Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Major-minor choices
It was weird to play a session with such a theme. Four times today I was choosing between either two majors, or two minors. I got three of them wrong and one of them debatably wrong, and I think I should have gotten the three wrong ones right (and I'm sure you'll agree!
1) AKJT8x 9xx K987 void, 4th, all white, opponents silent. Partner opens 1H. I chose to bid 1S, then 2D artificial game forcing over partner's 2C rebid. Partner tried 3D and I just bid 4H. Partner held x AKJxx QTx KQxx. Not clear what contract you would want to be in here.
2) QJT7xx Kx AJx xx. Second seat red-white, I opened 1S and lefty bid 2H (a psycho bid as it turns out.) Partner made a responsive double. Righty bid 3H which was passed back to partner, who tried 4C. I should have worked out to pass this (he almost has to be 1246, as with any other shape he would probably try a do-soemthing-intelligent double; could be 1345 with 3 small I guess), but for some reason I bid 4D. Partner held x xx T976 AKQxxx. With the heart ace off, 4C was down one for sure. I had to work hard to go down only one in 4D (with a bit of defensive help.)
3) This isn't really in the count, but holding AJ7xx A87x Kx xx I opened 1S in 4th seat. Partner held Kxx QJT9x QTx QJ and made a normal 2C Drury bid. I could have crashed in the majors with 2H, but with such bad hearts and decent spades I just bid 2S. 2S made 2, 2H would have made an overtrick, but we both did njormal things.
4) Holding AJT8xx Jxx x Kxx, partner opened 1H in first seat no one vul. I bid 1S and partner rebid 2NT. I now chose to transfer to hearts with 3D, and over partner's 3H I bid 3S, which I intended as a spade cue for hearts but would have been happy if partner interpreted as spades also. Partner bid 3NT and I chose to bid 4H, which was silly; we later agreed 3N would probably be a double stopper in both minors, junky hand, so I should have passed or 4S. He held Qx Axxxx AQx AQx and lost two hearts and an offside spade finesse in 4H for 10 tricks. 4S is a clearly superior contract, as it is immune to a 4-1 heart break and on a non-heart lead you can try a diamond hook to shake one of your heart losers. In fact, neither of these happened (although you can play a double-dummy squeeze to make 11 tricks right-sided), but of course 3NT is also making 10 tricks. Passing 3NT at the table would be genius, but I should have bid a normal 4S.
5) Holding x KJ87x 87x A98x in second seat, lefty opened 1S in third seat. Partner overcalled 2D and righty bid three preemptive spades. I made an aggressive responsive double and partner responded with 4NT pick a minor. I chose clubs, which was a bad choice when partner held Ax x AK9xxx J7xx. Okay, no game is particularly good, we overbid on this hand, but 5D was actually making on a neat play; supposing a spade lead, partner can draw trumps and play a heart towards the dummy. If his lefty ducks the ace, he can concede two clubs (everything, surprisingly, is breaking) and claim; if lefty goes up with the ace, he can later ruff out righty's Qxx of hearts and pitch two clubs on the now-good hearts. That would have fixed our opponents real good. I probably should have found the 5D bid; partner would bid 5C with most hands when it was right.
The following hand was an obvious shameless attempt by my opponent to get in the blog:
I held AKQ Qxxx Jx xxxx red-white, no spot higher than a 7. In second seat my hand looekd awful to me, so I passed, and it was passed out. As I was starting to feel bad, my left-hand opponent tabled his hand:
void AJx AKQT9865 Q8.
The Mike Develin stealth pass, not that I would actually pass this hand. With 3NT and 5D both beatable in practice as well as in theory, I was surprised that every pair in our direction went minus, but apparently we got a cold top. Of course, my parther gave it right back on the next board by underleading his AKxxxxx after I had supported to try to get a ruff against 5C doubled. Unfortunately, I had Jx and declarer has QTx opposite x, and I had two other bullets... it was unlucky. So it goes.
1) AKJT8x 9xx K987 void, 4th, all white, opponents silent. Partner opens 1H. I chose to bid 1S, then 2D artificial game forcing over partner's 2C rebid. Partner tried 3D and I just bid 4H. Partner held x AKJxx QTx KQxx. Not clear what contract you would want to be in here.
2) QJT7xx Kx AJx xx. Second seat red-white, I opened 1S and lefty bid 2H (a psycho bid as it turns out.) Partner made a responsive double. Righty bid 3H which was passed back to partner, who tried 4C. I should have worked out to pass this (he almost has to be 1246, as with any other shape he would probably try a do-soemthing-intelligent double; could be 1345 with 3 small I guess), but for some reason I bid 4D. Partner held x xx T976 AKQxxx. With the heart ace off, 4C was down one for sure. I had to work hard to go down only one in 4D (with a bit of defensive help.)
3) This isn't really in the count, but holding AJ7xx A87x Kx xx I opened 1S in 4th seat. Partner held Kxx QJT9x QTx QJ and made a normal 2C Drury bid. I could have crashed in the majors with 2H, but with such bad hearts and decent spades I just bid 2S. 2S made 2, 2H would have made an overtrick, but we both did njormal things.
4) Holding AJT8xx Jxx x Kxx, partner opened 1H in first seat no one vul. I bid 1S and partner rebid 2NT. I now chose to transfer to hearts with 3D, and over partner's 3H I bid 3S, which I intended as a spade cue for hearts but would have been happy if partner interpreted as spades also. Partner bid 3NT and I chose to bid 4H, which was silly; we later agreed 3N would probably be a double stopper in both minors, junky hand, so I should have passed or 4S. He held Qx Axxxx AQx AQx and lost two hearts and an offside spade finesse in 4H for 10 tricks. 4S is a clearly superior contract, as it is immune to a 4-1 heart break and on a non-heart lead you can try a diamond hook to shake one of your heart losers. In fact, neither of these happened (although you can play a double-dummy squeeze to make 11 tricks right-sided), but of course 3NT is also making 10 tricks. Passing 3NT at the table would be genius, but I should have bid a normal 4S.
