Bridge Week 2013

That eureka moment.

Playing the Silodor Open Pairs with Pat Dunn (North). We had this interesting hand come up against Jenny Wolpert (West) and Jill Levin (East).

Second sesion of the first day.

Board 17. Dealer North. None Vulurable.

You hold as Noth ♠ Void ♥ AKQ1064 ♦ 7 ♣ AKJ1095

Our auction.

What would you do now?

Pat made the normal bid of 6 ♣ . For sure you would think we have a slam. The problem was the opponents owned the spade suit.

The bidding took off.

“I don’t think he is playing poker” Jenny found the excellent 6 ♠ sacrifice against our cold slam!

We took our three tricks but they got most of the match points.

In retrospect, a quiet 3♣ or even a pass over the 2♥ bid may have done the job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues are a hockey team in the NHL. They are doing well (17-12) for the season.

I got the blues while playing bridge in St. Louis. How come you asked? Well it went like this, played the first day of the Mixed Pair, qualified for the Compact the next day. The we qualified for the sand box Swiss aka the loser Swiss in the evening.

We played bad and the opponents played well, not a formula for success.

Board 1. Dealer N. Non vulnerable.

Right out of the gate, Mike Cappelletti SR. fresh from winning the Silver Ribbon Pairs set the tone for our game.

He as South was in 4♠ 

The lead was the ♣ jack, king, eight and queen. ♠ ten, three, two won by partner’s king. ♣ ten, three, five won by the ace. Next he played ♥ king, two, three and five. ♥ eight, nine, queen and six. The trump ♠ nine from dummy, covered by the queen, ace and partner discarded the ♣ two. Exposed the bad trump break.

Mike now took a diamond finesse, ♦ two, nine, ten, I won with the king.

I was end played. A trump return would give up a trump trick. A heart return was no better, He would win in dummy and pick up my trumps.

A diamond return would set up the whole diamond suit.

A club return would give him a ruff and sluff, discard a diamond in hand while ruffing in dummy. Then ace of hearts to discard another diamond. Ruff a heart back to hand to lead the lone diamond to dummy’s ace. At trick 12 he would be in dummy to trump coup me!

I gave him the newspaper play with a club.

Made 11 tricks for +450 and most of the match point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Louis NABC

Just got back to beautiful Vancouver after a fun filled week in cool St. Louis. My flight out was delayed a day as Denver was snowed in.

Congratulations to Sebine Auken, Roy Welland, Morten and Dennis Bilde for winning the Vanderbilt. I believe Roy is the first player ever to win this event with two different life partners.

You can read all results and bulletins at the ACBL site.

Photos from the NABC are posted on Michael Yuen’s Gallery.  Enjoy.

Where Eagles Dare

Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 World War II action movie classic about a group of dare devil commandos, led by Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) and Major John Smith (Richard Burton) sent behind emery lines to rescue a Brigadier General Carnaby ( Robert Beatty) before he could be interrogated by the Germans.

At the recent 2012 Monaco Cavendish Pairs, the dare devil action of Agustin Madala and Zia Mahmood caught my eye.

Final 2/2 session. Board 4. Dealer West. Both vulnerable.

Madala (North) held : ♠ Void ♥ K73 ♦ KQJ64 ♣ J9632

The auction :

Would you take any action?

Madala didn’t let the vulnerability bothered him, balanced with 4NT (two places to play).

The rest of the auction :

Zia with tolerance in all three suits correctly passed and let partner chose. Madala picked his strong minor.

The Deal :

The play was simple, Madala set up clubs for heart discards.

Made 11 tricks for +600 was worth 52 imps, as most sold out to 4 ♠.

Eagle eye may have noticed 5♦ by South was hopeless on a heart lead.

 

 

 

 

Up Antenna

Some players just have the knack of knowing the lay of the land when they play Bridge.

Robert Lebi, Toronto ON and Dan Jacob, Vancouver BC are just a handful of players that have that gift.

In the SF Life Master Open Pairs Final evening session.

Board 4. Dealer West. Both vulnerable.

Robert (East) : ♠ 97 ♥ AKQ1084 ♦ AQ ♣ A75

 

The lead was the King of ♣ 

You see this dummy : ♠ K853 ♥ 632 ♦  98653 ♣ J

How would you play?

This was Robert’s line of play :

The King of clubs was led, it went Jack, six won by the Ace. At trick 2, he trumped the five of clubs in dummy with the six of hearts, all following. Then Robert ran five rounds of trumps.

After seven tricks, these were the remaining cards.

On the sixth and final trump, there was no escape for South, He was trump squeezed, If he discarded another Diamond, Robert would have played the Ace and dropped the King so South had to discard a club.

At Trick 8, Robert threw South in with a club and waited for his two diamond tricks!

Making 10 tricks and the contract, for a great score.

