The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It was a Very Good Year

2008-04-20T16:12:47Z

Blog's one-year anniversary today. Time flies.

Hope to be posting more frequently. CNTC is coming up and I hope to be watching/reporting on a lot of that. Plus, LOTRO is losing its lustre (getting old and the developers have nerfed my character class, so that's spoiled a lot of the fun) and I'd like to get some hands in before Las Vegas.

On politics, I'm dumbfounded that these 3 clowns are the best we could come up with for 'leader of the free world.' I'm not looking forward to President McCain, President Obama, or President H. Clinton. None of them are qualified. In a nutshell, McCain is too old, Obama is too green (if he weren't a black man he wouldn't even get a second look) and Hillary is too divisive (though mostly through no fault of her own.) You'd think that the American people would have learned that picking a president is important after 8 years of criminal incompetence, corruption, war crimes, torture, church/state integration and mismanagement under GWB.

Even Keith Olbermann has managed to lose me as a viewer. His blatant pro-Obama anti-Clinton bias is really off-putting.

It's funny, when I started working out one of my goals was to get back to my early 20's weight (170 lbs.) I couldn't get below 175 lbs and then when I quit working out for a couple of months and went back to weigh in, presto! 169 lbs 15 oz (yeah, I know, probably lost mostly muscle, but I'm back working out again.)

Rock City

2008-03-20T15:41:34Z

It's the 19th so time for another update.

Happy birthday (slightly belated) to my wonderful sister. The first of many 39th birthdays to come.

Sorry to see that none of my friends or 'bridge friends' had a particularly spectacular Detroit. I'm looking forward to Las Vegas.

Reading the Lone Wolff (my friend Joanie bought me an autographed copy.) Interesting to read about Bobby's Texas days (we both went to UT,) and his references to Jonathan Steinberg, George Retek, and trying to prevent Ottawa from getting its annual regional. Fie on you Bobby Wolff! It seems like he names names if he dislikes someone and doesn't name names if he likes someone (for instance, he refers to a convicted bridge cheater but refuses to disclose who that is because that person has since reformed) and ~~so far he hasn't mentioned in any detail the main thing I was interested in hearing about (his removal from the Nickell team.)~~ (Never mind, I just hadn't gotten to the Hamman/Wolff chapter.) But still, overall a good read.

LOTRO still has me hooked. Now I'm playing on the 'dark side' as a rank 6 Uruk Warleader against the players. PvP as it's called (on LOTRO they call it PvMP,) is much more stimulating and interesting than PvE.

Was amused to see a thread get deleted on Stacy's blog. There've been a few heated conversations on there (during the Shanghai Venice Cup thing for one) and she lets people express themselves pretty openly. What got the thread deleted? Obscenity/vulgarity? Spam? Harassment? Gee Jon, you only make 1 post a month, shouldn't you make it a decent one? Yeah, my bad, sorry. I couldn't find this post when I went looking for it again and thought it had been deleted. Anyway, the article below is a good one if you're looking for a pet so I'll keep the link up.

...

http://www.arkonline.com/birkin2.html

Here's a very funny video:

Killer Bees

2008-02-19T12:16:32Z

Went to Houston on Sunday to play in a 12-team GNT-B qualifier with Buddy. We were on a 5-bagger with Mikey (my partner at the San Antonio Sectional a few months ago) and Jennifer and Jimmy Breihan.

This was my first trip to Houston, in spite of living in Austin for the last 6 years and change. The club there is really nice, but at $8/session instead of $6/session at the Austin club, I'd rather play here.

We got off to a rocky start when we lost the first match because an opponent revoked. Our teammates didn't catch it until assignments for match 2 had already been made and their opponents pleaded ignorance so the original result stood.

This was the first hand out of the box for Buddy and I. A really bad auction.

A / ATxx / KQx / Txxxx

KTxx / J / AJxx / AKJx

Our uncontested auction, starting with the hand on the bottom:

1D - 1H
1S - 2C
3C - 3D
3N - P

I'm not sure what the best sequence is but I know our sequence isn't it. 6 Clubs is almost laydown. I had the 4X1 hand and really don't like my 3N bid, I should probably bid Keycard and shoot 6 Diamonds. Clubs were 4-0 offside so 6 Diamonds was beatable. I think the board was a push.

We lost the 3rd match as well when our teammates played in 4 Spades in a 5-0 fit. At the break we were 2-2, slightly above average.

Buddy and I were each scheduled to sit out once and so Mikey and I played together in match 5. Here's a hand from that match:

Axxx / xxxx / Qxxx / x

LHO opens 1 Club and partner bids 1NT. You're red. Do you bid at IMPs?

This is one of those 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' decisions. 1NT is an almost-sure plus. If you trot out Stayman and partner bids 2 Diamonds, you're headed for a probable minus. Is the parlay of partner having a 4 card major and accepting your invitation and making the game enough to risk bidding? I passed. 4 Spades makes.

We won the 5th match and were in 3rd place, not far out of 2nd, but a full match out of 1st.

I took my sitout in match 6 and tried to take a little nap in the car. That turned out to be the key match of the day. We played against the 1st place team and only left 1 or 2 VP's on the table. All of a sudden we were back in contention. If we won our last 2 matches decisively, we were overwhelming favorites to win.

Match 7 was a disaster for Buddy and I.

Red vs White

AJTxx / QTx / Jxx / AJ

RHO opens 2 Spades and of course I passed smoothly. Buddy went into the tank forever and finally emerged with a red card. What a good partner! Would it be 800 or 1100? Just when we needed a good board! LHO had other ideas, though, and pulled to 3 Clubs. This was passed around to me. Now what?

It seems to me your only logical alternatives here are double and 3NT. Partner is a heavy favorite to have at least 3 Clubs here, so if they're in an 8 card fit whipping 3 Clubs seems reasonable and a more likely plus than 3N, which might only have 1 Club stopper.

Anyway, I whipped, -470. Ouch.

Buddy had something like

Kx / Jxxxx / KQx / Qxx

Later in the same match, all red:

Qxxxxx / Axxxx / x / x

I passed in 1st and LHO opened 1 Diamond. Buddy overcalled 1 Spade! RHO bid 2 Clubs.

4 Spades seems normal, but will almost certainly elicit a 5 Club or 5 Diamond bid from one opponent or the other and then I'm stuck with an uncomfortable 5/5 decision. I decided to operate and trotted out 3NT. LHO now bid 4 Hearts! and RHO asked Buddy about my 3NT bid. 'I guess he wants to play 3NT.' RHO bid 6 Diamonds. Do you now take the dive?

I felt I had too much defense and passed. Buddy might have a stiff Heart or Kx or by some miracle a Spade might cash.

Nope. -1370. Yuck. 6 Spades isn't a fantastic spot, I'm pretty sure it goes for sticks and wheels, but that's still 6 IMPs or so I left on the table.

