Vikings in Space

Hi all

No progress whatsoever with the ACBL. I’m a little scared that they will be vigilant about my Dutch masterpoints, and I can’t foresee what will happen then with my/our qualification. In The Netherlands I have some 5000 points, and that would put me in the top 15% of all Dutch bridge players. But 5000 US eligibility points would catapult me in the top 1% of all US players. That kind of conversion just doesn’t make sense.

It’s funny, I sort of want the ACBL to acknowledge I’m a crappy player and hand me the correct amount of masterpoints, so I’m allowed to play in Flight B after all. Another option is that they promote us to Flight A… (but that’s unlikely, I guess). It’s a strange world.

Here’s another spectacular deal:

1. 11-13 bal, or unbal 4+ , or any 4441
2. GF relay trigger
3. 4 crd suit 11-13 bal, possibly 4441
4. Relay
5. 4 crd suit
6. 4-4-4-1
7. 1 Ace
8. 1 King
9. NT plays just as good, I’m not interested in any ruffs.

Greg received a passive lead and this is what he could see.

You have eleven tricks from top, you only need to conjure one extra trick from the suit.

Greg took a couple of and tricks and with no extra information he asked for the Jack of from dummy. East was fumbling through her cards and Greg got excited cause there was a right decision to take. He thought. Until East discarded a . He quickly claimed down one.

Because the split 2-8 twelve tricks are cold. You take all reds and both tricks ending in dummy, and when you run the Jack West gets endplayed. But you need the to split this way to have this line work.

But as quickly as Greg claimed down one, he wrote +3 on the score sheet. Why? He trusted the opponents to arrive in a suit slam, and our teammates would Lightner double that for a lead. He was spot on.

Hi all

Last weekend another GNT qualifier, this time a six person team in flight B. I’ll start with the good news: our team won the qualifier and we’re headed for Washington this summer. Yay!

Here’s a spectacular deal:

1. 10-12 balanced
2. GF relay trigger
3. No 4 crd Major, no 5 crd minor
4. Relay
5. 3-2-4-4
6. 0 Aces
7. 3 Kings
8. Superrelay (what King are you missing?)
9. In the suit most likely:
10. I have a loser

Greg’s hand kept improving during the bidding. When I showed three Kings he saw possibilities of a grand: two ruffs in the short hand. That would have been pure magic.

Full deal:

On the lead I discarded a from dummy and later I could I could pitch two more on my high . Making twelve. I really like Greg’s superrelay to investigate the grand.

There are a few caveats left for Washington, though. Someone at the ACBL has coughed up that my Dutch masterpoints are equivalent to those used in the US. That would mean I’m only eligible for flight A. But we’re trying to untangle that knot. And second, it is uncertain whether the kind of relay structure we intend to use is allowed in general or mid chart events (but I have lost track to figure out how those rulings are applied in the US).

Hi all

Last weekend we had our not so succesful start in (qualifying for) the GNT. Greg found one of his other partners willing to fill the gap in our team, so I could play with Foster. After 48 boards (against team Meltzer) the margin exceeded the 80 IMP already. But it certainly didn’t feel that we got our asses whooped. They went down in a cold 5 while our teammates bid to the edgy slam, they missed a couple of reasonable games and had more difficulties with junior enthusiasm than I expected. I can state that the loss was mostly self inflicted.

Your name is Woolsey, you have been a world champion and your sitting East:

 
North opens 1 and Woolsey decided to overcall 1 (nothing special so far), this is passed out to North who reopens with a double. He raised himself to 2 and walked into my knife. Double!

Okay, so the penalty was only -100, my knife wasn’t that sharp. But I was looking for some IMP to pick up. Actually I’m glad I did, because our teammates went down two in 3 undoubled.

Hi all

Things are a bit slow here. Companies still aren’t hiring, state of emergency in California because of drought (except in Berkeley, where it has been raining for 2 weeks now), I won a Friday Night Magic Event, the green asparagus now available makes my life good, and tomorrow Watchmen will hit the theatres. Next week I hope I can start with the (unpaid) internships I have volunteered for. I have to set up a database on stereotactic radiation therapy data in a hospital around the corner (yes, it’s really unpaid!), the other internship involves arrangements for events for angel investors in the Bay Area. Just read: "connecting and networking".

Here’s a nice deal from a teams event in El Cerrito last weekend.

Declarer had no problem wrapping up 9 tricks in 1NT when our defence was less than optimal. We got lazy when we noticed those 8 points in dummy opposite a strong NT. Spare energy. But there’s a nice twist to this deal. The defence really has to keep a keen eye on the ball had South declared 3NT.

West leads a for East’s Ace and East returns one for declarer’s Jack, ducked by West.

There are only eight tricks for grabs. Declarer can work towards an endplay or squeeze for an extra trick. Take five in , then exit in . This is the position with one more to go:

If West cashes the 6, dummy will discard 9 and South 8, creating a criss cross position. And East? What King will he undress?

