I Love The Winning

May 20th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  5 Comments 

"I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I love to play." –Boris Becker.

I was thinking about that quotation this morning as I try to recover from a post tournament "hangover" after coming back from the Kingston Regional.  In the end our tournament results were good and it was fun to win all our matches in the Swiss yesterday.  The field was fairly good and we had to beat some good teams.  But even when we didn’t win it was great to play.  It is so good to actually compete in person with Isabelle after all the BBO practice sessions.

Isabelle was really in the zone yesterday.  I could tell just by looking at her.  It was all coming very easily and she made no mistakes that I can remember.  If she can play like that, the sky is the limit for her. 

We spent some time looking for ways to get to the small number of games we missed this week (I don’t think we missed any slams at all) but it was hard to think of how to do better.  Sometimes you just can’t get there!  No bidding system gets you to every decent game.  Sometimes one of you has to take a push.  Here is a hand we have been discussing which falls into the latter camp.  How would you bid these two hands playing 2/1 with constructive raises.

Opener 

S Kxx H AKxxxx D X C Axx

Responder

S AJXX H QXX D xxx C XXX

Our auction was 1H-1NT (forcing)-2H (showing 6)- all pass

This is a great contract.  Now it is true that we only have 21 HCP but every single card is working.  And the power of aces and kings not quacks is clear in this hand.

I can think of two ways to get there in our system and one way that would require a system change.  You either rebid 3H on the opening hand over the forcing one notrump or you treat the responder hand as a constructive raise and bid 2H.  The thing that makes this a bit difficult is that until you know you have a fit opener’s hand is not that good and responder’s hand does get better with the sixth heart but once responder bids 1NT she has no bid over 2H since 3H would show a 3 card limit raise.  We did chat about the idea of having a way of showing a near constructive raise once opener shows a six card suit but couldn’t think of a sensible approach.  (Yes we talked about 2S).

At the other table North opened 1H but our partners doubled and now responder had an easy 2H bid solving the problem.

I have so much more to say about the our weekend adventure but I am too tired now. 

But we did it all right (and lost imps)

May 12th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I have been so busy in the last few weeks that I just haven’t had the energy to BLOG.  But things have finally calmed down and I am getting mentally ready for Kingston this weekend and then the CWTC starting the next one.  Practising in a team game this hand came up.  I thought we bid and played it well but … See what you think.

Izzy dealer NV vs V

Isabelle    Linda

1H            2D

3D            3S

5D            all pass

I have already been trained that when Isabelle signs off I should pass so the final pass was easy. 

The opening lead was the CK followed quickly by the CA and South then switched to the HQ.  I ruffed a heart in hand with the D9 as both followed and played two trump ending in dummy with North showing out on the second round.  I ruffed a heart in hand as North showed out in hearts  pitching the C3 and then the CJ.  I now know that South started the 3 clubs (he played the CK and CA that way, 5 hearts and 3 diamonds hence 2 spades.  He has shown up with the QJ10 of hearts and the AK of clubs for what that is worth.  Who has the spade queen?  It can’t hurt to play off the remaining diamonds and throw two spades from dummy.  But to be honest it doesn’t help much either.  South follows to the first diamond and throws a club on the second.  North throws clubs on both. 

This is the end position (hand rotated)

                S K8

                H K8

S ??                           S ????

H J10

               S AJ107

Well you know the rest.  I crossed to dummy on the SK.  Cash the HK and played a spade and yes, I finessed into the doubleton queen.  The tragic part was at the other table they blithely bid the 3NT and got a club lead and since the position wasn’t clear the defence switched at trick 2 to a heart (instead of cashing 6 clubs) and conceded 12 tricks.

We have been playing well and I think we are both looking forward to the upcoming events.  I hope we do well but I know we are as ready as we can be.