A couple of boards later, the last board of the match:

AKQxxxx / Jx / Jx / Kx

2 passes to me. Normally I'd auto-bid 4 Spades, but how could we not be losing this match at this point? Maybe 3N makes and 4 Spades goes down. I opened 3NT. Float.

A diamond was led and the nightmare dummy came down.

Tx / Txx / KQx / AJxxx

Wonderful. 4 Spades is a brick and 3NT is hopeless. Buddy and I decided later that he should know I'm coming in a major and with such a good hand, he should definitely not leave me in 3NT but that wasn't on my radar as I played it.

I called for the King of Diamonds, knowing it would lose to the Ace and a Heart would come back.

When it held, I did an inner happy-dance and claimed. Still, that -470 and that -1370 in a 6-board match made the situation look pretty bleak.

We lost 7 or 8 IMPs on -470, picked up 1 IMP on the Diamond slam hand (+1390) and picked up those same 7 or 8 IMPs on a partscore swing. We had won by 1. (Not only that, but we were later to discover that we had moved into 1st place in the event.) I need a few more bad matches like that.

In the last match I picked up:

x / AJ9876 / Kxx / AQJ

I opened 1 Heart, Buddy bid 1 Spade, and I made the slight overbid of 3 Hearts. Buddy trotted out keycard and I showed my 2 without. Now he went into the tank and I knew that we were missing a keycard and the queen.

On a previous board in that match against 3NT on the uncontested auction 1H - 1S - 2H - 3N I had to choose a lead from something like:

KJT9 / xx / xxx / Axxx

Dummy had stiff A of Spades and only a Spade lead beats it but I led a (normal?) Club.

Given that result, I expected Buddy to eventually bid 6 Hearts on this hand and he did.

A Diamond was led to the Ace and a Diamond came back, not ruffed.

AKxxx / Kxx / QTx / Kx

x / AJ9876 / Kxx / AQJ

This hand was probably the match as I didn't expect our opponents to get there. Today was my lucky day and the Heart Queen was singleton, so I claimed quickly.

We only left 1 VP on the table that match (we went +500 defending a freely bid game on another board with no double) and with our 4 VP lead going into that match we had clinched the event. We had a lot more driving to do, so we bid our adieux and hit the road back to Austin.

Beer Night

2008-01-19T21:37:53Z

Last night's set with Peter was decent with the exception of one board. But the bad board was a doozy. Here it is:

All red, 3rd, IMP pairs.

Q54 / QJ97 / J732 / 74

Peter opened 1 Club and raised my 1 Heart response to 3. Even Red at IMPs I didn't have anything to thing about. We'd arrived.

Lefty led the 2 of Spades.

J / T652 / AQT / AKJ95

Q54 / QJ97 / J732 / 74

RHO won the King and fired back a trump. LHO won the Ace and switched to a low Club.

- / T65 / AQT / AKJ95

Q4 / QJ9 / J732 / 74

I played the Ace King of Clubs and LHO produced the Queen on the 2nd round.

At this point, there's almost no way to go down on the hand, but I managed to defy the oddsmakers.

I played a trump to the Queen and King and LHO exited with the Ace of Spades, which I ruffed in Dummy.

- / T / AQT / J95

Q / J9 / J732 / -

Now it's a simple matter of ruffing a Club (making the Clubs good,) drawing the last trump and running the Jack of Diamonds for an uptrick. Unfortunately the magical combination of beer night (Friday is beer night in the Ferguson household) Lotro fatigue and possession of the beer card conspired to rob me of my mental faculties and I failed to appreciate that the Queen of Spades was good.

I cashed the Ten of Hearts, cashed the Jack of Clubs, discarding my spade 'loser' and here I stood:

- / - / AQT / 95

- / J / J732 / -

I still make 4 if I infer from the early failures to switch to a Diamond that LHO must have the Diamond King. But I didn't butcher the hand so completely earlier so I could get it right at this point. Instead of ruffing a Club and running the Diamond Jack, I played Diamonds from the top and lost the last trick when my beer card fell to LHO's 9 (from an original holding of K9xx.)

-50 was lose 6 and a section 4th. +170 would have been win a half and a section 2nd.

jonottawa: sorry
reeve: my blog>>>
jonottawa: done

http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/hands.php?traveller=1471-1200718795-2792581&username=jonottawa

Level 50

2008-01-18T23:39:08Z

I expected LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) to be a lot of fun, but I grossly underestimated just how addictive it would be for me. I've actually had dreams about the game, which is a first for me. Anyway, I've finally got my character up to the top level, level 50, and so I plan to get back to posting regularly here and playing some cards.

I have played some bridge in the last month. Buddy called me a couple of Saturdays ago and asked me to play in the Sectional pairs event that evening. We both could have played a little better but we still played well enough to win by a little over a board.

We played in the Sunday Swiss and I actually played much more consistently than I had the previous night, but our teammates were less than stellar and we finished nowhere (2nd in X being nowhere in my books.)

I've got a quick tourney lined up with Peter tonight so hopefully a couple of decent hands will appear and I'll post them tomorrow.

Scrooged

2007-12-19T17:10:06Z

Buddy and I shot 56% in the Christmas Party game. Not good enough for anything. We had our chances, but for a Xmas Party game we didn't get many gifts.

I might blog a few more hands from that night, but here's the one that really set the tone:

Playing against a C pair, none vul, in 4th:

Q43 / AT63 / K / AQT85

Buddy opened 1 Diamond. I don't feel strongly about bidding 1 Heart or 2 Clubs here at matchpoints. 2 Clubs seems more of an IMPs bid, but maybe I'm delusional. Anyway, I bid 2 Clubs.

Buddy rebid 2 Diamonds. Now I bid 2 Hearts. Buddy bid 3 Clubs and I had a problem.

3 Spades is probably the right bid here, but rather than agonize forever I decided to risk 3NT. I figured the quicker I bid it the more it sounds like a halfway decent Spade stopper. I have extras and 3NT should make if they don't cash 5 Spades tricks on the go. If Buddy has Kx of Spades I'm wrongsiding it, but that's a pretty specific holding.

Lefty led the Jack of Spades (sigh) and Dummy tracked:

62 / KQ2 / AQT54 / J93

A typical Buddy opener.

RHO won the Ace of Spades and returned the 5. You're up.

As a problem, with the setup I gave you, you might get this right. At the table I never would. I popped Queen and LHO won the K and fired back his last Spade. RHO cashed her remaining Spades and I was one in the glue. -50 was worth 3 matchpoints on a 17 top.

I complimented the guy on his lead and wished the opps luck. Bah humbug.

