Oddity

Hi all

First you’ve got to check out this YouTube movie. It’s incredibly funny.

Alright, back to semi-serious business. Last deal (probably) and story of 2010, it all happened on a Wednesday Piedmont teams night. I’m holding a fairly good hand:

South
AK96
KJ7643
KQT
West
North
East
South
 
 
pass
1
pass
2NT1
pass
32
pass
43
pass
43
pass
44
pass
55
pass
6
pass
pass
Double
pass
pass
Redouble6
a.p.
 
 
 

1. GF, 4+ support
2. More than average (we play step responses to 2NT)
3. Cue
4. RKC
5. Two keycards with trump Queen, or extra length
6. You’ve got to be kidding me!

Over 4 I decided not to show my void in because partner made a cue bid in that suit. Perhaps I should have Void-wooded myself instead of handing the captaincy to partner. West decided not to trust our bidding and for reasons only known to him pulled a pretty experimental and expensive double from his bidding box. The full deal proved to be like this:

West Dealer
– Vul
North
Q4
AQ52
AJ4
KQ75
West
J8532
87652
986
East
T7
T98
93
AJT432
South
AK96
KJ7643
KQT

I claim 13 tricks in trick one and I am pretty certain I haven’t seen a +1820 score before. West, though, screams for the director. It seems we should not have alerted during the keycard sequence [as we did], but inform our opponents that we had a keycard sequence [as we did not].

I felt the ground crumbling under my feet. What’s wrong with bridge in the US? Can’t people think for themselves anymore?

Anyway, when the director asked the player agreed he wasn’t hurt during the play, and that he asked for clarification up to the cue bids but then disregarded the rest of the auction. So the director maintained the result. Yay! I got to keep my 6!! result!

Happy & merry holidays to you all.

Pummeling

Hi all

Quick Tricks in San Francisco has a team game every last Monday of the month. Each time it has proven to be a pleasant and challenging night, with interesting deals. Here’s me (South) suffering in 3NT.

North
KT64
J5
AK42
743
South
Q3
AK32
753
KQ62

Yes, NS have 25 HCP together.
Yes, the lack of spot cards is slightly unsettling.
Yes, you only have four top tricks.

An early (not very thorough) analysis shows that you need to find the Ace of onside, and the suit splitting 3-3. Then if the Jack is located on your left, everything adds up to a fortunate nine.

Well, none of that happened. Both black Aces were in West together with a stinking surprise in . So I’m already down two and I can’t claim yet …

South Dealer
NS Vul
North
KT6
5
West
??
?
.
J
East
??
??
South
3
A3
6

When West cashes the master I pitch a from dummy and the criss-cross position has materialized. It’s pretty clear that East has started with a 4-5-2-2. East discards a seemingly sweaty .

West switches back to for my Ace and I know that my 3 isn’t good. I play a small to dummy’s King confident that the suicide criss-cross squeeze will have been executed properly. Who needs a finesse anyway when you have a nice squeeze?

Already knee-deep in a hellhole, and East doesn’t even have the friggin’ Jack. Really, the odds were 4-3 in my favor! My efforts lead to a nauseating down 3, vulnerable of course.

South Dealer
NS Vul
North
KT64
J5
AK42
743
West
AJ2
84
QJ98
AJ98
East
9875
QT976
T6
T5
South
Q3
AK32
753
KQ62

To add insult to injury, at the other table they took an early finesse against the Jack and ended up down 1. Sigh.