Remembering our Queen of Hearts

August 27th, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  2 Comments 

Evelyn Rose (Hewson) Hodge
January 22, 1919 – August 21, 2011It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Ev, at the age of 92. She will be fondly remembered by her children: Heather, Ken, Bruce and Dave; and their spouses and families, including 14 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her loving husband, Mitchell, and cherished son, John. Ev lived her life with enthusiasm, energy and laughter, and will be profoundly missed by all who knew her. Her accomplishments were many: working as a trained nurse in Canada’s North; competing on a women’s hockey team in Red Deer, Alberta; representing Canada on the Canadian women’s bridge team; earning the prestigious title of Diamond Life Master; and being so popular in the bridge world that she was known as the “Queen of Hearts.” But her biggest legacy will always be the warmth and love she created in her close-knit family and circle of friends. A celebration of Ev’s life and memorial tea will take place at a family residence on the afternoon of Saturday, September 3, 2011. Everyone is welcome! For details, please email: dhodge@shaw.ca. In lieu of flowers, donations to Canuck Place in Vancouver would be appreciated.

Reprinted from The Vancouver Sun.

On a personal note.

Ev was always fun to play against, she always found time to flirt. I learned very early on, not to let her innocent smile fool me or she would get a top board every time! I will miss her at table 3.

Toronto NABC

July 7th, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Toronto, Canada is hosting another North American Bridge Championship from the 21st to 31st of July 2011.

You are in luck, if you are still looking for a nice hotel at a great price. The Novotel Toronto Centre at $135 per night. It is just a few blocks from the Royal York.

The hotel features an indoor pool, gym, restaurant and free WiFi.

Please call:  MELANIE FLEET at FRASER & HOYT Travel – 1-800-565-8747 ; or email mfleet@fraserhoyt.com

Or Directly to Melanie is 1-902-421-1113. 

IF you call the hotel directly please make it clear that you are with Grand Slam Adventures (or Fraser & Hoyt) – then send your name to either Melanie (mfleet@fraserhoyt.com) or Kathie Macnab  kmacnab@eastlink.ca Otherwise you will not be able to get the discounted rate.

The tournament chair, Sally Rewbotham and the Local organizing committee has a very interesting website full of useful informations. The Restaurant guide is particularly well done.

dziękuję

July 2nd, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  1 Comment 

The never ending Open Pairs is over for us, as we have enough bridge and decided not to play the B final.

Thanks to Pony for being such a understanding partner. All my teammates for making it a very enjoyable tournament.

Pony and Michael.

There were many good things at these championships, the excellent venue, the duplicated boards, play behind screens, bridgemate scoring, great Vu-graph presentations both on BBO and on site, the brilliant instantaneous running score on line and the terrific Daily Bulletin, last but not least BBQ and beer garden. 

Also, after the session has finished all you have to do is scan you player’s badge and your personal result is printed including hand records!

I wonder why ACBL don’t do this?

Reader and printer for your results.

Pony played this hand well.

Board 1. Dealer North. None Vul.

South led the six of spades, two, queen, ace. Pony played the jack of diamonds, two, five and nine. Ace of diamonds, three, six and North discarded two of clubs.

At trick 4, four of diamonds, king, seven, North had to guess which four card suit Pony held. He reasoned, with the takeout double, she had the four card heart suit so discarded the eight of clubs.

South switched to the queen of clubs, four, jack, ace. King of clubs, six, seven, ten. Five of clubs, two of hearts, three of spades, nine. North played queen of hearts, king, four and seven.

At trick nine, the three of clubs squeezed North between spades and hearts. When he discarded a heart. Pony end played him by playing back a heart for two spade tricks.

Made nine tricks in 2NT for +150 and 93.65%.

Happy Canada Day, eh!

July 1st, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Here is a feel good story.

The other day between rounds, I went to buy a cup of latte at caffe Vergnano, gave them 100 Zloty, got my latte and rushed back to play. It was not till dinner that I realized I had left the change behind!

The next morning I went to see Michal-the casher, he had no problem giving me change back.

Pawel, Michal and Krzysiek at caffe Vergnano 1882.

Open Pairs Semi Final A.  Session 6. Board 30. Dealer east. None Vul.

As West I had ♠ 96 ♥ A9763 ♦ J84 ♣ 984

Auction went. 

*1nt- was alerted as forcing.

*4♣- before he bid four clubs he asked “how is it forcing if you passed two hearts?”