It’s funny, because it doesn’t really matter. As long as West pays attention, declarer cannot prevail. He should play the suit where East has kept the doubleton. And I think East gets his message best across by discarding the King instead of baring it. That should steer West in the right direction.

And we got beaten by some team of elderly people (again), but that’s another story.

Hi all

I feel like a rock star. People were almost fighting to attend my second class on bridge at UC Berkeley. I don’t know how many students tried to sign up (almost 40 or so), but we were limited to only 24 lucky students. Even one of the professors tried to catch a glimpse of me.

Back to earth.

Here’s a double dummy problem Dennis showed me (years ago). In a week or so, if nobody has posted the answer in the comments, I’ll post it there myself. Until then, good luck!

South declares 6, West leads the Ten.

Hi all

Okay, I’ll just start with confessing that we didn’t win our bracket in the KO Teams. Whole day long Greg and I played solid, compensating for our teammates soft results and more. But the last match we just didn’t have any room to score. I opted for a superior 3NT while I knew there was a 5-3 fit present, and the other table copied our result. The match was decided when we didn’t bid a non-vulnerable 3NT on these combined cards:

Ace of onside, 2-2 and both honours onside. Right! A couple of overtrick imps flew back and forth, so the finals we lost with a 7 imp margin. Oh well, better luck next time.

There was one other interesting relay sequence in the penultimate match.

1. Catch all bid
2. GF relay
3. 11-13 balanced, 2-3-5-3
4. Aces?
5. 1 (or 4)
6. Kings?
7. 0 (or 3)

After 4NT I knew Greg was holding a fistful of Queens and Jacks. Bidding 6 was undisciplined, I need the trump Jack to show in dummy and a place to park my loser. What eventually pushed me to bidding 6 was that I estimated the other table would be in slam too.

Well, trump Jack did shine in dummy, but when I cashed trump Ace I quickly discovered this slam wouldn’t come home. But my estimate was right, the deal was a push.

Hi all

Last Sunday I played the Compact KO Teams, President’s Day regional. When I entered the playing room I was surprised, I could see something like 150 tables, and this was not the only room. There were several events held simultaneously (pairs, Swiss, senior etc).

We meet our teammates and have a small chuckle over the differences in system. We play our modified Viking Precision and they play some vanilla 2-1 system. I don’t think the difference can be any bigger than this.

First match, first board. We’re in for a ride:

1. Big, 16+
2. Game forcing: 8-11 hcp, balanced or at least a 5 card
3. Relay
4. 5 card ; balanced or a sidesuit in
5. Relay
6. Balanced
7. Agreeing , natural continuation
8. Undiscussed, but it sounds like a collection of Queens and Jacks and suggesting a place to play

Greg had forgotten (due to the excitement of playing a new system) about the inversions of 1 and 1. So he had to mastermind his way out of the mess he created. But the trumps had a friendly split, and when the Queen of came tumbling down there were twelve tricks for a push. Luckily the opponents didn’t have the right tools to find the cold slam.

If you play an highly artificial system like this it is like keeping a rhino as a pet. No problems if you treat it nice and with respect, else it will smack you around and leave you broken, beat and scarred.

We were both very awake after this incident, and the rest of the day all relays were flawless. Cheerio!

Hi all

A couple of months ago I started a casual bridge course in Games of Berkeley. Now there are nine enthusiastic students left. Every week they struggle with the problems I serve them. After we’re done, at 9.30 pm or so, we often go out to cool down with a beer. Those are the very good nights.

This weekend I was contacted about a (not so casual) bridge course at Cal, or to be precise: University of California, Berkeley. Starting Monday, February 9, starring me as teacher. Yikes! Twenty-two students showed up, I took a hard swallow and fainted. No, I’m just kidding, a couple of them were just interested in their iPhones and the credit my course is worth, but I had the vast attention of the majority. I think I was able to tell a pretty coherent story, but next week we’ll see how many students have dropped.

Maybe in a couple of weeks they can help me with this deal.

Over 3 I could have bid a forcing 3, but I thought double was a tad more flexible. Partner surprised me with an undiscussed 4 bid, and after a while I just bid a "pick-a-slam" 6. Not enough, for this was the complete deal:

 
Even if I start with 3 instead of double I don’t see a sensible road to the grand in .

Hi all

Imagine your standing for a wooden door, it’s old and moldy and a bit dusty too. It feels like there are hidden but not forgotten treasures behind that door. It makes a creaking sound when you open it. And when your eyes have adjusted to the darkness, you see them: Viking weapons. If I were in a movie I would say something like: "I’m back, baby!". I found someone with a solid precision background willing to give Viking Precision a try.

And you know what’s really nice? If you pick up cards like this:

 
A sequence as in a dream, smooth and fitting like a glove.

1. 16+
2. 12+ hcp, 4441 with a red singleton
3. Natural, agreeing
4. Cue
5. Exclusion Blackwood
6. 2 Keycards without trump Queen

This was the complete deal.

 
There was nothing to the play.