Bridge

Hi all

Some nights just can’t go wrong. I guess we had two soft results during the night, but they didn’t cost that much, a few scattered imp. Hoek and I went home with two fine bottles of Belgian beer and 60 fimp (Fat International Match Points).

1. 12-14
2. Leaddirecting

After 5 I had a tough decision (at least I thought I did). The void, the two extra trumps and no soft values made me bid 5. If the opponents bid a vulnerable game, then they sure have their shape and/or points right, they are not on a suicide mission. When East decided to lead a it was the end of the defence. Hoek could discard two  losers from dummy, draw two rounds of trumps, give away a  and claim the remainder on a crossruff.

I was not unhappy with the result, but it was mere luck than good bridge.

So what to do over 5? We haven’t bid game yet, so pass is not forcing (at least in my book it’s not). If the vulnerability was the other way around, then the decision gets a lot more difficult. So I want to explore agreements where "double" in my position shows an encouraging hand. "Please partner, bid on!" Where pass would show no interest in bidding on (could induce a penalty double).

This game I would have doubled, asking partner to continue with suitable values. Hoek, holding a worthless Ace-Queen of , would have had an easy pass. I haven’t thought through all the implications of this kind of agreements, but I think it has potential. Using double as encouraging to bid on during high level competition appeals to me, it brings a lot of rest. I want to avoid as many forcing pass situations as possible.

Hi all

Here’s another one from last Thursday. Hoek and I were really on a high (result: +52 imp).

My LHO opens a strong NT. Hoek enters the bidding with a Landy 2 and I make a slightly agressive jump to game in . Even slam could be on if partner holds the Ace of and something like AQ-5th in trumps. But let’s try game first. Everybody agrees and dummy comes down on the lead of Ace.

LHO shifts to a small trump. Plan the play!

You can take a ruffing finesse in , but you get into entry troubles if you want to draw trumps as well. You have to make up your mind now, if West has the Queen let it run to your Jack, but if East has it and fires back another trump, things aren’t looking very bright.

Try to combine a crossruff with the ruffing finesse. Take the trump switch in dummy and ruff a . Now the King of , let’s assume West covers, ruff in dummy. Come back to hand with another ruff and cash the  Queen and Jack, discarding .

Who has the remaining high ? It has to be with East so you can score your small trump in dummy. Relieved you see LHO discarding a , ruff the with the 8. Now another from dummy and East has only losing options. If he ruffs high and returns a trump it’s the end of the defence. Because you still have the Ace and high , and if he discards you score your trumps seperately, leading to ten tricks as well.

After two days this game looks so easy. But last Thursday no one else was able to bid the game or score ten tricks in a contract.

Hi all

Two games today.

Hoek started with 1, a lead-in to a strong NT or unbalanced with . I bid 2NT, showing a very bad, distributional raise. Hoek forgot about that one and raised me to the NT game. I explain to the opponents something went wrong, 2NT should have been alerted. They thought everything was fine, no director needed.

West leads a small and I warn Hoek: Go get beer, we have to make amends! Six tricks in and a repeated finesse in led to nine tricks, where the rest of the field claimed ten tricks in a Major suit contract for EW. I think I’ve spent all my luck for this year.

Another one:

I was sitting South and hear my RHO open 2NT. I have a nice holding, lots of playing strength, so I interfere with 3. This gets doubled and Hoek introduced his hand with 4. What’s that? At first I thought it would be a bad onesuited hand with a void in , but it was not meant that way, Hoek meant it as a three-suiter. He estimated his hand to be worthless in a contract and was looking for a better fit. Whether it was a good decision or not doesn’t matter.

Pressure bidding has high priority in my book, so I preempt on a lot of hands that for most people don’t qualify. But that also means there ought to be some agreements about running. "Partner, that’s not the right suit!" But how to get this signal across? Maybe you can get your one-, two-, and three-suiters sold via redouble or some unusual NT-bid. But that’s up to you, I have no clear answer ready.

