One For The Ages

April 16th, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  1 Comment 

Over the weekend I was visiting with friends in Victoria on Vancouver Island when a Sectional Tournament broke out.

Barbara Stewart and Peter Marinus won the Open Pairs, running away with a huge 67.27% game!

With that Barbara thus confirming she is the stronger matchpoint player at the Roche-Stewart household.

Keith Dowdall and I finished a strong second, some 5% behind the winners.

In the Swiss, the team of  Michael Roche, Jym Galand, Peter Herold and Karen Cumpstone took no prisoners, won the event before the last match with 131 VPs.

Karen Billett, Ewa Zwicky, Barbard Stewart and Debbie Hargraves were second with 98 VPs.

A gentle reminder that Michael is still the king of IMPs at that household.

I playing with Cary Salmi, Keith Dowdall and Ernie Tradewell finished at 5th with 90 VPs.

Barbara Stewart - Peter Marinus

Overheard at the water cooler.

Linda Marinus the tournament director had the Friday afternoon off. So she picked up a Partner at the partnership desk and was thrill that the player turned out to be one of Canada’s best (He moved to Victoria from Toronto in 2007.)

Board 12. Dealer West. N-S vulnerable.

As South: Linda picked up  ♠ J98532 ♥ AQJ10 ♦ A85  ♣ Void.

Her LHO open 1 ♦  Partner bid 1 ♠  RHO pass, she bid 2 ♦ – Cue bid forcing.

LHO pass, Partner 2 ♥, RHO pass, she bid 4 ♣ – Splinter with support.

LHO pass, Partner 6 ♥, RHO pass, All pass.

Can you guess Parner’s hand?

The full deal.

Dealer: West Vul: N-S	North ♠ AK10 ♥ 98762  ♦ J  ♣ AQ95
West ♠ Q  ♥ 43  ♦ KQ762  ♣ KJ872		East ♠ 764  ♥ K5  ♦ 10943 ♣ 10643
	South ♠ J98532  ♥ AQJ10 ♦ A85 ♣

Partner played West-the opening bidder for the king of hearts, made 12 tricks for +1430. Got 33 MPs on a 38 top. 

Being a TD Linda is used to seeing strange happenings at the tables. Still I have to give her full marks for disecting this auction at the table!

Just another day at the office.

Don’t Give Up!

April 5th, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Often you see teams give up the boat when they fall behind more then 60 IMPs in a match.

At the Australia Open Team Playoffs yesterday, Team Harper (Ross Harper, Ishmael Del’Monte, Stephen Burgess, Michael Courtney, Kieran Dyke and Peter Gill) were behind Team Brown (Terry Brown, Avinash Kanetkar, Paul Lavings, Robert Krochmalik, Dave Lilley and Zolly Nagy) by 70 IMPs with 16 boards to play.

I for one am glad they didn’t resign, because the match was very exciting, came down to the wire. After 15 boards Team Harper was on a 61 to 5 run when the last board hit the table.

In the open room, Team Harper took the six spade sacrifice and went down three doubled, for -500.

If their teammates in the other room bid and make six hearts for +1430 that will give them 14 IMPs, will tie and extend the match.

Alas, they bid and made six club for +1370, that translated to only 13 IMPs.  Lost the match by 2 IMPs! Still it was a great 74 to 5 run over 16 boards.

You can see the score board here for the match. 

Their auction was :

The final result Team Brown 182- Team Harper 181.

In the Women’s Team Playoffs.

Team Travis (Elizabeth Havas, Nevena Djurovic, Barbara Travis and Candice Ginsberg) best Team Hoffman (Julia Hoffman, Jenny Thompson, Sheila Bird, Karen Creet, Eva Caplan and Rena Kaplan) 241 to 214 IMPs.

Team Brown  and Team Travis will represent Australia at The 2nd World Mind Sports Games in Lillie, France this summer.

The Seniors Team Playoff will take place from 18th to 22nd April 2012.

Memories Are Made Of These

April 3rd, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  3 Comments 

The other night at the Vancouver Bridge Center, some 80 players turned out in honor of Ev Hodge, a well loved player from Vancouver who passed away in 2011. 

