Jan
30

Seven Good Points

Text message sent to Mr. Miyagi during a particularly disheartening game last week with a beginner (who’s been playing longer than me, go fig):

Just doubled the opps. in 3H and they made an overtrick in part because my p. overcalled on the two-level, vulnerable with 7 HCP…. so this must be what it’s like for you playing with me.

His response:

Oh, don’t get so down on yourself … you always have a good 7 when you make that bid.

So tonight, against our better judgement, MM and I headed off to the local bridge club and this was the very first board.

As we were removing the cards for the second board (and after he finally stopped laughing at my less than eloquent claim), MM caught my eye and mouthed the words, “Seven high card points?” I nodded. After the round, I followed him outside to bask in the 70° weather while we waited for the other tables to finish. I started the conversation, “It was a really good seven high card points.” He reminded me of the above text message which he claimed I’d taken offense at, if by offense he meant that I’d called him a cranky old man and told him to go drink some more bourbon, then yes. Still, it was a really good seven high card points.

As is typical of this bridge club, we played well and had an almost perfectly average game. But there were definitely some fun hands lurking around including a fair number of questionable 2/1 bids and a Jacoby 2NT raise on 4-3-3-3 and 12 HCP that was down one when MM found a slightly superior line to taking a club finesse. The club finesse works, the superior line doesn’t. And there was a particularly cute slam, still not sure how to bid it, but since seven doesn’t actually make (despite doing so at every single table) my lack of scientific bidding wasn’t an issue. Note the distribution in diamonds, MM was visibly annoyed at having to ruff so many in his hand before claiming, but claiming at this club is a tricky proposition unless you have nothing left in your hand save for aces and kings and trumps.

On the car ride home, he started back up again about my claim on the first hand, “It was like you were reading from a novel, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times and I’m going to cross back to my hand by ruffing this and pitch the queen on the spade and then the other diamond on the other spade and then I’ll win my ace’ and the opponent was already putting her hand back in the board, conceding the tricks just so you would stop talking.” I laughed. The truth is claims might just be the worst part of my game (and that’s really saying something). For reasons I don’t fully understand, sometimes I have a really hard time putting into words what is so clear in my head. In retrospect this is a super simple claim, “I’m pitching two diamonds on my spades and then the board is good.” But when I tried to say this, it came out completely garbled. From now on I’m going to take the Mike Lawrence approach: just face my cards and say, “I’m not going to do anything stupid,” and hope like h_ll the opponents take my word for it, goodness knows my partners won’t.

Jan
27

Gnats

January in the mid-South dawned cold and bleak. On the first weekend there was a local sectional. After bombing out the first couple of sessions, the Kid (henceforth to be known as Mr. Miyagi) changed tactics and demanded that I tell him the exact distribution of his hand on every board. We had a 40% game, but I got the message. Count on, count off. The rest of the weekend saw much better results.

And since then the handful of times I’ve dragged myself off to the club has reminded me precisely why I don’t play there more often. This afternoon encompassed exactly why I find my new home away from home so d_mned annoying.

This was only my second time playing with this partner and our bidding understandings are still all a bit hazy. We had an ill-fated Jacoby 2NT followed by cue-bidding auction that culminated in my bidding Blackwood to confirm the number of aces she was holding. She replied that she had 1 or 4 (5♦) — bad news since I was looking at three dead diamonds and the AK of trump so even if her on were the ace of diamonds things were about to get tricky. The only good news was that my RHO did not make a lead directing double. So I bid 5♠ knowing full well I was in trouble; there was a long hesitation by my partner during which I started to hope that one of us was wrong about what sort of Blackwood we were playing and she actually had 0 or 3. She passed and my hopes were dashed when my RHO now started asking questions about our earlier cuebids. I still thought I had a chance of scraping out eleven tricks because, you’ll recall, that he had not doubled for a diamond lead.

