Vikings In Space

Bone

Jannes — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:48:33 +0000

Hi all

Here’s a slam I butchered.

South

AQ84

JT9742

West

North

East

South

2 1

Double

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:

North

J63

AKQ6

Q8542

South

AQ84

JT9742

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.

North

J63

AKQ6

Q8542

West

KQJ943

J76

East

KT75

T8652

K93

South

AQ84

JT9742

Bridge Big

Jannes — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:26:45 +0000

Hi all

Here’s me shamelessly plugging away. I think what René is working on is going to be big.

www.bridgebig.com

Vapor Walk

Jannes — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:55:09 +0000

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

A84

K92

QJT764

West

KQT43

QT3

K52

East

J9762

KJ75

South

962

AQJT73

West

North

East

South

1 1

pass

2 2

pass

3 3

pass

3 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

Vegas, baby!

Jannes — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:15:15 +0000

Hi all

Little news on any front. My Dutch friends are here visiting me and travelling around in California, so I’m pretty good.

I have been living towards this weekend, Vegas with 5 friends. On one hand I feel like I could go the tourist way: go to bed early, sightseeing on the strip, take a tour to see the Hoover Dam, and be a good kid. My dark traveller sees his opportunity too, I can hear him whisper: “Take the plunge!”

Next week I will post my stories here.

Effete

Jannes — Sun, 23 May 2010 07:26:42 +0000

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.

North

AQ2

T72

AQT74

South

T974

KJ8

QJ62

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:

North

South

QJ6

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 .

North

AQ2

T72

AQT74

West

A8654

952

K873

East

J8653

J93

A94

South

T974

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.

Bouncing

Jannes — Tue, 18 May 2010 20:59:44 +0000

Hi all

Here’s a spectacular deal from the BER sectional last weekend. This was the auction from Geoff’s point of view:

South

863

AJ9

KQJ863

West

North

East

South

Pass

1NT1

Pass

…6

Pass

Double

a.p.

1. Semi-forcing

Dummy puts down a monster.

North

AK5

K76432

T954

South

863

AJ9

KQJ863

You ruff the Ace lead in dummy and start on trumps. West showing up with all three of them. You just have to find that pointy Queen to claim your twelve.

Geoff took what seems a fifty-fifty guess by finessing over East (because of the overall freakish distribution), but here the ball bounced the other way: down one.

North

AK5

K76432

T954

West

AT754

QJ4

A72

East

KQJ8632

T972

South

863

AJ9

KQJ863

The cleansing clue is West’s inability to bid over 2 !
So he doesn’t have a six card suit, or a four card suit. Combine that with West holding all three trumps and it’s easy to smoke that Queen out of her palace.

Some other contemplations: My 5 call was not really an expert bid, it just happened in the heat of the moment. I don’t really care for a fit showing jump in because of the poor suit quality, but a 4 splinter to show extra strength looks reasonable. I wonder whether Geoff would have believed that considering he was holding a singleton himself.

Edit: Corrected deal after comment.

Dirty epic

Jannes — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:04:20 +0000

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

AQJT4

532

K84

West

North

East

South

3 1

pass

Double

pass

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:

North

KQ6

AQ9732

K854

West

AQJT4

532

K84

East

K98532

J84

South

AT97

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:

West

5432

J9862

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 .

North

KQ6

AKQ7642

K53

West

5432

J9862

East

AT7

T74

T98742

South

J98

JT3

AKQJ5

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

Deep water

Jannes — Mon, 03 May 2010 06:46:46 +0000

Hi all

My brother got me a nice present this week. He registered and forwarded the .com domain for my site: www.vikingsinspace.com. So now I won’t have to explain anymore where the .nl comes from. And it gives my site some global allure, don’t you agree?

Here’s some deep water experiment in Piedmont.

North

T62

KT974

KQ9

South

AK642

JT743

West

North

East

South

pass

Double1

pass

3 2

pass

a.p.

1. Responsive
2. Showing a good hand

Geoff propelled himself to a fairly high contract. Now how to scramble together eleven tricks?

He ruffed the second round of and played a to the King and Ace. The third he ruffed again in his hand, and now he was at a crossroads. Establish dummy’s or his own ? The answer lies in the quality of the suit. Where the have to split 3-3 to set up the suit, the may split 4-2 too as long as the Queen resides in the doubleton. Both routes require a friendly trump split.

This was the full deal:

North

T62

KT974

KQ9

West

Q975

QJ8

8532

East

AK9543

A52

South

AK642

JT743

It was a little fortunate that the Queen came tumbling down, but Geoff was on the right track of entering a dummy reversal for eleven tricks.

Gladiator

Jannes — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 04:21:36 +0000

Hi all

My preparation for the Marin sectional consisted of sleeping in a tent, watching deer and chipmunks, and drink Pinot Grigio from a bottle as Sanne and I both had forgotten to bring glasses on our camping trip.

Geoff and I teamed up again with Drew and Bill. There was not a lot of room to score, throw in some random succesful insanity by your opponents and you go home having scored just above average.

North

QJ9

K74

Q42

AT87

West

A764

JT763

East

KT2

JT53

J643

South

853

A962

AK5

KQ2

If I were a Roman gladiator meeting my RHO in the arena would bring an eager smile to my face. Man, I don’t understand how one person can contain so much hostility, sourness and anger.

Anyway, on the deal above I had to declare 3NT from South. West started with a for my King. I can count eight tricks and there are several options for a ninth. I decide to go after an extra trick so I lead small to the Queen, losing to the King. The continuation I take in dummy and I cross to my King to lead another . LHO fumbles through her cards for ten seconds, then says “Sorry, I don’t have any problem!”, and with that bit of poisonous information I have to take the right path. I request the Jack from dummy and I’m glad it wins the trick. I have nine now, but I’m hungry for a tenth. I exit in , leading to this position:

North

K74

AT8

West

JT7

East

JT53

J64

South

A962

When West decided to cash the thirteenth East could pitch a , so did I from dummy and my hand. The thumbscrews got really painful on East when West played a for my Ace. Such a beautiful round squeeze, executed by your own partner! She spit some angry remarks, but she knew she got owned. The overtrick was worth an IMP.

Unicorn

Jannes — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:43:48 +0000

Hi all

Immediately after Remco’s visit René dropped by. He changed seats with Remco at Quick Tricks. It’s such a treat to have Dutch players sit across *no offense to my partners here, by the way*. Of course we’re not allowed to play any of our Viking stuff on a regular club night, so we settle for a weak NT and some other shenanigans.

Here’s one:

South

A94

AKJT952

René opens 1 and to my surprise he raises my 2 call to 3 . I switch on the nitrogen powered overdrive and finally we end up in 6 . So where are the shenanigans?

This was the full deal:

North

A9754

AK842

West

QT3

KQ72

J973

East

J82

JT853

QT5

South

A94

AKJT952

René’s support consisted of just Queen – 7. But boy, was that a well timed moment for support! I don’t know whether I would have the guts to venture there, but I do agree with two of his arguments: North’s hand screams for a trump contract. And the auction gets a lot more inflexible if North would introduce on the three-level. Which would then probably gravitate towards some arduous NT contract.

It was easy to ruff a in dummy, draw trumps and pitch my remaining loser on the King for thirteen. That +1390 stuck out like a white unicorn in a field full of cattle (+690′s).