2007

Hi all

This teams season didn’t start that well for us, some bad play and equivalent results. During clubnights Hoek and I are quite in sync already, but in serious teams matches there seems to be a bit of stress and tension around. It’s difficult to score when the fragile and precious trust you’ve built up is under heavy fire. Here’s a problem Hoek had to face from a recent teams match, against the top dog from our pool. Let’s bark. Let’s play.

 

 

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2

pass

4 1

pass

4

4

4 2

double

6 3

1. Fitshowing jump
2. Cue
3. Bark!

Vulnerable against not it wouldn’t be my choice to follow on such a meager suit, then again you do have full opening values and a strong sidesuit. Too bad we don’t play ELC or Raptor.

So plenty of tricks to take, but there’s this little voice coming from the speaker saying:"Houston, we’ve got a problem!" We’re missing a King. Unfortunately we don’t have time to put out a warrant or contact Homeland Security for his whereabouts. You’ve gotta find him, and find him now.

Hoek looked at the bidding sequence and divided the 14 missing points between both opponents. Without the King of East doesn’t come close to an opening bid, so the only chance is that he’s sitting naked in East’s hand. First Hoek tried to get some information by advancing the Queen, but when West smoothly played small, Hoek took a deep breath and went for the drop.

Too bad. I have to agree the drop looks very appealing, but Kees worked out the odds are about 3 to 1 against the drop. Roughly there are 28,000 distributions with a bare King against 81,000 distributions with him onside (forget about nasty 4-0 splits and/or voids). Maybe it’s more a slam for me to play, I am a simple bridgeplayer, I take a finesse when I see one.

The rest of the match was solid and we had some small gains here and there, so the loss was only 14-16. But it easily could have been a (large) victory for us.

Hi all

Your RHO (North) opens 1 . Yawn…

 

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pass

1

pass

2

pass

pass

double1

pass

22

3

1. All blacks takeout
2. What else?
3. I’m fairly certain this is too high, but I don’t dare…

Partner starts with the Ace and switches to a .

Surprising developments. And things get better when declarer tries the King of . I take the trick with the Ace and return the Jack of as Lavinthal. Hoek ruffs and returns a for my Ten. Partner surely doesn’t have five (he would have bid them) so I cash the Jack too and give Hoek another ruff, with a heartwarming Ten of (!). Hoek puts the cherry on the cake by throwing the Queen (number thirteen) into the arena, promoting my trump possession to three tricks. Down five.

Evidently there’s no question whether I should have doubled. Could I have known the fish was this big? Declarer scampered away with -250, wiping away his sweaty relief for not getting doubled.

Hi all

Some pairs night Hoek and I sit down against two charming ladies. 

 

1 1

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double

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pass

pass

double

pass

3

3

???

1. 15-19 balanced or unbal 4+

I felt my Viking heritage emerge. Envisioning both and Ace and some honour I can see 6 is to claim, or at finesse at most. The opponents have already made clear my partner is ultrashort in . It’s the brutal optimism of the Viking nature, when I bid 6 I could swear I heard hungry wolves cry. I notice my partner’s face turns ashy grey.  

Hoek erred during the play. But he’s hard to blame when partner blasts to slam on such marginal values without any scientific enquiries. I guess it’s hard to deal with a Viking partner when you’re not yet familiar with his habits.

Here’s what could have happened. East started with the King and continued with the Queen. There’s is a very faint beep on the heart monitor, but the patient is still alive. Ruff the continuation. Cross to the King of and isolate the menace by ruffing another one. Ruff a high in dummy, cross in trumps, ruff another high in dummy, and cross again to hand with the last trump. Now when you play the remaining trumps and Ace of , you squeeze East out of her spade guard or her honours.

Hi all

My pen must have gained some extra superdimensional mass, I haven’t been able to pick it up lately. But this weekend teams season starts, so hopefully I can dig up some stories (or my muse) then. Here’s a nice play by Hoek.

 

 

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5

Dummy hits the table and you’re surprised, 5 is near cold.

There are ten tricks and all you have to do is find the Queen of for +400. Go get your looking glass and trenchcoat and play the detective. You know, snoop around a little, acquire your intel from smelly people in dark alleys and smoke a lollipop. Do you feel like Columbo already? West starts with a small for East’s Ace and three seconds later the Queen greets you with a faint smile.

Okay, let’s take an analytical stroll together. The points are divided evenly, so you can assume East’s jump to game is based upon distribution instead of sheer point power. If West has raised on a three card East holds seven of them. Distributional power? Put check mark here.

One round of trumps extracts all enemy trumps, you proceed with a ruff and exit in for East’s Ten. The Jack also tries to claim a trick but you ruff it. Take the finesse now? There’s no rush, you can postpone it. Let’s see what happens if you drop your trumps on the table, here’s the layout on the penultimate one:

Is there more information about distribution? Both opponents have a stiff . East is holding seven . And the way he played the suit… I would bet East to hold a 7-2-3-1. That leaves a 3-5-4-1 for West. Estimated hands and point count do comply with the bidding. Another check mark.

The answer is easy: West gets squeezed out of his third on the final trump, for he has to guard the 8 in dummy. And East is known for holding two at most. So there’s no need to finesse. You can just play Ace-King and kiss the Queen hello. "Darling! I’m thrilled to see you show up after all!"