The opening lead hit … a diamond, of course. Dummy came down when three small diamonds, and all of her other values in the suit in which I’d shown a splinter; my RHO promptly cashed his ace and king of diamonds and the ace of clubs. We were down two when he returned yet another diamond to his partner’s queen. After the hand, he was reveling in his brilliant double, “Well, I had an ace-king and an ace so I figured we were beating it.” Now I fully recognize that it was my own fault for pushing this auction too high (it’s probably still a good idea not to bid Blackwood when wide open in a suit even if you think you have reason to think your partner has it covered), but I just had to ask, “Why didn’t you double five diamonds?” He looked confused, “She was just responding to your bid.” “Yes, but don’t you always want a diamond lead? Given that auction I never would have led a diamond, I would have looked for you to have a void somewhere.” He got angry as if I were accusing him of something, which I suppose I was, but I really would love to know why when given a lead directing double on a platter he refused to take it and then got the d_mn lead anyway. This is why I hate playing at this club.

Later in the day after my opponents got to game with a Drury auction and I was on opening lead I wanted to confirm what sort of Drury they were playing, “Regular, the only kind she remembers,” my LHO muttered. “In that case what did her rebid of two diamonds show?” “Nothing,” he said. “So she doesn’t have a full opening bid?” “Reverse Drury,” the soon-to-be declarer chimed in, “We play reverse Drury.” “So does her bid say anything about diamonds.” He shrugged, I waited. “She could have a void and bid that way,” he said. “So nothing about diamonds, thank you,” I said. I led a diamond. Then the Declarer spoke up again, “It does show something in diamonds, but it won’t make a difference.” Turns out she was right, she was down one anyway, but when my opening lead was won in dummy with the eight I was seeing red.

In the former case, the player was sort of a beginner so I could excuse it — sort of, but in this case the opponent knew d_mn well that it showed something in diamonds. He’s just a jack-@ss.

But with opponents like these, I must admit, the gifts are as plentiful as the fixes. Playing the hand well doesn’t often pay off well because the defense is pretty bad, but here’s my favorite hand of the day anyway (link here). A pushy bid on my part, but it was a “state of the match” sort of thing and I was thinking my partner probably had extras. Later in the day on a very similar auction I would pass now knowing that her subsequent raise to three of minor could be quite unsound (and that time she was a passed hand to boot), only then I hit her with a twelve-count that would have made for a very easy nine tricks in NT.

Nov
19

Portrait of a Meltdown

Thumperian principle has prevented me from writing much of anything about my trip to Arkansas. I can say that I couldn’t have chosen a more picturesque setting to have a complete melt down at the table. I can also say that my partner and teammates were extraordinarily kind about the whole thing, which, perversely, only served to make it worse.

The Saturday morning session started at the unholy hour of 9:30 A.M. The coffee in the hotel room was weak. The breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant left a lot to be desired, but the coffee was better. When we sat down at the table I was most of the way through my third cup, but the fog was refusing to clear from my brain. The first session was a three-way match. The first team we played posed little threat and we won our match against them easily. The second proved tougher and they edged us out, okay they crucified us, but it seemed to me that most of the IMPs were being lost at the other table. My teammates would likely tell you they felt the same way. Still our win was enough for us to progress and the size of the bracket meant we would pass Go! and head directly to the semi-finals. I had no appetite for lunch, but my head felt somewhat clearer – alas it was but an illusion.

The first four boards went just fine. In fact we went on to win 22 IMPs in those first four boards. Then something bad happened, namely, I got a good hand.

Both sides vul. My LHO was the dealer and I picked up this:

♠ AQ
♥ xxx
♦ KQJTx
♣ AJx

The bidding went as follows:

(P)-P-(1♥)-X-
(4♥)-4♠-(X)-5♦-
(X)-All Pass

It was ugly; -1400 worth of ugly.

But I wasn’t down for the count just yet. As my partner put it, I went on a “rampage” for the next four hands. “I realized I was just along for the ride,” he said. There was only the smallest bit of reproach in the way he said it. This wild tear culminated with a very uncharacteristic psych bid from me.

