Friday, September 28, 2012

Beginner's grand luck

About once a week, I play on BBO with another young dad. We get online after our kids are in bed and grab an hour or so of bridge. But the time never quite works. The free tournaments on BBO start at 9.30 and at 11 (central time) -- too early and too late respectively.

Last week, our opponents kept bailing from the table. This was so annoying that we decided to try an ACBL speedball tournament this time. This was our first speedball, so I didn't know what to expect. But beginner's luck was with us.  Witness this hand, my first ever grand slam contract:


Obviously, the bidding is not very scientific. Partner and I play a straight-forward 2/1 with no gadgets. So the bidding could not be that scientific. If I had the queen of clubs rather than the queen of diamonds, the grand may have no play, but partner hoped that my 4D indicated no stoppers in any other suits. He bid the grand, I got a diamond lead, and the hand pretty much played itself.

The other 90+ score, the first board, was a gift.  6H is cold on the hand, but our opponent didn't ruff a diamond in dummy before pulling trumps:


Obviously, that we had this opponent on this hand was a tremendous piece of luck. The 71% game was worth 1.1 matchpoints (we were third overall).

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Letting a doubled contract through

Playing in the strongest game in town, partner and I started out shaky, but stabilized to finish with a 60% game, which was good enough to win in both directions. This was the "unit championship", so we got a whopping 3.5 master-points for this.

We had our worst boards against the pair who went on to win North/South. I'm not sure which direction the causality runs -- do we tend to play badly against pairs who are in fine form, or does the pair we don't get good boards against tend to win?

See if you can spot the misdefense on this board against the pair who would go on to win in the North/South direction. We were sitting East/West, and after partner opens a weak NT, I know that we have the majority of the points. On principle, we do not let them play a 2-level contract undoubled. Also, partner will not bid again unless he has a 5-card suit. So, the final contract was 2C doubled. We had two chances to set them, and we muffed both chances.  Can you do better?

I was sitting West, so click on West to hide the other hands and then click "Next":


-180 was a bottom, of course.  +100 would have been a top.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Going -800 undoubled

Partner and I have been playing a big club system for a few months now, and we have discussed how to deal with overcalls and preemptive overcalls of 1C.

Over overcalls, we use negative free bids, a cue-bid as a takeout, double for a balanced hand and/or 9+ points. NT bids show stoppers. Over preempts, we use positive free bids, cuebids to indicate game force without a stopper and NT to indicate game force with a stopper. Double shows a balanced hand that is not strong enough to insist on game.

At the club this week, one pair came in with having rehearsed a defense to 1C.  Over partner's 1C, they bid a 2H preempt that was explained as spades or the minors. Now, our use of cue-bids went out the window and unable to sort out our values, we ended up in a minor suit game when 3NT was cold.  As luck would have it, partner had a 1C opener on 3 boards that we played against this pair, and we ended up messing up every one of those.  On one of those 3 boards, I bid 3NT because I had two of the three suits stopped; partner, with a two-suiter passed, and so instead of bidding a slam, we went down 8.  First time I have scored -800 undoubled.

We now know how to deal with "suction" now, of course, but that discussion came too late.  Too bad that we misunderstood each other's improvised bids. Three zeroes resulted in a 50% game.

p.s. It has now been one year since I started this blog. Thanks to all you regular readers (there are about 70 of you) for coming back. Special thanks to my frequent commenters: Paul Gipson, Jeffery Lehman and Memphis Mojo -- I have learned a lot from you over the past year.  Thanks also to John Goold for sharing a standalone version of his blogging tools with me and to my partners for putting up with all this learning!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Bidding 4 and making 7

We played in the Lawton, OK sectional today, and I am still basking in my second-ever flight-A win. Our first flight-A win was the knockout a few months ago, and it was with the same teammates that we won today's Open Swiss.

Partner and I average 150 master points, so this is all rather cool and novel, but we're under no illusions that the best players won. As you'd expect, we were lucky -- of the strongest two teams in the tournament, we had to play only one, and we escaped with a tie.  Both teams had one loss each (where they got fixed) and we got away with playing the unexpected victors of those matches.