The occasion was the Ev Hodge Charity Classic. An annual event that raise money for charity.

The evening started out with appetizers and a pot luck dinner. Many players out done themselves by preparing delicious dishes. 

After dinner, we had the auction of local top players. The purpose of the auction was to raise money for travel subsidy (For national and international tournaments.) It was also a good way for the top players to give something back to The Unit.  

Players : Aidan Ballantyne, Larry Hicks, Dan Jacob, Katrin Litwin, Bryan Maksymetz, Samantha Nystrom, Rock Shi Yan and Michael Yuen made themselves available for the auction.

Auctioneer for the evening was Larry Pocock. After much conjuring, the grand total of $840 was raised for our unit’s travel subsidy fund.  

The successful bidders were Greg Morse (Michael), Kathryn Shannon (Aidan), Rita Dodge (Samantha), Rangie Sylvester (Bryan), Monica Angus (Rock), Brian Liu (Katrin), Mike Moffatt (Larry) and Alex Roman (Dan). Each won a game with a player of their choice.

Marge Neate shared a funny story, that brought back fond memories of Ev.  

“One day A man came to the house looking to rent one of Ev’s rooms. Ev saw him from the window, rather then telling him the room had been taken when he came into the house, she hid in the closet. After looking around, the man left. Ev came out and said aloud : “anybody want to play hide and seek?”

A 18 tables bridge game followed. Proceeds from entry fees donated to Ev’s choice, Canuck Place.

Kathy Adachi and Marguerite Chiarenza won with 63.69% game. Congratulations.

We like to thank Anne Smith and Lavren Weiler, with help from Marie for organizing the dinner. Larry Pocock for doing such a great job as the auctioneer. Bev Hall and Gail Heuchert did the flowers and decorations. Bruce and Cassia McIntyre for running the game. All the deep pockets for supporting the auctions. Last but not least, The Unit for supporting this wonderful event. 

I am sure Ev would have enjoyed the evening.

A great time was had by all.

What is your lead?

March 28th, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  2 Comments 

IMPs; Dealer North. East-West vulnerable.

As East. You hold : ♠ 1097432 ♥ 972  ♦ 8  ♣ 762

The auction :

2  ♦ – Forcing.

5 ♥ – 2 key cards in diamond.

6 ♥  – King of hearts.

What is your lead?

You may want to make up your mind before reading on.

This is the deal.

Click Next to see what happened at the table.

Did you find a black suit lead?

A red suit lead set up a squeeze against West.

This is the 4 card ending after North cashed the A and King of hearts and run all but one diamond.

Trick 9. North plays the diamond seven, East discards spade seven, South heart eight, and squeezes West between spades and clubs.

Trick 10. North cashes the ace of whichever black suit West had discarded and claims.

Dealer: North Vul: E-W	North ♠ A   ♥  ♦ 7 ♣ 108
West ♠ KQ  ♥ ♦   ♣ KQ		East ♠ 1097 ♥ 9 ♦   ♣
	South ♠ J5  ♥ 8  ♦   ♣ A

A black suit lead set up a winner immediately for West. East can then keep all three hearts to breaks up the double squeeze!

An interesting point in the auction. West made a good final pass, tried to ask for a non heart lead.

Amoils Wins The Vanderbilt.

March 26th, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  4 Comments 

Congratulations to the Amoils team-Joe Grue, Captain Les Amoils, Darren Wolpert, Curtis Cheek, Ishmael Delmonte and Thomas Bessis. on winning the Vanderbilt. The runners-up-Fred Gitelman, Geoff Hampson, Eric Greco, Brian Platnick, John Diamond and Brad Moss. 

Spotted in the city. From England.

Heather Dhondy - Nevena Senior.

From Poland.

Krzysztof Martens - Dominik Filipowicz.

From Canada.

Kathie acnab, Allan Graves and Bill Halliday.

From France.

Benedicate Cronier - Sylvie Willard.

From Singapore and Indonesia.

Choon Chou Loo, Munawar Sawiruddin, Allen Tan and Hua Poon.

From The USA.

Mike Cappelletti, Jr. - Michael White.

From Memphis The Peabody Hotel.

The Peabody Ducks.