Neither side vul., my RHO was again the dealer and this was my hand:

♠ J
♥ xxx
♣ xxxxx
♦ Jxxx

Lovely, right? The bidding began:

(P)-1♥-(X)-

I immediately have a decision to make. This hand isn’t even good enough for a “courtesy raise” to 2♥ and I know the opponents have a spade fit, at least an eight card fit, maybe more. I didn’t really have to think about my next bid at this vulnerability: 1♠. And as is so often the case when someone makes a ridiculous bid the auction went completely off of the rails:

(P)-1♥-(X)-1♠-
(2♦)-2♠-(3♦)-
(P)-3♠-(X)-4♥-
(5♦)-X-All Pass

My partner led the ♠A, four spades came down in dummy and I, of course, dropped the Jack which as per our treatment would be asking for a heart shift, but that would be almost completely illogical on this hand and so he continued with a small spade which I ruffed. Now he was finally in on the joke and we started a cross ruff of spades and clubs which beat the contract three for +800 on a hand where they were cold for 4♠. Our teammates were in 3♠ making four, +14 IMPs for us.

At the half, we were up by a whopping total of 7 IMPs on a set that we should have been ahead by 20. During the break I scurried away to try to collect my thoughts. Unfortunately, I failed.

The first six boards of the second half were unremarkable, but I was on tilt and I knew it. Had I been playing poker I would have walked away from the table glad to still have chips left. On the seventh board, another disaster. In third site, vul. against not I opened the following hand:

♠ Kxxx
♥ xxxx
♦ A
♣ Kxxx

Frankly I would have been tempted to open this hand in 1st or 2nd seat. If my partner bids a major, I have a real live opening bid on my hands.

P-(P)-1♣-(P)-
1♥-(1NT*)-2♥-(3♦)-
4♥-(5♦)-P!!!-(P)-
5♥- (P)-P-(X)-
All Pass

*Sandwich NT showing 5-5 in the unbid suits

When the dummy came down my partner was not amused. He kept it to down two and we lost 12 IMPs. If I wasn’t on tilt before, I certainly was now.

On the very next hand, my eyes (as well as my brain) started playing tricks on me. Both vul., my partner opened the bidding in 1st seat. I had:

♠ xxx
♥ xxx
♦ xx
♣ 9xxxx

There may have been a ten in there somewhere, I don’t remember. The bidding went:

1♦-(1♥)-P-(2♥)-
X-(P)-

At least that’s what I saw so when it got back around to me I took a deep breath and bid 3♣ which was immediately doubled and passed out. But this is how the bidding actually went:

1♦-(1♥)-P-(2♦)-
X-(P)-

Which is to say I didn’t have to bid, I just needed to lead a diamond when they settled on how many hearts they wanted to be in. My LHO happened to be holding the AKQx of clubs and so after he pulled trump there wasn’t much left for me to do except try not to cry as I went down for my second quadruple digit score of the session.

As I noted my partner and my teammates were very nice about the whole thing, which made me feel even worse. Especially when this team that beat us (or should I say the team against which I beat us) went on to win the whole thing which really just means it should have been us. After the match as I was gazing out across the picturesque lake from a balcony one of my teammates told me not to jump and then immediately realized his error and offered me a leg up over the railing. My partner asked very nicely if I wouldn’t like to take a long walk off the short pier into the lake. That was as nasty as they got and the two members of the team with whom I had played with regularly in the past both said they’d still play with me in the future. The fourth member of the team noted that he never would have been willing to play with me to begin with so there was no loss there. And, most surprisingly of all, I made it out of Arkansas alive.

Oct
31

Trick or Treat?

Halloween night finds me sitting with a giant bowl of candy, anxiously awaiting the arrival of trick-or-treaters. It seems fitting that I would be stuck with all the treats tonight, all the tricks were at the club last night.

This weekend the Kid and I are headed deep into Arkansas to play at a sectional tournament and we decided to pick up a couple of practice sessions at the local bridge club before the trip. When I first met him I was surprised to learn that he didn’t play at the club all that often. For one thing, there really isn’t all that much else to do around here and for another, he obviously loves bridge.

It was not until I moved here that I learned that there are Howell movements that go up past five tables. In fact, the directors here love to bust out the special guide cards for seven and eight-table Howells. The games are unbearably slow but you get to play a lot of boards and you get to play most everyone else, plus it’s only a two or three board sit out when there’s half a table.

