Sights of Memphis.

March 15th, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ 2 Comments

The Mississippi River.

: Horse-drawn carriage.

One of the many horse-draw carriages ready to take you for a ride.

Main Street Trolley

The Trolley runs along Main Street every 10 minutes and the fair is most agreeable $1.

One of the many Pubs along Main Street

Perfect day to sit outside and enjoy a cold one.

Carl Hibl-One of The Blue Suede Brigade.

The Blue Suede Brigade are tourist guides that walk the downtown and help you find what you looking for.

Got here to-day and all is well. I am looking forward to playing the IMP Pairs To-morrow with Memphis MOJO in these North American Bridge Championships. It will be a lot of fun.

Tournaments

Don’t show him your hand!

March 12th, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ No Comments

The German Open Team trials was won by Team of JAMM & Co. (Josef Piekarek, Alexander Smirnov, Jorg Fritsche, Roland Rohowsky, Michael Gromoller and Martin Rehder.) They beat Team V. Alvensleben. (Wolfram Van Alvensleben, Matthias Felmy, Dr. Claus Gunther, Vitaliy Khanukov, Christian Schlicker and Ortwin Wagner.) In the final over 80 boards 201-164 imps.

Team JAMM.Co (JAMM are the initials of four players from The Bamberger Reiter Bridge Club. Fritsche and Rohowsky made up & Co.) won the right to represent Germany in the European Team Championship in Dublin, Ireland. 12-23 June 2012.

Long ago when we first started to learn this game called bridge, we were told when defending to keep winners and throw losers.

In the final. Segment 5. Board 38. Dealer East. East-West vulnerable.

On this deal both North and South would have done much better to keep a loser in order to keep communications between the two hands.

You may have noticed in order to defeat three no-trump. At trick 5, South should have discarded one of his high spades instead of the lowly heart. Then at trick 6, North could have unblocked his king of hearts thus creating an entry into partner’s hand for the all important club shift.

Taking nothing away from Roland Rohowsky, he read the ending perfectly at trick 10, endplaying North with a heart. North had to give declarer the king of clubs for the game going trick. Made nine tricks for +600.

At the other room, the contract of four spades by West, the four-one trump split spelled doom. Down two for -200. Lost 13 imps.

Tournaments

Rain rain go away!

February 18th, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ 2 Comments

Another sad news reached me. A friend and excellent bridge player, Doug Deschner-Red Deer Alberta had passed away.

Douglas Charles Deschner passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on February 7, 2012 in Arizona at the age of 58.

He will be sadly missed by his loving wife Lorna; stepson Jeff Anderson (Shannon); grandchildren Charly and Sarah; his brother David (Linda); sisters Susan (Dwayne) Storey and Linda (Russell) Christofferson; as well as several nieces and nephews. He is also survived by his uncle Frankie (Ruth) and brother-in-law Stan Armstrong Jr. (Helene).

The family invites friends to share their memories of Doug at a drop-in reception on Sunday, February 26 from 3 – 5 p.m. at the Red Deer Bridge Club, Bay 16, 5579 47 Street, Red Deer.

A private family ceremony will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Doug’s honour may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, 202, 5913 50 Ave, Red Deer T4N 4C4.

Obituary-Red Deer Advocate.

To Lorna: So sorry for your lost, my deepest sympathies to you and your family.

Passages

The inconvenient Truth

February 17th, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ No Comments

An Inconvenient Truth is Al’s Gore’s 2006 documentary film about global warming.

The inconvenient truth here is about what happened in the following deal, where canooz-Drew Cannell played with thekid1-Daniel Lavee.

The auction started normally up to 4 clubs. Then canooz used 5 Diamonds-Exclusion Roman Key Card Blackwood.- to ask about key cards where the ace of the void suit is not counted.

Thekid1’s answer was 5 spade :1 or 4 key cards. Unfortunately 5NT asked for the queen of trump. Canooz needed very little from partner, either the hearts run or the king of spade would be enough. He bid the grand.

Canooz made 13 tricks for +2140 and won 13 imps.

At the other table East-West stopped in the small slam.

In Singapore, eating is a national pastime.

For Chinese New Year, every meal starts with Yusheng or Lo Hei. The prosperity toss-good luck in the new year!

Yusheng or Lo Hei

Everybody tossed the ingredients while making auspicious wishes. The higher you toss the salad the luckier you be in the coming year!

So much fun!

You have to try Teh Tarik-Black tea made with evaporated milk.

Mixture is poured back and forth ....

...repeatedly between two vessels from a great height.

After 15 days of New Year celebrations.

"And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home."

Travel

The Poles have it.

February 15th, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ 2 Comments

In The Polish Premier League (Segment 3/6)

This happened at one table.

At the other table.

Playing the Polish Club (One club forcing for one round. Either weak NT with 12-14 HCP or natural or any strong hand),

Both East use their specialized spade bid to let partner know their hand type. Both West got to declare the no-trump game.

*Three Spade (Relay to 3NT).

*Two Spade (A 2NT bid with non-positional hand. You should play NT.)

The Singapore Flyer is the world’s largest observation wheel. There are 28 air-conditioned capsules. Takes 30 minutes to complete each rotation.

Singapore Flyer view from the ground

Orchids.

Botanic Garden

Sentosa Island flower show.

Flower wall of a dragon

Roast Pig-sign of prosperity.

"This little piggy had none."

The Merlion on Sentosa Island.

