Vikings in Space

Hi all

This is my second week living in the US. I feel pretty comfortable here already, but I don’t know what has happened to my muse. Here’s me squeezing out an article.

This deal is from a couple of weeks ago where I partnered BoB in Waddinxveen. We were by far (I guess some 25 years) the youngest pair in the 200+ pairs field.

We had an unopposed auction:

1. Fourth suit forcing
2. Showing 4-4-1-4 (or worse)
3. From here on the auction gets foggy

When dummy hit the table I was wondering if we had missed a grand, you just need a friendly and trump split. But at the same time I was happy we avoided 3NT, there are only eight tricks available if the opponents pay a little attention.

On the King of lead I analyzed that I would need to establish the suit to get to eleven tricks. And I saw that I needed as many entries to dummy as possible, so I ruffed the lead with the 3. I ruffed a , crossed in trumps, ruffed another , and crossed again in trumps (noticing the 1-3 trumps split). This is the position right now (East still holding a trump):

This is where I truly suffered a blind spot. I really thought it was necessary now that the had to split 3-3 so I cashed the Ace. Ruffed. By. East.

I had nowhere to go. Suddenly my beautiful contract crumbled in my fingers with ten tricks maximum.

And the solution is so easy… Instead of trying to cash the Ace of I should have ducked a . East would gain nothing by ruffing in the air. I’m still holding both Major suit Aces, and my Jack is the lifelink to dummy.

I agree you would give up an easy overtrick if had split 3-3, but making your contract here (with an overtrick actually) is so much more important.

Hi all

I’m counting down to October 3. Two more weeks and I’ll be living in Berkeley, together with Sanne. I’m both excited and anxious. But I can put a checkmark where I had my biggest fears: getting my visa at the US embassy. It took less than an hour, 90 Euros and my fingerprints, but I got it. Jannes happy.

Now it’s just me and my stuff, I have to decide what I want to put in storage, what to bring along and what to dispose of.

But you’re here for bridge. How are your card-reading skills?

1. Weak

West starts with the Jack of and East takes his Ace and King before exiting in . Trumps split and you see there are nine tricks already, you just have to prevent losing two .

How to tackle them?

Cash the suit ending in dummy and you have a near complete count on East. Presumably a six card suit, so far he has shown two and three so that leaves room for just two . The rest is easy if you follow the technical correct play (split honours): a small towards your Jack. If East inserts a honour you can finesse the other one thru West, else you’re able to drop East’s honour-doubleton.

Piece of cake, eh?

Hi all

This deal is from a Dombo-session where I partnered Dennis. Boy, was it plain sailing that night! People where handing out gifts like it was Crazy Christmas, and we were fully embraced by Lady Luck in all our adventures.

I’ll show you the problem from a defensive point of view.

1. Unbalanced 4+ or a 15-19 NT
2. Asking for Major
3. Inspired

East looked at his own cards and estimated his partner would be of no help in the defence. He put a small trump on the table, leaving declarer (Dennis) to do his own dirty work.

This was the complete deal:

Dennis had no problem wrapping up twelve tricks.

So a lead would have developed the setting trick. I guess it’s a stab in the dark, possibly against the odds. I have full sympathy for the safe trump lead. Too bad, but hey, such is life.

About the 4 bid, it’s nice and inspired. It was the right bid on the right moment for me, opening the door to slam. But I suspect Dennis was trying to get me out of book as well, something like “What does this button do?”. He succeeded once after a rare post-Muiderberg auction, if I remember correctly. He has been trying ever since.

Hi all

This deal is from Star. During summer season I get to play with a lot of random partners and this time I was lucky to play with Dirk "Bear".

1. 14-16 NT
2. still aspiring slam
3. cue, no cue!
4. Hoot hoot!

The bidding looks quite straightforward. I nearly fell from my chair when Dirk skipped the control. So it might seem strange to ask for Aces when holding a void, but during the bidding I already found out partner had no wasted honours in my void. When partner showed two keys with trump Queen I felt like Moses for a moment, seeing everything on board. I wasted no time and jumped to the grand.

LHO started with a small trump and I notice thirteen tricks are not available upon request.

I took the lead in dummy and played a small from dummy. That was too much pressure for East and he inserted the King (!). I ruffed and cashed the King of trumps seeing trumps split. I crossed to trump Ace and asked for the Queen. East took a fifteen second pause before playing low. I discarded my Ten and West coughs up the Jack.

Huh? A 2-7 split?

I play the Queen from table and another one to my hand, East showing out on the second one. Oh boy! West stops my fifth with the Ten. But I don’t let my head down. With two more I have worked myself to this position:

On trump Jack I squeeze West out of Queen-third in and the Ten. So the shiny 9 is my thirteenth trick.

A small detail that might go by unnoticed. When you find out about the bad split it looks like you can revert to the suit as a source for four tricks. But there are no entries to dummy anymore and West can ruin your communications by inserting the Queen of  on the right moment.

Sometimes you get to play with glass cards. I feel like a beast, an ancient beast. Can you hear my roar?

Hi all

Jeroen Cottaar showed me this deal from a Dutch junior training session. Every time I look at it, its beauty hits me, overwhelms me.

It’s a very pretty holding, just a hint from a gameforcing hand. East destroys your hopes for an uncontested auction with a Muiderberg 2. The rest of the auction is self explanatory:

1. Muiderberg, weak 5 crd with 4+ minor
2. Pass or correct
3. With the favourable vulnerability raising even more pressure

West kicks off with a and when dummy comes down you find out your contract isn’t exactly laydown.

If trumps split there are ten tricks, but there’s a nasty blockage in , and it’s unlikely the opponents are going to help you out. There are two things to consider now. Trumps have to split otherwise there is no way to ten tricks. And East has a mountain of distribution in the round suits so all the are breathing down your neck. But even with this information the correct line of play is still far from obvious.

Solution.
See what happens if you play five rounds of trumps (and somewhere in between the Ace)? West has to keep a double guard on the , so he has to discard to three . Now exit in and ruff the third round of . West has nothing left but  and now you can claim your ten tricks by announcing the throw in against West.

Did you notice that playing less than five trumps doesn’t cut it? The opponents can overrun you with endless amounts of and a throw in will not materialize. So East gave the deal away by bidding 4. This information combined with the assumption you cannot deal with a bad trump split should lead to the winning plan.

I’m not sure I would have walked the right path here, my edge is kind of rusty lately. I have a lot on my mind (emigration to the US e.g.!), and I only play once a week not so high profile. Maybe in Berkeley I have time to get back in shape.