Vikings in Space

Hi all

Seinfeld in the Paramount Theatre was awesome. I enjoyed his observation what guys expect from their woman is the same as what they expect from their underwear: a little bit of freedom and a little bit of support.

Here’s a deal from a recent teams match. I’ve asked around a bit, and most of the reactions so far range from “Daisy picking” to “What’s the problem, yawn” all the way to “That’s why I play Heeman“.

All white and partner opens an 11-14 NT.

I passed as responder and I see Geoff wrap up eleven tricks! As the cards lie you just had to snap your fingers for a butler to hand over your twelve tricks in on a silver platter:

Trumps breaking, King and Ace on side, and trump length with length so you don’t run into communication problems. Of course bidding slam is 4th dimensionally outrageous, and only fit for certain characters from books by Victor Mollo.

But still, there’s this nagging feeling whether we should have reached the game. The question ultimately boils down to whether it is imp positive to undertake action. Balancing reasonable 4 contracts against featherlight NT contracts, and if the opponents are about to bid we’re better off bidding 2 now. The answer? I still don’t know.

How valid is the approach actually, that if you can make game opposite a perfect minimum, you need to invite? And doesn’t that bite with Mike Lawrence’s advise to never play partner for the perfect hand?

Hi all

Things are not bad here. We made a short trip to Colorado last weekend. Nothing beats fresh powder! And this time I didn’t even break a bone. This weekend I have to sacrifice a Trentemøller session in SF to Jerry Seinfeld in Oakland. Not the easiest of choices, if I may say so.

Here’s a challenging defensive problem from the GNT Open.

1. Waiting
2. 22-23 hcp, balanced
3. Puppet Stayman

You sit East and await partner’s lead. The 3 (attitude leads) hits the table and this is what you see:

A quick analysis shows that partner holds roughly ten hcp, a five card suit and probably has led from a 3 card suit. Declarer goes into the tank for a full five minutes before calling small in dummy. You add the 8 to the pot and declarer wins with the Ace.

Now declarer plays Ace and Queen, partner winning the latter one with the King. What do you discard?

Before answering that question try to visualize declarer’s hand. If declarer holds three that suit looks far more attractive to set up than those . So declarer holds only two. Well, that paints declarer’s hand almost perfectly: 5-2-2-4.

You can hold on to both round suits now and pitch a . Declarer doesn’t have the entries to set up and cash dummy’s .

In the end declarer will end up one trick short because nothing works out.

So where did declarer do wrong?

If he had unblocked Ace & King before touching the , East would have been caught in a genuine three-suited squeeze. But declarer still needs to read the complicated position correctly.

Hi all

We’re at the end of the match, pretty much drained after 60something boards. One of the last deals could have had a nice twist if I had kept my eye on the ball. Not that it would have changed the outcome, though.

1. Standard weak two

Geoff leads the Jack, and this is what I see.

The Ace is played in dummy and in a pipe dream moment I pitch my 2 … discouraging a switch. Declarer follows up with a to his Queen and Geoff’s Ace. Suddenly the defence is an open book to me. A to me, cashing both King & Ace, a ruff and then the cream on the cake with a third round of promoting my Ten into the setting trick.

Now if only I hadn’t played that 2 in trick one. Geoff returns a trump for dummy [let declarer clean up his own mess] and ten tricks get wrapped up easily with a hook.

So can declarer prevent the promotion of the Ten?
It looks a bit counterintuitive, but if declarer starts with a top from dummy [retaining the Queen in his hand], my Ten wouldn’t get a toxic payload.

Hi all

Here are two slam deals that basically decided the match in team Vishnevsky’s favor. Unfortunately I don’t have my teammate’s scientific Viking sequence available that led to an odds on 7. This was the full deal:

As you can see the 4-1 trump break and the 5-1 split was too much to overcome. You run into communication problems after two rounds of trumps. West at the other table used some new minor forcing sequence and later brusquely jumped to 6. That was a whopping 29 imp swing.

The levee was about to break. Here’s the other one, a lead problem.

1. Asking
2. Good hand & good suit

What red suit? The tiny sequence in made the decision for me at the table. Well, that was another minus 15.

Declarer drew trump and claimed thirteen tricks. At the other table the exact same sequence, but South led a . Post mortem I think I should have found the lead. That would only be wrong if it would set up declarer’s Queen as twelfth trick, with no other way of getting to twelve tricks. My bad.

Hi all

Here’s some thoughtful power play by team Vishnevsky. They landed in a precariously high contract of 5 [3NT is unbeatable] and needed a soft(ish) spot in the defence to land on the head of a pin.

West led the Ace and continued for dummy’s King. The Queen of gets covered with the King and West shows out!

Now you have to disarm that J94 and take care of your remaining loser as well.

South analyzed correctly that crossing to the Ace to play a top wouldn’t work, I (East) would just discard a . Then on the trump switch I would rise with the Jack to transform my 9 into superman, because North is left entryless.

So South needed another entry to dummy, and found it by finessing against West’s Queen. Now he was able tackle the delicate trump position, for he had a second entry to dummy when he could overtake his King with dummy’s Ace.

So where’s the defensive soft spot? Geoff could have foiled declarer’s cunning plans by inserting the Queen, instead of following small. Denied the second entry to dummy South is unable to untangle the trump position.

Hi all

Last Saturday we had our GNT semi-finals match against team Vishnevsky. They beat us by 27 imp. I don’t feel too bad about it, it was a good match. No excruciating blunders, as far as I can remember. The small sting I still feel is that the slams were not very friendly to us, but more on that later.