He had:

KJ7 / 9874 / J2 / K642

So with both red Jacks dropping doubleton you have 9 top tricks all day. If I had responded 1 Heart instead of 2 Clubs or (less likely) if I had bid 3 Spades instead of 3NT we might have gotten to 4 Hearts, which is the par spot (though might also go down single dummy.)

MMORPGed

2007-12-13T22:44:54Z

... In case you were wondering, I haven't died. This blog is far from dead (at least as far as new content is concerned.) I've been busy ... well, not in a constructive way, but I've finally succumbed to the temptation to try out one of the massively multiplayer online role-playing games we've all heard so much about.

I tried EverQuest last week and it was okay. I found the combat system pretty boring. Now I'm playing Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and it's better. The most popular one is WoW (World of Warcraft) but I'll probably stick with LOTRO, I've never been one to follow the beaten path.

I'm playing tomorrow night with Buddy in the BCA (Bridge Center of Austin) Christmas party game (space permitting, I've heard they might be booked) and I'll blog a hand from that.

Goodbye Golden Gate

2007-12-03T02:02:47Z

Well, San Francisco's over and so is college football. A few thoughts about each.

First, San Francisco:

Glad to see Canadians Dan Korbel and Jonathan Steinberg string together a few impressive performances. The brass ring tantalized, but ultimately eluded them, but they still managed a very respectable 16th place in the Blue Ribbon pairs and a top 10 finish in the National Open Swiss event. (They jumped from 20th to 9th on Sunday. I was looking to see if anyone else finished in the top 10 who started from further back in the pack and lo and behold Austinites Mildred Breed, Tobi and David Sokolow came roaring back from 40th (last qualifier) to pip them for 8th place. Fred Gitelman's squad (Lynch) also managed a decent salvage effort, rising from 37th to take 10th spot.)

I was really happy to see Cayne win the Reisinger. Those guys practice so much and make themselves so accessible, I think a win was long overdue. Congratulations to Jimmy Cayne, Michael Seamon, Alfredo Versace, Lorenzo Lauria, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes and Charlie Weed (team manager).

I was disappointed that they only had final round coverage and only of 1 table of the Reisinger on BBO. The ACBL is really squandering a great opportunity by not taking Vugraph more seriously. BBO shows Vugraph (often of pretty rinky-dink events) from Turkey, from China, from Australia, from Scandinavia, from Indonesia, from South America, from Canada, from you name it, but the ACBL can't be bothered to take the broadcast of its premier events seriously. It's pretty disgraceful.

On the other hand, watching the final round coverage was pretty excruciating at times. It's clear that most of these guys play too much IMPs and not enough BAM. Hand after hand of mistake after mistake (a few tough decisions, but mostly bad bridge) got pretty painful to watch. It felt like I was watching a CNTC qualifier rather than a Reisinger finals. My favorite instance of this was on Board 8 when a guy had AQ of trumps and a Diamond loser in one hand and stiff J of trumps and two Club losers in dummy (actually not exactly, but equivalent) and knew the Kx of trumps was behind the Ace and managed to lose 2 tricks. The commentary left a lot to be desired, too. (Sorry, I can't get the link to the Board to work, the file is on BBO here where it says 2007 Reisinger Segment Final 2 of 2.)

On to college football:

I can't remember a season with more upsets. That may sound exciting, but what it means is that at the end of the year nobody's really worthy of playing for a national championship.

All 3 of my favorite teams ended the 'regular season' with a whimper. I got stuck with a rare loserfecta, if you will.

Tennessee lost the SEC Championship Game to LSU 21-14 when quarterback Erik Ainge imploded in the 4th quarter. The guy reminds me of former Longhorn Chris Simms, who never met an interception he didn't like.

Texas lost to Texas A&M 38-30 when our offense didn't show up. They needed to put a couple of drives together to at least give our defense a chance to rest for a few minutes and it never happened. A team that played so bad this year that their coach quit after the game dominated the time of possession and held the ball for over 40 minutes against the Longhorns. Ridiculous. Quarterback Colt McCoy played better last year as a freshman.

Oregon lost to the Beavers of Oregon State in overtime. I transferred to Oregon because Animal House was filmed there. Well, actually I was young and in love at the time, but I agreed to go because Animal House was filmed there. At the time their football program was pretty much a joke, but the year after I left they went to the Rose Bowl for the first time in forever. I think the Ducks were ranked as high as 2nd this year, with a realistic shot at a return to the Rose Bowl but this loss dropped them out of the rankings.

The Trouble with Asshats

2007-12-01T10:34:49Z

I was reading today's Daily Bulletin from the Nationals and stumbled across an article by Mike Flader that really ticked me off. Every ten years or so it seems like the ACBL tries to outlaw psychs. I remember a letter to the editor on the subject I sent in that got published back when Henry Francis was the editor of the Bulletin. They're at it again.

The article is entitled 'The Trouble with Psychs' on page 14. In it, Mike Flader describes people who psych as 'perpetrators' and 'offenders.' He describes those who receive bad boards because of their inability to deal with a psych as 'victims.' He describes psyching against weak players as 'unsportsmanlike.' He proposes a psychic offender registration system whereby those who psych must notify the directors in their area when they do so and agree not to live within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop (okay, I made the very last part up.)

Now some of you might be thinking 'I didn't know Jonathan liked to psych.' I don't. That's not the point. If I psych an opening bid or initial action twice a year it's been a busy year. But psyching is a time-honored part of our game. When I played with Jeff regularly he used to psych frequently. It drove me nuts. (If Flader had described the partner of the psycher as a 'victim' he would have been much closer to the mark.) But if he hadn't managed to expose his own psych, I'd hang him, take the bad result, and make it up on another hand with my stellar declarer play.

As to the argument that psyching is unsportsmanlike I'd call that utter hogwash. Okay, if you bring me a hand where you psyched against a novice and it worked and you were bragging about it, I might bring you back down to earth. But if you followed the rules and won, nobody has any business implying that your win was somehow tainted.

If you consider psyching against novices unsportsmanlike, are these unsportsmanlike too?

Deciding that a novice/intermediate is unlikely to have made a 'mandatory falsecard' and playing a suit accordingly.

Preempting aggressively against novices, knowing that you're less likely to go for a digit.

Playing out a hand against a novice that relies on a 'pseudo-squeeze' or even a complete mental meltdown on defense instead of making a claim assuming perfect defense.

Executing a squeeze against a novice.

Taking a finesse against a novice.

Leading an honor to try to elicit a cover against a novice in a situation where no experienced player would ever cover.

Bidding your hand correctly and arriving at a normal slam contract against a novice that you suspect they would have been unlikely to bid.

Double Edged Spade

2007-11-28T01:21:53Z

Had a pretty ugly set with Jeff tonight. Usually when we do badly it's because of a couple of bad misdefenses or a misguess or occasionally a clearcut butchery but tonight it was all bidding.

