Vikings in Space

Redeeming

By Jannes on March 7, 2010

Hi all

In a week I’ll be in Reno, participating in the nationals. I have planned to play the IMP Pairs (with Drew Hoskins) and the Vanderbilt (with Geoff Hopcraft). Both partners are capable of creating action and generating imps and stories. I’ll post them here.

Here’s another Beowulf story from last week at Piedmont.

North

KQ5

AKJ6

A9763

South

AJ74

743

Q943

West

North

East

South

pass

3NT

pass

a.p.

1. 15-17 bal or any 18+
2. 6+
3. Natural
4. Natural

I shouldn’t have ventured with 2

, it shows (or should show) more than this crummy four card suit. On the other hand finding a fit might get a bit difficult if I can’t take the slow approach. Anyway, Geoff pushed to slam when he found out I was holding

too.

My LHO starts with the Ten of

, and I take stock. I have two paths, establish the

or try to ruff two

in dummy. If the opponents had started with

the latter plan would have been fairly easy to execute. But the

lead creates some transportation problems. So I decide to establish dummy’s

.

After winning the King of

I draw two rounds of trumps with the Ace and King, the

Ten hasn’t shown up yet. Next I cash the

Ace and ruff a

with the

9, LHO discarding a

. I cross to the

King and ruff another

with the

Queen. This is the position:

North

South

AJ7

743

My plan was to cross again in

, extract the outstanding

Ten, cash the

and pitch dummy’s losing

on my long

for thirteen tricks. I fell off the bridge when East ruffed the

to dummy and cashed the

Ace for down one.

North

KQ5

AKJ6

A9763

West

T8632

QT85

East

AJ962

T52

QJ84

South

AJ74

743

Q943

Mere minutes later the solution hit me. A surge of pure, redeeming insight made me want to crawl back in time and replay those last couple of cards.

Instead of crossing to dummy with another

, I should have exited in

. The opponents can take their trick but now dummy’s

void and

Queen function as entry to draw the last trump. Combining the chances of any favourable

split with an unfavourable

split but a well placed Ace of

. It might be talking towards the cards, but assessing the value of that extra overtrick in 6

should have steered me in the right direction.

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Beowulf

By Jannes on March 2, 2010

Hi all

They haven’t fixed their initcap problem, and their mailing room isn’t quite up to speed, but Oracle finally sent me my OCP certificate.

Together with Geoff Hopcraft I’ve been experimenting with a homebrew precision 1

opening: Beowulf. A 1

opening shows 15-17 balanced or any stronger hand. There are just two responses possible to 1

: 1

showing any 6+ and 1

showing a bust. After that the bidding takes a surprising natural turn. So the relays and asking bids I’ve always been so very fond of have been sacrificed to robust natural proceedings. I can’t tell yet whether this is systematic imp positive, but if so, our competitive agreements more than make up for it. As always the 1

is the Achilles heel of conventional

systems, ours being nebulous to the n’th power, for it can be as short as zero.

Here’s an example of Beowulf in action:

North

873

KQJ97

KT84

South

AKT95

AKT2

A64

West

North

East

South

pass

4NT

pass

a.p.

1. 15-17 bal, or any 18+
2. 6+ hcp

After 1

the auction switched to natural mode and Geoff launched himself to slam.

During the auction Geoff figured the side

fit would provide enough tricks for slam. As the cards lie slam barely qualifies as questionable. In order to enjoy the long

Geoff needed to discard one on the top

. Then the two top

would have to survive before ruffing a third one high. After that he had to draw the remaining trumps ending in dummy to enjoy the

. But at that point there are still only eleven tricks (four

, five

and two

). The twelfth needed to come from the

suit, but when the Ace proved to be off side we wrote -50.

North

873

KQJ97

KT84

West

Q874

Q9763

East

Q62

J963

832

AJ2

South

AKT95

AKT2

A64

I enjoyed the 3

bid best, I could show a big hand and my exact distribution, and we were just at the 3-level! I’ll keep you posted with more Beowulf action.

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Tiny forces

By Jannes on February 17, 2010

Hi all

On Monday I played with Drew Hoskins in the Burlingame Regionals. I thought our setup (a 6-bagger consisting of Jason Rosenfeld, Foster Geng, Ari Greenberg and David Grainger) was already a force to be reckoned with, but when I saw Mike Lawrence at the playsite I felt tiny again. If I had known he was going to be there I would have brought half a dozen books for him to sign.

