Writing this Monday (1st.)
Bermuda Bowl is, of course, underway. Nic and Kamel have struggled so far. They've yet to bring back an above-average card (as measured by Butler rankings) and only Jeff and JZ's huge card against Ireland in match 6 let Canada salvage a small win.
Jeff, JZ, Wally and Piotr have all brought back reasonably respectable results, except against USA1 (Jacobs), where both pairs brought back very lousy cards. Of course, playing against Zia and Rosenberg, not every set will shine.
It's funny, Jeff and I have quoted one of Zia's sayings for years. 'Zia says, when holding 4 trumps, consider a double.' We say it (always jokingly) when we made a thin double that worked or if someone missed a double, or to justify a double that didn't work, or whatever. Last night Jeff had 5 Hearts to the QT and whipped Zia in 4 Hearts. Zia promptly wrapped up +790. I wonder if Jeff made that remark to JZ at the end of the hand.
Staying up until 4 AM kibitzing makes it tough to blog the results. The schedule couldn't be worse from a North American perspective (in that all matches take place between about 10 PM and 6:30 AM here.) Here's my board-by-board analysis of the match versus USA1.
Board 1
Wally made a hyperaggressive but reasonable 4 Diamond bid with 7-4 in the minors opposite a passed hand. He got doubled and was headed for down 2 on any lead but a trump (dummy was void and he had KT9 7th.) Luckily, a trump was led from Axx.
Zia made a 3 Diamond call. Jeff and JZ bid a reasonable 4 Hearts on 25 High with a 4-4 fit. Unfortunately, 5-0 Hearts meant 4 Hearts had no play.
I'd call this one mostly bad luck.
Lose 6
Board 2
Both pairs got to 4 Hearts on a reasonably uninformative auction.
On lead with
74 / JT / A7652 / AJ82
JZ led the 7 of Spades. Garner led the J of Hearts.
The winner was the Ace of Diamonds (pard is stiff.)
I'd call this pretty normal.
Push
Board 3
Both tables in 4 Spades whipped.
Wally and Piotr went the 'switch to trumps to cut ruffs in dummy' route. Looks normal and most players would have done the same. Down 1.
Zia and Michael went the 'try to tap out Declarer' route.
Jeff faced a complicated end position and had to decide which card to ruff with from 9642, knowing that Michael was void in the suit led and held a singleton trump (either the J, 7 or 5). It turns out that it's always down 2 if Michael has the 7 or the 5 (no matter what Jeff does) so Jeff had to play for the singleton J (even though he had a pretty strong inference from the auction that Zia had that card.)
I'd give Jeff a quarter charge here. It's a very complicated position with a bogus inference from the auction thrown in and our guys didn't put their declarer to the same test.
Lose 5
Board 4
Pretty normal push in 1NT making 2.
Board 5
Wally had an 'ugly' moment here and let 4 Hearts through on what should have been a pretty mundane defense. He declined to ruff in a situation where he had a full count and knew Declarer had 9 tricks (5 Hearts 2 Spades 1 Diamond 1 Club) and was a tempo away from setting up a 3rd Spade. Vugraph commentators made some interesting remarks. Full charge.
Lose 12
Board 6
Neither table fared well here.
JZ chose not to make a lead directing double of a 5 Club Blackwood response with KJT8x of Clubs. I think that's pretty gross, but he'd probably argue that he didn't want to help the opponents bid or declare the hand. Since his partner had already preempted 3 Hearts (he had 2 small Hearts) I don't think that argument carries much weight. Kit Woolsey: 'Here North didn't double 5 Clubs -- quite surprisingly'
Garner made the double at the other table and that talked Piotr out of bidding slam.
I'd give 3/4 of the blame to JZ and 1/4 to Piotr for this one.
Lose 13
Board 7
JZ had a 2-3-3-5 8 count and Jeff opened 1NT. Zia bid 2 Spades and Michael bid 3NT. JZ smashed it. Now Zia ran to 4 Spades and JZ smashed that. He found the best lead, a Diamond. Zia had no fast entry to his hand and had to set up a Club trick for a Diamond pitch. Zia didn't find the double-dummy line of leading a trump (knocking out JZ's only entry) and switched to a Heart. Jeff slipped and ducked and now Zia is cold if he guesses Clubs. Zia misguessed Clubs and the boys were +200.