First board out of the box I picked up all white

QT98542 / T5 / 4 / 875

Jeff opened 1 Diamond. Righty whipped.

Now I get to play my favorite game. The good old 'I wonder if this is a fit bid situation' game.

Surely over a double by an unpassed hand Jeff will take this as a good old weak jump shift, no?

I trotted out 2 Spades.

Lefty bid 2NT (okay, if Jeff's unsure maybe he can figure it out from the opponents' bidding) and Jeff bid 3 Diamonds.

Well, I hope he has them, because I don't.

Now Righty bid 4 Hearts.

Off the hook again. I hope 4 Spades isn't a good dive, but if I thought it was I should have bid 3 Spades already. I passed.

Now Jeff bid 5 Diamonds. Wonderful.

That got whipped by Righty. Float.

The good news is that we had no Spade losers, 1 Heart loser and 2 Club losers. And Righty only had Qx of Diamonds for his whip.

The bad news is that Lefty had AKJx of Diamonds. Jeff had

A / J / T98753 / A9632

-1400 was lose 13 and change

http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=1537451&when_played=1195675346

So 5 boards later I picked up at unfavorable

AJ7632 / Q72 / J532 / -

Jeff passed. Righty opened 1 Diamond.

I'd already gotten burned once today with a 2 Spade bid at an inopportune moment. Should I go for best 2 out of 3? Maybe Jeff will take this one as an intermediate 2?

Sure enough, I was in there with 2 Spades. My suit quality is horrible. The colors are wrong. But I'm 6-4 and pard is a passed hand. This is somewhere between normal aggressive and nuts. I tend to think it's closer to the former, but your mileage may vary.

Lefty made a negative double. Float.

Uh oh.

Lefty led the Club Ace. Surprisingly I bought extremely well.

K4 / AJ85 / 4 / J97652

AJ7632 / Q72 / J532 / -

A lot of folks would have bumped it up a notch with Jeff's hand. I'm glad he didn't hang me.

It looks like Righty has QTxx of Spades or something. I'm glad I avoided a trump lead here.

I ruffed the opening lead and played a Diamond. Yes, this is pretty transparent, but the Heart hook just MIGHT be on here and I don't want to give up on that too early.

Righty let Lefty win the Diamond and Lefty belatedly switched to a trump.

K4 / AJ85 / - / J9765

AJ763 / Q72 / J32 / -

It's tempting to take the 'free finesse' and ride this around to my AJ, but why waste the J and ruff my Diamond loser with the K when I can win this trick with the K and ruff my Diamond loser with the 4?

I won in Dummy, ruffed a club, and ruffed a Diamond.

- / AJ85 / - / J976

AJ7 / Q72 / J3 / -

Now I ruffed another Club, (LHO following with the Queen) and got a little greedier than I probably should have. I played a Heart to the Jack, losing to the King (RHO almost had to have that card once LHO shows up with the AKQ of Clubs.)

Righty now cashed a couple of Diamonds, Lefty following, and as expected (but to my relief nonetheless) exited with a Heart.

I won that trick with my Heart Queen and led a Heart to Dummy's Ace. Righty ruffed that and led the Spade Ten. I stuck in the Jack and was home. I ended up scoring 7 Spade tricks with AJ7632 opposite K4 and the suit breaking 4-1. +670 didn't quite get all the IMPs from board 1 back, but it was still an even 13 to the good.

http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=1549479&when_played=1195675346

Watership Down

2007-11-21T15:38:17Z

Been an interesting last few days. Glad to see the USA1 Venice Cup controversy resolved. I sponsored a petition on the subject and whether or not it made any difference, things played out as suggested in the petition. Enjoyed the discussion on BBO Forums about my letter to the Editor about BIT-UI by novices.

Even had a chance to read Watership Down over the weekend. I vaguely remembered the film from my childhood and wanted to see if it had the same kind of impact on me as an adult. Good read.

Unfortunately, I haven't been playing much bridge since San Antonio and the bridge I have played hasn't been very good. Now that the firestorm on BBO forums has subsided, I plan to change that.

One interesting habit that people on the Forums seem to have is assigning motives/beliefs to other people that they haven't expressed. People there seem to particularly enjoy doing that to me. They assume that because I loathe the Cheney/Bush administration that I'm a partisan Democrat. Not true. I'm sure the following sentiments have been expressed more articulately by others, but I'll take a crack anyway.

What makes America great? Is it that this particular land mass has magical properties? Is it that our population is smarter or stronger or wiser or braver or better-looking than the population of other countries? Is it that we spend more on our military than the next 10 or 15 countries on the list put together? Is it that our God(s) are better than their God(s)?

Clearly, none of the above. What makes America great is the principles upon which it was founded and which, in theory, it continues to be guided, and the sacrifices made by those defending those principles. If America becomes a communist dictatorship, or a theocratic oligarchy, it will no longer be great.

The Cheney/Bush administration has done more to diminish America's greatness than any other administration in US history. That's why I vilify them. That's why I support the Democrats (the enemy of my enemy is my friend.) When the threat they pose is gone, my unwavering support for Democrats will go with it. But until it does, I will continue to worry a lot more about the lurking cobras than about the mongoose running around crapping on my carpet (here I'm referencing another favorite childhood film of mine, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.)

Bad Joke

2007-11-16T02:18:52Z

On BBO Forums a few men were complaining that Jill Levin had sued the ACBL to get men's events abolished but meanwhile, the ACBL continues to host women's events.

I support the idea of Junior Events, Senior Events, and Women's events. I used to support the idea of Men's events too, but except perhaps as a once-a-year tradition, I don't see any reason why we should prevent women players who want to play against the best from playing against the best. And the best men tend to be better at bridge, on average, than the best women.

At the end of a long day, I tried to poke fun at those guys by making a joke without thinking it all the way through. I posted it too quickly and subsequently deleted it. It's mildly vulgar, mildly sexist, not very funny and over the fold.

I was trying to tweak the men I was having the conversation with, but then subsequently realized that the joke also insults the participants in those events, which is certainly not what I intended. The joke was up less than 10 minutes, but it got a response, so I had to acknowledge it and now that I've deleted it, I figured I ought to post it somewhere rather than have people speculate about just how horrible it might have been.

For those of you who decry the existence of women's events, to be eligible to participate in them all you have to do is sign the following statement:

"I, insert your name here, solemnly swear that I am a pussy."

I will be happy to vouch for you.

Kantared

2007-11-16T02:28:07Z

Played a set with Jeff against Izzy and Linda on Tuesday. The girls played well but it looked like we were going to eke out a small win, up 13 and change with 3 boards to go. Unfortunately, the roof caved in and we lost 9+, 10+ and 7+ on the last 3 boards to lose by 13. Here are a couple of bad boards from this match.