Here’s me picking up eleven imp:

North

KJ9

Q73

T9632

South

J853

A74

A82

AK8

The auction was short, 1NT – 3NT.

I can count six solid tricks, but when East shows out on the small

lead I have seven already. I can play truly va banque and finesse in

and play a

towards the Queen for nine. But I don’t like to put all my eggs in one basket.

The

finesse is almost unavoidable so I take it immediately. I’m glad to see the Jack wins the trick, that’s number eight.

I’m going to assume East is 4-5-4-0, for he pitched he a small

on the first trick. My plan is to remove all of East’s idle cards and then endplay him to grant a trick to the

Queen.

So I continued by cashing Ace and King of

and

, ending in dummy. I got off lead with the Ten of

to West. West saw his partner’s pain too on the run of

and decided not to cash his last

. Instead he switched to the Ten of

. I ducked and East won his Queen.

North

Q73

South

A82

East exited with his remaining small

and dummy took it with the Ace. I crossed to my Ace of

and put East on lead again with my

Jack, discarding the

from dummy. East sighs and grants the smiling

Queen a trick. Nine!

North

KJ9

Q73

T9632

West

T72

T65

QJ754

East

KQ94

T8532

KJ94

South

J853

A74

A82

AK8

At the other table declarer was less inspired and collected his eight tricks. I agree the defense looks less than optimal (East could have kept a

, for example), but after a long day most players get a little soft. Capable declarers and defenders can and will take advantage of that.

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Sponge

By Jannes on February 5, 2010

Hi all

I’m counting down on my days of freedom & slacking. On Monday I’ll start my QA job at Newfield Wireless, a service provider for large telecom companies. A bonus for me is that it’s really, really just around the corner. I’m happy. And I can confess that again bridge has proven to be the vital key in me finding a job. Seriously, one day scientists will discover bridge cures diseases too, I’m positive.

Here’s a small deal from a Piedmont Monday night game.

North

J962

8653

Q765

South

Q73

Q75

AK94

KT9

All vulnerable l opened the South hand with a 12-14 NT and got to play there. Of course the opponents found a

lead and damage control was priority one, as I could only count two solid tricks. My RHO won the King of

and returned a small one. I had nothing to think about and threw my Queen which won the trick to my surprise.

Processing the information at the table. RHO has both

honors,

honors are probably split, so West is the favourite candidate for holding the

Ace. I proceeded accordingly and played my

Ten to the Queen. She survived, and when I finessed against the

Jack on the way back West won it with the Ace. So far so good, I can count five tricks now: two

, two

and a

. The opponents take their

and I discard to this position:

North

J96

South

Q73

West now annoyingly switched to a

. I don’t want to chuck up the sponge for -200. So after I’ve cashed the King of

I go after the

. I play my small

to dummy’s 9 and East wins with the King. I take the

continuation and sacrifice my Queen of

to West who grinds his teeth and surrenders his

Ten to dummy’s Jack. Well, who would have thought that anemic dummy was actually going to take two tricks?

North

J962

8653

Q765

West

AT8

JT864

A42

East

K54

AK92

JT2

J83

South

Q73

Q75

AK94

KT9

The defense was correct up to the point where I played my small

towards dummy. If West had risen with the Ace to continue setting up a

winner, then his partner would still have the

King as an entry. I was happy with -100, as a lot of pairs made eight or nine tricks in

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Plunge

By Jannes on January 27, 2010

Hi all

Back in the US of A. My trip to The Netherlands was great but exhausting. Sleeping in different beds several nights in a row, cram visits to friends, family and old colleagues into small windows of time, oh, and did I mention “De Zaak” had Pauwel Kwak on draught. I fear that I’ve gained some difficult to lose weight.

Here’s a deal from a clubnight in Rotterdam. Rekindling my partnership with René (North) for a couple of hours. He didn’t let me down, for there was enough spectacle.

North

KQJ94

AJ62

KT72

West

J976532

K953

East

AKT84

752

Q54

South

A63

T74

AJ9863

West

North

East

South

pass

… 6

DBL

a.p.

1. Natural 4+

, or 15-19 balanced
2. Explained as invitational with trump support
3. Blast!

West sure took a timid approach valueing his hand, just 3

with seven trumps and a void? After René heard the explanation of 3

he announced a skip bid that felt well-acquainted. I have a couple of fond memories of René ruthlessly blasting to slam without enquiries. West took a few deep breaths before taking the plunge, he sacrificed in 6

. We extracted a +500 penalty from that.