Our first round was a bit rocky, the opponents bid up to 4♥ and went down one when I realized at trick two that our only hope of beating it was to take tricks in the trump suit and so resisted the urge to fly up with my ace in the hopes that my partner had the KJ doubleton, he did and it was off one. On the very next hand though I ran smack into a signal that I have missed before. We’re playing obvious shift on the opening lead, in the case of a singleton in dummy instead of just switching to suit preference, which is standard, we added the clause that a middle spot encourages while either a high or low is suit preference. Great idea, but you have to remember that is what is going on. I led an ace. He played the seven. (“The seven must be a middle spot, if only I knew what he wanted ….”) I shifted to a side suit. The switch in and of itself didn’t hurt us, but it gave my partner the wrong picture of the hand which led him astray later on and gave them an overtrick for a top. On the bright side, later on when my partner was the one on lead and the dummy hit with a singleton, I remembered to play a middle card to encourage.

The night wore on with hand after hand in which the opponents’ bad plays payed off while our good plays came to naught, but the stuff that nightmares are made of was yet to come. We sat down against a pair that are noted for being unpredictable. The Kid had already bemoaned the fact that the movement meant we’d almost certainly have to play them. On the first hand, my RHO was the dealer, we were vulnerable they were not and the auction went like this:

(P)-P-(1♣)-P-
(1♥)-1♠-(1NT)-P-
3NT!- All Pass

As he was entering the contract, North said to his partner, “Your hand must have been pretty good for a passed hand.” “It isn’t points, it’s trick taking ability,” she replied tersely. The Kid led a low spade and this was her “trick taking” dummy:

♠ x
♥ xxxx
♦ Axx
♣ Kxxxx

North stared at her as if she’d completely lost her mind. I probably had the same look on my face. I won my king, returned the nine, which the declarer covered with the ten and my partner won his ace. He returned a small spade which the declarer won with his queen. Then declarer went after the ratty clubs. He played a small club to the king, my partner dropped the jack which was really bad news because I was holding the T9 … so yes, the QJ dropped doubleton and so did the T9 which meant declarer took five clubs, two diamonds, a heart and a spade to make his 3NT contract with a combined 20 HCP while most of the field was in 3♣ making 4. My partner and I fumed. “Well, we needed a good hand,” South said.

On the next hand, both sides were vulnerable and I was the dealer with:

♠ Jxx
♥ J
♦ T98xxx
♣ xxx

Did I consider opening it 2♦? I admit that I did, but only very briefly.

P-(P)-1♥-(X)-
All Pass

Uh-oh. But on the bright side, half my points are in my partner’s suit. As it turned out, South had a 25 HCP hand and North had six hearts to the king. When the smoke cleared we were down 3 for -800 and they do not have a slam their way. The two of them started into this infuriating dialog, “Hearts was my suit I thought one heart doubled was the best spot we’d find.” “I had twenty-four high card points! What’d we get … two, five, eight .. eight hundred?” “There’s no slam our way.” “But I had twenty-four points!” (She can’t count.) “Doesn’t matter, there’s no slam.” “How many spades did you have?” “Even if we get to four spades it isn’t as good.” “What about clubs?” “There’s no slam.” And just when I thought they’d finally gotten the passive-aggressive gloating out of their system South spoke up again, “So that was eight hundred?” I was ready to test the club’s zero tolerance policy, but instead I picked up the next hand.

My partner opened 1NT (he was a point shy, but what’s one point between bridge partners?). I had another 2 HCP hand, but with a five card spade suit and we got out safely for down one in 3♠. I’ll admit I fled the table before I lost my cool and left the Kid to approve the last score. I get why he doesn’t play there more often.

Not all of the weirdness went so badly for us. I finally got a good hand:

♠ Axxxx
♥ Ax
♦ ATx
♣ AKJ

We were vulnerable and our opponents were not. My LHO was the dealer and opened a preemptive 2♦. Not surprisingly, my partner passed. Then my RHO bid 3♣ which was alerted as not being forcing. I doubled which got passed back around to my RHO who then bid 3♦. Now I bid 3♠ and my partner raised me to four.