Still, I'll take my 6 silver points!

As in the knockout, I found that we bid and made our games for the most part. We took our tricks on defense (defeating a couple of their game contracts) and competed well on part-scores. It's the slam hands that continue to mess us up.  Here's one where I could not find the right bid:
W
Partner
AKx
10x
KQ9xxxx
x
E
Me
xxx
AKQJ9x
A
Axx
Partner dealt and opened his hand 1D:
Partner
Me
1
1
2
Now what?

A minimum hand consistent with partner's bidding -- Axx xx KQxxxx Kx -- makes the slam cold, so I do need to explore slam here. But what is my bid?  3H is not forcing, and partner might pass with a singleton or void.  3C would be, but that would ask partner if he had a third heart or a spade stopper. Here, partner might bid either 3D or 3NT. 3NT doesn't tell me much, though since it could be nothing more than QJx or Kxx of spades.I gave up and simply bid 4H.  

Bidding 4 and making 7 is never a nice feeling.

At the other table, they bid a small slam. Their auction went:
Opp1
Opp2
1
1
2
4NT
51
6
(1) one ace

Blackwood holding 3 little spades seems a tad frisky, but it certainly did work for them.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

In Ireland, bridge is exclusive

I will be traveling to Ireland in a few weeks, to County Clare. Since I had such a blast playing bridge in London, in New York and in Bangalore, I thought I'd see if I could continue the streak ... were there any bridge clubs near Shannon?

Oodles, it turns out. (17 actually). There's even, conveniently, a page that lists them.

However, they don't seem to care for visitors except during the summer months. "Members only," the clubs state quite baldly, although some add that "new members will be accommodated". What on earth does that mean? I have to play an annual membership fee to play one game? And some clubs claim to welcome "summer visitors". Why are people visiting on business in autumn considered minced meat?

I wish I could email and ask, but not one of the 17 clubs has an email address listed.

Pretty exclusive, these Irish bridge clubs!


p.s. I do not mean to be too hard on the Irish bridge clubs. They probably have more players than they can handle. Still, coming from America, where most clubs are open and prominently advertise the director's contact information, it is striking how closed the Irish bridge scene is. But then, in America, bridge is in pretty poor health whereas they have 17 bridge clubs in one small Irish county. So, maybe the air of exclusivity works.

p.p.s.: At least, in Ireland, they list their games on a public website. I've been to Delhi three times in three years and have yet to find a game.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Have you ever played in Stayman?

Have you ever played in Stayman?

Oh, I know you've played the convention. No, I mean played the hand in Stayman.  My partner did so yesterday evening:
W
West
N
Poor pard!
E
East
S
Me
Pass
1NT1
Pass
22
All Pass
(1) 12-15
(2) Game-forcing Stayman

Having recently switched to a weak NT structure, we had been practicing escape sequences if the NT bid got doubled.  If West had doubled, 2D by partner would be a sign-off. As you can see, West did not double, but I was well and truly engrossed into escape sequences. Hence the pass of partner's Stayman bid.  Partner played the silly contract rather well, but 2D making 7 was worth zero match points.

But there are some days when the luck is with you. We did not have a spectacular game, but still ended up with 56% and in second place.  Here's one instance of luck being with us -- they got to 5C on this sequence:
W
Me
N
North
E
East
S
Declarer
1
1
2
Pass
5
All Pass

Sitting West, and holding my cards, what do you lead?
.
N
Dummy
xx
KQJxx
AKJxx
5
W
Me
AQ9
A9852
10543
6
Lead: 6

I decided to lead a low trump.  Partner contributes the 9 and declarer wins with the 10.  Declarer now advances the 3 of hearts.  What do you do?

