I think the dealer was a swine

I forgot to mention this in my post about playing poker Wednesday. In the Omahaha-8 game, I was sitting in the 10 seat -- next to the dealer, in other words. One of them coughed several times during his 30-minutes down.

Have you heard about the Swine flu? How do you think it is spread? Check this from a memo the HR people here at work just sent:

About the Swine Flu:
The Swine Flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, is caused by Type A Influenza and is a respiratory disease that originated in pigs. Humans can become infected with the virus by coming into contact with humans or pigs carrying Swine Flu. It is important to note that you cannot get Swine Flu from eating pork. This is an airborne illness, spread through coughing and sneezing.

I honestly think I might move or sit out the next time I'm sitting next to someone who is caughing and sneezing. Do you think I'm over-reacting?

Some days start off badly, but end great

I took a vacation day to go play another event in the Magnolia State Poker Tournament. It was similar to the one I played last week. The entry fee was $240 for 8000 in chips, and the structure was good: 40-minute levels starting at 25/50.

There were only 83 runners, which was disappointing. There are regular weekly tournaments that sometimes draw that many. The attendance was poor, and my results even worse. I picked up a few small pots, but each time I had a good hand, I lost chipa. When the blinds were 25/50, an older guy in early position raised to 200. It folded to me and I checked my hole cards to see: ♠K ♣K. Some like to slow play and trap, but I usually bet out. They will either play with you or not, so I raised to 600. The flop was just awful: ♣A ♥Q ♦J. He checked to me. I guess I could check also, but I took one stab at it and bet 700 which was called. The turn was the ♠Q and the villain bet 1,000. Um, sure buddy.

I lost money twice with suited A-Q. On one, this old man limped in and he had A-K. I lost the minimum. Then this: The blinds were 50/100 and two limped to me on the button and I had: ♥A ♦A. I raised to 600, and the big blind (who had a short stack of around 3000) called. The flop was ♦Q ♥8 ♠7. The villain checked, I bet 1,000 and he moved all in. I finally decided he had either 10-9 suited and a draw or something like K-Q or A-Q. I called and was shocked when he turned over 8-7 off suit for two pair. I'm not sure how weak they will be to call a big raise out of position, but they are taking it to new levels.

Now my stack was crippled. A couple of orbits later, the blinds were 100/200 with 25 ante. There were four limpers to me in the big blind and I had 5-5, presto! I moved all in. I was hoping to pick up the pot there, of course, and if someone calls me, I'll race with them. Not so fast. The next guy who had been first to act, also moved all in to isolate me. Fine, I thought, I'll race, but he had 10-10, presto was not gold, and I was history.

The highlights of the tournament for me were these two things: 1. During the first break, I was in the bathroom and this guy said to a friend (loud enough that I could hear), "Thank goodness my Flomax is working." Um, too much information there guy. 2. Another guy told a joke at the table. I think I have heard some version of it before, but I'm not sure. Question: What is the difference between a dog and a poker player? Answer: A dog will eventually quit whining.

I wasn't ready to call it a day, so I wandered over to the Goldstrike which is next door to the Horseshoe.

I was surprised to find out there was an Omaha-8 game with a kill going (surprised because it was during the day and middle of the week) with one seat left. Yes! CK told me in a comment that I would get hooked on it and she is right. With four hole cards, the possibilities are endless. At least, that is what I've found others think. I just try to play better starting cards (when I can figure out what that means), and don't chase unless the math is right. I've played O-8 twice before, but both times on a weekend. While there were weak players to support the game, there were always several good players, too. This time there was one good player and the rest were hopeless. One guy didn't understand how the low hand worked! When they were explaining it to him, the guy next to him said some things (I forget what exactly) that indicated he didn't either! So, obviously they were both Omaha newbies.

I played conservatively, but when I hit a hand, I got paid off. For example, a player had 4-4 and the flop was K-7-4. It was bet to him and he raised with his bottom set. I called. The turn was another 7, giving him 4s full of 7s. He bet $12, I raised and he raised me back. I raised again. What do you think I had? Yes, I had K-K for kings full of 7s. Then he started complaining about how he must be the unluckiest player in the world. Um, sure.

I bought into the Omaha-8 game for $120. Check out my stack:


I plan to play one more tournament. Saturday evening there is a Seniors' event for players over 50. I think I can bluff my way past that age thing, ha. It costs $340, so I'm going to give it a shot.

Here are some more photos that I took today.

Don't be careless

Here's is another IPBA deal. Playing matchpoints, you bid to 6NT on this:

                ♠ Q 10 8
                ♥ 10 8
                ♦ 8 7 6 4
                ♣ 8 7 6 5
♠ 9 7 6 4 2                  ♠ ---
♥ J 4 2                      ♥ Q 9 7 6 5 3
♦ 3                          ♦ K 9 5 2
♣ Q J 10 2                   ♣ 9 4 3
                ♠ A K J 5 3
                ♥ A K
                ♦ A Q J 10
                ♣ A K

You open a strong 2♣ bid, and North bids 2♦. You rebid 2♠ and North raises to 4♠, weaker than 3♠. Over 4NT, Keycard Blackwood, North shows no key cards, but you ask and he shows he has the ♠Q, but no king. You sign off in 6NT.