The first board was interesting because I've never seen Eddie Kantar's advice to give count instead of covering with a couple of low spots at trick 1 in 3rd seat to steer me wrong. Here's the hand:

73 / Q53 / J864 / QT42

Izzy opened 2NT on my left. Float.

Jeff led the 2 of Spades (3/5). Izzy played the 6.

96 / K64 / T532 / 9875 Dummy (LHO)

73 / Q53 / J864 / QT42

It felt really wrong to play low (count, udca) but that's what Kantar says to do. Hope he's right.

The 6 held (Izzy played the 5) and now a Club to the Jack held (great, I gave her a cheap entry to take the Club finesse!) On the Ace of Clubs, Jeff discarded the 9 of Diamonds (discouraging.)

Izzy continued with the King of Clubs (Jeff shed the 4 of Spades) and played the AQ of Spades, Jeff winning the King. I had a pitch to make on the Queen of Spades:

- / K64 / T532 / - Dummy (RHO)

- / Q53 / J864 / Q

I had to keep the Club (Izzy still held a losing Club) so do I pitch a Diamond or a Heart?

Jeff had discouraged Diamonds so I felt like I should keep them and pitch Hearts. I played the 5.

Now Jeff led the 7 of Hearts to my Queen, which held, and I cashed my good Queen of Clubs, Jeff shedding a losing Spade and Izzy playing a Diamond from Dummy. What now?

- / K6 / T53 / - Dummy (RHO)

- / 3 / J864 / -

We only have 3 tricks in so need 3 of the last 5 tricks to beat this hand. Izzy's still got a good Spade in her hand.

I made a no-win play by playing a low Diamond. I thought Jeff had something like Kx left in Diamonds and wanted to take him off the endplay later. But even if he has that, when I play the Heart he can win the Ace and lock Izzy in Dummy to play a Diamond off for him. Besides, if he has Kx of Diamonds, Izzy can't be stopped from scoring the Ace of Diamonds, her good Spade, and the King of Hearts (unless we bamboozle her into ducking the King of Hearts somehow.) -120 was lose 3.33 IMPs

'I blame Eddie Kantar. He says not to cover there just to give count.'

'Did Eddie tell you to switch to a Diamond too?'

http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=2972074&when_played=1193934498

It was a rather poorly played hand all around. The double-dummy outcome flip-flopped back and forth at each of the following points:

1. Jeff failed to find the killing lead (either red suit.) Advantage Izzy

2. Izzy failed to fly with the 9 of Spades at trick 1 (so it's not all Eddie's fault.) Advantage les boys

3. I failed to cover the 6 of Spades with the 7. Advantage Izzy

4. Izzy played a 3rd round of Clubs instead of setting up tricks in other suits. Advantage les boys

5. I pitched a Heart instead of a Diamond at trick 6. Advantage Izzy

6. Izzy failed to fly King of Hearts when Jeff switched to a Heart. Advantage les boys

7. I switched to a Diamond instead of continuing Hearts. Game, Set and Match to Izzy

Usually when the outcome flip-flops back and forth like this it's because both the defenders and declarer each have a plan and in each case it's the wrong plan. Here, I think it was just mostly bad bridge.

The Tower of Babel

2007-11-13T02:30:36Z

Congratulations to JZ's dad, Ed, who clinched the Cohen trophy (awarded to whomever wins the most points at Unit 192 Sectionals in a calendar year) yesterday. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since I won my one and only Cohen ... time flies.

Had a pretty gruesome set with Buddy tonight. The IMP result wasn't so bad, but playing random BBO opps anything less than an IMP a board and you're either off, or they're luckier/better than most. It's like we were speaking totally different languages on most auctions. Reminds me of playing with Elwin Brown, another former partner of mine and fine Ottawa player whose play and defense were excellent (certainly more consistent than mine at the time) but who never seemed to manage to see eye-to-eye with me when it came to the bidding.

If I could take anything back, it would be this bid (I was masterminding a little and got burned.)

4th, unfavorable

QJT4 / Q / 54 / AQ7542

2 passes to RHO who bid 1 Heart. 2 Clubs seems normal aggressive.

LHO bid 2 Hearts. Passed back to me.

I'd bid aggressively on the first board with excellent results. I felt like passing this out would be awfully timid. Still, if pard couldn't move after he heard me overcall, maybe it's right.

I thought Buddy probably had 4 Spades. True, he didn't make a responsive double, but maybe he had some 4-4-3-2 or 4-4-4-1 hand with 7 high. Are you necessarily going to responsive double with that?

I worried that if I bid 2 Spades that Buddy would raise me to 3, just in case I had a hand. I figured if I doubled back in that Buddy would probably either bid 2 Spades or go back to 3 Clubs. True, he might bid 3 Diamonds with 3-4-5-1 shape and then I'd feel pretty stupid. What the hell ... I doubled.

Buddy had

A65 / T854 / K932 / T9

and floated it.

Alright, I take full blame. I made the first mistake and it was an egregious one. And he did have a problem. But pass? That's a pretty deep position. -670 was lose 9 and change.

On the next board I had an almost-pure guess for a Q and got it wrong.

A good board was then followed by getting to 4 Spades on:

J65 / Q532 / T / Q8765

Q743 / A / AQJ5 / AKJ9

Sigh. It didn't help that Spades were 5-1. -200 was lose 8 and change.

After 5 boards, I'd had as many really poor results as I'd had in 72 boards in San Antonio on Saturday. Hopefully things would settle down ...

They did for a little while and then

Q952 / A876 / AJ3 / Q8

Pard opens 1 Club. You bid 1 Heart. He bids 1 Spade. Your bid?

To me, this is the most straightforward 4 Spade bid there is. It shows a minimum opener, suggests no shortness and probably 4-4-3-2 or 4-4-2-3 shape.

Running through 4th suit forcing just confuses the issue, imo. That's what Buddy did and 1 Heart fragment and 4 cuebids later we decided to play in 4 Spades. No sense in giving the defense a roadmap or creating confusion about whether you're showing extras and asking for a cuebid sequence, or just have this crappy little hand.

This isn't an opening hand in 1st:

Q9754 / T32 / Q3 / AK9

...

4th seat favorable

T75 / K874 / K8 / AJ43

Pard opens 1 Club. You bid 1 Heart. He bids 1 Spade.

Playing Walsh style (in which case partner has shown a distributional hand and hence at least 4 Clubs) this is a 3 Club bid. But otherwise, this is an automatic 2NT bid. Protect the King of Diamonds. Show a balanced 11 count.

Buddy bid 2 Clubs. I had

AK83 / 953 / A94 / QT6

I should have floated it. I bid 2 Hearts. Buddy now bid 2 Spades! I passed. It's actually not such an awful spot, but the bridge gods punished us for our atrocious auction and another 5-1 break meant down 1.

