Vikings in Space

Hi all

Yesterday I showed you a solid 9 card suit. Today I get freaky, we shuffled the cards so well in Groningen. Our team is still on a high, having gained more than 70 VIP in three matches. I pick up these cards:

Boy! This has got to be one of the prettiest holdings I ever laid my hands on, a strong red 6-6, less than 3 losers. East brutally disrupts my dream with a 2 opening, showing a weak hand with both majors or some strong hand. When Hoek showed some values I blasted to slam: 6. West leads the King of .

Plan the play. You have to ruff a in dummy, so the suit has to split 2-4. And the trumps have to come in clean.

I take the lead with the Ace (discarding a ), cash the Ace, to the Ace, and for symmetry’s sake also the Ace. Ruff a , back to hand with a ruff and the King. West shows out. West? Yes! West. East had opened a “weak with both majors” on a 4-4-4-1. I lose 2 tricks in trumps, down 1.

I confess, I completely didn’t think of the possibility East having 4 trumps. But it’s easy to cope with, don’t cash trump Ace! Just ruff a in dummy and then play the other trump from dummy to your Ten. You win with every 3-2 split in trumps, 4-1 with East having a bare honor, and QJ-4th with East.

Luckily the other table had a blind spot too, for a wash.

Hi all

Last Saturday and Sunday I played with Hoek, Dennis and Martijn “Termiet” (Groningen guy) the EGBC teams tournament in Groningen. It was the first big tournament for Hoek and me, I can confess I was a bit anxious.

I dare not tell you about Saturday. It was a dark, dark day. Everything Hoek and I did went wrong. Somebody must have put a spell on us, I don’t know. My team tried to drown the jinx in legendary amounts of beer, but I went to bed fairly early for I was totally drained. Sunday, hesitant and a little hangover-ish we took the cards from our first board.

Whoa! I pick up a solid 9 card suit . What to do? I hate to open these kinds of hands with some forcing bid and a timid 1 leaves to much room for the opponents. So I started with 5, it’s definitely preemptive and partner has a general idea how big my playing strength is.The opponents are silent and Hoek raises me to 6.

Gold.

A fine raise by Hoek, because of my unusual call he estimated (hoped for) a void in my hand and valued the rest of his hand enough for slam. At the other table South opened a Namyats 4, but the 4-level wasn’t high enough to shut out East. Eventually Dennis and Martijn bought the contract in 5 undoubled (?).

We shook off the dirt and gloominess from the day before and jumped on the roller coaster of succes.

Hi all

I’m back, baby! Here’s the 3rd and final part from Star Wars. Hendrik and I were performing on our zenith of powers.

First hand I was holding this red twosuiter. With Hendrik I agreed weak jump reverses, so this hand fits nicely.

 

 

 

1

pass

1

4

5

5

a.p.

 

 

Not afraid of the vulnerability or lack of Aces I competed to the 5-level. Hendrik showed faith by not doubling 5. He expected big distribution instead of solid amounts of points in my hand.

I got a ruff, which was worth 1 whole imp. As you can see, there are a lot of tricks to take for both sides.

That’s all, we’re done fondling Leia. Cheers!

Hi all

Another one from last Saturday. With drawn lightsabers and a merciless grin we sit down against Jabba and another loathsome creature.

Your RHO opens 2, either some strong hand or weak with . You didn’t agree preempt over preempt so pass. LHO waits with 2 and Hendrik mentions his on the 3 level. Now RHO bids 3, a strong red twosuiter. I like that, opponents who have solid agreements, even after intervention.

 

 

21

pass

22

3

33

4

5

5

double

pass

6

6

double

a.p.

1. Weak with or some strong hand
2. Waiting bid
3. Strong twosuiter, and

Hendrik did very good to take his 100 point insurance against 6 red. If East holds the Queen of , slam makes on a double finesse.

Points are divided 20-20, but both sides can make a 5 level contract. I’m not a big fan of Larry Cohen, but he’s right here, 22 trumps together, double fits, so there are a lot of tricks to take.

Hi all

Last Saturday I played with Hendrik in a teams tournament. Bridgeclub Star celebrated its 65th birthday and organized a large teams event: “Star Wars”. Dust off those lightsabers, refresh your jedi skills and rekindle your love for Leia.

Hendrik wore a stylish ultrapink shirt that combined so well with my blinding green pants that some opponents called the tournament director. You gotta hurt them where you can.

I opened the South hand with 1NT, (11)12-14. West preempted with 3 and now Hendrik had a problem. Praying for some fit and a stopper he bid 3NT. West started with the King. Now what?

I could have tried a Bath coup, but I figured West would find the killing switch to . So I took it and put the Queen on the table. West plays small smoothly. Cash out for down 1 or risk a losing finesse?

I was so blinded by the possibility of 9 tricks that I took the finesse. It lost. The opponents granted me 1 more trick in the end for down 7.