West leads the ♣Q and you win the king. My first thought would be why can't I hold hands like this playing rubber bridge for money? You've done well to play slam in notrump instead of spades. You see that you can concede the ♦K and claim 12 tricks, but (because it's matchpoints) can you take all 13 tricks if the diamond finesse works?

You should start with the ♠J. When West follows, it's safe to overtake with dummy's queen. You lead a diamond to the queen which holds. Now, you have two more entries to dummy to repeat the diamond finesse. You lead a low spade to the 8, and later a spade to the 10.

What if you are careless the first time you go to dummy? Suppose you lead the ♠3 to the 10 and take one diamond finesse. But now, when you lead the ♠5 towards the ♠Q 8, an alert West can play the ♠9, and you don't have enough entries in the situation as shown. Actually, it's not hard for him to find that play, is it?

Here is the same deal with the Handviewer from BBO:



You can click "next" to follow the card play. Which one do you like better?

I took a day off to play poker, why not?

Question: What is the Magnolia State Poker Tournament?

Answer #1: It's a poker tournament that just started at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica.

Answer #2: It's the reason I decided to take a vacation day from work to go play (I finished 5th, going out on a cooler).

The tournament is listed in Card Player magazine here, and Bluff magazine here, and on the Horseshoe's own web site here.

I put on one of my new poker tee shirts for the occasion:


There were 107 other donkeys players besides me who showed up to play. The buyin was $230 for T6000 chips and for $10 more, you could do what was called a dealer appreciation and get T2000 more. Guess what? Everyone appreciated the dealers. The blinds started at 25/50 and moved up slowly and the levels were 40 minutes long -- excellent!

We had a 10 minute break every two hours. At the first break, my stack had fizzled down to ~T6000. That was the bad news, but the good news is that the blinds were still low and I had plenty of time to recover. I lost a good bit when I raised before the flop with ♠A ♠Q, and saw this flop: 10-6-3. It looks harmless enough, so I made a CB and got promptly raised. How dare they raise me. Don't they know I'm the MOJO? I guess not.

It always amazes me how many players get knocked out in the early stages. They give you a zillion chips, make the blinds teeny, and players still find ways. During the first two hours ~20 players were eliminated. (I'm guessing based on the fact that they broke two tables to use those players as fill-ins in other tables where people were busted.) EDIT: I thought of this after I posted: There were extra seats for late arrivals during Level 1, so some of these were the seats that weren't filled.

I don't remember any great hands for the next several levels, except this one. With the blinds 150/300, I had ♦A ♦9 in the hijack position. It was folded to me, and I fired 900. Only the button called. the flop was awful: ♦K ♥J ♣9. I bet 1900 and the villain quickly called, uh oh. The turn was the ♠K and I bet 4000. The other guy took forever, asked how much I had left (T1900) before folding. I guess he was on some kind of a draw, but I'm still not sure. I was one of the players who tried to bust out early, but they wouldn't accommodate me, hah.

During the second two hours, I was able to chip back up to around average. Actually that was my story-line all day -- I never really had a good chip stack. Part of it was I never had A-A or K-K or even Q-Q. I never had a set. I won good-sized pots with big slick twice, once at the final table which I'll recount later.

When we got down to two tables, players tightened up and I went on a rampage. I had A-5 off, moved all in and everyone folded. I had ♠7 ♣7 and moved in again. My stack was so low that there was no point making a normal raise as I would be pot committed. Again, everybody folded. A player made a raise, was called and it was my turn. I moved in yet again, this time with ♠A ♠K. Both of them folded. This was at the point where the blinds and antes were very significant, so I really chipped up from a short stack, to an above average stack.

Everyone folded to me on the button, and I saw ♣A ♣J and raised yet again (not all in, I had chips enough to play normally by now). Again I picked up the blinds and antes. Finally the guy behind me was getting short stacked. It folded to me in the SB, and I raised again, this time with A-5 off. The guy said in a low voice, "I haven't looked at my cards," and moved all in. He only had around 19,000, and I had already bet 10,000, so calling was a no-brainer. Sure enough, he was telling the truth -- he surely hadn't looked -- and turned over 10-3 off. The flop came with not one, but two aces, and he was history. Would you make a give-up play like he did? I guess at that point he had nothing to lose, but his real problem was he was playing too tightly and let his stack get so low that it wasn't really functional.

At the final table, again at the beginning players were playing too tight as they settled in. Again, I chipped up by taking advantage.