5) Holding x KJ87x 87x A98x in second seat, lefty opened 1S in third seat. Partner overcalled 2D and righty bid three preemptive spades. I made an aggressive responsive double and partner responded with 4NT pick a minor. I chose clubs, which was a bad choice when partner held Ax x AK9xxx J7xx. Okay, no game is particularly good, we overbid on this hand, but 5D was actually making on a neat play; supposing a spade lead, partner can draw trumps and play a heart towards the dummy. If his lefty ducks the ace, he can concede two clubs (everything, surprisingly, is breaking) and claim; if lefty goes up with the ace, he can later ruff out righty's Qxx of hearts and pitch two clubs on the now-good hearts. That would have fixed our opponents real good. I probably should have found the 5D bid; partner would bid 5C with most hands when it was right.
The following hand was an obvious shameless attempt by my opponent to get in the blog:
I held AKQ Qxxx Jx xxxx red-white, no spot higher than a 7. In second seat my hand looekd awful to me, so I passed, and it was passed out. As I was starting to feel bad, my left-hand opponent tabled his hand:
void AJx AKQT9865 Q8.
The Mike Develin stealth pass, not that I would actually pass this hand. With 3NT and 5D both beatable in practice as well as in theory, I was surprised that every pair in our direction went minus, but apparently we got a cold top. Of course, my parther gave it right back on the next board by underleading his AKxxxxx after I had supported to try to get a ruff against 5C doubled. Unfortunately, I had Jx and declarer has QTx opposite x, and I had two other bullets... it was unlucky. So it goes.
posted by Mike Develin @ 10:58 PM 4 comments
Friday, January 25, 2008
Very punchy
Wednesday night I played with Eric, and for some reason I was in in an incredibly punchy mood. In the interest of science, let's see how my joker plays turned out...
Board 5: Holding AKxxxx Qx xxx Qx white-red, I passed my RHO's 2D opening. 2S is fairly normal, but I thought it would be a good chance to see how bad xxx really was. This was passed out. Partner held QJTx AJxxx xx xx and with the heart king onside (as expected), we were making 3S if we could stop there (likely result if I'd bid.) They were cold for 4D, but this would have been surprising for them to find.
Board 6: Holding Jxx QT AT8x A8xx I passed (normal). LHO opened 1D and partner overcalled 1H. RHO passed and I tried 1NT, and now lefty bid 2D which was passed back to me. I doubled. Parner held A97x K987x Jx xx. He made the as-it-turns-out terrible lead of a low trump (dummy had Kx and declarer Q976x.) This was now cold in various ways. During the play I inadvertently produced a penalty card which gave him a chance to make it easily. He guessed wrong about what to do on the penalty card, and then misguessed the ending to go down one for +100.
Board 10: Holding QJ Axxxx AQ7x Ax I opened 1NT. This was passed out. On the lead of a small spade, dummy tabled xxx Qxx JT J9xxx. They ran off four spade tricks and I dicked around a bit and eventually went down two. 2H, according to the book, is also down two, and would probably be down two in practice.
Board 14: Holding JTxxx xx AKJ7x x in first seat with no one vulnerable I opened 2D. This was passed to partner who tried 2NT Ogust. I chose to show a good hand with a bad suit with 3H. Now partner bid 3NT and for some reason I had huge misgivings. I bid 4S, but partner, after some thought, corrected to 4NT holding AQx KQT xx KQJxx. Passing 3NT would have turned out okay. With K98x of spades offside, 4S was makable but extremely difficult and unlikely to be made in practice. 3NT was a make; they slipped up during the play and let partner make 4NT (it turned out that both partner and a defender forgot the contract was the implausible 4NT, although at matchpoints this really shouldn't matter much.) In retrospect I probably should have passed 3NT and taken my chances.
Board 17: I held x Kxxx KQ9xxx xx second seat with no one vulnerable. I tried a 2D opening (borderline but not nutso), and partner responded 2S forcing. I was now in an awkward position, so I bid 3H, which I think anyone would interpret as game-forcing. However, when partner bid 3S, the hand looked like a huge misfit to me; with a small stiff in spades and no red aces, I really didn't like my hand for a spade or notrump contract. So I checked it out, even though this bid really ought to be forcing. Partner held QJ987xx AQ AT Kx and game was cold unless someone held jack-fourth or -fifth of diamonds (or unless they find the insanely inspired lead of a small spade to an honor and then a club through.) Mirabile dictu, righty had jack-fourth and 3NT was doomed on normal play. (I should point out that this is really not that unlikely -- to first order, 10 out of 32, better odds than a lifetime .300 hitter getting a hit, which happens all the time.)
Board 19: Holding QJTx AKT KQx Txx it went pass, 2S, double to me red/white. I chose a somewhat weird 4S, which could have made if partner had a right hand, but 3S or a game try is normal. I hoped to intimidate the opponents, who had few spades between them, into bidding more; I was planning to hit 5 of something. This was passed out and partner somewhat preditably went down one, with 3S the highest making contract for either side.
Board 23: This wasn't really that odd, but worth mentioning as a system loss to keep me honest about this gadget: partner opened a weak 2C red/red and I held Kx AKQx AJ7xxx x. After protracted thought I passed. Unfortunately partner held a max, QJ8 9x Q9 KQ97xx, and 3NT was making.