If you're going to play Bergen, don't you Bergen with this when pard opens 1 Heart (even at unfavorable?)

752 / J652 / Q854 / J9

That one wasn't as clear cut for me since I fell out of love with Bergen raises a long time ago, and it is unfavorable, but when our suit is Hearts and I'm not 3-4-3-3, I make the systemic bid and hope the LAW protects me.

Finally:

652 / QJ / AJ963 / 832

Pard opens 1NT all red. Playing 4 suit transfers.

I floated it. I hate running through Stayman with no major, only to have partner pass 2NT or to give the defenders a roadmap. If I was white, I'd pass in a heartbeat. Red, it's awfully close to a coin toss.

Pard had A974 / AK7 / Q8 / QJ94

The opps led Spades (which they wouldn't have done otherwise) and Diamonds were KT opposite 7542.

Luckily, KT was offside, though. 8 tricks was the limit.

That's it. Hope this didn't get lost in translation. Comments/disagreement welcome.

Always the Bridesmaid ...

2007-11-12T21:09:11Z

I had a great day yesterday in San Antonio. I'll start with my one 'ugly' board of the day.

I picked up at unfavorable.

AKxxx / AKxxx / x / Kx

I opened 1 Spade. LHO bid 2NT. Pard passed. RHO bid 3 Diamonds. I bid 3 Hearts. LHO passed. Pard bid 4 Hearts. Righty bid 5 Diamonds.

1S - 2N - P - 3D
3H - P - 4H - 5D

We've freely bid a red game and the white opps sound like they're sacrificing. Is this a forcing pass situation or no? Is partner allowed to have xx / QJxx / xxx / Axxx, for instance, in which case you'd like to pass and pull.

I broke tempo and then passed. Yuck. Sick. Ugh. We defended 5 Diamonds undoubled. 5 Hearts was laydown.

Rolled into town Friday night and booked into the Pear Tree Inn on I-35, recommended by the tournament chair. Pleased to get a room as far from the highway as possible. In retrospect, maybe it would have been better to be close to the highway. That might have helped muffle the sound of the TRAINS. Doh! Drop $80 (at least it wasn't $80 CANADIAN) to ensure being well-rested and end up much less rested than I would have been if I had just gotten up at 7 and made the hour and a half drive straight from Austin.

Somehow managed to get lost on the way to the playing site. Google maps are nice, but driving directions with landmarks (2nd light, you'll see a Wendy's, turn right after the high school on your right, etc.) are much easier to follow (when I drove into St. Louis in March, we ended up in East St. Louis at midnight, which was an adventure of its own, because once you leave the safety of your directions, you're pretty much hosed.)

Got to the playing site 15 minutes late, at 8:45 (still with 15 minutes until game time.) The good news is we drew a less-than-stellar team. The bad news is that the event is handicapped. Doh!

Our team was Greg Hinze, Patty Lozano (Greg & Patty are married,) Mike Doyle and me. Mike and I filled out a card and away we went.

First half was brutal. Flat board after flat board. We compared and we not only hadn't chipped away at the 16 some odd IMP handicap, but it had grown to 30 with 12 boards to play. Pairs game anyone?

The 2nd half was a different story. Mike and I had huge plus positions on our first 4 boards and we held on to win by a dozen or so.

More bad luck when I was informed that we'd drawn the 2nd strongest team in the field (Lord it's hard to be humble) in the semi-finals.

2 hands from the semi-final:

xxxxx / Axx / Ax / AKx

I opened this one 1NT. Mikey bid 2 Diamonds. I bid 2 Hearts. He bid 4 Hearts. Playing Texas. Move or no? Rest of the story at the end.

KJ / x / AQTxx / AKQxx

Like a bad story in the Bridge World, LHO opens 1 Spade pass pass to you. Abstaining is not an option. Rest of the story at the end.

We survived these 2 hands (we didn't end up in the double-dummy optimal spot on either hand, but neither did our opponents) and were very solid otherwise and won the first half by 10 or so and the 2nd half by 1. We'd won the 'money' match (paying 6.75) and now all that remained was the 'glory' match (paying only another 2.25 to the winner.) On to the final!

Mikey and I had a very good first half, with a little help from our opps (opening 2NT bidder forgot they were playing puppet on one hand and ended up in 4NT down 1.) Our only blemish was a couple of uptricks I pitched (see next paragraph for details) and a somewhat overaggressive 1M response to 1m by Mikey with a 4 count that ended up -200 instead of -110 or -140.) We hoped that Greg and Patty had a few plus positions too and we could relax a little. Unfortunately, that was not the case and we were up only 2 at the half.

(In the 1st half, I pitched an uptrick on 2 separate boards. In one case, LHO opened 3 Diamonds in 1st seat and had already shown up with 10 HCP. I had to choose between taking a normal finesse for a King through LHO or playing for a horrific defensive lapse by Righty. I played for the horrific defensive lapse and LHO had the missing King. In the 2nd case, I was in game, was only 90% sure a spot card (for a 2nd uptrick) was good, and wanted to conserve mental energy after a gruelling day at the table. If it had been the last board I would have tanked until I worked it out but it didn't seem worth the trouble. Besides, we had started the match with a 0.5 IMP handicap and Greg had suggested offering it to our opponents. I had pooh-poohed that idea, but okay, here's your IMP.)

My previous 2 KO finals we'd been up at the half and ended up losing. Would the streak finally end?

In the 2nd half, Mikey had to lead from xx Axx Jxxxxx xx against the uncontested auction 1S - 1N - 3D - 5C and his choice didn't work out the best. He also took a gross all-white phantom save that should have gone for 5 bills but luckily the opps didn't double and so we had a lose 5 position instead. Still, we had a few small plus positions here and there (I'd made a no-play 3 Diamonds. The opps had missed a filthy, but cold, 32 high 6NT after bidding Gerber for Aces AND Kings, then signing off in 5NT. I made a super-aggressive balancing double of 2 Diamonds and we defended flawlessly to beat it a trick. We took a save at favorable against a red game that only requires a trump guess (our holdings were Ax opposite Jxx with no spots) and they forgot to double so we were only -100.) I'd estimate a Butler of about 0.75 (a win 9 card.)

The good news is that I was thrilled with a victory that resulted in 2.25 points that evening. It just wasn't my own.

My friend Joanie played in the pairs game with a great partner courtesy of the partnership desk. When I looked at the 'round to go' results I was excited to see that she and her partner were only 1 matchpoint out of 2nd overall, well behind the event leaders, who were taking out their frustration from losing to us in the afternoon match and were shooting 67%, 10% clear of 2nd place.

Unfortunately, guess who Joanie and partner were playing against in the last round? Sigh.

