted "what!" quite loudly.  Anyway the hand drifted down 2 for -100. 

Assemi held S A H KQ75 D J10543 C A53

At the other table this is what happened

Now if you put the North-South hands together you will see that 6D depends on the diamond finesse.  It appears that in this auction 4NT is not keycard and that 5NT was checking for kings.  As you can see Morse was a bit lucky to find his partner with a suitable hand but never the less 6D is on a finesse, assuming there is no ruff on the go.  Now I suppose the finesse is more than 50% on the auction but there is a reasonable chance of a heart ruff on the go as well and putting it all together this slam is not much more than 50-50.  (I know there would have been a double if East held a heart void).  So to a large extent it was a coin toss whether the Onsott team won last night or whether they needed a playoff.  (Had Wojewoda doubled in the other room as he might have if a cow hadn’t flown by, it would have been an outright win).

The result – the finesse was on and the match was over.  How fragile is victory! 

Okay how do you bid a bridge hand like this

June 18th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I was playing Precision with the kid last night.  We are starting to get our bearings although our system notes are only 4 pages, (along with about 20 pages from our former system for notrump auctions and the like).  But I have no idea how to bid a hand like this.  Red on white I held:

S K H K85 D KQJ109842 C 6

I had just been reading about a major team competition where at one table they opened 5D and at the other table they bid 1D and ended up in 3 making so perhaps that influenced my decision, as did the vulnerability.  I opened 1D.  Colin bid 1S.  Now what?  Well I thought since 1D is limited I can bid 3D.  I love it.  So that is what I did, 3D.  Partner bid  3H. 

This is what I though.  This is an ambiguous bid.  Normally bids like this should show a stopper and suggest a club weakness but what would he do the other way around?  Sometimes I could bid 3S as last train but no here.  So 3NT will be a bit of a shot. Is 3NT really the right spot?  I might not be able to get to my hand after setting up diamonds and surely one suit is weak.  3H is game forcing so I am bidding 5D.  I wound up in the same place I might have in one bid. 

This got doubled by someone who didn’t like our auction but it was an easy make.  Colin had SA109843 H 1093 D 3 CAKQ

3NT is not as good a contract since it can go down occasionally on a heart lead and sometimes on a spade lead when the hearts are badly placed and you can’t get to your hand (my fear).

Here is the kid on defence.  After the play to trick one Colin stopped for a while (which he rarely does having the fastest mind in the East) and then found the right defence.

He held S86 HK983 D KJ C AK985

I led an attitude D2 and dummy came down with

S AKQJ10 H 652 D A97 CJ4

Colin won the DK and returned a heart.  Let’s look at all the hands and watch what happened.

Declarer starts with 7 tricks.  A successful heart finesse makes 8 and a ninth can come from clubs or diamonds.  But when Colin switched to a heart at trick 2 declarer seems to be in trouble unless the hearts are both onside.  Declarer might expect the defence to take 2 hearts, a diamond and 2 clubs for example. 

Declarer does have another choice though.  Declarer could play the diamonds to be 4-2 with Colin having the DKJ.  Then finessing the HQ and playing AD and another works.  How likely is that?  Well I am known to have the DQ from the play to trick 1 (and the lead of an attitude D2).  The lead also does suggest I have 4, I think.  But perhaps it also makes me more likely to hold the DJ then the HJ.  A tough problem to get right.

Mother’s Day

June 15th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Well today is Father’s Day but over the last few days I played with my son Colin on BBO.  We decided to try to learn a forcing club system and to start off with are playing precision, sort of.  It is half a system, for now.  We have barely discussed what to do over 1C forcing.  We are winging it.

It is always a lot of fun to play with Colin but on Friday I was fighting a thunderstorm which took our power out 3 separate times.  Still he did give me a lot of things to smile about.  Here is one hand where Colin found a way to get a number with so help from the opponents.

