2008

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Unholy

Hi all

Something went wrong when I updated my Wordpress to version 2.7 Coltrane. I need to update my theme, clean up some old code and prepare for a switch of host. In the end all will be nice and fun. Currently I’m trying out the Hybrid theme by Justin Tadlock. It’s a tad sober but stylish, and it functions pretty robust. Though there are still a couple of css-thingies I have to hammer out.

Martin visited Berkeley a couple of weeks ago. We had planned to participate in the Sacramento sectional, but it got canceled due to a family emergency in our second pair. So we decided to visit a Sunday game in Oakland.

I still have nightmares about this deal. Waking up some unholy hour, I’m soaking in my own sweat.

North
83
A5
KQJT73
KT7

South
KJ9
KQT63
6
AQ64

West
North
East
South
pass
1 :D
pass
1 :H
1 :S
2 :D
2 :S
3NT
a.p.
 
 
 
 

I agree my jump to 3NT isn’t very scientific, but with my :S stack and point surplus I thought 3NT would be easier. West kicked off with a small (and encouraging) :S East winning the trick with the Ace. West won the second rounds of :S with his Queen and I took the third round with my King.

Here’s my train of thought:
- The :S suit splits 5-3.
- The opponents have the Ace of :D as a sure entry.
- West has bid his :S without the Ace, so he’s my candidate for holding the other pointed Ace.
- Ergo I cannot get off lead else I will be set one trick.
- What other options do I have…? Maybe the :H suit is worth five tricks, together with three :C tricks and my :S King makes nine.

So that’s what I did, I cashed three rounds of :H finding out Mr. West is holding four of them. Nasty!

I have one final option, and that’s if East holds the Ace of :D . When I played my small  :D towards dummy West follows suit with a small one. Sure sure, stop teasing me! But to my surprise East gains the trick with the Ace. Huh? And now heaven came crashing down on me. Darkness absolute! East had another :S , overtaken by West who sets my 3NT with a diabolical Jack of :H . Am I going insane?

West Dealer
NS Vul
North
83
A5
KQJT73
KT7
West
QT74
J874
84
952
East
A652
92
A952
J83
South
KJ9
KQT63
6
AQ64

 
So I dug my own grave by cashing three rounds of :H . West was really out to get me, bidding his meager four card suit accompanied by a whole Jack in one of the opponent’s suits. But it worked, I was the lone soul that went down in this cold contract.

Happy holidays, y’all!

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Fat turkey

Hi all

Last Thursday I enjoyed my first Thanksgiving ever. Discard soberness, the task at hand was to indulge in enormous amounts of food. I’m not exaggerating here, there was not just one 16-pound-turkey prepared for us (some twenty people), no, there were two of those beasts waiting for us. 

I have some nice memories from the day before as well. I was a mercenary for Leerdam in the ICL. This game I had a trick up my sleeve, and when the opponent didn’t pay attention for a moment, I got away with murder.

South
K8765
8
AQ962
JT

West
North
East
South
 
pass
pass
1spade
double
3spade1
4heart
4spade
double
a.p.
 
 
 

1. Weak, 4+ :S

I thought I had an easy save against their vulnerable game, but look what happened:

North Dealer
EW Vul
North
AJ32
543
73
9765
West
Q4
AQ96
K854
A83
East
T9
KJT72
JT
KQ42
South
K8765
8
AQ962
JT

West started with a trump for the Ace in dummy. I finessed in :D directly and West fired back his Queen of trumps for my King. When I played the Ace of :D I noticed East had dropped two pretty valuable cards. So far I’ve only lost one trick, but there are still a :H and two :C to lose. If only I could dispose of three  :C in dummy.

Ingredients: an evil and greedy mind + sleepy West

I innocently played the 6 of :D from hand and West followed with the 5. Bingo! Next I was able to discard two more  :C from dummy and claim +590.