 Hi all

I did karaoke last Saturday. There, I said it, I had to get it off my chest. We (René, Nira, Claudia and I) played Singstar on the Playstation2, songs ranging from Dolly Parton’s "9 to 5" (just impossible), to Europe’s "Final Countdown" (so incredibly cheesy), to Song 2 by Blur. That last song I was able to hit the sweet spot, a golden note on the first "Woo Hoo!". The rest of the songs I did pretty awful, but we had lots of fun. I never would have guessed it was this nice.

Another one from last Tuesday:

Our opponents (NS) stumbled into the ugly contract of 2NT. There’s not even a remote chance of getting to 8 tricks, but let’s see how René and I really peeled tricks from declarer. René (West) led a for declarer’s King, I took the 3rd round of and fired back another , declarer eventually on lead with the 9.

I think declarer should be able to read the position to be something like this. A straightforward plan, try a to the 9. I cannot reproduce declarer’s play, but I do remember the endposition:

René played his 5th and South had to find a discard. Declarer is stripsqueezed! We left declarer with 5 tricks. I haven’t analyzed thoroughly, but a to the 9 looks like it could lead to a lucky seven tricks while 2 is on ice for EW. Not unimportant in pairs.

Hi all

Sheer madness! All deals at Star pairs last night were just insane. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but there were so much nice and interesting deals last night I have enough material to write a book. Here we go, first game of the evening:

Not so interesting. Try to guess René’s hand from the bidding.

I was fairly sure he was trying to goof things up, looking for a penalty double because of the crazy bidding. But the opponents didn’t really cooperate. Have you tried to make sense of the bidding yet? René surely has some number of and very short . He certainly doesn’t have five , so maybe a 5-4-0-4?

No! He introduced a three card suit at the four-level! He did his math/algebra thing to figure out I had to hold at least four . I’m glad he does these things when it’s pairs and not teams.

Nobody at the table had any clue what was happening and René scrambled 8 tricks together, undoubled, for 80something percent.

I think “What the hell??” comes close to North’s thoughts when West opens 1 (or Muiderberg) and then rebids . Why East doesn’t try for 3NT is still a mystery to me, but a lot of strange things happened on this deal. The scores ranged from +850 to -50 for EW. People doubling West’s 1 opening, or trying to introduce themselves in a later stage, all leading to different kinds of disasters.

After this game I knew I had to buckle up for an adventurous ride.

Hi all

Last night at Dombo I played with Elske. Promises of high bidding. High as in mountainhigh, with eternal snow. Unfortunately there were not a lot of slams available. I psyched my opponents out of a cold 6, but the -800 penalty didn’t make it really worthwhile. The distress and hurting look from across the table reminded me why I don’t like (and should refrain from) psyching. It can be a powerful and succesful weapon, but it’s not bridge anymore.

Elske was holding this:

Two Aces! That cannot be a bad thing. Time for an educational redouble. Or so it should have been. Elske passed, but reluctantly. The defence erred when they did not force me with loads and loads of minors, but the contract will always come home. Now I scored +690 when I took the right view in trumps.

A redouble would have been 1080 points, definitely educational, not?

Hi all

Last night at Star (pairs) I played with Hoek, I stole him from Nira. She has been on my tail for weeks now, because she wants her 15 minutes of fame on my website. Okay Nira, here you go!

Back to bridge. I’ll put everything on the table first, and then we’ll walk through it.

Hoek wrapped up 11 tricks without breaking a sweat, a nice +990. If I look at the bidding by EW, my eyes start to bleed.

1. West passed initially and then entered the bidding with a weak jump (on a bad suit and with very defensive values). Too late, I found out about the fit already. If you are in Heat 1, then I can agree with a 3 opening, but this was just too little too late.
2. I was weighing my hand, either 3 or 4. The void is nice, but there are no fillers, so a timid 3 it was. But now, after a good night of sleep, I think North is worth a raise to game immediately.
3. East takes away no space at all with his raise to 4. What he does is establishing the fit for NS, Hoek (South) now knows I have very short . Would South go to game if East had not bid 4? I would pass or bid 5, but definitely not 4.
4. Holding the most points at the table East ended the auction with a booming double. But points are not necessarily equal to defensive tricks. He just scored his two trump tricks and that was all, folks!