Players loosened up and chips started flying, and players started dropping. When there were six of us left, I came in for a raise of 2.5 times the big blind (I think it was 20,000), and the short stack moved all in (I believe for 39,000). It wasn't that much more and I had ♥A ♥K, so I called, of course. The other guy turned over ♣6 ♠6, and wasn't happy when the flop came with an ace.

At this point, there were five, and everyone had a pretty good-sized stack, so two of the guys suggested a five-way chop which would give us each around $3300, not bad. There was one guy who refused. I'm not sure why, he was lucky to still be in the tournament. Early at the final table, the board had A-x-x-x with one card to come, but three hearts on the board. The other guy put him all in with ♥J♥10 for a flush. The guy who called had ♠A ♥K! A heart on the river saved him as he now had a higher flush.

We played for a while and I picked up these cards in the big blind: ♣A ♣10. The blinds were 4000/8000 with a 1000 ante. It folded to me in the SB,and I raised to 24,000. The BB (who was the guy who wouldn't chop) raised to 54,000. It cost me 30,000 to try to win the giant pot that was developing. I could have folded, but I called, sue me.

The flop was amazing: A-10-x rainbow! I checked and the other guy moved all in! I called and he turned over A-A, yuck, and this knocked me out. To me, his all in was a terrible blunder. He had almost an impregnable hand, why run me out? He can't know I have two pair. He could check, he could bet a little bit, but all in? Anyway, it worked and I was out of there.

I collected my winnings, and cashed out (they pay you in casino chips). I took this photo of the shot clock on my way out:

The shot below was taken during our (tournament) dinner break. The poker room is in the far back. The people you see playing poker in the foreground are in satellites:


Bluesville is Horseshoe's theater where they have shows. Some are good, some not so much. It's a nice photo -- go ahead, click on it.


They'll let anybody come play in these tournaments.

Getting the word out

The US News and World Report is running a series on 50 ways to improve your life. Last December, there was an excellent article entitled "Learn to Play Bridge" as one in the series, and it's written by a guy named Mike Salmon. I've never heard of him, but if he's getting word out about bridge, he's probably pretty cool.

The piece mentions how bridge is good for exercising your brain. But it also points out that another biggie is meeting and interacting with people from the bridge subculture who have being pretty clever as a common denominator.

I can relate. No matter where I go, there is a bridge club, and a built-in introduction to some interesting people in whatever community that is. Yes, the Internet has shrunk our world, but there's still no substitute for face-to-face.

The article is short, so if you want to read it, just click here.

On the road to Omaha

I played Omaha-8 again last night at the Goldstrike Casino (my second time live), and that is one *fun* game. Because I didn't know what I was doing, I played mostly low hands -- ones that had A-2 or A-low suited with a third low card. Yes, I folded a lot, but booked a win!

I'm just getting a feel for the game, but the tourists sure play loose. One of the locals raised before the flop with this hand. I didn't agree with it, but would like to hear what players who actually know how to play think. He had ♣A ♠A ♠10 ♠6. Yes, he has pocket aces, but only one other low card, and the 10 detracts from his hand as it is a third spade. Maybe I'm missing something here.

I made two big mistakes that I'm aware of (and no doubt plenty of lessor ones). Once I called the turn and river when I knew one of the players must have a boat (the board was paired). It was a kill pot, so I gave away $24 for no reason. Then another kill pot, I called a $12 bet on the river, and it went raise, reraise back to me. I was afraid of getting whip-sawed, and only had the second nut low, so I gave it up. They each had a straight and I cost myself half of a big pot.

On another pot, I got to see a flop for free (I had the kill button in front of me). It was 7-2-2 and my hand was 2-3-3-5. It went check and the guy in front of me bet, and I called, as did a third guy. Fourth street brought a 5, giving me a boat. The same guy bet, and I raised. It went call, call. I bet again on the river after a queen came, and was called in both places. They each turned over A-3 for the nut low. As little as I know, I wouldn't make that mistake because of reading the instructional posts by the Goddess of Omaha CK. You may approach her throne at BWoP.

Here's a hand that was cute. The board read K-K-K-Q-X. A lady turned over Q-J-X-X and the dealer announced: "Full house!" What's wrong with this picture? Well, Omaha is a different beast, and even the dealers have trouble reading the board. Because you have to play two cards from your hand, the lady actually had K-K-K with Q-J as kickers! Nobody had a pair, and a guy with an ace scooped the pot (there was no low, obviously).

I don't think people need to take recreational drugs. Why? Heck, just play Omaha, especially high-low. You'll get enough excitement that drugs are irrelevant.

During the game, at the next table to mine, I saw a tee shirt that aroused my interest. I just happened to have my camera with me, so I took a shot of it on my way out:


It looks like it's from someplace in New Orleans. Maybe I'll Google it.

What do you do?

When I'm playing NL hold 'em at the casino, this happens a lot: I make a big bet on the river and the other guy is thinking about folding. Then, he'll ask, "Will you show if I fold?"