My LHO led a club and much to my surprise the dummy hit with five clubs to the ten. Clearly something was amiss here. I won my RHO’s queen and started pulling trump. I wasn’t surprised when they broke 4-1, but I was surprised when my LHO (the opener) was the one who had four. As it turned out, my LHO had only two clubs, Qx. The club lead turned out to be rather advantageous though and the only trick I lost was to the jack of trump. The only explanation I can come up with for his 3♣ bid is that he wanted to keep us from finding our eight card club fit. He had the right idea, but the wrong black suit; a 3♠ bid in the same vein would have done them much better.

Oct
22

In the Money

One of my new partners is also on the softball team. After yet another defeat I was wandering back to the parking lot, lost in thought over just how bad our team actually is, when he got my attention, “Tomorrow night is something we’re good at!” That reminder cheered me up greatly. Once a month the local club has a team game that is balanced by a formula that anyone with fewer than 1,000 masterpoints is a “1″, players with between 1,000 and 2,500 masterpoints are “2″s and those with more than 2,500 masterpoints are a “3″. The total for the four-person team cannot be greater than 8. This particular partner and I had played once before and the card we’re playing is pretty simple, though we expect to add more in the future.

Early on in the night, my partner remarked that I was overly pessimistic in the way I played and defended. I wanted to tell him that my experience playing with the Mad Scientist has inured me to lousy hands and bad trump splits, but instead I told him I was just being “realistic”. Then we went off to compare with our teammates and found out that all our good work had been undone by a speculative double that went spectacularly wrong at their table. “It happens,” I said while thinking of my bridge teacher who almost always continued that with, “… and sometimes ‘it’ is spelled with an ‘sh’.”

On one hand during the very last match, red against white, in fourth seat I opened 1♥. My LHO overcalled 1♠ and my partner jumped to 3♠. I could think of two plausible explanations for the bid, but luckily position told me everything. If he wanted me to bid 3NT with a spade stopper he wouldn’t hold the kind of hand that would have gotten markedly better when I opened the bidding 1♥ and since he was a passed hand he couldn’t be forcing to game with a hand that didn’t improve with my opening bid. Ergo his 3♠ bid was a splinter. I found this quite nifty because I had a pretty good hand:

♠ Qxx
♥ AKTxxx
♦ AKxx
♣ Jx

Since it’s safe to say that he is at the top of his range for being a passed hand (10-11 HCP) and with those points not being in spades, I’m actually interested in slam now that I am no longer worried about spades. Of course, clubs are still a problem so I can’t just pass GO! and go directly to Blackwood, but I have lots of room on this auction so I bid 4♦ showing both a diamond control and denying one in clubs.

(P)-P-(P)-1♥-
(1♠)-3♠-(P)-4♦-

Now my partner knows I don’t have a club control, and clearly I’m interested in slam or I would have just signed off in 4♠ so I must want to know about clubs. As it turns out, he has something for me in clubs, but instead of bidding 5♣, he makes a truly great bid of 5♥ which I interpretted as showing the club ace as well as either a void in spades or something extra in diamonds I wasn’t sure which it was, but it was enough for me to jump go right on up to 6. (Later he would clarify that with the spade void he would have instead cuebid 4♠ so he was showing something in diamonds as well as first round control of clubs.)

(P)-P-(P)-1♥-
(1♠)-3♠-(P)-4♦-
(P)-5♥-(P)-6♥

As my partner remarked while putting down his hand, “That was a sophisticated auction for an unsophisticated pair.”

6♥ was ice cold. The opponents won only their opening lead which was the ace of spades. I was starting to feel distinctly more optimistic.

