What a great lead!

October 12th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Sabine Auken (North) and Daniela von Arnim of Germany was playing against China when this hand came up.

Holding  S103 H109842 DQ10 C8762 on lead with the following auction. What would you lead?

Dealer East. all NV.

Sabine found the queen of diamond lead!

The full deal is.

At the other table Pony (West) also in three no trump. Got the ten of heart lead won by the king and led spade from dummy toward her hand twice to score the queen of spade for her contract.

Life Goes On

October 12th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Michael at the Art Zone

It was the last day of the Swiss and our team needed a good day to have any chances of making into the KO stage.

Match 15th vs Austria we won 50 imp to 38 imp and with 18 vp we claimed to 14th position and gave us hope.

Match 16 vs Belgium we lost 22 imp to 51 imp and got only 8 vp.

Match 17 vs Portugal we lost 26 imp to 38 imp and got another 12 vp.

Our total of 263 vp was good for 24th position out of 74 teams.

Over all The Team played hard and got along well. We even made some new friends and had lots of fun. We had a shot up to the last day and that is all we can ask for.

So it is over for the Youth Team in this event. David and David will play the pairs for the next few days. Others will visit friends and sight see. I will play the Transnational Mixed Team and enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada.

Telephone Number

October 9th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Match 13 against France, David Grainger (North) and David Sabourin (South) were in action on Board seven.

Dealer South All Vulnerable

Holding five trumps David Grainger was more then happy to double four spade when the bidding tray came back to him. 

Opening lead was the heart king, six, three, ace. Declarer played spade two, eight, ace and heart four. The club king was ruffed by north with the spade nine. Play of spade queen forced the spade king. The club jack was covered by queen, ace and north discarded the diamond four. Club eight, diamond four, ten and six. Declarer now out of winners played the diamond nine, ace, seven and ten. Sabourin led heart nine, seven, ten and eight.

Grainger got in to draw trumps then played winning hearts to beat four spade doubled five down for 1400.

Peking Duck

October 9th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

There are only two matches to-day.

Match 13 vs France we lost 28 imp to 47 imp, that is 11 vp to us. Match 14 vs Australia we lost 17 imp to 32 imp, added another 12 vp to our total.

Our total after 14 matches is 225 vp good for 21st position. After the evening match, our team went out for Peking Duck and a nice evening.

Another sunny day at home away from home

October 8th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

It was a nice day in Beijing. The Team is playing well and having fun

Match 10 vs Germany we won 70 imp to 10 imp, that is 25 vp.
Match 11 vs Estonia we won 52 imp to 16 imp, 23 vp more.
Match 12 vs Italy it was a tie 41 imp to 42 imp, that means another 15 vp to us.

For the day we won 63 vp and now total of 202 vp. Ranked 11th.

Master Bidding

October 7th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

  Kai Zhou                                                                         Roy Yang Li

At Swiss Match 11 Canada against Estonia. Kai Zhou (West) playing with Roy Yang Li (East) conducted a nice auction to six diamond on board 7.

Dealer South All Vulnerable

Roy opened the bidding with one club, the opponents passed throughout. Kai responded one diamond, Roy jumped to two no trump. Kai bid three diamond, which is check back stayman, after Roy’s reply of three no trump. Kai reasoned that partner must have useful cards for the small diamond slam and jumped to six diamond. 

At the other table the opponents stopped at three no trump and 10 imps to Canada.

Sunny Day

October 7th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Canada’s Youth (U 28) Team Michael, David, David, Erin, Matthew, Roy and Kai with jackets sponsored by Masterpoint Press.

Match 7 vs Uruguay we won 40 to 9 imp or 22vp.
Match 8 vs Pakistan we lost 22 to 24 imp but in vp is a tie, add another 15 vp.
Match 9 vs Romania we had a small lost 42 to 47 imp, add another 14 vp.
For the day we added 51 vp to our total of 88 from yesterday. Our total is 139 vp and we now rank 30th.

Lucky hands

October 5th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

    David Sabourin                                                               David Grainger

David Grainger (North) was playing with David Sabourin (South) in round 4 today.

Dealer East. All Vul.

East led the 4th best C, to the jack, three, queen. David now played the diamonds from the top and when the queen came down he claimed nine tricks. 

Here is another fun hand in the same match.

Dealer North. E-W Vul

East led the nine of spade, covered by the queen, king and ace. David played three of diamond, two, ace and seven. Two of club, queen, king and six. Now nine of club established the suit for five trick and when the spade broke four-four David could claim nine tricks one more time!

We had an almost average day earning another 44 VP to bring our total up to 88 VP for the event. The Team is in good spirit and looks forward to another exciting day tomorrow.

Team At Play

October 4th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  No Comments 

Here are pictures of the Canadian team at the bridge table in Beijing.

First: Erin Anderson and Matthew Mason

Second: David Granger and David Sabourin

Third: Kai Zhou and (Roy) Yang Li

Swiss Gambit

October 4th, 2008  ~  Mike Yuen  ~  2 Comments 

Matt, Erin, Kai, David and David.

The first two matches has not been kind to us as our opponents kept making magic bids and landed on their feet. It has been a tough day as we lost both matches.

We needed a momentum switch. It is time for a good result when we (David, David, Erin and Matt.) sat down to played Ireland.

As soon as the match was over everybody got to-gather to Compare. "+430, win 1" "+300, win 12" "+600, win 13" "-400, push" "+800, Win 15" "-130, push" "-50 lose 5" and so on. We won big, 61 IMP to 7 IMP. That converts to 25-3 VP win. As I tell everybody "nice set Team".

Canada Open Team had a good day, winning 61 IMP and 2nd of group A. Canadian Woman had 37 IMP ranked 14th in group F. Our Senior Team also had a nice day with 67 IMP ranked 1st in Group I.

The U21 had 51 IMP and ranked 8th. The U26 had 34 IMP and ranked 14th. U28 had 44 IMP, almost back to average, ranked 38th.

The rain has stop and dinner is more enjoyable.