I never know what to say, so I usually don't say anything. If I say yes, I'm afraid they will take it that I want them to fold. If I say no, I'm afraid they will take it that my hand is very strong. But, in either case, I'm giving away information.

What do you do?

Makin' movies

There's a free product from Fred Gitelman's Bridge Base Online called Handviewer. You can use it to build deal diagrams. It shows all four hands, and if you can click on "next," it will show you each card played, in a trick-by-trick fashion -- it's a movie! You can make your own! More on that in a minute.

I played at the club Wednesday night with Mark, an expert partner, in a Swiss Teams game. This was my hand and the bidding:



Whew! What an auction. I play that my pass of the double of 4♥ is stronger than an immediate retreat to 4♠. This was the first time we'd played together, so I wondered if we were on the same wave length. Was his 4♥ a slam try, or some kind of bid saying it's our hand and he needed help deciding what to do if/when the opponents compete further. Maybe I should have made a 5♣ control bid. So many questions, and one more: Why do problems like this always happen when I'm playing with a new partner?

One of the adages of bridge is "Don't bid five over five." It's not a rule, but more of a maxim that indicates I shouldn't bid 5♠. Normally, it's better just to should double and take the plus score.

If you think further, however, the opponents have both red suits, so my club holding must be gold. Also, Mark had a chance to double, but passed the decision to me. I've certainly underbid up to now, so I bid 5♠, and that was certainly high enough:



West led the ♦A K and shifted to a heart to East's ♥J. Partner ruffed, drew two rounds of trumps, and took stock. East had two spades, and rated to have seven hearts (West should have at most three) and three diamonds.

He played the ♣K and low to the jack and claimed -- nicely done! Making five was plus 650. When we compared, we found that our teammates were plus 450 their way and that was worth 15 IMPs for us.

Note that we can take only two aces against 5♥, and if we don't cash them at tricks one and two, they go away.

What does the Law of Total Tricks say about all this? We have 10 spades and they have 10 hearts, but there are 22 tricks available (11 for each side). Well, of course. The fact that each side has a double fit means there are more tricks out there.

You can read more about what the Bridge World says about the theory behind The Law, if you click here.

Books have been written on the subject. Two of the best ones are by Larry Cohen, and you can find out about them here, or here.

The diagram presented above (low cards are approximate) is via Handviewer, a free product from Fred Gitelman's Bridge Base Online. Click on "next" to see how the cards are played. It's very cool, don't you think?

You can read more about it if you click here.

Partner, wake up!

I don't subscribe to a newspaper anymore. I get that type content online like most people these days. If I do pick up a paper, however, I always look at the bridge column.

My favorite thing to do is to just look at all four hands before reading it, and see if I can guess what the theme of the column is. Most of the time I can tell whether the piece is about an endplay, a tough defensive problem or whatever.

Let's take a look at the column (NEA Bridge syndicate of United Media) that was in the paper on Tuesday, Apr. 14:

                ♠ J 3
                ♥ J 10
                ♦ Q J 10
                ♣ A K J 9 8 7
♠ Q 4                         ♠ 2
♥ 8 5                         ♥ A K Q 7 6 4 3
♦ K 9 8 6 4 3                 ♦ A 7 5
♣ 10 5 2                      ♣ 6 4
                ♠ A K 10 9 8 7 6 5
                ♥ 9 2 
                ♦ 2
                ♣ Q 3
===
       West   North   East   South
              1♣     4♥     4♠
       All Pass

West led the ♥8 and East cashed two rounds of the suit. Next, East laid down the ♦A.

West can see that he can set the contract if East leads another round of hearts -- that promotes his ♠Q as the setting trick. The newspaper analysis says, therefore, that on this trick, West should play the ♦3 (playing standard signals, apparently) to discourage the diamond continuation.

What's wrong with this picture?

Sometimes, partner is snoozing and you need to make what is called an "alarm clock" play. On the ♦A, play the king! That will get partner's attention and ensure the heart continuation which you can see is right.

This from the Bridge World's site:
Alarm clock
(noun) a call or defensive play intended to alert partner to an unusual situation.

Draw another arrow from your quiver

West leads the ♠2 against your 4♠ contract in this deal:

                ♠ A 10 4
                ♥ 10 8 5
                ♦ A 7 5
                ♣ A 8 7 6
♠ 8 7 6 2                     ♠ 6
♥ J 9 6                       ♥ Q 7 4 3 2
♦ Q 9                         ♦ K J 10 2
♣ K J 10 2                    ♣ Q 5 3
                ♠ K Q J 9 3
                ♥ A K
                ♦ 8 6 4 3
                ♣ 9 4

That's an awkward lead, isn't it? With a plain-suit lead, you could play the ♦A and another, win the return and lead a third round. If diamonds divide 3--3, your problems are over, and, if not, you can ruff your fourth diamond in dummy.