The Deal :

 

A few boards later it was Dan’s turn to shine.

Board 11. Dealer South. None vulnerable.

Dan (West) : ♠ KJ74 ♥ K753 ♦ KJ ♣ K87

This was the auction :

The lead was the nine of ♦

This was the dummy :

 

 

 

The play went nine of diamonds, three, Ace and Jack. The seven of diamonds came back, King, North ruff with the four of hearts and four. At trick 3, North played the five of clubs, Jack, three and seven. Dan drew three rounds of trumps ended up in hand. Played the Jack of spades, covered by the Queen, won with the Ace and three. Next Queen of clubs, four, eight and North ducked.

Trick 9, Dan played the six of diamonds from dummy, ten, ruff with the last trump, North was caught in an interesting non-material squeeze position. (North did not have to discard a winner) He discarded a club.

With 4 tricks to play, these were the reminding cards.

 

Dan now led the four of spades, finesse the eight when North withheld the nine. Cashed the ten of spades, then exited with a  club to end play North. A stepping stone to his good King of spades.

The deal.

Well done!

 

 

 

 

Web Album – Michael Yuen’s Gallery

I have posted photos from San Francisco on the web at Michael Yuen’s Gallery. With help from the legendary singer Tony Bennett (I left my heart in San Francisco!), for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

Walking the dog

June Pocock and I made it to the Mixed Pair final with two solid games.

In the first session the second day. The very first deal, Board 1 as West I picked up ♠ AKQ982 ♥ K8 ♦ Void ♣ AKQJ2

Just as I was sorting my hand. My LHO declarer bid 1♦, Partner Pass and RHO bid 1♥  What would you doing?

I decided to take it slow and bid 1 only ♠ sounding weak, trusting that my opponents will keep the auction open and hoping they will double me when I get to my final contract. One reason I didn’t make a takeout double was to protect my ♥ King.

The auction.

The deal.

Bidding and making the slam was good for 48 mps on a 64 tops.

Board 2 was another exciting deal.

You hold : ♠ A3 ♥ AQ54 ♦ A ♣ AKQ863

Much to my surprise June open 1♠.

The lead was the ♥ Jack.

I won in hand with the ♥ Queen. Played three rounds of club to find clubs breaking. If the suit didn’t break I was going to play a heart to dummy’s nine. The slam was worth 46 mps.

As Dealer. You-East hold : ♠ 52 ♥ 93 ♦ AJ643 ♣ A973

Say you Pass, South bid  2♠ Partner Pass and North Pass. Do you balance?

North-South can make 2♠ . We can make 3♦ or 4♣ .

June balanced with 3♦ Made nine tricks for 52 mps.

It was a nice start to our game and we finished with 60% good for 2nd place overall.

 

In the evening session we could not get any traction. Managed only a 50% game, finished in 10th overall.

June played well for the two days and I had a great time.

The winners were Steven Cooper and Kitty Cooper, Lakeside CA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telephone Number

Playing Teams with Susan Culham, Palm Springs CA. (When it snows in Edmonton.)

Board 13. Dealer South. Both vulnerable.

Susan (East) : ♠ A652 ♥ KJ62 ♦ J6 ♣ A105

Auction went, 1♠ on her left, partner passed, 1NT on her right, she passed.

2♦ on her left, pass, pass to her.

What would you do?

Susan reopened with a double. All Pass.

I (West) led a trump.

We played a 2nd trump when we got in and there after collected a large penalty.

Nobody steals from her.

The Super Senior Pairs (for players 70 and older) was won by Ed Lazarus (This time partner with Mark Laken) for the 3rd time since its inauguration in 2010. 

Congratulations to Ed for his achievement.

I think there should be a rule in place that anybody that has won this event once should be barred from playing. After all, this event was created to give players 70 and older a chance to win a National title before they go on to the bridge game in the sky.

Nothing against Ed, am friends with both Ed and Tiger. Just saying.

 

High Wire Act

I played the Mitchell Open BAM Teams with Michael Cassel, Steven Gaynor and Barry Purrington, friends from Minneapolis, Minnesota area.

How did we do you asked? There was a fouled board in our section, though no fault of our own we somehow lost 1/2 a board. So we qualified for the Compact KO the next day.

Playing the KO. Mike Cassel and I had nice auction to win a game swing.

Board 23. Dealer South. Both vulnerable.

 

Mike was North and I was South.

The auction.

The deal.

The key to the deal was Cassel’s decision not to try 3NT, instead to show the useful Jack of Diamonds. I lost the two major suit Aces, Made 11 tricks for +600.

At the other table our opponents played 3NT by North, on a low Spade lead was quickly down two -200.

We won 13 imps.

 

In the Mixed Pairs Final, MC gave new meaning to intentionally dumping when she slept past game time, left her partner without a game.