What I should have done is ask. Ask myself what our teammates would do. Some partscore in a major probably. So cashing out will gain a few imp, while taking the finesse risks a lot. Grabbing 8 tricks would have gained 3 imp, for our teammates did score +140.

Hi all

I have a lot of nice deals, keep in touch this week. Here’s one from Friday where I played with Dennis.

Your RHO opens a 15-17 NT. All vulnerable I didn’t dare to enter the bidding with this garbage. LHO passes too, but Dennis doubled, showing and another suit (Lionel). RHO bids 2 and now I had something to think about. My lack of points was more than compensated by my distribution and major fit, so I jumped to 3, invitational. Dennis raised me to game.

There was nothing to the play, the Queen was where I wanted her to be. So, what about this law of not bidding game when the opponents open a strong NT? Here there are ten cold tricks with just 18 hcp together.

We finished first smoothly: +53 imp.

Hi all

Last night, after 16 boards René and I had collected an impressive amount of 61 imp. Minus! I just sat there and wave after wave kept hitting me. Evenings like this make you want to crawl back into your cave and sleep until spring. But things changed in the last twelve boards, we clawed back 38 imp. Still leaving us at a very meager total of -23.

Is this hand worth a strong ? It has a lot of playing strength, but it’s just . So I opted for 1. René starts the party with a gameforcing 1NT.

 

 

 

11

pass

1NT2

pass

23

pass

24

pass

35

1. 11-13 balanced, 10-15 unbalanced 4+ , or 12-15 any 4441
2. GF relay
3. , unbalanced
4. relay
5. Singlesuited

3NT is end, but I had a lot of playing strength I had not shown yet. I overruled René’s 3NT with 4, showing a very good suit with strong slam aspirations. René cooperated with a cue, I cued in , René continued with 5 and that was enough to launch me to slam.

You can combine your chances of a 3-3 split (or Jack doubleton) with a finesse in . A few pairs reached the slam in but failed due to the bad break in trumps. This 13 imp gain was definitely the turning point in the evening.

Hi all

Last Thursday at Dombo Sjoerd and I agreed to play something Fantunes-ish. For those who are not familiar with the (surprisingly natural) Italian system: all 1-level openings are 13+ hcp and forcing for 1 round, all 2-level openings are natural, 5+ card suit with 9-12 hcp. Constructive all the way. There were some gadgets and tricks involved, but 20 minutes of system talk is hardly enough to discuss every implication of a forcing NT, let alone all the inversions and transfers that Fantoni and Nunes play together.

Here’s a 3NT:

Sjoerd (North) opened 2 showing a 5+ card suit, 9-12 hcp. I looked for a fit and ended up in 3NT. I liked my King a lot, otherwise an invite on a not so special 12 count is frivolous at best. I was spared a  lead, West led a small . Plan the play!

Source of tricks: . Three can be developed there, but the defence will surely shift to  when they see the massive NS holding. Put some smoke up, try to obscure things.

Let the lead run to your Queen, now play a small to the 8. East takes it and will try to clear partner’s suit. Now play a from dummy and you will probably have enough information to do the right thing. I think tackling the suit this way obscures things best for EW. But you have to hope West doesn’t (or can’t) rise on the small , because West can see there is no future in .

So the plan above will probably work out. My plan was a shade different, but along the line I took a wrong guess and went off.

What about the system? I like it a lot, a very natural touch, but with a robust relaying engine and enough gadgets to keep my convention hunger satisfied. Feel free to drop me a line (see the “About me..” page) if you have any suggestions, or if you are just interested in developing/following something fun and working.

Hi all

Little to tell. Here’s a +12 imp story from Star yesterday.

René (North) opened a strong . He found out the giant fit in before the heavy interference in obstructed too much. Imagining a stiff in my hand was a bit of a gamble, but paid out very well when he jumped to the cold slam in (only 24 hcp together!).

Here’s a nice Dutch Squeeze from (and by) Martin:

A normal board from just another night at the bridge club.

The auction was not very exciting: pass – pass – pass – 1 – pass – 2 – a.p.

I was declarer and West started with three rounds of and switched to a . With five obvious losers (three , one and one ) it seems normal to take the with the King, pull trumps and play a diamond. However, not completely awake on this partscore, I took the with the Ace after which I started thinking. As I had removed the safe entry to the King, the best line is probably to play two rounds of trumps, before surrendering a to maximize the changes in case the split 4-1. I, however, played three rounds of before I played the Queen. North took and returned the fourth .

On the last West was caught in a Dutch squeeze (patented by Bob Slavenburg). If I would have had a less and the Jack instead, West had to keep the Ten guarded to prevent declarer from overtaking the Jack. In that case East still has a stopper. West had no idea, discarded a and there it was: the overtrick.