After the trump lead, you could still try and ruff the fourth diamond. You win the spade lead with the 9, and continue with ace and another diamond. West wins the ♦Q and plays a second round of trumps. When you concede another diamond, East can win with the jack, but has no spade to lead.

Does this line work? No. West can ruff East's good ♦J and play his last trump, leaving you with four losers.

Neither Plan A nor Plan B works. Is there a Plan C? Yes. Instead of trying to ruff the fourth round of diamonds in dummy, give up on that. Instead, you should ruff three of dummy's losers in your hand.

You first cash the ♥A K, then play to the ♣A and ruff dummy's remaining heart. Now you concede a club trick, win the spade return with the 10 on the table, and ruff a club. You cross to the ♦A and ruff dummy's fourth club in your hand with your last trump. You've taken five spades tricks, two hearts and two minor-suit aces. The ♠A is in dummy for your 10th trick.

Plan ahead

Playing online bridge Monday night, our opponents got to 4♠ on this deal (hands rotated):

                  ♠ 4
                  ♥ K Q 8 7 2
                  ♦ A
                  ♣ K Q 10 7 5 3
♠ A 2                            ♠ 8 7 6 3
♥ A 9 5 4                        ♥ J 6 3
♦ K 10 7 6 4                     ♦ J 9 8 3 2
♣ 8 2                            ♣ J
                  ♠ K Q J 10 9 5
                  ♥ 10
                  ♦ Q 5
                  ♣ A 9 6 4
===
   West   North   East   South
   1♦     2NT     Pass   4♠
   All Pass

The 2NT bid showed hearts and clubs, but South had a solid suit of her own. West, Kate, led the ♣8 taken in dummy with the king. Declarer advanced the ♠4 to the king and ace. West accurately shifted to a diamond. Declarer could see that if she led a club, one of us would ruff, so she tried the ♥K.

West won the ♥A and cashed her ♦K. When declarer played the queen, Kate knew that no more diamonds would cash -- declarer was now void or had the ♦J, so she took her only chance and led a club. I ruffed and that was down one.

Where did declarer go wrong in this simple deal? If she looks ahead, she can anticipate what actually happened. Therefore, she should lead the ♥K at trick two to set up a discard for her diamond loser. Yes, we might get a club ruff, but that and two aces are her only losers.

Plus 50 was s 7.44 IMP loss for North-South. If she had planned ahead and made 420, she would win 2.49 IMPs instead.

When I looked at the scores, I was surprised to see that 13 pairs (out of 73) bid slam off two aces. I was even more surprised to see that three of them made it!

I couldn't make this stuff up, and you can check out this and see all the results if you click here.

Stanley is a real cool Kat(z)

About four years ago, I was sitting at my desk at work and I looked up to see Stanley Katz. Stan is from the Chicago area and I grew up in Illinois. Even though we lived on opposite ends of the state, we ran into each other on the bridge tournament circuit back in the day, as they say.

Stan had just taken the job as Chief Accountant at the ACBL. He has an MBA in finance, and I always called him a bean counter. He liked that term, and used it himself. We formed a bridge partnership of sorts and played in some local tournaments.

Stan started playing poker online. He hadn't really played before, so began at the micro-stakes. Occasionally at work we'd take a break together and swap bad beat stories -- all the degenerate usual poker stuff. Then one Saturday I arrived at the poker room at Sam's Town Casino (Tunica) and Stan was playing in the $3/6 limit hold 'em game! It wasn't long before Stan showed up in my office and told me he had played in a poker tournament and made the final table!

Things were going great for Stan. He had adjusted to his new job, and was settling in here in Memphis. He was on blood thinner medicine, so he had kept his physician back in the Chicago area. It was on a trip home that disaster struck.

Stan was staying with his friends Ginnie and Jeff and decided to walk over to his parents' house, five blocks away. As he crossed the street, a lady making a left-hand turn hit Stan. He was walking in the crosswalk, but he was in her blind spot. She was traveling 27 mph, which doesn't sound that fast, but when a car hits you at that speed, it's serious. She wasn't talking on her cell phone or anything like that -- she just didn't see him.

At first we didn't think he was going to make it. He was in a coma for about two weeks, and spent around the next four months in the hospital. It was nearly two months before he was aware enough to realize he had been hurt.

When he came out of the coma, his sister was there. "Do you know where you are?" she asked. "Paris," said Stan. I asked him if he was being a wise ass, but he said, no, that's where he thought he was. I guess the pain medication must be some powerful stuff -- I'm just sayin'.

Bridge was on his mind during this time, even though he was out of it. When he wanted the nurse, he would call for the "Director!" When he was told that his friends, George and Stacy, were coming to visit him, he said, "Trump it."

Eventually he was able to leave the hospital, but he had to face two back surgeries and endless hours of rehab. He had a helper who came and stayed with him, but Stan says the day he could take a shower on his own was a very joyous one! Yes, we take ordinary things for granted, don't we?