So, mostly bad results. I think I'm not cut out to be a joker after all.
Then tonight, I much more sanely played at the Cardinal Club with Ari, IMP pairs! We gave our opponent the following problem:
You hold AQJxxx void Ax K9xxx, nobody vul. You open 1S, lefty bids 3D weak. Partner tries 4D and now righty is in there with 5H. Your call.
The hands were eventful for our opponents, pretty uneventful for us; we played solid and ended up on top. A good time was once again had by all; the club is so unacrimonious, it's fantastic.
Board 5: Holding AKxxxx Qx xxx Qx white-red, I passed my RHO's 2D opening. 2S is fairly normal, but I thought it would be a good chance to see how bad xxx really was. This was passed out. Partner held QJTx AJxxx xx xx and with the heart king onside (as expected), we were making 3S if we could stop there (likely result if I'd bid.) They were cold for 4D, but this would have been surprising for them to find.
Board 6: Holding Jxx QT AT8x A8xx I passed (normal). LHO opened 1D and partner overcalled 1H. RHO passed and I tried 1NT, and now lefty bid 2D which was passed back to me. I doubled. Parner held A97x K987x Jx xx. He made the as-it-turns-out terrible lead of a low trump (dummy had Kx and declarer Q976x.) This was now cold in various ways. During the play I inadvertently produced a penalty card which gave him a chance to make it easily. He guessed wrong about what to do on the penalty card, and then misguessed the ending to go down one for +100.
Board 10: Holding QJ Axxxx AQ7x Ax I opened 1NT. This was passed out. On the lead of a small spade, dummy tabled xxx Qxx JT J9xxx. They ran off four spade tricks and I dicked around a bit and eventually went down two. 2H, according to the book, is also down two, and would probably be down two in practice.
Board 14: Holding JTxxx xx AKJ7x x in first seat with no one vulnerable I opened 2D. This was passed to partner who tried 2NT Ogust. I chose to show a good hand with a bad suit with 3H. Now partner bid 3NT and for some reason I had huge misgivings. I bid 4S, but partner, after some thought, corrected to 4NT holding AQx KQT xx KQJxx. Passing 3NT would have turned out okay. With K98x of spades offside, 4S was makable but extremely difficult and unlikely to be made in practice. 3NT was a make; they slipped up during the play and let partner make 4NT (it turned out that both partner and a defender forgot the contract was the implausible 4NT, although at matchpoints this really shouldn't matter much.) In retrospect I probably should have passed 3NT and taken my chances.
Board 17: I held x Kxxx KQ9xxx xx second seat with no one vulnerable. I tried a 2D opening (borderline but not nutso), and partner responded 2S forcing. I was now in an awkward position, so I bid 3H, which I think anyone would interpret as game-forcing. However, when partner bid 3S, the hand looked like a huge misfit to me; with a small stiff in spades and no red aces, I really didn't like my hand for a spade or notrump contract. So I checked it out, even though this bid really ought to be forcing. Partner held QJ987xx AQ AT Kx and game was cold unless someone held jack-fourth or -fifth of diamonds (or unless they find the insanely inspired lead of a small spade to an honor and then a club through.) Mirabile dictu, righty had jack-fourth and 3NT was doomed on normal play. (I should point out that this is really not that unlikely -- to first order, 10 out of 32, better odds than a lifetime .300 hitter getting a hit, which happens all the time.)
Board 19: Holding QJTx AKT KQx Txx it went pass, 2S, double to me red/white. I chose a somewhat weird 4S, which could have made if partner had a right hand, but 3S or a game try is normal. I hoped to intimidate the opponents, who had few spades between them, into bidding more; I was planning to hit 5 of something. This was passed out and partner somewhat preditably went down one, with 3S the highest making contract for either side.
Board 23: This wasn't really that odd, but worth mentioning as a system loss to keep me honest about this gadget: partner opened a weak 2C red/red and I held Kx AKQx AJ7xxx x. After protracted thought I passed. Unfortunately partner held a max, QJ8 9x Q9 KQ97xx, and 3NT was making.
So, mostly bad results. I think I'm not cut out to be a joker after all.
Then tonight, I much more sanely played at the Cardinal Club with Ari, IMP pairs! We gave our opponent the following problem:
You hold AQJxxx void Ax K9xxx, nobody vul. You open 1S, lefty bids 3D weak. Partner tries 4D and now righty is in there with 5H. Your call.
The hands were eventful for our opponents, pretty uneventful for us; we played solid and ended up on top. A good time was once again had by all; the club is so unacrimonious, it's fantastic.
posted by Mike Develin @ 12:11 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Weekend NAP
So, this weekend was our district qualifying for the North American Pairs in three flights, of which I was eligible to play in A and B, and duly did so. Free trips to Detroit were on the line. I'd played in these twice before; two years ago I won flight C, and was sent to nationals, where we came in second; last year Ari and I placed 5th in A, about a board out of qualifying. This year, I'll spoil the punchline first: Li-Chung and I won flight B qualifying by a mile (seriously something like four boards), but it wasn't yet sure that we were going: we had both agreed that, playing in A with separate partners, we would choose A over B. When the dust settled on the next couple of days, though, in A, neither of us finished in the top three, and so we will be representing District 21 in the Flight B NAP in Detroit in March. I'm pretty excited. Come by and say hi.