This deal was funny.

West started with Ace and another and the King won the trick.

South knew his safety plays, played a to dummy’s Ace and ruffed a intending to play a towards the Queen. But … the got overruffed with the Jack. Declarer was left with a trump loser and the Ace of so ended up one trick short.

South ran into the 0.16% odds that the suit broke 0-8. A lesser player would have taken the finesse and end up with ten tricks. But here the safety play detonated unexpectedly in declarer’s own face.

Hi all

I’ll start with a small link dump:
Stanley & Natasja in India here.
René & Nira launching Bridge Big in Louisville here.

I’ve mostly gotten used to people abusing cards. But my grief over all the mutilations, the carnage, the hecatomb and the abhorrences people (including myself) sometimes commit has not diminished, it just got slightly less … visible.

Here are two sad, sad cases:

After my partner made his lead dummy proudly put down these cards:

* Segfault error *
* Does not compute *

Can I have a review please?

I ask my opponents if they are playing Canapé or a strong and myself whether I could have blacked out during the the alerts. Nothing. All natural. Well, it sure is an approach, bidding your second shortest suit first then reversing into your longest suit and never get to mention your . I’ll let my readers figure it out whether it is a sound or winning approach. [The result was down one when my partner proved to have three trump tricks, and I added the King as setting trick.]

This deal is from the 2nd round in the GNT’s. Must have been that large cow that flew by.

After the auction I ask a couple things, 2 was non-forcing, 2 (false) preference, 4 asked for keycards and West showed one. Well, that’s certainly quite a hand, making a non-forcing bid first and then blasting to slam anyway.

Lead a trump?
No, that might endanger partner’s trump holding.

Any ?
No, for underleading an Ace I’m usually not brave enough in serious matches. And leading the Ace might set up too many pitches for declarer.

The Queen?
Speculative, it’s the unbid suit. It might establish the setting trick. But eventually I decide against it.

I lead my 5th instead.

As you can see, East didn’t really have the combination of cards she promised during the bidding sequence. The contract is reasonably sound after all, but in the end it came down to finding that lovely Queen. [She finessed.]

And this is where I wiped away that swamp of sweat on my forehead. Still a bit trembling for actively considering leading the Queen. Man! It would have resulted in one of the fastest claims ever.

If there’s anybody out there, what were my RHO’s thinking during the bidding?

Hi all

Last weekend we started beer batch #5, codename Noah. It is not unthinkable John’s 4 month old son enhanced it with some of his drool, the little guy was quite interested in the procedures and attention.

Here’s a deal from a very quiet night at Quick Tricks, I guess most regulars are in Louisville (KY) now for the Nationals. I played with a Dutch visitor (H.U.) who was here for a conference.

1. &
2. Values

Partner starts with the Ace of and dummy puts down a boatload of and a suspicious looking Queen.

I play the 2 and declarer follows suit too. I’m glad it’s at least down one now … as long as partner switches !

Wait! Why is partner tanking now? … another hits the table.

Of course declarer ruffed, extracted the single outstanding trump, pitched dummy’s loser on his long , and wrote with a big smile +1540. I’m happy it’s just pairs.

It’s cold 6 for us, and because of that tiny slip in the defence the adversary slam came home on top of that. Post mortem I would have bid 6 with H.U.’s hand over the value-double of 5. If partner has three to the King and a pointy Ace slam is already pretty good, and that’s not a even a double. What can I say? Blame the jet lag.

Hi all

I have been describing too many disasters lately, time for a small success: another deal from the GNT qualifiers. I pulled a fat rabbit out of a hat on my RHO. I could hardly suppress my chuckle over it.

Sitting South I opened a 11-14 NT and got to play there. My LHO puts down an unbid extended Royal Straight Flush in . So after six tricks I’ve discarded to this position:

By now East has discarded a card in every other suit. I don’t know why West didn’t bid those , but I’m going to play East for the remaining face cards. West exits with a small for dummy’s Ace and East drops the Queen.

I cross to my Ace and play Ace [ 2 in dummy]. King [ 9 in dummy], and I overtake my Jack with the Queen. Two cards remaining. I ask for the 4 and East hasn’t paid attention to who played the 3!

After a sweaty and embarrassing pause he lets go of the King (keeping the King), I overtake the 4 with the 5 and score my 7th trick with my top .

It’s all in the small!

Hi all

Last weekend we played a GNT A qualifier weekend. We’re still in, just two hurdles left for a ticket to Toronto this summer. Exit team Friedman and exit team Saunders. They were seeded pretty high, but I never even heard of them. I’ll just play my European ignorance card once again.

So one thing that I’ve learned this weekend is not to antagonize the asshole(s). Let them be. Let them suffer. Don’t take notice. And beat the crap out of them with cards, just cards and nothing but cards.

Here’s me taking a wrong turn. Say, roughly minus 15 imp.

1. Action double
2. I think I’d rather defend

So I lead the Jack and dummy comes down. Geoff plays the 2 (according to Granovetter’s A switch in Time: don’t switch , please!) and declarer plays something small too. Now what?

At the table I unthinkingly continued and that was the end of the defence, for this was the complete deal:

Declarer ruffed the second , drew trump and cashed out on his . We write -590 and I see we’ve missed out on our best spot in a 4-4 fit 15-count 4. Or perhaps I should take that 2 at Lavinthal-face value and switch to a . At the table it just didn’t click in my head. Overall I’m glad the opponents made more mistakes over 128 boards, but I surely need to get my game up if I want to make it to Toronto.