Last Friday, we got an office e-mail that said there would be a breakfast Monday (today) in the employees' lunch room at 8 a.m. It said we would have a special "mystery" guest. Yes, that guest was Stan, and he entered the room today to a rousing ovation. He walked with a cane and still had some after-effects from his accident, but he sure looked good to us.

"I took two vacation days, and came back 11 months later," he joked. Stan was in good spirits, but it wasn't always that way. During recovery he had to deal with depression.

Stan says he still plays poker and bridge online. He played live bridge three times, but it's hard -- his stamina is not what it used to be because his body is still healing. He also says that in the middle of a deal, often he has to stop and count out the hand. What was once automatic is now hard work.

They say there are no atheists in a fox hole. Although raised Jewish, Stan used to be agnostic. Now, that's changed. He feels there is a God -- some being that helped him through his tough times. I guess surviving when everyone pretty much thought you were a goner will make you reexamine things.

Stan has heard that the lady who hit him was devastated. Twice she wrote letters to him, but he didn't read them. He says he wasn't ready then. He says he is ready now, though, and is receptive to talking to her on the phone. He states he wants to help her gain some closure because it was traumatic for her, too. I think that's a good sign. To survive in the beginning, Stan had to think about himself first. Now, he is well on the road to recovery, and can think of others.

UPDATE: I just talked to Stan and there are a few corrections/additions. He was in a coma for five weeks, not two. He was walking to his parents house from the doctor's office (not Ginnie and Jeff's house). He was in four different hospitals. I misunderstood how fast the lady was traveling (and stated 27 mph), but actually they are not sure how fast she was going. The lady's two letters were read to him, but he says he couldn't relate, and declined talking to her on the phone at the time.

Communicating in code

In the comments from an earlier blog post, Crash asked how do the required skills differ between poker and bridge? One of the remarks I gave, which didn't really say much, was this:

"Poker is an individual game, whereas bridge is a partnership game -- without a good partner with whom you communicate, you're nothing."

I guess I could have added that poker is more straightforward. You look at your hole cards, you look at the board and you know what you have. You then try and figure out what the other player(s) has and bet accordingly.

Bridge, on the other hand, is a partnership game. During the bidding (and when defending), you have to communicate with each other, just as I remarked to Crash. But the communication isn't always cut and dried. When you bid, you're talking in code. Sometimes, however, the conversation is a code within a code.

In 2000, this won the award from the IBPA for the best-played deal of the year.

                ♠ 10 9 3 2
                ♥ K 10 9 7
                ♦ A K
                ♣ J 10 5
♠ A K                         ♠ Q J 8 4
♥ 6                           ♥ Q J 8 4 3 2
♦ J 10 9 7 4                  ♦ 3
♣ Q 9 8 5 3                   ♣ 7 6
                ♠ 7 6 5
                ♥ A 5
                ♦ Q 8 6 5 2
                ♣ A K 4
===
       West   North   East   South
              Pass    2♣    Dbl
       Pass   Pass    2♥    Pass
       Pass   Dbl     Pass   2NT
       Pass   3NT     All Pass

The 2♣ bid showed at least 4-4 in the majors and 6-10 points (and likely longer hearts). See what I mean about coded messages?

North-South could have slaughtered East in 2♥ doubled, but they apparently had a mixup about the meaning of North's double. Because of all the permutations and combinations, bridge definitely isn't easy. I'm just sayin'.

West led the ♦J. Declarer, young Dutchman Vincent Ramondt, played ♦A K, and exited with a spade. West won that and unblocked his second high spade before leading the ♦9.

Ramondt won his ♦Q and made the key play of cashing the ♥A before exiting with a diamond in this position:

                ♠ 10
                ♥ K 10 9
                ♦ ---
                ♣ J 10 5
♠ ---                      ♠ Q J
♥ ---                      ♥ Q J 8 4 3
♦ 10 7                     ♦ ---
♣ Q 9 8 5 3                ♣ ---
                ♠ 7
                ♥ 5
                ♦ 8 6
                ♣ A K 4

West won his two diamond tricks, then exited with a low club, won in the dummy with the ♣J. When he played two more rounds of the suit, East was squeezed in the majors.

When I first looked at this deal, I wondered what would have happened if West had not cashed the second diamond winner (a suicide squeeze). But, no. If West exited with a club first, declarer would win, then lead another club to his hand, followed by his last diamond. After West won, he has nothing but clubs to lead, and that would again squeeze East.

Dressed for the part

Five weeks ago, I was reading the Poker Grump's blog. He had an image of a poker tee shirt that was pretty funny. You can see it here.

I remember thinking, just what I need is another tee shirt, but I couldn't resist. When I went to High Hand Designs, I saw they had all kinds of stuff besides tee shirts. They had caps, signs, paintings, posters and other paraphernalia. (They also had similar bowling things, which might appeal to Gadzooks.) Most of the tee shirts are around $16 to $20, although they had a few on clearance sale.