Responses to weak notrump – what do you think

April 24th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

When you play strong notrump pretty well everyone has a sequence which is a game try looking for some help in a minor.  A typical hand might be

S Qx H xx Dx KJ10XXX Cx JXX

This is a hand that might make 3NT if partner fits diamonds.  Of course you are hoping that the opponents can’t take too many tricks before you take your nine.  If partner doesn’t have diamonds you will play in 3D.  A question which has come up recently is how does this change when you are playing 12-14 notrump or even 10-12 notrump.

One presumes that you need more high cards either as stoppers or as tricks playing 12-14.  So you might want something like

S KX H XX D KJ10XXX CX KXX  does that look right?  or maybe a seven card minor which might allow a bit less in high cards.

What about with 10-12 notrump how much does it change?  Is this type of auction still as useful. 

Now what if the opponents intervene.  Let’s take the auction 1NT-(2S) natural.  Playing strong notrump 2NT is usually used as Lebensohl so you have much less ability to invite in any denomination.  Now too you need to know about a spade stopper in addition to minor fillers.  Is it better to play 3C or 3D forcing here, looking for the best game.  If it is looking for minor fillers does the bid deny or promise a spade stopper. 

Is it worth it to play that you are looking for a maximum rather than specifically minor fillers in this auction.

My thinking (which I admit is a bit confused) at this point is that 3 of a minor here should deny a stopper.  It should be looking for fillers though.  So opener should only bid on with both a minor suit fit and a good spade stopper.  I think this approach works fine with any notrump range.  Your thoughts?

A bit of this and that

April 23rd, 2008  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

Some times it seems that your opponents just do well against you. One example is this hand we played against Denis and Michael Gamble. I thought they had a very good auction to get to 7S. While one other pair also bid it they did it in the “most efficient” manner with an auction of 2S – 7S.

Here was East’s hand all vulnerable. We are silent thoroughout. West’s opening 2S bid showed 10-13.

S AJ32 H A D A109653 C AK

2S 2NT asking

3C 3D singleton somewhere- then asking

3H 4NT singleton club

5C 5D

5H 7S all the controls have been shown, the SQ and HK

West held: S KQ10964 H K85 D J  C 852 making this a great grand.

And sometimes you are just not playing up to par. Last night I definitely didn’t have my A game. I think some times it is just hard to concentrate on BBO. The fact that I had the television on and was working on some book editing between bids probably didn’t help either. Still Isabelle and I have had some decent rounds in the last few days.

The last board of our set was quite interesting. Here it is. Noone vulnerable.

My hand was S K106 H 107 D K1083 C Q1074

The auction started 2NT on my right showing 6H and 4S or 5-5 in the majors weak. This went pass-pass!-double by Isabelle. East passed and I passed and West bid 3C which was obviously comic. Isabelle doubled and East bid 3H. Should I bid here or let her have a chance to double? I passed anyway and Isabelle bid 3NT. Are you a bidder or a passer? If you bid what is your poison? I passed, perhaps I should bid something – 4C maybe, 4NT?

Anyway her hand was SQ3 HA9 D AQ94 C AKJ65, The hand lies pretty well for us but only 6D makes on a heart lead. 6C will lose a heart and a spade. As it turned out we scored well just for being in 3NT making 6 on a diamond lead. Can you get to 6D?

My favourite hand from last night was this one, mainly because I hadn’t heard the auction before. Here is Isabelle’s hand:

She held S KJ10965 D AK8 C AQ62 all vulnerable. She heard me open 2D, a major weak 2 bid in second chair. What to do? Here simple solution – she bid 4S ( 4 of any major is for play).

I held S 7 H AKJ1073 D 109 C J753

She got a club lead and won the CQ and was able to get rid of all side suit losers by ruffing a diamond and discarding on the top hearts, losing only two spades. This may sound very simple but she was the ONLY one in the field to reach 4S after the normal opening bid of 2H. Well done.

What was the most clueless thing I did yesterday? Well there were a few but here is my personal candidate for the MOST clueless. I held S Kx H 54 D 10543 C J7653 at unfavourable vulnerability. West opened 1S and Isabelle doubled. East bid 3C which showed club shortness and I doubled showing clubs. Well I did have some clubs but I didn’t actually have a hand and I didn’t even want a club lead. We were soon in 5C doubled. This went for 500 into their game so it wasn’t as bad as I deserved.