After six thorough sessions of bridge (one of which was a very atypical 30 boards) and a car breakdown in the parking lot, I was wiped, so you're getting this recap a bit removed. There were an amazing number of spectacular hands. These are some of my favorites:
I held some inoffensive hand like xx JTxxx Q9xxx x, red-white. Partner thought for a very long time and opened 1C in first seat. Righty overcalled a notrump, and I made the obvious pass. Now lefty bid 4H, transfer to spades, and partner went back in the tank forever. He finally passed, and righty was Sominex couped: he passed before realizing his mistake. 4H was allowed to stand. You'd think this would be good for us, right?
4H made for an average plus. Partner held Qx void AT AKT9xxxxx. 5C was going down two for 500! We could have beaten 4H, but failed to do so -- it was really quite preposterous on this auction.
I was really happy with my play on Saturday. I did an inordinate number of really good things -- usually bridge is about not making mistakes, but I was in a position to defend or bid creatively and cleverly, and I did so. My favorite one of these during the auction was when I held Kx Qx 98x QJT8xx. I don't remember the colors -- I think white all -- but anyway, lefty opened 1C (in first seat, before I could open a weak 2C), and partner overcalled 1S. Righty now doubled, and I bid a quick 2S. I was incredbily sure that this was the right bid, and it worked out great; the opponents were preempted out of a sensible auction, and ended up in 3D on a 5-2 fit. We set this several tricks (including king of spades, spade, spade overruff.) I was just really happy with this bid.
Anyway, Sunday I played awfully. I don't understand how our results (something like 54-50) were any good whatsoever. I did get this one right: I held KQJ AKT9xxxxx x void, fourth chair, red-white I think. RHO opened 2S before I had a chance to bid this unbiddable hand (I was planning to open 1H and then try to get some information). I tried double (fortunately I had KQJ of spades so this was not getting passed out), and lefty raised to 3S. Partner now made a responsive double, and I took a chance that either he had the diamond ace or they would fail to cash out or they would save when we weren't making, and just bid 6H (it's not like there was much science available to me here; if anyone has any, please, speak up.)
He did, +1430.
But this play has to take the cake. Probably many of you know about Victor Mollo's Menagerie books, filled with wild and fantastical creatures (if not, read these, they're hilarious) playing bridge. One of the most charismatic characters is dubbed the Rueful Rabbit, who is incompetent and insanely lucky; he is constantly doing things like missorting his cards only to have the consequences produce some kind of insane benefit (i.e. failing to ruff rectifying the count for a squeeze.)
I saw one of these in real life.
Here is the initial setup:
Against the Rabbit (West)'s contract of 3NT, North, led a high spade. Seeing his partner's discouraging signal, he switched to the heart ten, which went to the jack and queen. The Rabbit ducked this, and South persisted with another heart, won by the ace. The Rabbit played a diamond to his ace and a club, ducking when West produced the queen. West played his final heart, which was won by the king. The Rabbit exited a spade, leaving, with declarer having won three of the first seven tricks:
Now, obviously, if the clubs were breaking, the Rabbit would have the rest of the tricks, nine tricks. However, when North played a diamond back, the Rabbit miscalled for a low diamond from dummy! North continued a diamond, but now the defense was powerless. On a club to hand and the jack of spades, South was caught in a squeeze, for down one, instead of the down two that would have resulted if the Rabbit had gone up with the king as he intended.
I admit that Rabbit plays at matchpoints are less impressive, but this actually happened! I couldn't stop laughing for several minutes.
After six thorough sessions of bridge (one of which was a very atypical 30 boards) and a car breakdown in the parking lot, I was wiped, so you're getting this recap a bit removed. There were an amazing number of spectacular hands. These are some of my favorites:
I held some inoffensive hand like xx JTxxx Q9xxx x, red-white. Partner thought for a very long time and opened 1C in first seat. Righty overcalled a notrump, and I made the obvious pass. Now lefty bid 4H, transfer to spades, and partner went back in the tank forever. He finally passed, and righty was Sominex couped: he passed before realizing his mistake. 4H was allowed to stand. You'd think this would be good for us, right?
4H made for an average plus. Partner held Qx void AT AKT9xxxxx. 5C was going down two for 500! We could have beaten 4H, but failed to do so -- it was really quite preposterous on this auction.
I was really happy with my play on Saturday. I did an inordinate number of really good things -- usually bridge is about not making mistakes, but I was in a position to defend or bid creatively and cleverly, and I did so. My favorite one of these during the auction was when I held Kx Qx 98x QJT8xx. I don't remember the colors -- I think white all -- but anyway, lefty opened 1C (in first seat, before I could open a weak 2C), and partner overcalled 1S. Righty now doubled, and I bid a quick 2S. I was incredbily sure that this was the right bid, and it worked out great; the opponents were preempted out of a sensible auction, and ended up in 3D on a 5-2 fit. We set this several tricks (including king of spades, spade, spade overruff.) I was just really happy with this bid.
Anyway, Sunday I played awfully. I don't understand how our results (something like 54-50) were any good whatsoever. I did get this one right: I held KQJ AKT9xxxxx x void, fourth chair, red-white I think. RHO opened 2S before I had a chance to bid this unbiddable hand (I was planning to open 1H and then try to get some information). I tried double (fortunately I had KQJ of spades so this was not getting passed out), and lefty raised to 3S. Partner now made a responsive double, and I took a chance that either he had the diamond ace or they would fail to cash out or they would save when we weren't making, and just bid 6H (it's not like there was much science available to me here; if anyone has any, please, speak up.)
He did, +1430.