The play of declarer's singleton was suspicious -- it is almost as if declarer was trying to set up a bunch of discards. So, I took my Ace of hearts and put down the Ace of spades. Partner encouraged this, and we cashed three spades. 5C down 2 was worth all of the matchpoints.  This was the full deal:
.
Vul: None
Dlr: North
N
North
xx
KQJxx
AKJxx
5
.
W
West
AQ9
A9852
10543
6
Lead: 6
E
Me
K10xxx
xx
Qxxx
9x
.
S
South
Jxx
3
AKQJ10xxxx
.
Why was this result lucky? Because most of the field was in Gambling 3NT, making.  The only way to beat it is for West to cash his AQ of spades and lead a spade to his partner. Lead anything else (except Ace heart, then shift to spades), and declarer has 11 top tricks. Lead the 9 of spades, and spades are blocked. Understandably, no one found that defense -- I don't think I would have found it either.

Finding the defense to 5C was far easier and on days when Lady Luck is with you, the defenses you are called on to find are easier.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Extra chances

At a club game, partner and I pick up:
W
Partner
AJ
Kx
AJ
KQ10xxxx
Lead: K
E
Me
xx
AJ109xx
Q10x
Ax


We quickly bid our way to slam:
W
Partner
N
North
E
Me
S
South
11
Pass
12
Pass
23
Pass
24
Pass
35
Pass
46
Pass
47
Pass
4NT8
Pass
59
Pass
6
All Pass
(1) 16+ points, artificial
(2) 4+ hearts, 8+ points
(3) 5+ clubs
(4) 6+ hearts
(5) 2-3 hearts, extras
(6) club control, denies spade control
(7) have spade control and a diamond control
(8) RKC for hearts
(9) 3 keycards

What do you think of the bidding?  Partner has taken an extremely rosy view of his cards twice -- once with his 3H bid and the second time by cue-bidding diamonds after knowing we are off the king of spades.

The bad guys lead the King of Spades (of course) and now, can you justify partner's confidence?  What would be your plan?

At the table, I decided that if the heart finesse worked and clubs were not 4-0, the slam would make.  So, I took the Ace of spades, King of hearts and hooked the jack of hearts. Alas, it was not to be. South took his queen of hearts and the queen of spades. Down 1.

As my Jack of hearts hit the table, I realized that I had messed up.  There is a better line. Let's assume clubs are not 4-0.  Then, the heart finesse is a 50% chance.  A better line is to play two rounds of hearts.  Maybe South started with a doubleton queen and it drops. Then, I can pull trumps and discard my spade and diamond losers on dummy's clubs.  Alternately, perhaps the queen doesn't drop.  As long as the person with the third heart also has 2 or more clubs, I can still throw away my losing spade.  The combined chances for a doubleton queen of hearts, 2-2 clubs, or 3-1 clubs with the person with the queen of hearts also having the third club are together more than 50%. Surely.

Looking at the hand records after the game, we found that no one had bid the slam. So, by not taking all my chances, I had exchanged a clear top for a clear bottom.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Sevens and sixes are crucial

In a strong club game, no one vulnerable, I pick up:
E
Me
7
QJ106
108
AJ8543
North is dealer and he opens. The auction goes:
W
West
N
North
E
Me
S
South
1
11
1
2
4
All Pass
(1) wise move?

Was that four-card overcall wise?  Did I really want a heart lead from partner?

Partner leads the Ace of hearts (promising the king):
N
North
K1095
874
A5
KQ102
.
Lead: A
E
Me
7
QJ106
108
AJ8543

I encourage with the 6 of hearts, but partner probably has 4 hearts and thinks declarer is void. He switches smartly to a club.  Declarer plays the King and I take the Ace.  Now what?

I cash the queen of hearts. Declarer follows.  Now what?

It's too late now. Too happy to be able to cash a second  heart, I had failed to notice the club that partner had led and the club that declarer had played.  If partner has the singleton club, I need to get our side a club ruff. If partner has the doubleton, a club return gives declarer a potential diamond discard. I erred on the side of passivity and led another heart.

This was the complete hand.  Partner had led the 7 of clubs.  Sadly, I don't know if declarer false carded with the 9 or if he woodenly played the 6 (as I probably would have).
.
Vul: None
Dlr: North
N
North
K1095
874
A5
KQ102
.
W
West
82
AK32
Q76432
7
Lead: A
E
Me
7
QJ106
108
AJ8543
.
S
South
AQJ643
95
KJ9
96
.
Sevens and sixes are important in this game!