Well, Canada played Cayne tonight. The good news is that the halftime score was 23-22 Cayne. 21 of 22 of Canada's points came from game vs slam swings where Cayne was in makeable slams going down.
The first one,
bigmama (I heard him referred to as a friend of Alfredo Versace) took the wrong line in 6 Diamonds and Wally ruffed a side suit led by declarer to score the setting trick.
http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=6528310&when_played=1189035027The second one, Charlie Weed (Cayne's playing non-playing captain) took a great line but made one tiny slip and Jeff defended impeccably to make him pay.
http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=6528319&when_played=1189035027I really thought the 2nd board would be the start of something special, giving Canada a 22-13 lead after 6 boards. Instead, it was the high-water mark and the 2nd last swing (and last double digit swing) in Canada's favor.
The second half was a nightmare rivalling the 66-0 7 board sequence against Poland. When the dust settled, Cayne had won the 2nd half (14 boards) 87-8 and the match 110-30 (or a double blitz, in Ottawa IMP League terms.)
I thought about going through each hand, but sometimes it's best to just put a match like this behind you. If you want to look at the hands,
this link should work for a few weeks:
Here are the 2nd best and 2nd worst results from yesterday's set against Izzy and Pamela.
First the bad:
First board out of the box (surprise, surprise) and I picked up in first:
985 / 98 / KQ95 / KQ74
at unfavorable.
How could it be unfavorable? Because Jeff and Izzy had just finished a half set against another pair and this was actually Board 15, not Board 1.
I passed and Pamela opened a 10-12 NT on my left (I guess if I wasn't gonna do it, she would.) Jeff passed and Izzy bid 2 Hearts, to play.
Clear pass? Clear double? Close call?
Double's pretty risky, but I've never been a big believer in the whole IMPS=caution thing. Double partscore swings add up to a lot of IMPs in a hurry and it's a lot harder for them to pull the trigger on you at IMPs (doubling you into game) than it is at matchpoints (protecting the plus and going for 200.)
I think this is a consensus pass, but double gets a few votes and isn't completely nuts. If it matters, Izzy bid 2 Hearts in tempo. I whipped.
Pamela passed, Jeff bid 2 Spades and now I get to sweat Izzy's next call. She dropped a green card on the table and Pamela soon followed suit. We had arrived.
But where were we? A town I've seldom visited: Minimoyseville.
985 / 98 / KQ95 / KQ74
AT4 / AJ2 / J874 / T83
Mini-moyses are notoriously hard to play and hard to defend. The numbers displayed by Deep Finesse fluctuated from 3 to 2 to 1 and back to 2, but the color never changed: Red (going down, the numbers represent undertricks assuming double dummy declarer play and defense.)
Down 1 would have been okay, but the guy who gets us into a silly contract (me) still gets most of the blame over the guy who could have saved the day with flawless declarer play (Jeff.)
-200 was lose 4.7 IMPs
Izzy held
K76 / Q7643 / A63 / J9
Pamela held
QJ32 / KT5 / T2 / A652
Q732 / AK953 / 7 / K72
Jeff passed and Izzy opened 3 Clubs in 2nd
Do you bid or pass?
I've been a bidder with this hand as long as I've been playing bridge and if Jeff weren't a passed hand I'd probably come in here, but my 12 count and Jeff's pass don't really add up to game as far as I'm concerned. And he'll get us too high with too many hands. Besides, I have decent defense against 3 Clubs (a stiff, maybe give Jeff a Heart ruff, who knows?) I passed (in tempo, even!)
Jeff surprised me by balancing back in with a red card. Well, you know the rest of the story: Bull, red cape, horns, etc. We weren't stopping short of game now. I bid the normal 4 Clubs. He bid 4 Hearts. Fini.
Now we'll swing you over into Pamela's seat:
AK984 / Q / QJT52 / T9
To recap, pard opened 3 Clubs in 2nd, passed around to Lefty who doubled, Righty bid 4 Clubs, Lefty 4 Hearts, float. Your partner leads the Jack of Spades.
Q732 / AK953 / 7 / K72 Dummy (RHO)
AK984 / Q / QJT52 / T9
Declarer plays a small Spade from Dummy and you ... (encourage? discourage? overtake?)
...
Jeff is marked with 3 Spades here (for his balancing double, else he's insane) so your pard has a stiff Spade. If your partner has 7 Clubs (not 100% at these colors, but still at least 50%) you can see that Spade loser vanishing on the Club King. You should aim to score 2 Spades, a Spade ruff and the Ace of Clubs (with a remote chance that pard has the Ace of Diamonds rather than the Ace of Clubs.)
Pamela encouraged and that was that. Izzy did her best by playing Ace and a Club (hoping against hope that it was Pamela and not Jeff with the stiff Club) and Jeff ended up losing only 2 Spades and a Club.
Q732 / AK953 / 7 / K72
T65 / JT762 / AK98 / Q
+620 was worth 10 and change
http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=6299218&when_played=1186410446
