Vikings In Space

Hi all

Here’s a slam I butchered.

West

North

East

South

2 1

Double

5

6 2

a.p.

 

 

 

 

1. Weak
2. Not very scientific, but sometimes you take off the white gloves and enter while swinging your axe.

Dummy comes down:



King lead. Alright, this baby needs some work. I can count only ten tricks with a succesful hook. I won’t go into detail how I botched the contract, but my opponent threw me a trick-twelve-bone with a ruff and sluff.

It took me some overtime to formulate the most elegant plan. Draw two rounds of trumps ending in dummy. Play a to the Queen and exit with the Ace of and the Ten. This basically wins with the 3-3, King doubleton onside and various 2-4 holdings where East will be endplayed. Those last ones might be a bit difficult to read, though.

I think that’s as much optimization juice you can squeeze from that lemon.

West Dealer

NS Vul

North

J63

AKQ6

7

Q8542

West

92

85

KQJ943

J76

East

KT75

3

T8652

K93

South

AQ84

JT9742

A

AT

 

Hi all

I’m probably kicking an open door, but Vegas is a wicked city. There’s so much eyecandy even an armed and thickskinned Viking will suffer an indigestion. And you’d better bring a boatload of cash to unlock good times. Here’s a picture, from left to right: KJ, Dennis, me, Remco and Jerome. We’re admiring the inside view of The Venetian at an hour past midnight!


Somewhere late Saturday night, Dennis suddenly stopped in his tracks and pointed towards some redhaired woman.
“So?”, I asked.
“Do you know who that is?”, he responded.
“No clue.”
“That’s Rihanna playing blackjack over there.”
“… Diana.. who?”

I understand she’s one of the biggest popstars around right now. Man, I’m so out of touch.

Let’s just stick at what I’m reasonably good at, Beowulf in action:

North Dealer

NS Vul

North

A

A84

K92

QJT764

West

KQT43

QT3

65

K52

East

J9762

KJ75

84

93

South

84

962

AQJT73

A8

 

West

North

East

South

 

1 1

pass

2 2

pass

3 3

pass

3 4

pass

4

pass

… 5

a.p.

 

 

 

 

1. Unbalanced, 0+
2. Forcing, 4+
3. Forcing, 5+
4. Limit, nothing but

I agree the bidding looks rather painful and overly complicated.

When East led a Geoff had no problem collecting twelve tricks, he lost just a trick to the King of . If the finesse had been right thirteen tricks would have been reasonably easy. On the other hand, had East led a ten tricks would have been our limit. Funny, on the best lead it’s either four or seven. I don’t remember seeing such a deal before.

Alright, I’m gonna hide under some umbrella… ella… ella

Hi all

I think it’s official, I’ve tapped too much from my barrel of luck. This deal is from a pairs night in Piedmont. Sitting South I opened a weak NT and Geoff raised me to game.



West led a small and East played the 9 for my Queen. I can count five tricks in , one and two if the finesse works. My only sensible legal chance for nine is finding West with exactly KJ stiff.

I lead a small and West throws the King in the arena. I glance at West and decide it’s an honest card. I see no alternative than going for a flaw in the defense. I rattle off all (pitching a and a ), leading to this position:



The opponents kept all their and RHO has pitched two and a on the choo-choo train. So now I have East almost where I want him. Still in tempo I request a from dummy and when East follows with a small one I feel victory approaching.

West in with the King, pounces with the Ace of and another one for his partner’s Jack. With a sigh East acknowledges defeat, he can take the Ace, but then has to lead away from his Jack of .

South Dealer

NS Vul

North

AQ2

T72

AQT74

T5

West

K

A8654

952

K873

East

J8653

J93

63

A94

South

T974

KQ

KJ8

QJ62

 

So if East had risen with the Ace of they can keep me to seven tricks. Not a bad reward if you pay some attention. My fields of luck are now infertile, desolate and loveless, I fear.

Hi all

On Monday I returned to Quick Tricks again, this time to ravage the field with Sanne. I promised her and myself to be a good and understanding partner. Of course my not so hidden agenda was to brutally extract points from my opponents. I was successful a couple of times.

West

North

East

South

1

2

3 1

pass

pass

Double

pass

4

a.p.

 

 

 

 

1. Weak

Now to find a lead. A trump looks way too passive because I can see the suit can be set up easily. A might work but also could allow declarer to add some easy ruffs to her balance. So I decided to lead a , my 6 of to be precise.

This was the full deal:

West Dealer

EW Vul

North

-

KQ6

AQ9732

K854

West

AQJT4

532

K84

A6

East

K98532

J84

J5

QJ

South

76

AT97

T6

T9732

 

Declarer glanced at me for more information, but I just sat there with a beatific smile. She played low from dummy and eventually ended up one trick short.

There are a couple of winning routes if you get a lead. You can ruff it in dummy with a top trump, then draw the outstanding trumps by hooking the Jack. Next duck a to take the finesse against the King later (communication baby!). You will score five tricks in , four trumps in your own hand and a ruff in dummy. An alternative is to set up the suit after drawing trumps, just play a small one to the King and pray for a 2-2 split. Scoring four trumps, a ruff, four and the Ace. I’m pretty sure this competent opponent would have found one of them at the table.

By the way, did you notice Sanne’s 3 call with six trumps? A fine decision, even with eleven trumps together there are just seven tricks in the bag for EW.

The first one might have been a bit lucky, this is a whole other league:


Your LHO opens a strong 2 and your RHO (me) brusquely jumps to 7NT. What do you lead?

My friend Bruce decided to lead a .

West Dealer

NS Vul

North

KQ6

AKQ7642

K53

-

West

5432

95

J9862

63

East

AT7

8

T74

T98742

South

J98

JT3

AQ

AKQJ5

 

Too bad, three tricks in , seven and four add up to more than thirteen already. Dirty epic!