An easy 17 IMPs

Dear Readers,

The European Bridge Championships is one of the greatest bridge shows on earth.  This year its being held in Dublin.  Here is a link to the web page.

The match of the morning was Italy Vs Israel.  Bocchi and Madala were North-South.

Board 12 gave the Italians an easy 17 IMPs which was gained by a simple agreement for dealing with 2 suiters after a high level pre-empts.


Here is the hand ...

West opened 5C which was doubled by North. (Same at both tables)
In the Open room, South simply bid 6D which went down due to a nasty break in diamonds.

I asked Bocchi about this and the agreement is ...

Madala bid 5nt to show his interest in slam.
Bocchi bid 6C to show a two suited hand and after this they simple bid their suits up the line until they agreed that spades seemed like a reasonable place to play.

Rueful R.

Hand Visualisation

Dear Bridge Player,

Setting the scene
Some months back, I was playing a teams match in a Dublin league with Ireland's top player Tom Hanlon (Kinder). We were up at half time and we were coasting through the 2nd set. This was the final hand.

Vul All

4th in hand you hold

♠ AQ

♥ xxx

♦ Kxxx

♣ AQxx

The Banker	Kinder	The Judge	You
1♥	Pass	1♠	X
2NT	3♦	3♠	Pass
3NT	Pass	Pass	X
Pass	Pass	4♠	All Pass

You might say that I was a fool for doubling 3NT and a coward for not doubling 4♠.

If so,you may be right.

I lead the ♦K and The Banker tabled ...

♠ x

♥ AKQxx

♦ Axx

♣ KJxx

The Judge won in Dummy dollowed in hand,then he lead a spade to the King and Ace.

What Next?

When I say dummy I was not hopefull. My thinking at the time was - declarer has six or seven spades stiff diamond. The Clubs are onside and he has a source of tricks, let's call it a night.

Lesson

Mental lasiness. Failure to complete the visualising of the hand.

Solution

At this point I ahould bang down the Ace an another club and give him a ruff for the setting trick.

Here is the full hand ...

Board 32 Vul All Dealer West	♠ xxxx ♥ xx ♦ QJxxx ♣ xx
♠ x ♥ AKQJx ♦ Axx ♣ KJxx		♠ KJT9xx ♥ xxx ♦ x ♣ Txx
	♠ AQ ♥ xxx ♦ Kxxx ♣ AQxx

Kinder is a entertaining guy and he didn't lose his opportunuty ...

"I expected you to get that."

How cutting :)

Reflection

My decision to double was probably marginal knowing that we were unlikely to win the auction holding the minors. This goaded Tom to risk life and limb with 3♦. This in turn gave me a blueprint of the hand and failed twice to go positive.

We played well in general and blasted the opposition into outer space and all I did on the way home was kick myself.

Very Rueful.

Textbook hand; Bidding best forgotten

Dear Readers,

I was playing with some friends on BBO last night when this hand came up ...

Let me set the scene
I was Non Vul Vs Vul and the dealer passed and I opened 1 &clubs
My right hand opponent is a talented player and bids AGRESSIVELY - or maybe I should say that his hand does not have to perfectly match his bid - there is a fluidity in his game.
My pick up partner had shown himself to bid and play well on the previous few hands.

Mr Fluid overcalled 2 ♦ (showing a weak hand with a 6 card suit) and partner bid 3NT. Like a Rueful Rabbit trying to wear a Hideous Hog mask I bashed out 6 ♣ which ended the auction.

[The more cultured bid is 4 ♣ (which is forcing) but it was late at night and time was of the essence as the leveretts were about to wake up.]

Here was the full layout ...

Mr Fluid led a heart to the Queen and Ace.

I played the ♣ J to the Ace and a ♣ to the king to finesse the diamonds.
Cashed the ♦ Ace discarding a heart and ruffed a heart. Then I entered dummy with a trump to play a spade towards my hand, playing the 8 when West played low. No matter how the spade honours are distributed, the contract is cold.

The holding in spades is quite a well know holding for producing and endplay situation. (It was part of the reason I had confidence in bidding the slam.)

Like I said, nothing to fancy merely textbook stuff.

Have a good game,
Rueful

Slam Zone

Dear Bridge Player,

Fortune favors the brave but it is frequently kind to the foolhardy ... thats me!

Here are a few hands from BBO. Playing with Michael McDonagh (Sharkirl)

Dealer S Vul All Scoring Imp Lead ♠4	♠ T65 ♥ AK98 ♦ AK ♣ AJ53
♠ 942 ♥ 8654 ♦ 652 ♣ K8		♠ AQ73 ♥ JT73 ♦ T94 ♣ 96
	♠ KJ8 ♥ Q4 ♦ QJ72 ♣ QT72

West	North	East	South
			1♦
p	1♥	p	1NT
p	2♣	p	2♦
p	6♦	p	p
p

2 Clubs was New Minor Forcing - I thought we agreed 2d to be minimum no feature but it showed 5/6 Diamonds. 1370 in (12.5 imps) as trumps and clubs break with the King onside.

I didn't apologise because I was playing against a journalist. The fecking Mejia have ruined this country!

In this session, we started out with the following hand which set the tone ...

Dealer N Vul - Scoring Imp Lead ♠7	♠ 3 ♥ AT42 ♦ 54 ♣ AQ9852
♠ AKJT65 ♥ Q2 ♦ 96 ♣ K72		♠ Q98742 ♥ J96 ♦ KJ8 ♣ T
	♠ Void ♥ K753 ♦ AQT732 ♣ J64

West	North	East	South
		1♣	2♠
3♦	4♠	p	p
5♣	5♠	6♣	p
p	p

Happy New Year

Dear Readers,

Firstly, I want to thank all of you this past year for coming in such numbers an so frequently. Many page loaders come from overseas - I hope you continue to drop by. Needless to say I have web stats on the site and I've been very pleasantly surprised.
For stats I use an Irish company - www.statcounter.com

There are two reasons for being so slack bridge wise over the last two months - raising my two bunnies with my wonderful wife (lots of fun) and because of work (not always fun).

I find it hard to come up with material when I'm not in circulation. The good(?) news is that I'll be returning to the tables on 17th Jan starting the CBAI mens pairs and teams. The womens equivalents are run over the same weekend. (Details on www.CBAI.ie) In the meantime I'll be dropping in to BBO between now and then. (James_H is my username for those who don't know - don't forget to say hello)

Here is a situation that occurred a few months ago in the Regent's Sean Stack League.
This was the trump suit...

(W) AQTxxx opposite (E) 9xx

I lead from the short hand and South played the King. Without breaking tempo, I played the trump Ten which scored and the contract came home.

I'm not looking for praise, I wan't to alert you to defensive false card.

If you can trust my bidding(?), I had shown a 6 card suit so North should have figured out how to play holding Jxx in trumps.

Lets replay this suit this time you are South and hold the KJ of trumps - You should play the king and hope West does not give you credit and makes the same play as I did at the table.

Happy New Year to you all.

Have a good game,
Rueful.