Vikings in Space

Hi all

This deal is from a teams tournament in San Jose. Same setup as in Santa Cruz. On the deal below I got a bit carried away and left Greg playing in a borderline slam.

 

1NT1

pass

22

pass

23

pass

24

pass

35

pass

34

pass

36

pass

44

pass

47

pass

6

1. 14-16
2. GF relay trigger
3. Four card suit (!)
4. Relay
5. Four card suit
6. 4-2-4-3
7. 0 or 3 Aces

Greg and I are trying out some inversions over 1NT – 2 and 1 – 1NT relay auctions to see whether we can maneuver contracts more often into the strong(er) hand. It is a little bit more ballast, but so far it has been working out fine. During the auction I could see Greg would have to tackle the trumps for one loser and the rest of Greg’s cards would take care of losers in my hand.

When dummy hit the table Greg could count to eleven tricks. Number twelve should come from a squeeze. But East found a nasty lead: the King of . Nasty because it attacked a vital entry. Basically Greg could work to a position like this:

On the last trump West would have to let go of a , then North can pitch the Jack but East is in no pain yet. North still has to cash the Ace of to complete the pressure pack on East, but then communication is gone.

There is one route that might have succeeded and that is to duck the first . Unless East has nerves of steel (to continue with a small ) he’ll probably switch to another suit, and then you can unblock and cash the before clearing and running trumps. Greg would have been able to work to a position like this:

On the last trump first West gets squeezed out of and then East.

Greg immediately took a lot of blame for not ducking the lead and not recognizing the proper route to twelve tricks. No problem. Eventually this board proved to be a 6 imp loss. Yes, you read it correctly: 6 imp. At the other table North opened 1, South introduced his and over the 1 rebid South took a very pessimistic view and reverted to 2 (making 5). What an endeavour!

Hi all

This deal is from the Santa Cruz sectional last weekend. I was playing with Greg, with Andrew and Hansa as teammates. It was a nice day with reasonable play.

West

North

East

South

 

11

1

DBL2

pass

2

pass

23

pass

2

pass

3NT

pass

4

pass

5

a.p.

 

 

1.  16+
2. 5-7 hcp takeout-ish, or any GF hand without a describing bid
3. Too strong for an immediate jump to 3NT

The interference was minimal, but very effective as our relay auction had been disrupted. I had powerful trumps sitting over East, but with the unfavourable vulnerability I didn’t want to try to deconstruct 1. In the rest of the auction Greg was able to show his 4-4-0-5 (with extras because he passed 3NT) the natural way. I considered a powerlift to 6, but because of my huge wastage in and no significant support for any of Greg’s suits I decided against it.

Because the trump King was onside thirteen tricks were easy on the Ace lead. Greg had every spot card in to make 6 yawningly boring. I don’t feel too bad for missing out on slam here, as our opponents stopped in game as well.

Hi all

Greg showed me this deal, it’s from the All Western Regional in Santa Clara. Deep Finesse’s analysis on the printout said that eleven tricks in are possible, even on a lead. First solution in the comments gets eternal glory.

Good luck!

On a side note, would you open the South hand, and if so, what?

Hi all

Last weak I experienced a lucky streak, both on the financial and job front. Friends in The Netherlands contacted me whether I was interested in doing some remote database administration. Hell yeah! Even the difference in time zone is convenient, as I will perform all tasks in their off hours.

Remember Washington? I was sitting South and I led my King of after the following auction:

1

1

1

pass

31

pass

3NT

a.p.

1. A bit horny

This is what I could see.

Declarer took the in dummy and played a to his Ten for my Queen. I continued another via Dennis’ Jack for declarer’s Queen. Next he took a finesse in , Dennis winning the Queen. Another that declarer won with the Ten (nice suit, Dennis!). Now he crossed to the Ace of and asked for the Ace of , pitching a himself.

When the King didn’t come down declarer shook his head and frantically looked for a way out. But Dennis alertly rose with the Ace on the from dummy and cashed out his and the King of , squeezing declarer in & in the process. Down four.

This was the full deal:

3NT is of course a very ambitious contract, but declarer could have overcome the lack of entries to the long . Take the lead, play a to the King, finesse in and take the continuation… And now the masterplay: the 4 of to the Ten, creating an extra entry. I’m fairly sure I don’t have enough Pabis Ticci in me to find the killing insertion of the King.

Hi all

Here’s an expensive deal from one of the post-Spingold knockout tournaments in DC. Outside it was hot and moist, the kind of weather you can mop me up with. But inside it was sub-Viking cold. At a certain point I even asked the director if he could rub me a little.

1

Pass

1

Pass

2

Pass

…3

Double

3

Pass

4

Pass

4

a.p.

 

I doubled 3 as leaddirecting/penalty when West didn’t alert 3 after a significant pause. Of course 3 could be natural, but it could also be a free “keep-the-bidding-going”-bid. The opponents ended up in 4 after a series of bids that don’t make any sense to me.

Before I start out leading a top my RHO informs me 3 should have been alerted. We ask for the attention of a director. 3 was meant as check-back, but there was a failure to alert. The director instructed us to play the deal and get back to him when finished. This was the full deal:

When the split 3-3 and the suit broke favourably ten tricks came rolling in. The director had nothing to add to the result, West had just (very) conveniently forgotten about their agreements. Talk about luck in extremo, Martin & Remco tried 3NT at the other table but lost the obvious six tricks.

At the table I overlooked my moment of glory. 4 can be set! Had I continued with a 3rd round of , in the double void, declarer’s demise would have been unavoidable. He can ruff on the short side, but if Dennis then ducks the Queen, declarer has fatal transportation problems because of the awkward position of both red Queens. The same story applies if declarer decides to ruff in his own hand, a fourth round of will leave declarer then empty handed.

Hi all

Here’s a small anecdote from DC. I cannot remember the full deal, just my hand and the dialogue. It happened in our second match (vs. team Morse) trying to qualify for the last 64 teams in the Spingold.

Red vs. white, Martin (North) opens 1 and RHO (curly hippy guy) overcalls 2. I have no bid, so I pass and Martin reopens with a double. Now what? With a small sigh I bid 2 and that’s the end of the auction.

Curly hippy guy leads a small and I put my dummy down saying that in a pairs tournament (penalty)passing was a definite option.

You can imagine that the kibitzers where all over the floor crying with laughter.

The result? Martin collected seven tricks for -100 when the opponents found their ruff. And would 2 have survived a spanking? I remember analyzing for down two.