In the same round a few hands later, I picked up a 23 HCP NT-type hand and another “sophisticated” auction was underway. This time the opponents remained silent throughout:

2♣-2♦-
2NT-3♣*-
3♦**-3♥***-
3♠-4NT-
5♦****-5♥*****-
6♦******-6♠

*Puppet Stayman
** I have at least one four card major
***I don’t have hearts.
****3 or 0
*****Do you have the ♠Q too?
******Yes and the ♦K, but not the ♣K

There was a long hesitation before my partner bid 6♠. It seemed possible he was contemplating seven, but it turns out when I saw his hand I realized the question was really between 6♠ and 6NT. He too had a flat hand but we’d found our 4-4 spade fit so my preference (and his it appears) is to play in the suit. Well most of the time….

The opening lead was a diamond which my RHO promptly ruffed. “Six notrump,” I said glumly. Things were looking up when it came to light that I had to lose two more tricks anyway so 6NT was also a non-starter. Of course, our intrepid teammates intervened over the 2♣ auction at the other table and so they never got to the 33 HCP small slam that wasn’t, instead they stopped in 3NT — making five. When the smoke cleared we came in 2nd overall, not a bad showing all things considered. And, more importantly, we won the jackpot (the team that came in first had not entered).

My partner and I decided to play the next night in the regular pairs game and again we bid right up to 6♥ unopposed. In first seat, vul. against not, I opened with:

♠ AJxxxx
♥ KQJTx
♦ T
♣ x

1♠-2♦-
2♥-3♥-
4♥-4NT-
5♠*-5NT-
6♥-P

*2 Keycards + Q of trump or the “Oh why oh why did we put off adding Kickback?!” bid.

My LHO led a spade. As he was laying down his hand, my partner remarked “If [my RHO] trumps this, I’m never playing with you again.” “Agreed,” I said thinking we were going to make seven and then I asked him to play low from dummy:

♠ Kx
♥ Axxx
♦ AKxx
♣ AJx

My RHO trumped. It’s really a shame that such a promising partnership has ended so soon. Now at this point I’m still convinced that six is going to be gin, unless of course the hearts break 0-4 so guess what? After my LHO showed out on the first round of trump I went into the tank for a long time, certainly longer than most of my partners have ever witnessed me do so. I was, of course, trying to think of a line that would let me make six. Finally it dawned on me that I could make six if my LHO along with his FIVE F_CKING SPADES also held both the King and Queen of clubs and with this in mind I started to pull trump when the bridge gods smiled on me and my LHO discarded a spade (he did not in fact have both missing club honors so there was no squeeze). I was the only person to make 6, in fact several people only made 4. Later on (after three hands on which he opened I did not have enough in my hand to respond) I asked if he still thought I was overly pessimistic, he agreed that I wasn’t.

We didn’t actually end the partnership, though he probably wanted to later on in the evening when I made a boneheaded play on defense which gave the pair that was then in second place a top and the edge over us. We came in 2nd again, but again we also won the jackpot. Things could be worse.

Oct
01

I’d rather be lucky ….

When it comes to partnerships I’ve always been pretty lucky and while I worried that this move would represent the time that my luck ran out, it has not. I’ve played a few times now with a very sharp woman who is an excellent player and she has yet to run screaming from the club; in fact, she seemed pleased to get to trot out some of the conventions that other people in this area aren’t keen on playing.

Yesterday she presented me with a laminated, computer printed convention card (a huge step in any bridge partnership). She arrived just before the game started so I didn’t actually get a chance to look at the new convention card and as we played she kept thinking of things that she’d added that we had never actually discussed (for example: Namyats, Rosencrantz, Snap-dragon doubles). Before we play next I’m going to have to spend some serious time with the card and a high speed internet connection just so I know for sure what I’m in for. But as I’ve said in the past, when I play with a stronger player the thing I have to offer is a willingness to learn new conventions so I’m game to play their ideal card, almost regardless of what it includes. Of course, when I’m playing with a weaker partner I’d never ask them to try to play all the conventions I like so I volunteer to play whatever they like. One day I will find a partner with whom I can play the stuff I like — though to be honest I’m not longer exactly sure just what that system would look like.

Today I read in the news that a 697 lb. alligator had been captured and killed in MIssissippi. My initial reaction to the headline was “Thank g_d that’s nowhere near here,” only then to realize that it was here (a few hours south of here to be precise, but not nearly as far away as it should have been).