A Polish Feast

April 16th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Isabelle and I played  Piotr Klimowicz and his partner last night.  They were playing Polish Club and we all had some fun.  I have to say I was bad a few times when I made a couple of undisciplined bids (I even commented in the bidding explanations that "I was bad").   But by and large we had a very good set and some interesting hands.  There always seems to be something new, no matter how long you have played the game.  One hand was quite amusing for our side anyway.  Here it is.  I will give it to you from my point of view.Noone vulnerable, I sat South and  held S 73 H AKQ10853 D 105 C J8.  Piotr passed.  What do you bid?  I didn’t think this was much of a problem.  I opened 4H.  I am helped by the fact that we play Namyats so Isabelle will know that I can’t have more than 7 tricks.  Isabelle bid 4NT and I showed my keycards and hear 7H from her.  Now it went pass, pass, 7S and a loud double.  Well it would have been loud if you could do that on BBO.

This went for an even 2000 when we took all our tricks, including a club ruff.  As it turned out this little adventure didn’t cost him all that much since only two pairs of the remaining 15 who played this hand even got to the 6 level and none bid a grand.  The most interesting thing is how people handled my hand.  Noone opened my hand 4H.  Most of the field opened the South hand 3H which resulted in a quick 4H contract, although one or two north’s made the inferior (in my thinking) bid of 3NT over 3H.  A couple of South’s opened my hand 1H which I think is a perfectly reasonable bid and one of them even ended up in 6NT when North got very aggressive and basically just bid slam.  One north got to the strange contract of 6D after a pass by the South hand.  (You don’t want to know how).  Is 4H such a strange bid on this hand.  It seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

How do you handle this hand.  I confess I had no idea what to do.  I held

S AQ H A1086 D AKJ73 C K6

At unfavourable vulnerability, Isabelle passes and Piotr opens 2C, Precision style showing 6C+ and 11-14.  Here is the first problem.  What do  you bid?  I could jump to 3NT but was that really the right place to play this hand?  I decided to double and see if I could get hearts into play.  If Isabelle bid spades I could bid notrump then.  West bid 3C and it was soon back to me.  What now?  I didn’t want to double again since I was sure I was going to hear spades.  I thought maybe wrongly that I was too good to pass it out.  I hated bidding 3D.  Well I don’t know what is right but I bid 3NT.  Isabelle was wonderful here helping me right out.  She held S J8765 H 9743 D 96 C 52 and bid 4C which I could convert to 4H.  I suppose I was lucky she held four hearts.  The boys took the dive again in 5C doubled which did not have a happy ending especially because 4H was not going to make since the hand lay very badly for our side. 

While these hands show us winning a bunch of imps, our opponents played well and just got on the wrong side of these results.

Defence Is King

April 9th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Last year Rhoda Habert told us that what you need to do to win World Championships is defend really well. Yesterday there were some interesting defensive hands that we didn’t get right. Here is the first. See if you can do better.

Your hand is S K96 H 32 D AQJ107 C J87

The bidding starts off pass, pass and you open 1D in third. It goes 1S by Jeff Smith, DBL by Isabelle which shows 4H and usually 4 in a minor too. You bid 2D, Jeff bids 2S, Isabelle bids 3D and his partner bids 4S.

The bidding has been

West North East South

         Pass   Pass 1D

1S     DBL    Pass 2D

           2S    3D      4S     All pass

Isabelle leads the D9 which shows she has no honour and dummy arrives with

S A8 H J10765 D K82 C K94

What is your plan?

Here was my thinking, Jeff probably has 6 spades, 1 or 2 diamonds, 2 hearts, and 3 or 4 clubs. (Isabelle could have 4H-4C and 3D for the auction). He has a spade loser, 1 or 2 diamonds and likely a heart. If he doesn’t have a second diamond loser than he could 2 hearts to lose. It seemed simplest to keep playing diamonds to find out if we had 2 diamond winners. Then if not when I was in on the SK I could play a heart hoping for 2 heart tricks.

