Year: 2007

 Hi all

"Change my pitch up, smack… " With this Prodigy-song in my head I sit down against one of my alltime favorite opponents. A walking pile of gold and too much make-up, wrapped in tight clothes she’s about 20 years too old for.

LHO opens 2, either some strong hand or weak with both Majors. My goldplated RHO bids a preference 2 (no surprise with my holding). Everybody is silent after that and I throw trump Queen on the table.

Declarer takes it with her Ace and finesses in for Hoek’s King. Another trump is for the Jack in dummy and declarer tries the Ace of .

Ruffed.
By.
Hoek.
And again a trump.

Declarer now tries a  from dummy and finesses into my Queen. I take one high  looking for a signal, Hoek throws something discouraging in .

I exit in for Hoek’s Ace and a smart Jack of hits the table. We play two more rounds of the lucky black suit and dummy ruffs the last one. But now dummy is thrown in and has to play a  into my 9-7 fork. The result is brutal, down four. She just made her four trump tricks, that’s all. By the way, did you notice the  position? EW got exactly zero tricks from that suit.

Why didn’t we double? Why weren’t they vulnerable? Or both? I let out a small sigh and hope for better times.

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.

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…

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

I was playing some online BBO-tournament last week and this deal came up.

1. Unbalanced or a preparing for a strong NT
2. Weak (?)

Partner kicks off with a small and things look bad, for it has a free run to declarer’s Jack.  

Declarer immediately finesses again in and next come four rounds of partner winning the last one with his Jack. He ponders for a while and cashes both his top (declarer discarding two ) before exiting in . Declarer repeats the finesse leading to this position.  

On the Ace of I’m in big trouble. I have to keep my guard else declarer is home already, but that means my holding doesn’t pull any weight anymore. Declarer plays a towards his hand and within mere seconds the next deal is on the table already. We had a substantial lead, but ten imp just evaporated from our scorecard.

Partner’s lead was unlucky, as far as I can see any other lead leaves declarer with grim perspective. At the table it felt like partner handed over medieval torture equipment to the enemy with clear instructions how to apply them to me. I was wondering if this particular squeeze is the one Terence Reese calls "The Vice".

Hi all

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

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

I won’t waste any time, here’s a 3NT from Star.  

South started with 1 (preparing for a strong NT), West interfered with 1 and the auction ended in 3NT. West kicked off with a small and a rich dummy comes down.

That’s an awful lot of points together, so nine tricks should be easy, not? Count first, there are three , a , two and two available. You just need to conjure one little, cute extra trick. There are several chances, could be 3-3, a working finesse, and there are even distant throw in and/or squeeze possibilities.

I’m still surprised and a bit disturbed that the majority of declarers (including my partner *sorry Hoek*), overlooked the safetyplay in .

Start with the King of and then play a small towards your hand and cover everything East inserts. You win with every 3-2 split, and you can cope with every 4-1 or even 5-0 split.

I think Hoek got punished badly for overlooking the safety play, but on the other hand with these kinds of games you can make or break your own luck.

It’s funny, I was completing this story about safety and nine solid tricks in 3NT, when I found out Marcel Winkel (very likeable and famous Dutch ‘Meesterklasse’ contender) had written too about the same deal.
Mumbles something about great minds…

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.

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!"

Hi all

Here’s a game from last Thursday. It was a strange and difficult night, I’m still having some difficulties combining competitive bridge with my fulltime job. And there were some partnership hickups too, but better to have them now, than during competition.

If partner has wastage in I should just double them and be happy with +300. Then again it could be a neat example of perfect fitting hands where both sides can make game. But I have no way to find out.

When in doubt opt for play. But I agree in advance this attitude costs points. Everybody is fine with 5.

West starts with the Ace of . Whoa! Partner surely brings some nice cards. I ruff the second round of and I’m almost in claim mode. Both red Kings onside and twelve tricks are so cold I can chill my Martini with them. I play a small trump to dummy and West shows out. Oh! Better cancel that claim mode. I cross to hand with another trump to finesse in , but East wins and returns a third round of trumps.

I have nowhere to go and finish with ten tricks, losing a and two tricks in . Hoek doesn’t mention a thing, but I feel I deserve a suspicious look.

When in dummy I should have ruffed the third and then finesse in . East will win and return a trump, but now I still have enough trumps left to score eleven tricks on a cross ruff.

I got punished for my laziness. I didn’t acknowledge the dangers of a 0-4 trump split and when I found out I was too dumbstruck to rethink my strategy and plan.