But this play has to take the cake. Probably many of you know about Victor Mollo's Menagerie books, filled with wild and fantastical creatures (if not, read these, they're hilarious) playing bridge. One of the most charismatic characters is dubbed the Rueful Rabbit, who is incompetent and insanely lucky; he is constantly doing things like missorting his cards only to have the consequences produce some kind of insane benefit (i.e. failing to ruff rectifying the count for a squeeze.)
I saw one of these in real life.
Here is the initial setup:
AKT4
T9x
QJ97x
Q
QJ5xx 6
K7xx AJ
A KT652
Axx K987x
987
Q8xx
8x
JTxx
Against the Rabbit (West)'s contract of 3NT, North, led a high spade. Seeing his partner's discouraging signal, he switched to the heart ten, which went to the jack and queen. The Rabbit ducked this, and South persisted with another heart, won by the ace. The Rabbit played a diamond to his ace and a club, ducking when West produced the queen. West played his final heart, which was won by the king. The Rabbit exited a spade, leaving, with declarer having won three of the first seven tricks:
Tx
--
QJxx
--
J5x --
7 --
-- KT
Ax Kxxx
x
8
xx
JTx
Now, obviously, if the clubs were breaking, the Rabbit would have the rest of the tricks, nine tricks. However, when North played a diamond back, the Rabbit miscalled for a low diamond from dummy! North continued a diamond, but now the defense was powerless. On a club to hand and the jack of spades, South was caught in a squeeze, for down one, instead of the down two that would have resulted if the Rabbit had gone up with the king as he intended.
I admit that Rabbit plays at matchpoints are less impressive, but this actually happened! I couldn't stop laughing for several minutes.
posted by Mike Develin @ 10:50 PM 3 comments
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Cardinal club, take two
Back to Stanford today for the second meeting of the Cardinal Club. I sure got some, um, interesting hands.
An unusual auction to 1NT: 1C (1C) 1D (x); p (1H) 1NT all pass. I misguessed the play to go down one.
A hand which shows the importance of partnership agreements: I held x AQTxx xx Qxxxx. Partner opened a club in third chair with everyone vulnerable. RHO was in there with 1S and I made a 3H fit jump. Lefty bid 3S and now partner bid 4NT. I wasn't sure whether this was a double keycard situation, but I couldn't see how he expected me to know he had hearts, so I showed 1 with 5C. He bid 5D queen-ask; now what? We hadn't discussed our queen responses; 6C would deny the queen and everything in between would show it and say something about kings, but I didn't know what. Eventually I chose 5S to try to show my stiff spade in case partner was worried about that. He bid 5NT, which I interpreted as a frequent meaning we have: "pick a slam; do something intelligent.) In retrospect this was pretty silly as he already knew my hand, but I bid 6C (especially silly, I realize while typing this, because my hearts couldn't really be any better for my failure to open 2H; if that's what he meant, I should have bid 6H.)
Partner now bid 6H, and, not wanting to bid a grand on a confused auction, I passed, but partner held Axx K9xx A AKT9x and seven was cold. You be the judge.
T JT9 KQJ98 AKQ9, second seat, everyone red. This hand has no card lower than an 8! What is your plan?
Kxx Ax AKxxx Axx, you open 1D. Lefty overcalls 2C which is passed back to you. Your bid with nobody vul.
One from my partner: xx J987xx AKxxx at favorable. You pass, lefty opens 1C, righty bids 1S. You try an unusual 2NT and lefty bids 3C. Partner is in there with 3D and righty tries 4C. Do you do anything?
AJTx KJxx x QJ9x with everyone vulnerable. You open 1C and the auction proceeds 1D on your left, 1H from partner, 4D from your RHO. Do you take a shot at game?
void AKQxxx AQ9 Kxxx white-red. You open 1H, partner bids 1S. Suppose you rebid 2C and partner bids 2H. Your call.
And finally, this hand was one of the most preposterous things I have ever seen. I held 7632A 6432A 654 void, red-white. Remember that hand earlier with no card below an 8? This hand is the exact opposite!
I was fourth chair. You are not going to believe the bidding to me:
pass pass pass.
Would you open this?
I ended up with +930 for my efforts.
An unusual auction to 1NT: 1C (1C) 1D (x); p (1H) 1NT all pass. I misguessed the play to go down one.
A hand which shows the importance of partnership agreements: I held x AQTxx xx Qxxxx. Partner opened a club in third chair with everyone vulnerable. RHO was in there with 1S and I made a 3H fit jump. Lefty bid 3S and now partner bid 4NT. I wasn't sure whether this was a double keycard situation, but I couldn't see how he expected me to know he had hearts, so I showed 1 with 5C. He bid 5D queen-ask; now what? We hadn't discussed our queen responses; 6C would deny the queen and everything in between would show it and say something about kings, but I didn't know what. Eventually I chose 5S to try to show my stiff spade in case partner was worried about that. He bid 5NT, which I interpreted as a frequent meaning we have: "pick a slam; do something intelligent.) In retrospect this was pretty silly as he already knew my hand, but I bid 6C (especially silly, I realize while typing this, because my hearts couldn't really be any better for my failure to open 2H; if that's what he meant, I should have bid 6H.)
Partner now bid 6H, and, not wanting to bid a grand on a confused auction, I passed, but partner held Axx K9xx A AKT9x and seven was cold. You be the judge.
T JT9 KQJ98 AKQ9, second seat, everyone red. This hand has no card lower than an 8! What is your plan?
Kxx Ax AKxxx Axx, you open 1D. Lefty overcalls 2C which is passed back to you. Your bid with nobody vul.
One from my partner: xx J987xx AKxxx at favorable. You pass, lefty opens 1C, righty bids 1S. You try an unusual 2NT and lefty bids 3C. Partner is in there with 3D and righty tries 4C. Do you do anything?