Sep
23

A Rebid Dilemma

From what I’ve gathered the local club is not actually very good about finding partners for people; they’ll make an effort, of course, but there’s nothing close to a guarantee. On Friday when discussing my plans for the weekend, I mentioned that I was going to try to get a partner for at least one bridge game and my boss took the matter into his own hands and hooked me up with his wife. When I spoke to her yesterday on the phone to finalize our plans for today, she invited me over to their house for dinner and an “individual duplicate” bridge game last night. People really are very friendly around here.

This particular game of individual duplicate bridge was basically Board-A-Match scoring because there were only two tables. It was made more interesting by the fact that the players were all pretty sophisticated bidding wise and so even though an announcement was made that we were playing Standard American Yellow Card (not to be confused with “Standard American”) other conventions crept in quickly. On the second hand of the night, my partner made a Lebensohl bid of 2NT hoping to coax me into bidding 3♣ so he could pass — only Lebensohl isn’t part of SAYC so I passed and only made it because I happened to be holding the AKx across from his Qxxxxx of clubs. I’d rather be lucky than good.

Later in the night, playing with woman with whom I played today. I got confronted by one of the ugliest rebid situations I’ve seen in a very long time:

I opened the bidding in first seat, vulnerable against not, with this:

♠ KQJx
♥ AT
♦ Txx
♣ KJxx

(In the future I’m opening this hand 1NT — regardless of whether I’m playing a weak NT or not.)

The bidding went as follows with the opponents silent throughout:

1♣-1♥-
1♠-2♦-
?!?

I made an assumption here that her bid was meant as fourth suit forcing which actually makes my troubles worse because I can only guess at the existence of a diamond stopper so bidding NT is out. I refuse to rebid either of my four card suits and a 2♥ bid here would show three card support. I made the only bid left which was a raise to 3♦ hoping that she would take this by process of elimination as looking for NT.

1♣-1♥-
1♠-2♦-
3♦-4NT-
5♦-6♦

It didn’t end very well, we were off two. Fortunately for us at the other table they ended up in 4♥ also down two. Clearly from the look on her face three diamonds to the ten was not her idea of support. It’s a miracle she agreed to play with me again today.

This afternoon went pretty well, though there were the usual kinks when playing with a new partner. Still we’ve decided to make a regular date to play on Thursday nights which pleases me greatly because she’s a terrific player with a very sharp mind.

Awhile back Yin had mentioned that his professional partner accepted all invitations when he had a singleton and you know me, I love any excuse to bid so I’ve been following that pretty consistently. Today I think I may have finally hit the limit of that rule with this hand:

♠ Axxx
♥ Axxxx
♦ x
♣ Axx

Both sides vulnerable I opened this hand in second seat — rebid problems be d_mned, I’ve never met three quick tricks I didn’t like.

(P)-1♥-(2♣)-3♣-
(P)-4♥- All Pass

Turns out the limit on the hand is three, I managed to make two when I misread the opening lead of the J♣ — a mistake I should have avoided had I counted.

This was the dummy:

♠ QT
♥ QJx
♦ Axxx
♣ Qxxx

If I put the queen of clubs on it, the queen will hold because the opening leader is leading from: KJTxx. The only way that not playing the queen would have been right was if my RHO held the singleton king which isn’t likely. But, of course, I’m still not making 4.

Aug
27

Lowly Support

The very first hand of the day was by far my favorite auction. Not-vulnerable against vulnerable, in first seat, this was my hand:

♠ KQxxx
♥ 9xx
♦ x
♣ KTxx

My mind briefly flitted to opening it 2♠, but then I came back to my senses (it happens once in awhile) and I passed. Good thing too, because my LHO then opened the bidding 1♠

P-(1♠)-2♥-(2♦)-

As soon as the Mad Scientist bid 2♥ I had begun contemplating what was the best of my bad options. My hand is way too good with heart support to pass, but I don’t really want to go to the three level with three baby hearts and the majority of my points sitting in front of the opener in said opener’s suit. When my RHO made the insufficient bid of 2♦ my problem was resolved; since one of my options is to accept the insufficient bid, I did so and bid 2♥. Surprisingly, no one even raised an eyebrow.