When the dust settled, Joanie dropped a little, but had held on to win first overall in B & C. 2.25 masterpoints.

So back to the KO final ...

Greg and Patty brought back a lose 15-or-so card in the 2nd half and we lost the match by 7.5. (At least my 2 uptricks didn't cost, if we'd have lost by a half I'd have been sick.)

The deciding board (at least, the only one that could have made a difference on its own, assuming double dummy play and defense) was the hand our opps stopped in 5NT.

~~Greg and Patty got to 6NT.~~ (Actually, I was wrong (we didn't spend much time going over the hands after the match and when they said 'we were in slam' I assumed NT) they got to 6 Clubs, which rates to be a better spot but has no play on the lie of the cards (KTx of Clubs on your Left, KTx of Hearts on your Right.) The following analysis only applies to a 6NT contract.)

K92 / A7 / KQJ4 / A964

AQ / Q9862 / A8 / QJ32

You've got 2 legitimate chances for 12 tricks (excluding stiff K of Clubs or Hearts, which is much less likely.) Either LHO has KT or Kxx of Clubs (in which case you can pin the Ten) or RHO has Kxx of Hearts (or either opponent has JT tight in Hearts.) It's a very difficult hand (you have to manage your entries perfectly,) but if you avail yourself of all your chances, it makes. The key is to play a low Heart from A7 early. If RHO ducks, you have 3 Spades, 2 Hearts, 4 Diamonds and 3 Clubs. If RHO wins the King, you can afford to test Hearts (they're 3-3) and you have tricks galore. -100 was lose 13 and the match.

On the whole I was very pleased with the trip. Greg and Patty are super-nice and ~~everyone is entitled to an off-set~~ bad luck is going to happen every now and then. Mike was a real pleasure to play with. We had almost no bidding misunderstandings, played very solid for the most part, and got along well both at and away from the table.

...

So on the hand where I held

xxxxx / Axx / Ax / AKx

I tanked forever and ultimately passed.

AK / KJxxxx / Qxxx / x

xxxxx / Axx / Ax / AKx

Want to be in slam?

For sure. It's not laydown, but it's very good. I should have moved with my prime cards, in spite of my bare minimum. We lost an IMP on the board when I decided to 'safety play' trumps since I was only in 4 (I took the hook to ensure that either I had no Heart losers or that I'd be able to ruff a Diamond in my hand.)

On the hand where I held

KJ / x / AQTxx / AKQxx

I couldn't bid 2NT (that's natural) so I doubled. Mikey bid 2 Hearts, RHO bid 2 Spades and now I bid 3NT. Your mileage may vary.

Mikey had

ATx / AT8xx / xxxx/ x

KJ / x / AQTxx / AKQxx

Diamonds were 2-2 so 6 Diamonds is a brick. Not easy to bid, particularly for a first-time partnership. We won an IMP on this board, I think, for +660.

Finally, on the hand where Mikey held

xx / Axx / Jxxxxx / xx

He led a low Diamond and Declarer, who was void in Diamonds, shed his Heart losers on Dummy's AKQ. The killing lead is a low Heart (you know dummy is very strong and you know Righty has nothing but a very strong Club suit -- no guarantees, but I think a low Heart rates to be the winner in the long run here.)

Remember the Alamo?

2007-11-09T12:09:49Z

I'm off to San Antonio to play a few sessions in their Fall Sectional.

I'll update this post when I get back.

Kissing Jen

2007-11-09T01:29:25Z

Another team match with Ken tonight. Had a 1 IMP lead going into the last board and ended up tied. I made a post in the BBO Forums on that board here.

Here's a bidding problem that Ken faced.

Red vs white

J9 / A732 / KQ9763 / 3

He opened 1 Diamond in 3rd. LHO bid 2 Clubs. I doubled. Righty bid 2 Diamonds. He trotted out 2 Hearts. LHO bid 3 Clubs. I bid 3 Diamonds. Righty bid 4 Clubs.

P - P - 1D - 2C
X - 2D - 2H - 3C
3D - 4C - ?

Rest of this story is at the very end of the article.

So on another hand I picked up a moose in 1st at favorable:

9 / A874 / AKT986 / AQ

I opened 1 Diamond and Ken responded 1 Heart.

Wow.

Slam is at least fair opposite any hand with KQxx of Hearts. I wanted to bid Keycard right now, but I'm not sure what a direct 4NT asks/shows and I figured Ken wouldn't be sure either. I was really reluctant to splinter because I plan to take over the auction anyway, but I'll save my Zia impersonation for a more dramatic setting. I bid 3 Spades.

Now Ken went into the tank. Sigh. He's gonna agonize for 30 seconds and then bid 4 Hearts. Again, I was going to take the position that I knew he had no cuebids available below game anyway, and was always planning to bid on, but I'm a little sick of these close UI calls.

Lucky for me, Ken trotted out 4 Diamonds. Hmmm. I hope he's not cuebidding a void in my first suit .

I bid 4NT. He responded 5 Clubs, showing 1 or 4 (a victory for 1430, if 5 Diamonds had showed 1 or 4 I'd have no Q ask available.)

I bid 5 Diamonds as a Q ask. I was ready for him to pass that, since he seems to be confused already, but I've got to bid my hand.

He raised to 6 Diamonds. Oh, you have the Queen of Hearts and the King of Diamonds? Really ...

Whatever. I bid 6 Hearts.

Whatever objections I had to his bidding were more than offset by my partner's line of play.

Ten of Clubs was led.

9 / A874 / AKT986 / AQ

AK3 / QT932 / J743 / 8

Plan the play.

The Heart suit looks like you have to lose a trick if you misguess which opp started with KJx. If you're sure that LHO doesn't have KJx or KJxx you bang down the Ace. If you're sure that Righty doesn't have both honors, you can run an honor from your hand.

Ken gave himself a small extra chance. He played a Spade to his hand and led the Ten of Hearts. I assume he was going to fly Ace and play a Heart back if LHO ducked smoothly.

However, LHO (a self-described 'PRO who only plays PRO or with PROS',) who had KJx of Hearts and had seen his partner encourage on the Club opening lead, decided to cover with the Jack so that he could get in before the Club loser went away. It was simple enough to draw trumps and claim from that point.

+980 was win 11 when my counterpart not only didn't drive to slam, but only raised to 3 Hearts with my hand. Yikes!

http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=1802620&when_played=1194576144

On the first hand, Ken made the sick bid of 4 Hearts.

A negative double in the auction 1 Diamond - 2 Clubs does NOT guarantee 4-4 in the majors. I'd subsequently heard him bid Hearts and I raised his original suit. Even if I have 4 Hearts and meant 3 Diamonds purely as a game try, I will always correct 4 Diamonds to 4 Hearts in that case. His Hearts aren't nearly good enough to suggest a Moyse.