Dealer: East Vul: None	North ♠ 85  ♥ 54 ♦ Q10965  ♣ AKQJ
West ♠ 96 ♥ A9763  ♦ J84  ♣ 984		East ♠ AKJ43   ♥ QJ102  ♦ A32  ♣ 2
	South ♠ Q1072  ♥ K8  ♦ K7  ♣ 107653

My hand was not that great but as the auction developed, I was sure Pony did not have more then one club. So I bid one more for the road. After the smoke cleared, Pony made 11 tricks for +690 and 98.58%.

I sympathized with the unlucky East, “Been there, done that, eh!”

Images

June 29th, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  1 Comment 

Subhash Gupta

Old Market Square

Bar and Restaurants

Cristina, Annaig, Barbara, Pony and Michael.

Leslie Amoils

Roller coaster in Poznan.

June 24th, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

A week in these championships and I am already emotionally drained. 

It all started with the Mixed teams Swiss A. Only 32 teams qualify for the KO out of 150 teams.

After the first match we were in 5th place. We lost the second match rather badly, something like 60-1! If that was not bad enough, our team lost the very next match and dropped to 39th place.

We never gave up, played well the last two matches and made it to the KO. 

Then in the KO, we won our round of 32 match by 2 imps! In the Round of 16, we won by 1 imp! But there was a protest by our opponents on one of the boards, we lost the appeal and the match by 5 or something. That was such a huge let down!

Waldermar and I in the beer garden.

The very next day we played in the Mixed Pairs Semi Final A.  With only the top 22 pairs qualify for the final plus five pairs drop in from the teams and three top pairs from Semi Final B.

In the first session, we scored a miserable 33.51%, 118th place out of 124 pairs. After the second session we moved to 46% and 86th place. Mercifully we were done for the night and could recoup for the morning.

The 3rd round we moved to 78th place and 49.51%. We had a huge game in the 4th round, moved up to 35th place and 53.17%

After the 5th round, moved up again with 55.01% to 26th Place. After the 6th round, moved to 23rd place with 55.26%.

After the 7th round we made it to 22nd place, the last qualifying spot with 54.18%. 

Unbelievable! One of the best come back I ever had.

Jurek Czyzowicz and Malgorzata Sawicka were 4th in the Semi Final B.

Jurek and I in the playing area.

Triple Sqeeze.

June 22nd, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Over dinner, Lotan Fisher (East) of Israel shown me a neat deal he played in the 5th session of the Mixed Pairs Qualification.

Board 11. Dealer North. East-West Vul.

Dealer: North Vul: None	North ♠ Q76 ♥ K87654 ♦   ♣ 10876
West ♠ AKJ9852  ♥ 92  ♦ J2 ♣ K9		East ♠ 10 ♥ A103 ♦ AKQ4  ♣ AQ432
	South ♠ 43  ♥ QJ  ♦ 10987653 ♣ J5

The contract : 6NT by Lotan-East. The lead Q ♥    

At trick one, Lotan ducked the Q♥ , 2, 4, 3. Won the J♥ , 9, 5, ace. At trick 3 played 4 ♦ , 5, jack, North discarded 6♥ . On the run of the next two diamonds North could discard his hearts in comfort.

However at trick 6, on the ace ♦ , 7, dummy discard another low spade, North was caught in a triple squeeze!

-Discard a spade, dummy’s spades would be good for five tricks.

-Discard a club, then declarer’s clubs would be good for five tricks.

-Discard the king of hearts then the ten of hearts from West would further squeeze North between spades and clubs.

When North discarded a spade, Lotan read the situation correctly and played Ace, King of spades, dropped North’s queen. Made 12 tricks in 6NT for +990 and 94.11%.

Very well done.

Thomas, Marie, Michael, Lotan, Pony, Yuval, Cristina, Tomasz and Barbara.

Another one bites the dust.

June 20th, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  4 Comments 

Thanks to Queen-another bites the dust, be sure to turn up the volume.

In the MIxed Teams- round of 32 we play some random Italian team Calandra (Calandra, Duboin, Ferraro, Madala, Rimstedt and Sementa.) WE won that match by 2 imps, 64-62.

The next match, round of 16, we play a team from Russia, the Wild Griffins (Dikhnova, Gulevich, Khven, Klapper and Orlov.) At the end of the match we won by 1 imp 52-51. BUT there was a protest on a board.

Here is what happened.

In the closed room, our teammates were North-South

Second session. Board 20. Dealer West. All vul.