P-(1♠)-2♥-(2♦)-
2♥-(P)-P-(2♠)-
X-All Pass

Some unfortunate defense allowed the accursed contract to make, but then again it was the first round and everyone knows the first round doesn’t really count. And, for the record, it does not make 3♥.

Aug
21

“Who loves ya, Baby?”

“The title of your memoir should be: ‘Bridge: A Love Story’,” my partner said. I have to admit that it’s a pretty good title. I’ve fallen in love twice in my life; the second time it was with bridge, too bad it’s unrequited.

My partner today was someone I feel would be a good regular partner for me, but our schedules have never meshed so when we do get a chance to play we’re still struggling to figure out each other’s style. For example, twice today she made a “top of nothing” lead that I misinterpreted as a doubleton. I’m famously good at misinterpreting “top of nothing” leads which makes me a big proponent of “second from top of nothing” leads, but those are far from standard practice. In one case my mistake didn’t cost us, but in the other it led me to contrive a defense that gave the declarer an overtrick on a hand where just scraping out the contract was an accomplishment. To wit, I popped up with an ace prematurely so that I could cash my ace in the suit my partner had led and return it for her to ruff before the declarer could pull trump — except it was the declarer who showed out on the third spade trick and this play let the dummy win the trick with the jack while I was left holding the queen. Brilliant. This in a round that when I finally made a hand that I shouldn’t have, we only got 50% — and that was our best result.

Even that bit of defense couldn’t hold a candle to the brain-dead bid I made a couple of rounds later. Vulnerable against not, my partner opened 4♥ in second seat. My RHO over-called 4♠. This was my hand:

♠ Q
♥ Q
♦ AKxxx
♣ A98xxx

As the cards actually lie, my best bid would be 5♥ — though it’s anything but clear that it’ll make from my perspective. A perfectly good bid would have been to double, the defense to beat it by three is pretty straight forward. I could even just pass and get an average-minus score; but for reasons that I myself am not entirely clear on, I instead decided to bid 5♣ — which is off two for an absolute bottom. Don’t ask what I was thinking, because I wasn’t, or I won’t admit to it in any case.

Aug
17

Fits & Spurts

In sharp contrast to our previous outing when misunderstandings were kept to a minimum and everything seemed to be working, in this session, miscommunication abounded and nothing seemed to work. Twice the Mad Scientist made a jump bid showing diamonds and spades; and twice I took it as a one-suited hand and mis-bid accordingly.

The first time it was a jump over my LHO’s pre-emptive 2♥ opening bid. I took it as a strong hand with a strong diamond suit. My hand was 1=4=4=4 and while the king of hearts was of rather negligible value, the singleton spade seemed like a good thing. I bid 5♦. After that things took a sharp turn for the worse, but if I had in fact recognized the bid as “Leaping Michael’s” showing a very distributional hand with diamonds AND spades I would have passed 4♦ — as I know all too well a singleton in partner’s suit is only rarely useful.

Later I opened a hand in 3rd seat, both sides vulnerable, 1♦. It was what sometimes gets referred to as a “sub-minimum” opener though one of my partners bristles at the very idea of such a thing (“If a hand is ‘sub-minimum’, don’t open it!”):

♠ KQJx
♥ x
♦ ATxxx
♣ xxx

Not surprisingly my LHO overcalled a heart and this time TMS jumped to 2♠. I took it as a weak jump-shift and passed, figuring him for Axxxxx of spades and little else. I’m not wholly convinced of what that bid should mean by a passed hand in competition, but as TMS noted he wouldn’t be likely to force us up a level on a bad hand under those circumstances. Anyway, he meant it as a “fit-showing jump” with diamonds and spades. Needless to say my “sub-minimum” morphs into quite a different animal across from such a hand and I should have gone to 4♠. Of course, actually having a good idea of what partner has in their hand would take all the fun out of this game, wouldn’t it?