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Bliss

Hi all

Thursday, November 20th. Browsing around on the internet looking for events and nice places in the neighbourhood I found out there’s a Belgian beer bar in Oakland. Some twenty minutes later Sanne and I arrived at The Trappist where they were celebrating the 25th anniversary of Chimay in the US. Too bad all the Chimay was gone already, but I think I have found my sanctuary. The Brother Thelonious I had brought a very bright smile to my face and spread familiar warmth throughout my body.

A game. I was watching Leerdam (old colleagues from Transfer Solutions) in the Intercity League and what I saw wasn’t very good. After eight boards they had to close a 50 imp gap. But in the second half of the match they blitzed their opponents ending the match 71-56 in their favour. Not bad for only sixteen boards *cough*.

South
AKT754
-
9642
T63

West
North
East
South
 
1club
1heart
1spade
4heart
pass
pass
4spade
pass
pass
double
pass
5heart
5spade
double
a.p.
 

West led the Jack of :H and now Geert-Jan (ggoulash on BBO) could shine, for this was the deal:

North Dealer
NS Vul
North
QJ62
842
A8
AJ84
West
-
JT965
JT73
Q972
East
983
AKQ73
KQ5
K5
South
AKT754
-
9642
T63

He ruffed the lead, drew one round of trumps noticing the 0-3 split. Ace of :D and another one and the opponents tested him with more love. Next he negotiated two :D ruffs in dummy with the Queen and Jack. The play was virtually over, Geert-Jan had a complete count on East. This is the five card ending:

North Dealer
NS Vul
North
-
8
-
AJ84
West
-
T
-
Q972
East
9
Q7
-
K5
South
K7
-
-
T63

When Geert-Jan played a small :C from dummy East could have made life a bit more difficult by ducking, but when he rose with the King of  :C , Geert-Jan simply drew the last trump and finessed against West’s Queen of  :C for 11 tricks. Nice!

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Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Hi all

I’ve seen Hellboy 2 three times now, and I guess it’s time to write down how I feel about it. I like the whole Hellboy package, movies, comics, and if I were young enough action figures probably too.

So what is it? Guillermo del Toro, a longtime fan of the comic and its creator Mike Mignola, directed the first episode in 2004. In this sequel he proves again he’s able to deliver a brilliant mix of real and unreal. Hellboy is definitely his labor of love. A lot of effort is put into design work, great use of costumes and cgi working together. Ron Perlman stars again as the horned, cigar-chomping demonic anti-hero. He works for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, and this time he and his colleagues/friends have to cope with rebellious creatures from the mythical world. I know I’ve just discarded all credibility and realism, but I go to the movies for a good time, to escape daily life for a moment.

Del Toro has already hinted about a third episode. Please please, pretty please? And a fourth one too, if that’s okay with you.


 

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No vampires!

Hi all

Today Sanne and I went to a restaurant called The Stinking Rose. As you already might have guessed, garlic is their specialty. We shared a garlic fontina fondue first, and I had a very, very tender short rib (garlic braised) as a main course. Amazing! Well, if you have any plans visiting us (or just San Francisco), go there. You will not be disappointed.

Last week Sanne and I played a sectional in El Cerrito. They don’t know about Dutch masterpoints, but the lady looked at us and thought we would fit in the medium group. Oh well… Here’s a mamma-pappa-slam. At least I thought it was.

South
6
KQ7
AKJ
KQJT82

West
North
East
South
 
1 :H
pass
2 :C
pass
2NT
pass
4 :C
pass
4 :H
pass
4NT
pass
5 :D 1
pass
…7NT
a.p.
 
 
 
 

1. 0 or 3 Aces

I probably could have bid a forcing 3 :H , but I wasn’t sure. So I opted for a self agreeing 4 :C . La-die-la-die-la, I asked for Aces and when Sanne showed three of them I could count to 14 tricks. Director! Where is the 8NT card in my biddingbox?

North Dealer
- Vul
North
A7
AJ832
953
A93
West
QT842
T94
QT8
64
East
KJ953
65
7642
75
South
6
KQ7
AKJ
KQJT82

What I’m still wondering about is why we were the only pair present that bid this (in my opinion) yawningly boring grand.