37 metre tall Merlion

Travel

Sights of Singapore

February 9th, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ No Comments

Marina Bay Sands from the street

This an amazing city, you just have to come check it out for yourself.

By the pool on top of Sand's Sky Park

"This little piggy had roast Beef,"

The boat-shaped SkyPark is perched atop of the three towers that make up the world’s most expensive hotel designed by Canadian Moshe Safdie.

Palm trees by the pool

The SkyPark and the pool is on the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Sand’s Hotel.

City view

The infinity pool is three times the length of an Olympic pool and at 650ft. up. It is the largest outdoor pool in the world.

Hot tub with the ocean view

Time for a swim

Time for a bridge game at the Singapore Bridge Club.

Unfortunately the evening was a blur. As my friend Lan let slipped that she postponed her cancer treatment so she could have the game with me!

Singapore Bridge Club at Bishan

Travel

Bob Crosby 1947-2012

February 6th, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ 3 Comments

I am sorry to inform you that my friend Bob Crosby from Edmonton Canada had passed away.

This obituary was written by Susan Culham.

The Edmonton Bridge Club and the entire Bridge community has suffered a great loss. Bob Crosby, age 64, suddenly and unexpectedly died of a massive stroke Jan. 27.

Bob was an outstanding player as well as teacher, mentor and coach.

After taking up bridge while studying at the University of Alberta, Bob earned a BSC in Computer Science. He also gained a passion for bridge which continued throughout his life.

Bob worked for the Canadian Federal Government as a Systems Software Analyst for 30 years. During this time he semiretired from tournament bridge as marriage, work and family took up most of his time.

Once retired he pursued his two desires…to become a ‘golf bum’ and rejoin tournament bridge at the highest levels.

Bob’s bridge philosophy was bridge is a partnership game. Invite partner to ‘join the party’ rather than flying solo and making all the bridge decisions yourself. He coined the phrase ‘bridge terrorist’ and used it frequently in his articles to describe a solo artist who thinks the only purpose of bridge is to destroy the opponent’s auction. They open on anything, preempt on anything, and take partner right out of the picture. He did not mind playing against this type of player, just not with them.

In 2002 after receiving a gold medal as NPC of the winning CWTC team he formed the ‘Pitbull’ Website. Throughout his retirement Bob rekindled his interest in bridge theory and developed his website by writing over 2,000 articles. He was getting over 1,000 visitors a week from all over the world.

Bob celebrated many successful results over the span of his bridge career.

In 2005 Bob won the gold medal at the Canadian Championships by winning the Imp Pairs event with his favourite partner Tom Gandolfo.

Most recently, at the 2011 Canadian Championships, he won a silver medal by placing second in the Seniors Teams.

Whether mentoring at an afternoon game at the bridge club, or playing at the National or International level, Bob displayed a calm, quiet demeanor. He never was illtempered or displayed the slightest emotion. He had an amazing ability to understanding partner’s predicament when they went wrong.

I had the privilege of playing with Bob, learning from him as my coach, and most of all enjoyed his friendship.

Bob cannot be replaced and he will be missed by many.

Passages

Size Matters

February 1st, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ 3 Comments

When my family first moved to The Republic of Singapore in the 60’s. The island measured 581 square KM with 1.2 million inhabitants.

Very early on, the first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew realized that in order to compete in the world stage and prosper, Singapore needed to increase it’s land mass and population.

To-day this beautiful island state had grown to over 5 million people and with the land reclamation program, the island is more then 722 square KM or 268 square miles. With GDP at $266,498 Billion. per capita at $50,714. rank 11th in the world, just one place behind Canada.

“This little piggy stayed home.”

In Bidge, the size of the opponent’s reputation matters. Some of us tremble with fear when we play against famous players at one time or another.

The size of the kibitzers at the table also matters. Often in the middle of a large crowd, normal players would lose their minds and make some impulsive plays.

On BBO the other evening I noticed there was a table with over 200 Kibitzers.

Sitting East-West were Justin Lall and Joe Grue, Silver Medalist from the recent Bermuda Bowl. North-South were expert players.

Click next to see the play.

The lead was the fourth best six of Diamond.

Seems to me JoBoo and Justin stepped out a little in the auction and South was in the prefect position to punish their indiscretions.

As you can see, there were many winning options. However South got distracted, took a losing line. Ended up with only eight tricks in three no-trumps for -400.

Travel

It was a good idea at the time!

January 28th, 2012 ~ Mike Yuen ~ 5 Comments

In the Australian National Open Teams semi-finals. Noble (B Noble, G Bilski, I Del’Monte, A Bach, J Lall, J Grue) vs Newman
(P Newman, M Thomson, N Van Jole, A Braithwaite, D Beauchamp)

Newman won the match 145-129. This board helped their effort.

Vulnerable and with a passed partner, Bach over call North’s one no-trump with two clubs for the majors.

Del.Monte Held ♠ 10 ♥ 104 ♦ Q109432 ♣ J954 bid two hearts. Thompson in the passout seat protected with double. Soon after Del’Monte was playing in two hearts doubled. Went down five for -1400.

There was no play record at the other table. North-South played in two hearts, made 10 tricks for +170.

Newman won 15 imps and the match.

Newman will meet Klinger (R Klinger, M Mullamphy, A De Livera, I Robinson, B Jacobs, B Thompson) in the final.

More New Year celebrations.

Lion Dance.