Perhaps based on my thinking it might be better to overtake the diamond and play a heart. Partner know whether a second diamond is cashing or not and if needed might be able to switch to a club. (For example if she had 5 hearts).

I was not there yet.

Here is the right thinking. If we have 2 diamonds, a heart and a spade nothing we do is going to make them go away. We will have ample opportunities to cash. But if we need a club trick then we may have to play it right away before diamonds are set up. On that basis I should overtake the diamond and switch to a club. Could a club be wrong? Suppose Isabelle has this

S x H AQXXX C QXX D XXXX

And declarer has QJ10xxxx H K D X C A10xx

Now we have picked up the club suit for him. But wouldn’t Isabelle have bid 2H on that hand? I think so. Can you come up with another case where switching to a club is wrong and we can defeat the hand?

So you got it right if you said overtake the diamond and switch to a club. Here is the whole hand

Yes, it is true that for this auction I expected a bit more from Isabelle but that was no excuse for not trying for a club trick just in case.

Here is another interesting defence.  This time I will name no names.  Are you going to be 2 for 2?

You have S AJ84 H 6542 D QJ C AQ10 as north, noone vulnerable.

Here is the bidding.

Have you picked a lead?  Lets say you start with the DQ, which will do fine.

Dummy has

S 9632 H K9 D AK10962 C 6.  Declarer wins the diamond in dummy and plays a spade.  You are playing upside down carding and partner plays the H3, declarer plays the SK.  Your play?  What is your plan?

Did you duck the SK?  It can hardly hurt.  If you didn’t we will get back to you in a moment.  Assuming you duck the SK declarer continues with a small spade and you win the SJ partner playing the C2.  What now?

Well if partner has the HA is simply can’t go anywhere.  The hand is down in top tricks.  Can you defeat the hand if partner has the HQ(J) and not the HA.  Yes, if partner has the CK.  So you lay down the CA and partner plays the C3.  He must have the CK or at least the CJ.  If that is true a club now can’t hurt.  You continue clubs dummy ruffing.  Now declarer can’t afford to draw any more trump since you can win and cash at least 1 club trick.  This is the only defence that will beat this hand on the lie of the cards.  Did you get it right?  Here is the whole hand

CNTC Montreal Qualifier

March 31st, 2008  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

The turnout at the Montreal Airport Hilton was a real surprise. 21 teams showed up to contest for the six qualifying places at the CNTC Flight A with a good sized group there for the Flight B as well. This was exciting because it showed how vibrant bridge was in the Ottawa and Quebec area. But it seemed to take the organizers by surprise. There was only one director to run both games (which had completely different schedules). Because of the large number of teams playing it was completely impossible to have a round robin which is the usual preferred choice. The format of play was a Swiss with random pairings in round one. The decision to play 16 matches of eight boards each, meant that this was going to be a gruelling weekend for four man teams like ours.

Play got underway finally at about 1:30 on Saturday and with a 1 hour dinner break we didn’t finish until about midnight. On Sunday we started at 10:30 and we finished our final match about 12 hours later with a one hour break after match 3 for lunch. This meant that we kind of skipped dinner. I learned something. I don’t play as well when my blood sugar is that low and sweetened coffee does help to get you by.

One thing that surprised me a little was that some of the players were not happy that Isabelle and I were playing. They knew we planned to play in the CWTC and they thought it was unfair that our team could still get a qualifying position. There were other players there who had no intention of going on to the CNTC, not just us. What do you think?

Isabelle and I had been reading the system notes over the last few days and had spotted quite a number of inconsistencies and problems. So much so that we decided to spend this week working on notes rather than practicing. The Swiss was also helpful in bringing out some of the good points and bad points of our system as well.

From the outset our team, Jeff Smith, David Sabourin, Isabelle and I did very well. We were in a qualifying position throughout the event and finished 4^th well ahead of 6^th place. To be honest, I am a little sad that Isabelle and I can’t play in both the CNTC and the CWTC.