I was about to leave when I saw this: "4 medium shirts - SUPER SALE - Get 4 medium shirts for the price of one. ONLY $16.50." I clicked on it and it took me here. When I read this, I had to laugh (see the two sentences I put in bold):

That's Right! No catch. Four brand new, high quality size medium shirts for only $16.50. We have way too many mediums in stock. We should have scanned the tables during all night ring games at the Rio. Poker players skew to size XXL not size medium.

My order came and last night I wore the shirt you see above. Once when I raised and everyone folded, I stood up and showed them my shirt and said, "Come on, guys. Didn't you read the shirt?" This got a good laugh.

I'm not pimping the High Hand Design site, but it was a good deal. If you are small like me and can wear a medium (or you're female?), check it out.

Busy with the camera

I went to the Goldstrike last night for my poker fix. I called ahead, but they didn't answer the phone! It rang for five minutes, so I gave up. I figured that maybe they had changed their number.

When I got there, I found out that the number hadn't changed. I guess they were busy and no one bothered to answer (which is unusual). Now, there was a waiting list for the Omaha game, so I got on it and played some $4/8 Limit while waiting. I don't like to sit at a NL game when I know I'm going to be leaving soon. Getting a read on your opponents is part of the +EV and, instead, I could play mindless poker in the limit game.

After nearly two hours, they hadn't called my name, so I checked. When I sat at the limit game, they took me off the Omaha list! Can we all say fubar! Now there were another five names ahead of me! Yuck, and double yuck. I never made it to the Omaha game.

Hands from a limit game aren't as much fun to recount, so I'll just give you two collages of photos I took last night and today, and a single photo I took about a week ago. Besides, I ended up down for the night in the limit game which is pretty hard to do. Talk about fubar -- I'm just sayin'.


The Goldstrike Casino (above) is where I play most often. I've photographed it so much, my photos of it start looking the same because, um, they are the same! Click to enlarge the image unless you're sick and tired of looking at the Goldstrike (which is likely the case).


Spring has sprung, as they like to say, at least in MOJO's area of the world. My Knockout Roses already look like they are going to be awesome. I'm told by one of my bridge partners, Kate, that the best fertilizer for them is something called Rosetone. It is organic and used once each month during the growing season. Last year I couldn't find it around here. It was expensive to order online, so being the cheapskate that I am I used something called Pennington's (which worked well, I must say). When I walked into Home Depot about two weeks ago, they had Rosetone and it was inexpensive -- $11 per 10 pound bag! If you're a Knockout-type-person, this is good news for you.

Can anybody guess what the two flowers in the hanging baskets on my front porch are?

In houston, I took indoor photos of some bridge players and blogged about it in a piece called Faces. I was disappointed in how yellow they were. This is because your camera adjusts for something called white balance, but incandescent lights fool your camera and they end up with more yellow than you want. When I got home, I read in my book how to adjust for that. The photo below is a test I made of the new (new for me, at least) procedure I had to do to handle this.

I have two bookcases in my bedroom, and this is a shot of one row of books. I wish I had thought to do a before and after, but, trust me, this is an improvement. Do you see Do Elephants Jump? by David Feldman? If you read his bio from his web site here, you'll notice he lists duplicate bridge tournaments as a hobby.

Do you see the backgammon book? Wow, that brings back memories. It used to be so popular. I mean, everyone played. At a bridge tournament, between sessions, players would whip out their boards and there were always be a couple of game going with kibitzers watching.

Do you see Hooray for Yiddish? Besides being interesting, it's a very funny book.

Do you see Word Wizard? It was written by Richard Lederer. If that name sounds familiar to you, yes, you are right. It's Howard Lederer's and Annie Duke's father. The book is loaded with bloopers, puns and "other word magic," as Lederer says.

Happy Easter or Passover or whatever holiday you might be celebrating!

It's in the water

Quads, babeeee! Twice today (so far) and once yesterday. I'm playing live poker tonight, so let's keep them coming:

Don't get fancy

I played bridge at the club last night. I usually only play live bridge a couple of times each month. During the week, it's so convenient to play online, and on the weekend, I'm often playing poker.

The second round, I held:
♠Q 10 ♥A 7 5 4 ♦10 4 3 ♣K Q 10 7.

No one was vulnerable and my right-hand opponent opened 2♠. I passed as did LHO and partner doubled. RHO passed, and it was my turn. What would you bid? I bid 3♥. We were playing lebensohl, and so I showed some values. Also, I wasn't sure how much the ♠Q was worth. My second choice would have been 3NT (gulp) because LHO couldn't raise spades -- let's keep moves like that our little secret, okay? All in all, however, I like the 3♥ bid.

LHO now bid 3♠, and it was passed back to me. I passed, too. Bawk, bawk.