 After 10 days here, I am all bridged out. In a word my game this week sucks. Thanks to all my partners for playing.

Elvis has left the building!

Man at work.

March 24th, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  1 Comment 

The person behind the Bridgewinners.com score board.

Greg Humphreys

Fellow Blogger Paul Gipson-The Beer Card and his friends from Scotland and England. 

Samantha Punch, Tim Rees, Paul Gipson and Alex Gipson.

My team for the Jacoby Open Swiss.

Bob Zeller, Bruce Norman, Leo Weniger and I.

Friends.

Jonathan Steinberg - Bob Todd.

The Pyramid Area stands empty when the Memphis Grizzlies left to play in the new FedEx Forum.

Pyramid Arena.

Party on Beale Street.

March 21st, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  4 Comments 

Here in Memphis Beale Street is well known for many wonderful clubs and attractions. If you like Jazz or any kinds of music then you have to check out this area.

Don Valentine and the Hollywood All-Stars.

Bar-hopping with Josef Piekarek. He wrote and recorded this song with Mila Maslowska.

Josef enjoying a Blue Moon.

Dressed for the Mixed Pairs.

Jadwiga Polujan - Peter Clark.

The happy couple. 

Debbie Bennett - Hans Jacobs

Tigers around down. In honour of the University of Memphis Tigers.

The Supe Kitty on Main Street.

For up to the minute results and all interesting information on the Vanderbilt Kockout Teams, thanks to the guys at Bridgewinners.com we can now follow the Championships as it unfolds. 

Vanderbilt results on the big screen TV, thanks to Bridgewinners.com

The winning line.

March 19th, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

The Silver Ribbon Pairs. 1st Qualifying.

Board 3. Dealer South. E-W Vul.

As North You hold :  ♠ 82 ♥ 10872 ♦ A52 ♣ KJ63

The auction .

The lead was the five of clubs.

The North-South hands.

North ♠  82 ♥  10872 ♦  A52 ♣  KJ63

South ♠  KJ3 ♥  AQJ9 ♦  KJ8763 ♣

The is what this declarer did against Jordan and I.

Trick one he discarded spade 3 from dummy, West won the club ace. Switched to  diamond 10, ace, 9 and 3. Declarer cashed club king, 10, discarded spade jack. Then took the losing trump finesse. West won the king, fire back spade 10, East won the ace then gave West a diamond ruff. Down one.

Have you found the winning line?

At trick 4. Instead of playing trump, he had to play the club jack and discard the spade king. A loser on loser play. Then there will be no way for East to get in to give West a diamond ruff.

Dealer: South Vul: E-W	North ♠ 82 ♥ 10872 ♦ A52 ♣ KJ63
West ♠ 104  ♥ K643  ♦ 10 ♣ AQ9742		East ♠ AQ9765   ♥ 5  ♦ Q94  ♣ 1085
	South ♠ KJ3 ♥ AQJ9  ♦ KJ8763 ♣

All that Jazz.

March 19th, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  2 Comments 

Between sessions we were treated to most delightful Jazz by guitarist Jim Duckworth and saxophnist John Lux.

Jim Duckworth - John Lux.

Friends sharing a laugh. After that Bob Hamman went on to win the Platinum Pairs with Justin Lall. Congratulations!

Daniela Von Arnim, Reese Milner, Bob Hamman & Sabine Auken.

One reason to teach your kids to play bridge!

Support Junior Bridge.

Thanks to Dave, I enjoyed our games. It was great seeing you, best of luck the rest of the week. Yes we will play again.

Dave Smith (Memphis MOJO) and I.

Even this horse would like to have some fun.

A Horse named Patrick.

People just want to have some fun!

March 18th, 2012  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Gay Parrish-Jay Brandt

It is St. Patricks Day here at the Memphis NABC. Many players wore green for the day.

Jurek Czyzowicz, Ray Lee and Leo Weniger.

Five ladies from Alabama love to dress up and go places.

Teressa Richey, Vickie Memymon, Nar Strickland, Sharon Henderson and Vickie Vaugham.

North American Pairs winners.

Barry Senensky - Jordan Cohen.

The hard working NABC Co-Chair Henry Francis.

Michael - Henry Francis.