Unfortunately the deals were not duplicated so there are no hand records and there is no chance I will remember the hands correctly. There always was action at our table and at the other table too. No match was boring. We did get a new number for me +1350. Do you know what that is? It was 3NT doubled +3. I had made a fit jump in diamonds so I guess my LHO wanted a diamond lead but this just seemed to help Isabelle with the suit.

One interesting system issue came up. Suppose your partner opens 1NT and LHO interferes with a two level bid. At the moment we can make a forcing bid or a “for play” bid in the minors but not an invitational one. You just have to decide – game or partscore. There is no other choice. Jonathan Steinberg mentioned that the way he played it was to use Lebensohl for the weak hand, the direct bid for the invitational hand and just bid game with the strong hand. That might be a problem when you are looking for a minor suit slam, I suppose but does seem like a good practical solution for most hands.

This all led to a lucky result. Here was the hand.

North

S 10xx

H Qx

D x

C KQJxxxx

South

S J9xx

H AKJ

D A10xx

C 109

The auction started 1NT (12-14), 2D by West which showed hearts according to his card. 3C forcing, 3NT , double, all pass. West started with the DK. Dummy was a bit of a surprise but from North’s point of view if South has the club ace, 3NT might well be a winner. South won and played clubs, West winning. West cashed 2 diamonds but the defence could do no better than hold it tight. Here was West’s hand.

S A

H xxxxxx

D KQJxx

C Ax

I am sure that West thought he had us in 3NT. Little did he know that he was missing one critical card – a small spade.

One interesting thing was the style of the systems being played. Very few people played multi or 10-12 notrump but some form of strong club or two-way (Polish-style) club was popular as was transfer responses.

I have one message for my partner. Isabelle, you played very well in all aspects of the game including dummy play. Well done. And of course it was fun to play with David and Jeff who almost always brought back some action on their cards. I was quite confident we wouldn’t have to worry too much about flat boards. I am sure that they will do well on the CNTC.

Isabelle also had to put up with me. As Ray always tells everyone, I lose my convention card, spill coffee, am not crisp enough in my explanations of system and get lost on the way to the table.

Oh, and the best thing. We had a disaster on the first board of a match. We doubled the opponents out in 2 spades and couldn’t beat it. Declarer played it very well and made it on an endplay. We had about 25 HCP and the spades split badly but the position of our high cards and the lie of the cards just worked perfectly for him. The only good point was that if we played the hand anywhere we would go down and possibly for a number. But you know what, it didn’t bother me at all. I just thought, oh well and buckled down to the next board. Can it be possible that I will be able to keep doing that – moving on from bad results? God, I hope so.

Eastward Ho

March 28th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Isabelle and I are off today to Montreal to play in the CNTC district qualifier with Jeff and David.  Both of us are looking forward to it but I have to confess to some slight jitters.  The big boogie man is remembering all the little quirks of the system and we both have been busy reviewing our notes over the past few days.   It’s amazing how many little errors we found.

Anyway, there should be some interesting CNTC stories to tell on Monday.  We had a very good practice with coach Mark watching on BBO yesterday.  Mark is in Toronto visiting us and he always has some good stories.  More of those another time.  Here is one hand where Jeff Smith got us.  Tell me if you like his bid or not.

You are not vulnerable against vulnerable and partner opens 2H which shows 10-14 with 6 hearts.  Your hand is S 5 H 86 D A76432 C A763

What is your bid? 

Jeff bid 4H and caught me with S AJ873 H QJ942 D J C K4.  Do you fancy taking a punt at a 4S bid vulnerable.  I am going to need to find partner with a lot of spades to deal with my hearts and even then they are going to get overruffed.  What about Isabelle?  She held SQ9642 H void D K8 C QJ10985.  Its tough to bid on her hand too. 

As you can see we can make 4S and beating 4H was not much recompense. 