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SF by bike

Hi all

I don’t understand, everybody here in California is happy it’s raining. Yesterday (my birthday actually) the American weathergods decided I should feel at home a bit, and showed they are very capable of delivering Dutch weather. Yay me!

Here’s a picture of our bikeroute through San Francisco on one of the last sunny days. First we took the BART to Embarcadero Station (the blue line) and from that point it was uphill, via the Golden Gate Bridge to a vista point where we had lunch. Amazing!

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Restrained

Hi all

Here’s a fine hand from Dombo a couple of weeks ago. Hoek opened 1 :S and I couldn’t be restrained until I had parked myself in a pairs 6NT. West led a small :C .

North
QJT965
T2
A6
KT8

South
AK
AQ854
KJ93
A6

 
As you can see 6 :S is laydown, and even 7 :S has good play (combined chances of ruffing out the :D Queen or a :H finesse). But how to scramble together twelve tricks in NT? And the communication to and fro isn’t really a walk in the park as well.

The :C 8 is covered with the 9 (by Dennis) for my Ace. I unblock my :S Ace and King and cross to dummy in :D . On the run of :S I have to choose wich suit to keep, either :H or :D . The latter I decide.

North
-
T2
6
KT

South
-
A
KJ9
6

It comes down to the :D finesse. If that would fail, then I still can hope for the appearance of the Ten of :D . I would estimate these odds to be around 70%, the opponents have had some difficult discards as well on the run of :S , and I believe they have all their guards still intact.

My :D Jack proves to be a trick. I’m home.

But wait, things get better when I cash my :D King. West gets a little sweaty and throws a :C . Let’s take a look at East when I put some pressure on him with my Ace of :H .

North Dealer
NS Vul
North
QJT965
T2
A6
KT8
West
73
KJ73
874
J742
East
842
96
QT52
Q953
South
AK
AQ854
KJ93
A6

I have to admit, I didn’t expect a double squeeze with the :C as pivot suit to materialize. But it did.

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Blind spot

Hi all

This is my second week living in the US. I feel pretty comfortable here already, but I don’t know what has happened to my muse. Here’s me squeezing out an article.

This deal is from a couple of weeks ago where I partnered BoB in Waddinxveen. We were by far (I guess some 25 years) the youngest pair in the 200+ pairs field.

North
73
-
AJ86542
AKQ3

South
AJ84
AJ83
-
J7654

We had an unopposed auction:

West
North
East
South
 
 
 
1 :C
pass
1 :D
pass
1 :H
pass
1 :S 1
pass
2 :S 2
pass
3 :D
pass
3 :H3
pass
4 :C
pass
5 :C
a.p.
 
 
 
 

1. Fourth suit forcing
2. Showing 4-4-1-4 (or worse)
3. From here on the auction gets foggy

When dummy hit the table I was wondering if we had missed a grand, you just need a friendly :D and trump split. But at the same time I was happy we avoided 3NT, there are only eight tricks available if the opponents pay a little attention.

On the King of :H lead I analyzed that I would need to establish the :D suit to get to eleven tricks. And I saw that I needed as many entries to dummy as possible, so I ruffed the lead with the :C 3. I ruffed a :D , crossed in trumps, ruffed another :D , and crossed again in trumps (noticing the 1-3 trumps split). This is the position right now (East still holding a trump):

North
73
-
AJ865
A

South
AJ84
AJ8
-
J

This is where I truly suffered a blind spot. I really thought it was necessary now that the :D had to split 3-3 so I cashed the :D Ace. Ruffed. By. East.

I had nowhere to go. Suddenly my beautiful contract crumbled in my fingers with ten tricks maximum.

South Dealer
EW Vul
North
73
-
AJ86542
AKQ3
West
QT95
KQT6
QT73
8
East
K62
97542
K9
T92
South
AJ84
AJ83
-
J7654

And the solution is so easy… Instead of trying to cash the Ace of :D I should have ducked a :D . East would gain nothing by ruffing in the air. I’m still holding both Major suit Aces, and my :C Jack is the lifelink to dummy.

I agree you would give up an easy overtrick if :D had split 3-3, but making your contract here (with an overtrick actually) is so much more important.

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