AJTx KJxx x QJ9x with everyone vulnerable. You open 1C and the auction proceeds 1D on your left, 1H from partner, 4D from your RHO. Do you take a shot at game?
void AKQxxx AQ9 Kxxx white-red. You open 1H, partner bids 1S. Suppose you rebid 2C and partner bids 2H. Your call.
And finally, this hand was one of the most preposterous things I have ever seen. I held 7632A 6432A 654 void, red-white. Remember that hand earlier with no card below an 8? This hand is the exact opposite!
I was fourth chair. You are not going to believe the bidding to me:
pass pass pass.
Would you open this?
I ended up with +930 for my efforts.
posted by Mike Develin @ 11:47 PM 3 comments
Practice for the NAP
Our district qualifiers for the North American Pairs are this weekend; I'm playing B and A, hoping to score a free trip to Detroit, which will otherwise be the first nationals I've missed in eight. Ari and I haven't played much recently, so we're playing today and tomorrow to warm up for A. Today 61 percent was only good enough for third, but I think we played great partnership wise, and I made some interesting decisions that variously did and did not work out. Some vignettes from the evening:
Holding AKT Ax AT8 QT98x I upgraded and opened 1C, rebidding 2N. This didn't work out so well when partner held xxxx QJ9xx xxx x and we played 3H. I would do it again.
What would you play with Ax xxxx KJxxx AQT opposite KJTxx AQJx AQT x, with the south hand having opened 3C, matchpoints? We ended up in 6H, which with the heart king likely onside could only be doomed by a 5-0 break (even 4-1 would have been fine.) Hearts broke 5-0 and we were down 1. I'm not super unhappy about this. 6D (even wrongsided) would have made easily of course, but matchpoints.
We opened one weak 2C which Ari swindle-made for +90 and a 6/7. -100, which he was heading for, would have been an average. It's not clear what would have happened without the weak 2C; probably we would have ended up in 2D which rated to make possibly +1, but apparently the field didn't do this.
Holding x J9xxx KQ976 xx, we had a really nice auction. After two passes to me with nobody vul I opened 2D. Lefty doubled and Ari, holding J9xx xx T8x AQ9x, bid 3C for lead (!). Righty bid 3S and lefty raised to 4; I led a club through the king and we beat it when she also misguessed the play. This made me really happy.
This hand was super interesting in both the auction and the play. The hands are KT x KQTx A98xxx opposite 987x AKJT Ax JTx with only us vulnerable. The right-hand hand opened 1C and a 1S overcall; with the opponents then silent our auction went 1C (1S) 2S; 3C 3D; 3H 3S; 4H 5C (4H was an attempt to play. Amazingly, we were mostly on the same page here, and it was a fine auction; 3NT is a superior contract, but only because we have both the 10 and 9 of spades. I'm not quite sure how we were supposed to diagnose that, although maybe 987x is really a stopper.
Anyway, so here I was in 5C on a small diamond lead, plan the play, matchpoints.
I held one of my most degenerate hands ever, and I still have no idea how to bid this. I held K A QT97x QT9xxx in second seat at favorable. Righty passed, help!
I chose pass and lefty opened 1C. Partner overcalled 1H and it went negative double on my right. We play transfer advances so my reasonable choices were: 1NT showing 1NT, 2C transfer to diamonds, or ... well, those were about it. I bid 1NT natural, and when lefty bid 2S I was thrilled that I'd get to bid 2NT for minors. Unfortunately partner thought 1NT was limit in hearts and bid 4H, which did not play so well. I still have no idea what the right way to bid this is.
Holding Qx AJT KQJx AKTx with everyone vulnerable, partner opened 1C. What would your approach be? I bid 1D and partner responded 2D. I continued with 2H and partner bid 2S. Choose your own adventure. (A jump to 4D here would be keycard, 4C undiscussed.)
You hold x 876xx 98x KQxx. Lefty bids 1H, partner overcalls a spade. 2D from righty, 3C from lefty, 3NT from righty. Your lead.
More tomorrow, at the second meeting of the Cardinal Club! Exciting.
Holding AKT Ax AT8 QT98x I upgraded and opened 1C, rebidding 2N. This didn't work out so well when partner held xxxx QJ9xx xxx x and we played 3H. I would do it again.
What would you play with Ax xxxx KJxxx AQT opposite KJTxx AQJx AQT x, with the south hand having opened 3C, matchpoints? We ended up in 6H, which with the heart king likely onside could only be doomed by a 5-0 break (even 4-1 would have been fine.) Hearts broke 5-0 and we were down 1. I'm not super unhappy about this. 6D (even wrongsided) would have made easily of course, but matchpoints.
We opened one weak 2C which Ari swindle-made for +90 and a 6/7. -100, which he was heading for, would have been an average. It's not clear what would have happened without the weak 2C; probably we would have ended up in 2D which rated to make possibly +1, but apparently the field didn't do this.
Holding x J9xxx KQ976 xx, we had a really nice auction. After two passes to me with nobody vul I opened 2D. Lefty doubled and Ari, holding J9xx xx T8x AQ9x, bid 3C for lead (!). Righty bid 3S and lefty raised to 4; I led a club through the king and we beat it when she also misguessed the play. This made me really happy.
This hand was super interesting in both the auction and the play. The hands are KT x KQTx A98xxx opposite 987x AKJT Ax JTx with only us vulnerable. The right-hand hand opened 1C and a 1S overcall; with the opponents then silent our auction went 1C (1S) 2S; 3C 3D; 3H 3S; 4H 5C (4H was an attempt to play. Amazingly, we were mostly on the same page here, and it was a fine auction; 3NT is a superior contract, but only because we have both the 10 and 9 of spades. I'm not quite sure how we were supposed to diagnose that, although maybe 987x is really a stopper.