Whoever said that any auction that takes 6+ levels of bidding is bound to end badly was right on this hand from a practice earlier in the week.  You can assess blame but I think the interesting thing on the hand is how can you tell?  Here are the two hands

One of Us A

S KJ64

H A

D A543

C AQ43

One of Us B

S A7

H KQ10643

D Q87

C 97

Here is my running commentary on the auction.  Notice I am protecting both guilty partners – because these things take two to really go bad.

A                                  B

1D                                1H

2S                                 3H

3NT                              4D

4H                                4S

4NT                              5C

6D                                P

A 1D, the system bid with 4-4 in the minors we open 1D

B 1H can’t find fault here

C  2S Jump shift? singleton in partner’s suit, lousy spots, 18 HCP – not so good – but 18 HCP

D 3H GF – more hearts, (2NT would have shown a weak hand) – seems reasonable but more to come

E 3NT – no fit, time to bail, hope I can get to partner’s hand

F – 4D – I have so much extra 11 points opposite a jump shift, may partner thinks I might have a mere 8.  Partner probably has 5D after all she must be flat to bid 3NT now ( she probably bid 2S before because she forgot she could bid 2NT.)  Well maybe she was 5-4-2-2 with a suit oriented hand and wanted to bring diamonds into the picture – yes that must be it

G- 4H – this is a perfect bid, both a cue bid and maybe we can play here, anything is better than diamonds

H- 4S – great partner cue bid, I need to show partner my spade A

G- She must have 4D and 6H (wonder why she didn’t bid 3D – those hearts must be solid, maybe) and lots of points too.  Blackwood is going to tell me all I need to know.

H-5C – 1 or 4 – Got this bid right

I – 6D Well we are off the diamond king, hope she has the DQ and DJ.  I better play this one in a diamond slam – not sure why.

J- Pass- cool I knew it was right to bid 4D

Forgive me Isabelle for the commentary.  I truly am not trying to assess blame – I just think it is interesting how this went off the rails.

Okay, readers, what went wrong and how should we bid these hands.  Despite this hand we have been having some pretty good practices.  Let’s try out some nice tough competition.

Never a dull bridge moment

March 19th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Playing today against Jeff Smith and Flash, we had some really fun hands.  Isabelle made some really exciting plays and mostly I followed suit with one or two exceptions.

First a hand where I fell from grace.  I am so ashamed but please have a little sympathy for me.

I held SAK764 HJ97642 D2 C10 vul vs nv.  In second chair I could think of no better bid then pass.  Jeff opened 1H in third chair.  What is the one bid you really don’t want to hear.  You got it – 2NT.   Perhaps RHO will save you but he passes.

What do you bid?  I considered passing but I bid 3C since I had the C10.  Now partner bid 4D.  What do you do?  I know I know 4D is forcing but can partner really expect me to be 1-1!!! I passed.  Don’t groan.  Partner had

S Q2 H void D AKQ974 C AK972 with spades 3-3 diamonds 3-3 (even clubs broke) partner made all the tricks.  I am so bad.  Sorry Isabelle.

Isabelle was great throughout but here is one defence that I loved.  (Come on Jeff – I know you were the victim but you have to admire your wife for this).

Isabelle held

S J7 H 76 D A10942 C AKJ8 vulnerable against not

Jeff passed and Isabelle opened 1D.  I responded 1S and Jeff overcalled 2H.  Isabelle passed (denying 3 spades) and Flash bid 4H.  Isabelle doubled.  Do you like this bid?  I do.  I think that people don’t double games enough.

You lead the CA and see this dummy

S AK5

H J1043

D KJ83

C 7

Declarer follows low.  I play the C10 and declarer plays the C5.  We play A from AK and upside carding.

What do you do now?

Isabelle saw that the C10 was discouraging and such a high card might carry another message – I really want a switch.  The only logical switch is diamonds.  She laid down the DA, dummy played low I played the D7 and Jeff the D6.  Now the D7 is an interesting card.  It probably is a singleton since with 75 or Q75 I would probably play the 5.  But I don’t think that analysis was even necessary. Isabelle had already worked out that I wanted a diamond ruff.  She continued diamonds and I trumped, returned a club to her CJ and ruffed another diamond for 2 down and +300 on a hand where most people made game although they didn’t all bid it.  When your hot, your hot.