I’ll end with a little advice. Go get your timing right. Try to minimalize "dud"-bids, empty bids that lead nowhere. And if your opponents bid game voluntarily, don’t double them, let them be.

Hi all

Last Thursday Hendrik and I had some troubles in getting the reaction going. The engine was sort of stuttering instead of a steady and assuring humming. But we did score fair above average, even on slow chemistry.

I like these kinds of hands. They offer a lot of potential if you have and can find a fit. Hendrik sitting second hand opens a Muiderberg 2 (showing a weak hand with five and 4+ in a minor). West overcalls 3. Now I had visions of a (less than) 20 hcp slam.

1. Muiderberg
2. Splinter with fit (but not really agreed)
3. 2nd suit or cue, no agreements

So 4 is a free bid, after double there’s no bidding obligation anymore. That’s why I made the very aggressive jump to slam, I pictured Hendrik having the (near impossible) perfect hand.

So Hendrik had to play 6. That’s kinda high. But first news is good news, East starts with the Ace and continues the suit. Now you just have to find the King and exactly JTx with any opponent to get rid of all your losing .

Another possibility is to squeeze East out of his red suits after ruffing two in dummy, as Martin pointed out (April 16th, 2007).

Too much, I’m glad it was just pairs.

Hi all

Peter-Paul and Anne got married last Friday. It was such a nice wedding and what a party they threw! I’ll write a bigger report on it, but not until I get my hands on a nice picture (or a couple) of the newlyweds.

Back to the important stuff. Bridge. Here’s some chemistry from Hendrik and me last Thursday, we bid like this:

1. Either a strong NT or unbalanced 4+
2. Unbalanced
3. 4th suit forcing
4. Showing a 4-0-4-5
5. Setting trumps
6. Cue
7. Extras, with bad trumps I would have signed off
8. Alrighty then

West leads the Jack of .

Where to start? A crossruff looks like a solid plan, but the trumps together are not that good. If you go for another (trumpdrawing?) plan, there are losers and communication problems all over. And there’s an external factor to cope with, I have to maintain the current chemistry with Hendrik. Disappointing him by screwing up a delicate slam will certainly stifle our chemistry.

So I took the lead with the Ace. Cashed the Ace and King of (discarding a and a ), ruffed a , Ace and King of (dumping those dirty ) and ruffed a .

Still having no clue what to do I ruffed a 4th round of (East discarding a , West coming up with the Queen). Next I tried to cash my Queen but East ruffed and played back a high , West ruffing with the Ten in front of dummy (overruffed).

I took my last chance, playing West for T9 bare in trumps I asked for the Queen in dummy. It holds and West shows his 9 with some remorse. The rest is easy, I play high from dummy until East comes up with the King of trumps. Claim 12.

So the trump position is very favourable and other suits break good too, shortness in front of shortness. But I still don’t know what’s the best plan, or how good this slam is. I guess Lady Luck smiled a little seeing the chemistry between Hendrik and me (+40 imp).

Hi all

Another one from Groningen.

Sitting in 4th position I’m wondering if it’s right to introduce this anemic hand. The main suit is fair in quality, but overall it lacks a little "oomph".

LHO opens 1, Hoek jumps to 6 and RHO… jumps… too… 7 it is.
I’m stunned.
Stunned.

Declarer ruffed the lead and collected 13 tricks without any problems. I’m afraid our teammates are not greedy enough to try for the grand after very heavy interference. After declarer had claimed his tricks, Hoek immediately asked what would have happened had he followed 1NT. I think it depends on how beat and/or weak the opponents are. I like the jump to 6 better, it raises so much pressure.

Our teammates are walking towards us. I start with "Did you bid 7..", but Dennis interrupts me: "No, but we win some imps on that particular deal."
No comprendo, senor!
They got doubled in 6, the redouble eventually netted us 6 imp.

Our winning streak ended here. In the last round we oppose "Mr & Mrs Smith", unfortunately without Angelina Jolie. Hoek and I try, but there’s just no juice left anymore. We lose 13-17 against number 1 and eventually rank 4th. I’m happy, we had a terrible start on Saturday. The metamorphosis on Sunday left me and others speechless, all in ease we played, defended and collected.