Anyway, so here I was in 5C on a small diamond lead, plan the play, matchpoints.
I held one of my most degenerate hands ever, and I still have no idea how to bid this. I held K A QT97x QT9xxx in second seat at favorable. Righty passed, help!
I chose pass and lefty opened 1C. Partner overcalled 1H and it went negative double on my right. We play transfer advances so my reasonable choices were: 1NT showing 1NT, 2C transfer to diamonds, or ... well, those were about it. I bid 1NT natural, and when lefty bid 2S I was thrilled that I'd get to bid 2NT for minors. Unfortunately partner thought 1NT was limit in hearts and bid 4H, which did not play so well. I still have no idea what the right way to bid this is.
Holding Qx AJT KQJx AKTx with everyone vulnerable, partner opened 1C. What would your approach be? I bid 1D and partner responded 2D. I continued with 2H and partner bid 2S. Choose your own adventure. (A jump to 4D here would be keycard, 4C undiscussed.)
You hold x 876xx 98x KQxx. Lefty bids 1H, partner overcalls a spade. 2D from righty, 3C from lefty, 3NT from righty. Your lead.
More tomorrow, at the second meeting of the Cardinal Club! Exciting.
posted by Mike Develin @ 12:48 AM 0 comments
Friday, January 11, 2008
A founding member
I played today in the inaugural meeting of the Cardinal Club at Stanford, which went phenomenally, and I'm not just saying that because my friend is running it. I seriously have not attended a club game where the average age was so low; many Stanford students, of course, which was great, but even assorted other young people. It's absolutely not that I find the old people unpleasant in any way -- many of them are very charming and likeable -- but it was really nice to be at a club game where most of the people were my age or even younger. Much more relaxed, much more collegial; I felt at ease with my personality, etc..
So, you should all come to the Cardinal Club. I'm certainly coming back every week; Wednesday night in Palo Alto is also great, and I'm thrilled to have two hopefully weekly games in my life. Especially for newer players, it's a phenomenal atmosphere to play bridge in.
Bridge-wise, I didn't have a whole lot of decisions, though the hands wre certainly interesting. The one decision I really made didn't turn out so well: I held K x Ax7xx KQJ9xx with everybody vulnerable. RHO opened a third-seat 1S and I had many options. Eventually I decided to bid 2C planning to rebid 4NT over 4S; there are many hands partner has where 5m is a good save where he will never bid it red-red if I start with 2NT. Lefty bid 3S, limit, and righty bid a quickish 4S, so I stuck to my guns and was in there with 4NT. Partner chose clubs and dummy hit with xx T98xxx Tx Axx, a nice dummy. I was sad when the first trick was a spade to the ace, as my stiff king was looking like a winner (why couldn't partner have had Jx of spades instead?), but if clubs were 3-1 I was still okay with -500 (although they actually didn't double me.) But clubs were 2-2 and 4S was headed for down one... unlucky.
I guess overall the hands weren't reall that interesting, for me anyway, but I still had a great time, which has to be the mark of an excellent club. I leave you wth one last hand: you hold xx Ax Axx AQJ976. Partner opens 1H second seat with nobody vulnerable. RHO overcalls a spade, you presumably bid 2C. Partner punts with 2H, and you more or less have to bid 2S here (3C would not be forcing); this draws 2NT from partner, and now 3C seems indicated. Partner now tries 3H. What do you do?
So, you should all come to the Cardinal Club. I'm certainly coming back every week; Wednesday night in Palo Alto is also great, and I'm thrilled to have two hopefully weekly games in my life. Especially for newer players, it's a phenomenal atmosphere to play bridge in.
Bridge-wise, I didn't have a whole lot of decisions, though the hands wre certainly interesting. The one decision I really made didn't turn out so well: I held K x Ax7xx KQJ9xx with everybody vulnerable. RHO opened a third-seat 1S and I had many options. Eventually I decided to bid 2C planning to rebid 4NT over 4S; there are many hands partner has where 5m is a good save where he will never bid it red-red if I start with 2NT. Lefty bid 3S, limit, and righty bid a quickish 4S, so I stuck to my guns and was in there with 4NT. Partner chose clubs and dummy hit with xx T98xxx Tx Axx, a nice dummy. I was sad when the first trick was a spade to the ace, as my stiff king was looking like a winner (why couldn't partner have had Jx of spades instead?), but if clubs were 3-1 I was still okay with -500 (although they actually didn't double me.) But clubs were 2-2 and 4S was headed for down one... unlucky.
I guess overall the hands weren't reall that interesting, for me anyway, but I still had a great time, which has to be the mark of an excellent club. I leave you wth one last hand: you hold xx Ax Axx AQJ976. Partner opens 1H second seat with nobody vulnerable. RHO overcalls a spade, you presumably bid 2C. Partner punts with 2H, and you more or less have to bid 2S here (3C would not be forcing); this draws 2NT from partner, and now 3C seems indicated. Partner now tries 3H. What do you do?
posted by Mike Develin @ 1:05 AM 3 comments
Friday, January 04, 2008
+720
I played at the club this evening for the first time in what seems like forever. This game is a barometer game, meaning that everyone plays the same boards at the same time. We had a great first three rounds, and were leading by a huge margin, but got 4 matchpoints out of 40 (!) in round four to drop back to the pack. I think it was round three which saw this highlight: I held AJ632 KTx Qxx xx in third seat with nobody vulnerable, and I decided this merited a 1S opener. Lefty doubled, and partner redoubled. I was very surprised when partner tabled his hand, as it meant I was playing 1Sxx; dummy hit with 85 Q9xxx AJx QJx and lefty had led the ace of clubs. Some good luck later, I had eight tricks for +720, a totally reasonable score (3NT making 7), but not like you'd expect...