I passed 4 Hearts with

QT872 / Q64 / AT54 / 8

Now my LHO doubled. Ken then compounded his error by breaking tempo and passing.

Sorry Ken, you got yourself into this mess, I'm not pulling at this point.

Sticks and wheels was lose 14.

http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=1802612&when_played=1194576144

Hairy Matchpoints Doubles II

2007-11-06T23:21:49Z

My love affair with negative doubles after opening 1NT continues. I don't know how I played them the other way for so long.

Another 'hairy double' hand from Sunday's set (the hand may be off a card, I should have written it down):

3rd seat favorable

K98 / xxxx / Qx / Axxx

Buddy opened 1NT and RHO bid 2 Diamonds.

If I weren't playing negative doubles I'd have to run through Lebensohl (not sure if I should show a Diamond stopper or not) or take a huge position and smash this for penalties in what could be a 9-card fit.

But here, it's an easy negative double (planning to bid 2NT over 2 Spades.)

Buddy thought a bit and passed. Normally I'd like to lead a trump, but I can't bring myself to lead one from Qx. I led the 8 of Spades (3/5 leads anyway, so it should be readable.)

Dummy tracked:

QTxx / Axxx / xxx / xx

More than Declarer deserves ...

Declarer played low from Dummy. Buddy thought about it for a bit (I figured he had AJ) and played low. Nice play!

Except that Declarer won her Jack. Doh!

Now Declarer played a Heart up and a Diamond to her Jack and my Queen.

QTx / xxx / xx / xx

K9 / xxx / x / Axxx

(My Heart spots were generally lower than dummy's but I don't remember the exact spots, sorry.)

Of course, I couldn't draw an inference from the BIT at trick 1, so I continued Hearts (which is probably right anyway.)

Buddy won the Q and put the Queen of Clubs on the table, covered. I won the Ace and fired back a Club.

Now Buddy cashed the Ace of Spades and played another Spade ... the moment of truth!

Declarer followed to the 3rd round of Spades and I was able to exhale.

Buddy scored another trump in the wash (I think he started with KTx, though if he did he should have played a trump when in with the Queen of Hearts) and we'd taken our 2 Spades, 1 Heart, 2 Diamonds and 2 Clubs for another +500 and all the matchpoints.

Buddy had floated my negative double with a bare minimum and only 3 trumps:

Axx / KQx / KTx / QJxx

Still, I like this decision a lot better than the other one (though both worked great) since he had no guarantee of a safe plus score and so decided to go for the brass ring.

At the end of the hand, Declarer's partner wanted to know what she had and why she bid. She had

Jxx / Jx / AJxxx / Kxx

She told her partner that 'Paul' (I'm pretty sure she was referring to local expert Paul Kelley Jr) had told her group to come in over 1NT bids. Her partner told her that wasn't such a good idea vulnerable.

I pointed to the board and said something like 'At these colors you've got to be really careful.' But I don't know if she's willing to let Paul off the hook just yet.

Hairy Matchpoints Double

2007-11-06T22:40:02Z

Had a decent set with Buddy (it's weird to use that name, since Jeff and I have used it as a generic identifier for opponents when discussing hands for years) on Sunday. The opponents didn't give many gifts so we had to go headhunting to earn a couple of tops. I'm overdue for a haircut, so it seems appropriate that we made a couple of hairy doubles.

The first one was pretty nuts.

I picked up all red in 4th:

AQ9xxx / K / KT8 / xxx

Lefty opened 1 Diamond. Righty bid 1NT. I wasn't thrilled about it, but 2 Spades looked right. That got passed around to Righty who bid 3 Diamonds. That got passed around to Buddy, who whipped it.

I pictured some 2-5-2-4 8 or 9 count over there and passed without too much thought.

Buddy led a lowish Spade (I could see all but Jxxx and the Spade he led was the one in bold.)

KTx / xxx / QJ9xx / Kx

Wow. That's a healthy dummy.

Now I'm pretty sure that Buddy only has a stiff Diamond. If he whipped this with 3 Spades and a stiff Diamond, we're surely toast, so I've got to play him for xx or a singleton.

I cashed the top 2 Spades and everybody followed. Now what?

K / xxx / QJ9xx / Kx

9xxx / K / KT8 / xxx

It's very tempting to get out of the way in Hearts in case Buddy has the Ace (what's he doubling on?) but it could be disastrous if he doesn't because then Declarer will likely just bang down the Ace of Diamonds (on the auction it sounds like Buddy has the Diamond length) and will be able to use the King of Spades later for a pitch. (If I had looked a little deeper, I might have concluded that the pitch probably wouldn't do Declarer much good (he rates to be 2-4-4-3,) but give pard the stiff 7 of Diamonds and we can promote a 2nd trump trick with another Spade.)

I decided that we're always beating this if Buddy has the Ace of Hearts, and +200 should be enough. My priority was getting that good Spade off the board while Buddy still has a trump.

I played the 9 of Spades and Declarer made my day by ruffing with ... the Ace! My one trump trick had become two.

His decision was perfectly logical on the auction, just not successful. He continued with a Diamond up (Buddy following with the 6) and I won the King and now got out of the way in Hearts (Declarer had Axxx.)

We ended up scoring 2 Spades, 2 Hearts and 2 Diamonds. +500 was good for all of the matchpoints.

Buddy had smashed this with:

xx / QJxxx / 6 / QJxxx

Yeah, it's often a good idea to double partscores with 1/2 a trick or so, just in case pard has 4 or 5 tricks over there.

Pavliceking Out

2007-11-04T01:43:16Z

Sorry to see that the Pavlicek quiz is going to be on hiatus for the foreseeable future. I was actually about to change the link in the sidebar so that it would take you right to the quiz and presto, no more quiz. Oh well. Thanks Richard.

I played 34 boards with Jeff today. Here's a quick lead problem. 3rd all white.

K4 / KQJT82 / 542 / 92

Jeff opened 2 Spades. Righty bid 3 Clubs. I took a mild view and raised to 3 Spades. Lefty doubled (responsive.) Jeff passed and Righty bid 4 Spades (self-alerted as 'slam interest clubs?') I passed and Lefty bid 5 Clubs. Float.

2S - 3C - 3S - X
P - 4S - P - 5C Float

What do you lead?

I'm usually pretty good about leading partner's suit. Something about the 4 Spade bid talked me into the 'surprise' King of Hearts lead, though. Sucker!

Only the King of Spades lead beats the hand. You set up a Spade ruff while partner still has the Ace of trumps.

J3 / A976 / QJ87 / 853 Dummy

AT3 / - / AT63 / KQJT74 Declarer

-400 was lose 5 and change. Only 1 of the 8 pairs defending Clubs held Declarer to 10 tricks. Should have been 2.

http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=513554&when_played=1193934498