Vikings in Space

Hi all

As you can see I’ve updated the look of my blog (again). I had some issues with the old theme and I decided to make a switch. There are still some small issues to attend to, but I’m sure it’ll prove to be a better experience.

Trentemøller has a new album: Into The Great White Yonder. Still electronics-driven, dark & ambient, but unfortunately less formidable than The Last Resort. Check it out on Pandora or Grooveshark.

Here’s another deal from the BBQ Swiss in El Cerrito, a 13 IMP pickup.

West

North

East

South

 

 

pass

21

pass

22

pass

3

pass

4

pass

4

pass

5

pass

6

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Strong
2. Waiting

Partner took the slow route (4 instead of jumping to 5) but was unable to make a cuebid. At the table I assumed Antony was holding a couple of possible useful Queens in addition to genuine support. 6 looked to be reasonable safe and on a finesse at worst. Funny to see that partner couldn’t cuebid the suit he controlled because I was ahead of him.

Viking style. With a boatload of points and finding out about a fit with a lot of room to spare is like duck soup. A breeze. Easy as pie. Like taking candy from a baby. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Simple as ABC.

West

North

East

South

 

 

pass

11

pass

12

pass

13

pass

24

pass

25

pass

2NT6

pass

37

pass

38

pass

49

pass

410

pass

411

pass

4NT12

pass

613

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Big
2. 0-7 HCP
3. Bigger, 20+
4. 5-7 balanced
5. Relay
6. No 4 card Major, no 5 card minor
7. Relay
8. 3-2-4-4
9. Aces?
10. One
11. Do you have the magic King?
12. No
13. Like a hot knife through butter

Hi all

Last Saturday I was the Methusalem in a team that for the rest consisted of junior players. As you can see, I still haven’t lost my skills in frivolous bidding. Antony cooperated joyfully.

This was the auction from my point of view:

West

North

East

South

 

11

pass

1

pass

1

pass

22

pass

3

pass

33

pass

5

pass

6

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Of course this is by no means a vulnerable opening, you have an impossible rebid over the expected 1 by partner
2. 4th suit forcing
3. Asking for half a stopper/more information

I thought my hand improved during the bidding, partner doesn’t seem to have any wastage in opposite my void. I was more than a tad off, for this was the deal.

Antony felt my slight distress and discomfort at the table and waved his right hand towards West like a true Obi Wan. “You will not find the killing lead.”

Well, it worked out better than expected when West found the single lead for us to make it: the Ace of .

Antony ruffed, ruffed a in dummy, took three pitches on dummy’s and cross ruffed the rest of the tricks.

Hi all

Here’s a slam I butchered.

West

North

East

South

21

Double

5

62

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Weak
2. Not very scientific, but sometimes you just take off the white gloves and enter while swinging your ax.

Dummy comes down:

King lead. Alright, this baby needs some work. I can count only ten tricks with a successful hook. I won’t go into detail how I botched the contract, but my opponent threw me a trick-twelve-bone with a ruff and sluff.

It took me some overtime to formulate the most elegant plan. Draw two rounds of trumps ending in dummy. Play a to the Queen and exit with the Ace of and the Ten. This basically wins with the 3-3, King doubleton onside and various 2-4 holdings where East will be endplayed. Those last ones might be a bit difficult to read, though.

I think that’s as much optimization juice you can squeeze from that lemon.

Cheers!

Hi all

I’m probably kicking an open door, but Vegas is a wicked city. There’s so much eye candy even an armed and thick skinned Viking will suffer an indigestion. And you’d better bring a boatload of cash to unlock good times. Here are two pictures, the first one from left to right: Jerome, Remco, Dennis, Dennis, me & Martin (Kees-Jan took the picture). We’re admiring the inside view of The Venetian at an hour past midnight! The second one was earlier that day when we were accompanied by two Dutch girls (Nathalie & Agnes, friends of Sanne).

Somewhere late Saturday night, Dennis suddenly stopped in his tracks and pointed towards some red haired woman.
“So?”, I asked.
“Do you know who that is?”, he riposted.
“No clue.”
“That’s Rihanna playing blackjack over there.”
“… Diana … who?”

I understand she’s one of the biggest pop stars around right now. Man, I’m so out of touch.

Let’s just stick at what I’m reasonably good at, Beowulf in action:

West

North

East

South

 

11

pass

22

pass

33

pass

34

pass

4

pass

… 5

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Unbalanced, 0+
2. Forcing, 4+
3. Forcing, 5+
4. Limit, nothing but

I agree the bidding looks rather painful and overly complicated.

When East led a Geoff had no problem collecting twelve tricks, he lost just a trick to the King of . If the finesse had been right thirteen tricks would have been reasonably easy. On the other hand, had East led a ten tricks would have been our limit. Funny, on the best lead it’s either four or seven. I don’t remember seeing such a deal before.