Wally had no trouble on a Club lead.
JZ earned this one (and system made the whip possible.) (One of the commentators (Peter Friedland, a guy I used to play with a lot on the Zone back in the day) gave JZ a hard time for his doubles, but I concur with Kit Woolsey: 'Personally I think both doubles are fine -- you have at least 18 HCP, and opponents apparently don't have great fit. Why should they be making a game?') Jeff fumbled the ball but Zia completed the Grosvenor and it all worked out in the end.
Win 13
Board 8
Piotr made a normal looking lead against 3NT (4th best from longest, etc.) that cost a couple of uptricks. Rosenberg made a more passive lead.
Lose 2
Board 9
Jeff picked up
98 / T / AKQT8765 / K4
and heard JZ open 1NT in front of him.
..
Any time you see a long running minor it's normal to think 3NT, but does that 8th Diamond change the math here? With 7-only Diamonds I think 3NT is the right bid but here do you really want to rule out 5 Diamonds?
My favorite Woolsey quote of the night:
'frankly, anybody who had decent methods wouldn't bid 3NT'
I think that's a little harsh, but when you make a questionable call you've got to be accountable when it doesn't work out. Half charge for Jeff (the other half to bad luck when JZ had no card higher than a Jack outside of the Spade suit.)
At the other table they opened 5 Diamonds in 3rd with Jeff's hand and Wally made another very aggressive call, doubling with Q632 / A9852 / J / AQ9. -550
Lose 12
Board 10
Jeff/Weinstein picked up in 2nd all red:
AT5 / KQJ9654 / 62 / Q
Jeff bid 2 Hearts (intermediate) and sold out when Rosenberg balanced back in with 2 Spades, scoring +100.
His extreme conservatism was rewarded when JZ turned up with a Heart void and they got to 4 Hearts whipped at the other table, going for 5 bills.
Win 12
Board 11
Both tables had strange-looking sequences but Wally/Piotr's 3 Spade contract was decidedly superior to Zia/Rosenberg's 5 Clubs Doubled contract. +140 and +100
Win 6
Board 12
This was the 'With 4 (or in this case, 5) trumps, (don't) consider a double' hand. Jeff gets a half charge (some might give him a full charge, but the double could have easily won 5 IMPs on a different layout.) -590 and -50
Lose 12
Board 13
J42 / AKJT73 / A52 / 7 opposite QT53 / Q8 / Q987 / A53
Jeff and JZ stayed low with another intermediate 2. Garner/Weinstein bid the red game.
After a Club lead, Garner won, drew 3 rounds of trumps and played the Jack of Spades. Wally won his K from K9 and fired back the 9. Piotr had to duck his Ace to keep Garner from scoring 2 Spades, 6 Hearts and one in each minor. He didn't. 12 other pairs found the right defense. 2 other pairs didn't. -620 and +140
Lose 10
Board 14
Jeff and JZ bid a filthy 3NT with
T4 / AQT643 / J8 / AQ5
opposite
AK86 / 7 / T9765 / K93
Hearts were KJx in the pocket and Diamonds blocked so 3NT wrapped with an uptrick. They were in a more sensible 2 Hearts at the other table. +430 and -140
Win 7
Board 15
Another intermediate 2 by Jeff and this time JZ bumped him with a 4X3 6 count in Clubs. At unfavorable that doesn't make any sense to me. Rosenberg whipped and Zia sat and -200.
At the other table they opened a weak 2 Hearts with Jeff's hand. Piotr whipped and Wally sat and -670.
Double dummy defense does hold Declarer to 7 tricks, but it's impossible to find.
Lose 13
Board 16
Zia/Rosenberg bought it for 4 Diamonds down 2. Garner/Weinstein bought it for 2 Spades making. +100 and -110
Push
Aside from Wally's brainfart on board 5, nobody did anything truly horrible. But when your guys are getting almost all the judgment calls wrong and their guys are getting almost all of them all right, you end up down 47.