Colin had SJ64 HAQJ4 DK62 CQ74

I opened 2S weak white on red.  It went pass, pass to West.  West seemed to play bridge a bit differently then the rest of us and he just couldn’t sell out to 2S.  He held S AQ H 98 D QJ84 C A6532.  What do you do?  Well our West decided to bid 2NT moving an honour from another deck into his hand.  East bid bid 3S trying to find a heart fit.  Colin doubled and then doubled 3NT which went 3 down.   Good aggressive bidding, my son.

Saturday Colin, North held this hand all vulnerable: S A87643 H void D QJ876 C K2.   West opened 1H.  What would you bid now?  Colin believes in the power of 6-5 and so he bid 2H.  Only one other North made this bid.  It went 4H to me.  I held SQJ102 H432 DA932 C108.  Since Colin was vulnerable 4S seemed clear.  We were doubled and made an uptrick for a lot of imps.  Almost all the other tables where North overcalled 1S sold out to some number of hearts.

Getting into the spirit of things I held S8 HJ DAK107642 CQ1082 all vulnerable.  Colin opened 1NT 12-14.  What do you think I should do?  I had no idea.  All in favour of 3NT hold up your hands.  That is what I bid.  I know it could be very wrong.  Colin did have the perfect hand: SA32 HAQ10 DQJ95 C973. And believe it or not we were the only pair to play there.  AS it turns out 5D needs the clubs to work and it goes down while of course 3NT has 9 top tricks. 

One thing we noticed was that many of our opponents seemed to take it as a personal challenge to get into our auctions when we opened 1C.  One opponent played random overcalls and after several numbers we had to boot him when his partner couldn’t take it any more.  But he did keep us from having many constructive 1C auctions.  We just had to settle for from 5-12 imps instead.  Here is one hand where we got to the top spot after opening 1C. 

Colin

SQ HAKQ62 DQ82 CKQ106

Linda

SAKJ97 HJ7 D 7 C A7532. 

Colin    Linda

1C       1S

2H       3C

4C       4NT

5S       6C

Its true it is pretty easy to get there in any system but it still was cool.  Perhaps the greatest strength for us 1C novices is not the opening 1C bid but the freedom to be aggressive on hands where we have opened 1 of a suit

A change of pace

June 11th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

Isabelle and I are taking a deserved rest after so much practising so I am having fun with the idea of playing a forcing club system with my son Colin for a while.   Neither of us have played this type of system before although it has long been my belief that it is superior,  I like the idea of limiting our opening one bids.  What do you think?

Anyway I thought I might start with Precision.  I don’t know if Colin will agree to that.  It just seemed a simple way to get going.  I have a copy of the Cohen-Berkowitz book, which looks like a nice starting point.  Besides I am an admirer of them.  I would like to try it and then maybe branch out.  Does anyone have any suggestions about good systems.  I am definitely going to read Roy Hughes’ book on bidding systems for some insights too.  I like the idea of including a relay system over forcing club but I think I want to crawl before I run.

I enjoyed watching the latter half of the US trials.  Here is a little spotlight on defence in the final.  You have

S10942 H103 DAQJ5 C QJ2

You play upside carding and attitude leads against notrump.  What do you lead?  Well pretty well anything could be right but let’s say you decide to lead an attitude S4.

Dummy has:

S AJ6 H KQJ74 D 96 C 654

Partner wins the SK and switches to the C9 declarer playing the CK.  What do you do?  The obvious answer is that you play the C2 but can that be right?  Declarers tricks are: 2 spades, 2 clubs and at 4 hearts assuming that partner has the HA (if not there is no chance).  Your only chance is a diamond switch.  If partner has the D10 you just might beat this hand.  So I think the right play is the CJ to really try to talk partner out of clubs.

Anyway, at the table Martel played the C2.  Stansby won the HA and continued clubs and 3NT made.  Partner did have the D10432 and the HA so you would have defeated 3NT if partner had found the diamond shift.  At the other table the opening lead was the CQ and while Compton had two chances to find the diamond shift, when winning the HA and later when winning the SK.