Here is the whole hand

Here’s an auction I rather liked.  Isabelle held S 6 H J85 D AKJ653 C A83

With noone vulnerable she opened 1D in second chair.  The auction continued

It isn’t entirely clear what 3H is, other than a forcing bid and Isabelle decided to bid 3NT.  I bid 4NT now.  What do you do?  One thing I can promise you is that it isn’t Blackwood.  Also with three diamonds or more over 2D we play a gadget which shows a game force with diamond support, so I can’t have that. Isabelle knew that I was inviting and she had a great hand for the auction.  She bid 6C.  This gave me a choice of slams and showed something in clubs.  I thought the hand might play better in diamonds so I bid 6D which was an excellent contract.  I had

S AKJ107 H A73 D 108 C KQ4

On the hand she actually made 7 when the diamond finesse worked.

There is no snow in Costa Rica

March 17th, 2008  ~  linda  ~  3 Comments 

I have had a few people asked me about my blog and why there have been no recent posts.  This made me feel good because it means some people actually read it.  Yes, I have been away in sunny Costa Rica.  If you want a great holiday that is the place.  It has everything.  In the highlands where we spent our time it is warm to hot in the day, every day and cool at night.  There is little rain except for 3 weeks in the rainy season (maybe you shouldn’t go then).  There are beaches, jungles, volcanoes, hot springs, incredible variety of species of animals and plants (do you like monkeys or toucans?), great coffee, bananas and pineapples and friendly people.  Wow!

Did I think about bridge – no way baby!  However the subject did come up when I returned and had lunch with Lynn Beglan, a former work colleague of mine.  It turns out that Lynn who always loved horses and riding is now competing seriously.  When we compared notes it seems that Lynn also has the same type of performance anxiety issues that bridge players have and the same type of issues in putting mistakes behind her so she doesn’t blow the next thing.  Apparently dressage requires enormous concentration and is done in small stages.  When you make a mistake in one stage you have to take your mind off the mistake and move it to the job at hand.

I have this problem sometimes.  When I get a poor (or even a strange) result on one hand I have to figure out what I could have made, what par was, what I should have done…. blah, blah, instead of thinking about the current hand. 

One thing I have noticed in playing with Isabelle is that both of us tend to go forward to the next hand without worrying about something we did on the previous one, or even some misunderstanding we had.  This is truly awesome.  There seems to be a need to talk something out at the table – in case it comes up in the next 3 boards – that is totally unnecessary in my opinion and distracting.

Last night we had a hand in a practice set that I thought was instructive.  It made me go back to our notes and realize how sparse they were in the area of balancing.  Here is what happened at the table.

I held S void H AQ63 D QJ97 C 109842.

A random player on my right (I mean someone unknown to me) opened 1S vulnerable against not.  I passed although I think in retrospect I should have doubled with this shape.  It went pass and Isabelle balanced with double.  What should I bid?

When you look in our system notes it says that we bid 1NT with 11-15 and 2NT with 20-22 and that we try to double even if a bit offshape in case partner is trapping and not much else.

There is a lot more about normal takeout doubles though.  Over a takeout double 2S would show values, but is not a game force and ask partner to pick a suit.  I decided not to punish partner in case she didn’t have 4H and I bid 2S.  Do you like that bid?

Now partner bids 3NT.  What does that mean and what should you do?  What would 2NT mean?  Does it still show 16-19 as it would after a different bid by mean.  I think it must be a game force.  So what is 3NT?   If partner had bid 3H would that show 5 or might partner bid it on 4 if I am asking partner for a suit.

We still haven’t answered all these questions and I would be interested in input from anyone on what these auctions ought to mean and how they are affected by bidding in the balancing chair.

Suffice it to say that we didn’t get it right at the table.

The very best news though was that not one word was said about our bad result and it really didn’t seem to make any difference at all as we went on to the next board.  Can we really handle it just the same in a serious match?  Probably not, but awesome anyway.