The score sheet was … colourful. Pairs making 7

, down in 7

, 6

doubled with an overtrick or just making, down in 6

, 6

doubled down two and one happy-go-lucky EW pair that got to declare 4

doubled.

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Whirlwind

By Jannes on January 7, 2010

Hi all

May the gods you are loyal to grant you the success you deserve for 2010.

It has been a whirlwind of attention, questions, Dutch treats and jet lag. Man, if I weren’t enjoying myself so much I would need a holiday after this. This deal is from a pairs night at Star. I was sitting West and heard the following auction.

West

K98432

9762

West

North

East

South

pass

2NT

pass

3NT

a.p.

1. Inverted
2. Stopper

I led my 5th

and dummy revealed a promising stiff

North

KJ92

KJ763

KQJ

West

K98432

9762

Partner Erik S. wins the Ace of

and returns the

Jack via the Queen for my …

2. I decided to duck to keep communications intact. Basically the analysis comes down to whether South holds

Queen – doubleton, or Queen – third. The latter seemed more likely in my opinion.

Declarer wrapped up ten tricks easily.

North

KJ92

KJ763

KQJ

West

K98432

9762

East

AJT7

AT54

T52

South

876

AQ94

AT83

For West it’s impossible to see from what holding East has returned the

Jack. Maybe you can toy around with “change in tempo”-tactics, unfortunately I’m a too ethical player to adapt to such practices. In a teams match East can offer a helping hand in the defense. Seeing the danger that West might duck the

Jack return, East can cash the Ace of

first before firing back the

Jack, that should stir West’s cup of coffee in the right direction.

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Priceless

By Jannes on December 21, 2009

Hi all

Here’s a britishism that cracked me up: What is a Sleeping Police Officer?
Answer at the end of the article.

Last Saturday Elenalani and I played an afternoon game in Fremont. The playsite was hidden deep in a gigantic home for the elderly. In the deal below the opponents had a short auction: 1

– 5NT – 6NT. It’s not very scientific, but it got them to the right spot.

North

J962

KT92

J63

West

AKQ3

Q75

QT842

East

AK3

AJ83

AK95

South

QT854

JT974

Sitting South I started a

from my sequence and saw declarer scramble together twelve tricks via a

finesse. Declarer looked at the score sheet with $ signs in his eyes. Seconds later he had come down from his pink cloud when he found out about half the field had made thirteen tricks, some of them had even bid a grand. Looking for an excuse he asked us what he did wrong.

I rolled up my sleeves, cleaned my glasses and teacher Jannes arrived at the table. I could have commented on the defensive skills of the majority present, or have said something incomprehensible like: Thirteen are cold on a non-simultaneous double squeeze with

as pivot suit. But I chose to be a little more helpful.

I explained that after the

lead he could hook the

immediately. Then after cashing the

Ace run all the

and pitch a

from hand. Leading to this position:

North

J96

West

AK3

East

AK3

South

T97

As you can see South got squeezed out of the

suit two tricks earlier than North, who’s in trouble when both top

hit the table. Eventually

AK3 is good for three tricks. The look in his eyes was priceless when he understood the squeeze.

A Sleeping Police Officer is what they call a speed bump in the UK.

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Revelations

By Jannes on December 15, 2009

Hi all

I’m excited, only a couple of days left and I will see family and friends again. I’m spending most of my time in Oakland now finishing up my courses and certifications. Satisfied with successfully completing all my Oracle stuff (I’m an OCP now!), but I couldn’t keep my momentum to finish up Java too. Oh well, I’ll add it to my 2010 resolutions list.

Here’s a deal where the opponents were pretty helpful.

South

AJ62

QJT4

743

West

North

East

South

pass

… 4

a.p.

1. Taking it easy
2. Enough to compete
3. Boing!

West came alive after her partner overcalled 2

. And when she decided to compete to the four-level she had drawn a very clear picture of her hand, and my partner’s! When the opponents revealed their double fit in the round suits it was very easy to put together Elenalani’s hand:

with

shortness. It was like looking into a glass orb with a degree in Prophecy & Revelations.

North

KQ974

952

K876

West

AKQ63

532

T862

East

T53

JT4

KQJ95

South

AJ62

QJT4

743

Elenalani had an easy roll to ten tricks and the full load in matchpoints.

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Vikings In Space

Redeeming

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Plunge

Whirlwind

Priceless

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