Going into round five, we were several matchpoints off the lead, but we clawed back with the aid of some nice stops (!) in auctions where we seemed destined for slam. On one hand, I held AKxxx Ax KJx Axx, nice hand, right? It got even nicer when partner opened 1H, red-white, second seat even. I bid 1S, and partner rebid 2C. I fourth-suit game-forced with 2D, and partner tried 2H; he then bid 3C over my 2NT, sounding for all the world like he was x6x5. Who wouldn't force to slam now?
Apparently the answer is me. I bid 3H, and he bid 4H; I now tried 4S, hoping that he could keycard with KQ of hearts and KQ of clubs. When he bid 5H, I trusted him and let him out. Partner's hand was x KJ9xxx x KQxxx and for once Qxx of hearts was not onside, making five exactly. 3/10 matchpoints, probably because we pinpointed the diamond lead. I hate matchpoints.
The amazing thing is that the next two deals also featured fourth-suit forcing auctions. On the next one, our opponents bullied their way into 6NT, which made, and on the next one, I picked up A KJTxx xxx KJxx. I opened 1H, partner bid 1S, and I rebid 2C, and again partner bid 2D artificial game-forcing. I temporized with 2H and partner tried 2NT -- identical to last time through six bids! -- but now I bid 3NT. Partner, after some thought, tried 4NT, which I passed. Partner had KQJTx Ax KT Axxx, and again slam was not great, and again it would have gone down, but Ari managed to escape with twelve tricks for a top.
And we had a good last round, and we managed to pull it out. See, sometimes staying out of slams is a good thing.
Going into round five, we were several matchpoints off the lead, but we clawed back with the aid of some nice stops (!) in auctions where we seemed destined for slam. On one hand, I held AKxxx Ax KJx Axx, nice hand, right? It got even nicer when partner opened 1H, red-white, second seat even. I bid 1S, and partner rebid 2C. I fourth-suit game-forced with 2D, and partner tried 2H; he then bid 3C over my 2NT, sounding for all the world like he was x6x5. Who wouldn't force to slam now?
Apparently the answer is me. I bid 3H, and he bid 4H; I now tried 4S, hoping that he could keycard with KQ of hearts and KQ of clubs. When he bid 5H, I trusted him and let him out. Partner's hand was x KJ9xxx x KQxxx and for once Qxx of hearts was not onside, making five exactly. 3/10 matchpoints, probably because we pinpointed the diamond lead. I hate matchpoints.
The amazing thing is that the next two deals also featured fourth-suit forcing auctions. On the next one, our opponents bullied their way into 6NT, which made, and on the next one, I picked up A KJTxx xxx KJxx. I opened 1H, partner bid 1S, and I rebid 2C, and again partner bid 2D artificial game-forcing. I temporized with 2H and partner tried 2NT -- identical to last time through six bids! -- but now I bid 3NT. Partner, after some thought, tried 4NT, which I passed. Partner had KQJTx Ax KT Axxx, and again slam was not great, and again it would have gone down, but Ari managed to escape with twelve tricks for a top.
And we had a good last round, and we managed to pull it out. See, sometimes staying out of slams is a good thing.
posted by Mike Develin @ 11:18 PM 2 comments
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy 2008!
We finished up 2007 without any style whatsoever. The year-end knockouts were surprisingly sparse, only 24 teams, so we were in a 10-team bracket. We advanced out of the first round robin and won the second to pick up some cheap semifinal masterpoints, then promptly played in a daze to get knocked out.
2007 was a good year, I guess, 500 masterpoints or something like that, although my results in national events were disappointing (excepting the GNT-B win and 0-1500 final; I've got this flight B stuff under control.) More importantly, lots of fun at the table, as always. I leave it with this hand from yesterday: you hold x void KQ97xxx A9xxx. You are vulnerable, the opponents aren't. RHO opens 1C. What's your call? Determine before moving onto the next section.
If you overcall 1D, partner responds 2C (for what it's worth, 1M would have been non-forcing constructive.) What is your plan?
I chose to bid 3C, whereupon partner bid 3H. Next, I tried 4D and partner bid 4H. Now what?
That was certainly the most interesting hand I held all tournament, excepting the 1NT psych I previously discussed, which it turned out I made the daily bulletin for the next day. The big discovery in Reno, though, was matchpoint creights, which should be a self-explanatory title. Tremendous.
2007 was a good year, I guess, 500 masterpoints or something like that, although my results in national events were disappointing (excepting the GNT-B win and 0-1500 final; I've got this flight B stuff under control.) More importantly, lots of fun at the table, as always. I leave it with this hand from yesterday: you hold x void KQ97xxx A9xxx. You are vulnerable, the opponents aren't. RHO opens 1C. What's your call? Determine before moving onto the next section.
If you overcall 1D, partner responds 2C (for what it's worth, 1M would have been non-forcing constructive.) What is your plan?
I chose to bid 3C, whereupon partner bid 3H. Next, I tried 4D and partner bid 4H. Now what?
That was certainly the most interesting hand I held all tournament, excepting the 1NT psych I previously discussed, which it turned out I made the daily bulletin for the next day. The big discovery in Reno, though, was matchpoint creights, which should be a self-explanatory title. Tremendous.
posted by Mike Develin @ 12:24 PM 1 comments
