Vikings In Space

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.

South Dealer

NS Vul

North

QJ9

K74

Q42

AT87

West

A764

Q8

JT763

95

East

KT2

JT53

98

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:

South Dealer

NS Vul

North

-

K74

4

AT8

West

7

Q8

JT7

9

East

-

JT53

-

J64

South

-

A962

A

Q2

 

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.

Hi all

This deal is from Quick Tricks in San Francisco. About a year ago our DC party (Remco, Dennis, Martin and me) pillaged the club night. We finished first in both directions. So the stakes were high when Remco announced he was coming to visit us again, and that a night at QT was definitely on his schedule.

We meet our random teammates and sit down against an elderly couple. I’m holding:


When I hear Remco open 1 I know we’re in for a ride.

West

North

East

South

 

1

pass

2 1

pass

2NT2

pass

3 3

pass

4 4

pass

4 4

Double

Redouble5

pass

4NT

pass

5 6

pass

7

a.p.

 

 

 

 

1. Natural, or invite+ with
2. 14-17 balanced
3. Slam try with
4. Cue
5. First round control
6. Three keycards

After the 5 response I could count Remco’s hand to be a 5332-distribution with Ace – King, Ace and the King. If Remco is holding three to the Ace then the grand is solid. The odds to that are 2 to 1, so I leapt to the grand.

North Dealer

NS Vul

North

AK964

AT

K84

J63

West

82

KQ943

753

Q92

East

75

J8762

J962

T4

South

QJT3

5

AQT

AK875

 

Above you can see the single distribution where Remco was unable to pull off thirteen tricks. Even the added bonus of the Queen of dropping didn’t occur. With tears in my eyes I write down one for a 17 IMP laceration.

The Viking approach would have worked out fine:

West

North

East

South

 

1

pass

1NT1

pass

2 2

pass

2 3

pass

2 4

pass

2 3

pass

2NT5

pass

3 3

pass

3 6

pass

4 3

pass

4NT7

pass

5 3

pass

6 8

pass

6 9

pass

6 10

pass

pass11

pass

 

 

 

 

1. GF relay
2. Maximum (14-15 hcp)
3. Relay
4. Balanced or a side suit in the other Major
5. Balanced
6. 5-2-3-3
7. Two Aces of the same rank
8. Two Kings of the same shape
9. I know you can’t possibly have a Queen, but I still want to ask
10. No Queen
11. Sigh

Hi all

In the Vanderbilt Geoff and I teamed up with Drew Hoskins and Michael Bodell. Because of my massive amount of eligiblity points we didn’t get seeded dead last, instead we entered a convenient four-way. Convenient because just 32 boards might be enough to squeeze out a lucky win. Our first opponent was team O’Rourke with Dubion, Wold and Sementa as hired muscle.

The sponsor played a decent first half and then the Italian mercenaries rotated in. We did the best we could, but the 30-something imp gap was too much to overcome. Memorable was the 6 the Italians bid on:

North

AKJT4

AT72

K94

7

South

Q5

6

AQJ853

KJ62

Another big loss during the first half occured on the following deal:

West Dealer

NS Vul

North

T

AK9763

73

AJ93

West

A84

T2

KQT5

QT87

East

KQJ9

J854

J96

54

South

76532

Q

A842

K62

 

Geoff (North) ended up playing a modest 2 contract after West had opened 1 . At the other table though, North got to play 4 . When the finesse against the combined Queen – Ten worked we lost a bunch. Man, at top level bridge they do know how to combine overbidding with decent declarer play!

In a couple days I will tell you a story about the French ladies in our second match.

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

K

AKJ6

A9763

South

AJ74

743

Q943

K5

West

North

East

South

 

1 1

pass

1 2

pass

2 3

pass

2 4

pass

3

pass

3NT

pass

4

pass

4

pass

6

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

Q5

K

J6

6

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 Dealer

EW Vul

North

KQ5

K

AKJ6

A9763

West

T8632

QT85

87

T2

East

9

AJ962

T52

QJ84

South

AJ74

743

Q943

K5

 

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.