Alright, I’m gonna hide under some umbrella … ella … ella

Hi all

I think it’s official, I’ve tapped too much from my barrel of luck. This deal is from a pairs night in Piedmont. Sitting South I opened a weak NT and Geoff raised me to game.

West led a small and East played the 9 for my Queen. I can count five tricks in , one and two if the finesse works. My only sensible legal chance for nine is finding West with exactly KJ stiff.

I lead a small and West throws the King in the arena. I glance at West and decide it’s an honest card. I see no alternative than going for a flaw in the defence. I rattle off all (pitching a and a ), leading to this position:

The opponents kept all their and RHO has pitched two and a on the choo-choo train. So now I have East almost where I want him. Still in tempo I request a from dummy and when East follows with a small one I feel victory approaching.

West in with the King, pounces with the Ace of and another one for his partner’s Jack. With a sigh East acknowledges defeat, he can take the Ace, but then has to lead away from his Jack of .

So if East had risen with the Ace of they can keep me to seven tricks. Not a bad reward if you pay some attention. My fields of luck are now infertile, desolate and loveless, I fear.

Hi all

Here’s a spectacular deal from the BER sectional last weekend. This was the auction from Geoff’s point of view:

West

North

East

South

1

Pass

1NT1

2

Pass

5

5

Pass

Pass

…6

Pass

Pass

Double

a.p.

 

 

1. Semi-forcing

Dummy puts down a monster.

You ruff the Ace lead in dummy and start on trumps, West showing up with all three of them. You just have to find that pointy Queen to claim your twelve.

Geoff took what seems a fifty-fifty guess by finessing over East (because of the overall freakish distribution), but here the ball bounced the other way: down one.

The cleansing clue is West’s inability to bid over 2!
So he doesn’t have a six card suit, or a four card suit. Combine that with West holding all three trumps and it’s easy to smoke that Queen out of her palace.

Some other contemplations: My 5 call was far from an expert bid, it just happened in the heat of the moment. I don’t really care for a fit showing jump in because of the poor suit quality, but a 4 splinter to show extra strength looks reasonable. I wonder whether Geoff would have believed that considering he was holding a singleton himself.

Edit: Corrected deal after comment.

Hi all

On Monday I returned to Quick Tricks again, this time to ravage the field with Sanne. I promised her and myself to be a good and understanding partner. Of course my not so hidden agenda was to brutally extract points from my opponents. I was successful a couple of times.

West

North

East

South

1

2

31

pass

pass

Double

pass

4

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Weak

Now to find a lead. A trump looks way too passive because I can see the suit can be set up easily. A might work but also could allow declarer to add some easy ruffs to her balance. So I decided to lead a , my 6 of to be precise.

This was the full deal:

Declarer glanced at me for more information, but I just sat there with a beatific smile. She played low from dummy and eventually ended up one trick short.

There are a couple of winning routes if you get a lead. You can ruff it in dummy with a top trump, then draw the outstanding trumps by hooking the Jack. Next duck a to take the finesse against the King later (communication baby!). You will score five tricks in , four trumps in your own hand and a ruff in dummy. An alternative is to set up the suit after drawing trumps, just play a small one to the King and pray for a 2-2 split. Scoring four trumps, a ruff, four and the Ace. I’m pretty sure this competent opponent would have found one of them at the table.

By the way, did you notice Sanne’s 3 call with six trumps? A fine decision, even with eleven trumps together there are just seven tricks in the bag for EW.

The first one might have been a bit lucky, this is a whole different league:

Your LHO opens a strong 2 and your RHO (me) brusquely jumps to 7NT. What do you lead?

My friend Bruce decided to lead a .

Too bad, three tricks in , seven and four add up to more than thirteen already. Dirty epic!

Hi all

My brother got me a nice present this week. He registered and forwarded the .com domain for my site: www.vikingsinspace.com. So now I won’t have to explain anymore where the .nl comes from. And it gives my site some global allure, don’t you agree?

Here’s some deep water experiment in Piedmont.

West

North

East

South

 

pass

1

1

2

Double1

pass

32

pass

3

pass

5

a.p.

 

 

 

1. Responsive
2. Showing a good hand

Geoff propelled himself to a fairly high contract. Now how to scramble together eleven tricks?

He ruffed the second round of and played a to the King and Ace. The third he ruffed again in his hand, and now he was at a crossroads. Establish dummy’s or his own ? The answer lies in the quality of the suit. Where the have to split 3-3 to set up the suit, the may split 4-2 too as long as the Queen resides in the doubleton. Both routes require a friendly trump split.

This was the full deal:

It was a little fortunate that the Queen came tumbling down. Geoff was on the right track, though, entering a dummy reversal for eleven tricks.

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).