Month: April 2010

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 successful insanity by your opponents and you go home having scored just above average.

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:

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

Immediately after Remco’s visit René dropped by. He changed seats with Remco at Quick Tricks. It’s such a treat to have Dutch players sit across *no offense to my partners here, by the way*. Of course we’re not allowed to play any of our Viking stuff on a regular club night, so we settle for a weak NT and some other shenanigans.

Here’s one:

René opens 1 and to my surprise he raises my 2 call to 3. I switch on the nitrogen powered overdrive and finally we end up in 6. So where are the shenanigans?

This was the full deal:

René’s support consisted of just Queen – 7. But boy, was that a well timed moment for support! I don’t know whether I would have the guts to venture there, but I do agree with two of his arguments: North’s hand screams for a trump contract. And the auction gets a lot more inflexible if North would introduce on the three-level. Which would then probably gravitate towards some arduous NT contract.

It was easy to ruff a in dummy, draw trumps and pitch my remaining loser on the King for thirteen. That +1390 stuck out like a white unicorn in a field full of cattle (+690’s).

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

21

pass

2NT2

pass

33

pass

44

pass

44

Double

Redouble5

pass

4NT

pass

56

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 key cards

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.

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 doubleton 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

22

pass

23

pass

24

pass

23

pass

2NT5

pass

33

pass

36

pass

43

pass

4NT7

pass

53

pass

68

pass

69

pass

610

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

Work and Dutch visitors have been eating my time. Here’s the last story from Reno.

After the first half against Stacy Jacob’s team (her not-so-up-to-date blog can be found here) we were ahead by a dozen IMP. That could have been two dozen if I hadn’t been a tad lazy when I blasted to small slam, the grand was on vanilla flavoured ice, so to speak.

Round 2.

The French ladies (D’Ovidio & Gaviard) join our table, and Drew and Michael pick up the glove against the Russian Gromova & Ponomareva. Geoff and I soon find out the French ladies are close to a breakdown, both nervous and partner wise. Or it looked like that. On this deal Geoff (North) ended up playing 3NT after I had overbid my hand by a mile and a half.

Because West had overcalled in Geoff decided to take the finesse in . That was down one and a three IMP loss due to a pass out at the other table. Man, that could have been a huge pickup!

Another loss.

Sitting South I opened 1 and after that West got to declare 4. Catherine D’Ovidio took her chance after a lead, switch and continuation. She ruffed it in dummy to take the finesse, Ace of , followed by another ruff and a ruffed with the Ace of trumps. Finally a trump to dummy to extract the remaining trumps and ten vulnerable tricks were hers. Our teammates played a modest  partscore, and ten IMP just blew out of the fenêtre.

We quickly wake up from our dreams of making day two when we sit down with Drew and Michael. The Russians wrecked havoc. Not a single bad board in sight. They bid, declared and defended flawlessly. Wham! Bam! Spasiba, ma’am!