Dealer: West Vul: All	North ♠ 965  ♥ Q9743 ♦ K96  ♣ 62
West ♠ 743  ♥ AK5  ♦ 1032  ♣ AK104		East ♠ AK  ♥ J1086   ♦ 74 ♣  QJ875
	South ♠ QJ1082   ♥ 2  ♦ AQJ85  ♣ 92

The auction was.

*1♣ some kind of strong club- not Precision and not Polish.

*2♣ was alerted by South to West as two suited hand.

North said no agreement when asked by East. According to their convention card there was no agreement against this version of strong club. Their agreement against Polish club, two club is natural. South made up a bid at the table.

*Double was support double for hearts.

Table result, two diamonds made 8 tricks for +90.

The director was called at end of play and ruled that there was a failure to alert. Awarded 3 imps to East-West.

In the Open room, Pony and I were East-West. We got to 4♥ , and went down 1 for -100. 

When we scored up it was a push on the board.

Our team appealed and the committee ruled that three club was a logical alternative for East-West, made 4 for 130. Gave them 6 imps!

The rest, like they say is history!

Poznan, Poland.

June 18th, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  4 Comments 

I am here in Poznan, Poland for The 5th European Open Bridge Championships.

If you think NABC in the USA and Canada are long, these championships will run for the next two weeks. Being the open championship, there are 1591 players from 53 different countries playing here.

The first event is the Mixed Teams. I am playing with my German friends, Pony Nehmert, Barbard Gotard, Marie Eggeling, Thomas Gotard and Tomasz Gotard on the PONY team. 

There are 90 teams in this event. The teams are divided into 15 groups of 6. A round robin of 5 matches the first day, top 3 of each group advance to the A-Swiss, the rest to B-Swiss. 

To-morrow, the top 27 teams from A-Swiss and 5 teams from B-Swiss will play KO over the next three days.

We were 2nd in our group and will play another day. Results are posted on line.

On the last round and last board, we needed 1 imp to qualify.

Round Robin- Round 5. Board 20. Dealer West. All Vul.

You as East hold ♠ Q1098542 ♥ 42 ♦ 87 ♣ 87

1♦ – DBL to you, what would you bid?

At my table, Pony-East bid 2♠ weak. I-West corrected to 3♦ , down 1 for -100

At the other table, East bid 3♠  and played there. Our teammates defended well, down 4 for +400. We won 7 imps.

This was the deal.

Dealer:West Vul:All	North ♠ AKJ6  ♥ K7  ♦ QJ6  ♣ AQ52
West ♠   ♥ A1095  ♦ AK109543  ♣ K9		East ♠  Q1098542 ♥  42 ♦  87 ♣  87
	South ♠ 73  ♥ QJ863  ♦ 2  ♣ J10643

Barbara, Pony, Tomasz, Michael, Marie and Thomas.

Sweet taste of success.

June 15th, 2011  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Switzerland is well known for it’s fine chocolate and sweet pastries.  Last week while enjoying a cup of tea and a delicious pastry, I watched this hand unfold at the US Women Bridge Championship.

Chocolate shop

In the match for USA 1, between Moss (Sylvia Moss, Judi Radin, Jo Anna Stansby and Migry Zur Campanile.) vs Sprung (JoAnn Sprung, Janet Robertson, Cynthia Balderson, Carol Miner, Cindy Bernstein and Sally Wheeler.) 

Migry-North declared the following hand masterfully with sweet technics.

Final USA 1. Segment 5 of 6. In the Open room.

Board 74. Dealer East. All Vul.

The lead was the ♦ five, ace, 2, ♥ six. At trick 2,  Migry made the key play of a heart. The scissors coup, in effect cut the transportation between the defenders for a future club ruff. ♥ four, nine, king, ace. Wheeler found the club switch, ♣ seven, king, ace, three. 

But it was too late,  from this point on the danger hand -East could not gain the lead, Migry was able to take the spade finesse in safety and in fullness of time made 10 tricks for +620.

At the Closed room, this was the auction.

South became the declarer.

West led ♣ ace, three, two, eight. Switched to  ♦ two, ♠ three, jack, nine. At trick three, Declarer played ♠ four, five, ten, king. West found the ♥ ten, king, ace, four.

At trick 5, East wasted no time in giving West a club ruff, ♣ seven, king, ♠ seven, ♣ four. Beat the contract of four spades by one trick for +100.

+620 in the Open room and +100 in the Closed room gave the Moss team 12 imps.

The Moss team went on to win this match 221-175. Will represent the USA, compete for the Venice Cup in Veldhoven in the Netherland this fall.