I led the ♣Q (Rusinow leads) and this is what I saw:

                Dummy
                ♠ A 3
                ♥ 9 8 6 3
                ♦ A Q J 2
                ♣ 6 5 2
MOJO
♠ Q 10
♥ A 7 5 4
♦ 10 4 3
♣ K Q 10 7

I immediately thought aha! When declarer plays a spade towards the ace, I can drop the ♠Q. Now, if South had ♠K J 9 x x x, he will lead another and finesse by playing the 9, and I'll win a spade trick. If I play the 10 the first time, he might figure out to drop my other honor.

Jonathan Weinstein has a new bridge blog called JLW's Bridge Blog, and so far, it looks pretty good. He posted a nice piece in which he discussed making a falsecard when holding the K-10 doubleton. In the comments, some of us mentioned doing the same thing with Q-10. You can read what he wrote here.

Is this my chance to be a hero? Should I go for the newspaper play?

Partner overtook with the ♣A and returned the 3. Declarer played the 9 and I won my 10. I cashed the ♣K and partner discarded the ♦8, upside down count and attitude.

I followed partner's suggested defense and played a fourth round of clubs. Declarer discarded a heart from dummy and partner ruffed with the ♠4 and returned the ♥K, declarer dropping the jack. Another heart was ruffed by South, and he led a spade to the ace. There was no point playing the ♠Q now because there are only two more spades left and the K-J will pick them up.

South led another spade, and, after some thought, he played the ♠K, dropping my queen. He took a diamond finesse which lost and claimed down two for plus 100 our way. Here are all four hands:

                ♠ A 3
                ♥ 9 8 6 3
                ♦ A Q J 2
                ♣ 6 5 2
♠ Q 10                         ♠ 9 8 4
♥ A 7 5 4                      ♥ K Q 10 2
♦ 10 4 3                       ♦ K 9 8 7
♣ K Q 10 7                     ♣ A 3
                ♠ K J 7 6 5 2
                ♥ J
                ♦ 6 5
                ♣ J 9 8 4

Notice that playing the ♠Q would have been a disaster. Declarer did not have the 9, so he had no losing option. Sometimes we want to make the fancy play when a less-than-fancy play would work just fine. I'm just sayin'.

There were nine tables in play and 8 was top on a board. Plus 100 was worth 4.5. If I doubled, we would have scored 7 instead. I can't deny my chickenhood. My conservative bidding cost us 2.5 matchpoints. One pair bid and made 4♥ our way. Deep Finesse says, however, that you can only make three. DF doesn't lie.

More tragic news for Chip Reese's family

Casey Reese, son of poker player Chip Reese, died Monday night according to the online version of Bluff Magazine. Young Reese was 20 years old. An overdose of prescription drugs was rumored to be the cause.

There is also information here and here.

The king's gambit, again

Playing online last night, I held: ♠8 6 ♥A 9 6 4 ♦J 9 3 ♣A K 4 2.

I opened 1NT (showing 13-15 high-card points) and partner raised to 3NT. Okay, so I fudged one point, but I hated to pass with three quick tricks. 1♣ would be artificial and strong, and 1♦ would show four or more in our methods. In any event, we were in a normal spot with our combined 26 HCP:

                ♠ K Q 4
                ♥ Q 5
                ♦ A 8 7 4
                ♣ Q J 8 6
==
                ♠ 8 6
                ♥ A 9 6 4
                ♦ J 9 3 
                ♣ A K 5 2

West led the ♠J. We had the points for game, but only seven tricks on top. I just stated that we were in a normal spot. At other tables, however, they may have opened 1♣, and received a more favorable lead when declared by North.

I covered with the ♠K, East won the ace and returned the 7 to the 9, ducked. Now West cleared the spade suit with his ♠3, East playing the 5. It looked like West had five spades, so it wouldn't do any good to lead up to the ♥Q. Even if West had the king, he'd win it and cash his spades. No, I had to look elsewhere for tricks.

I played a club to my hand and advanced the ♦3 to the 6, 7 and 10. East thought for about 10 seconds (a long time when playing online), and exited with a club. I now absolutely know the ♥K is on my right. If she didn't have it, she would have fired a heart back like a shot.

I won the club in hand, and led another diamond. West played the ♦2. I played the ace from dummy and now waited for East to play. She followed with the ♦5!.

Here are all four hands:

                ♠ K Q 4
                ♥ Q 5
                ♦ A 8 7 4
                ♣ Q J 8 6
♠ J 10 9 3 2               ♠ A 7 5
♥ J 7 3 2                  ♥ K 10 8
♦ Q 6 2                    ♦ K 10 5
♣ 4                        ♣ 10 8 7 4
                ♠ 8 6
                ♥ A 9 6 4
                ♦ J 9 3 
                ♣ A K 5 2

I cashed my clubs and exited with a diamond. East won the ♦K, low from me, queen from West! East had only hearts left and led one. I played low and dummy's queen won the trick. I now made 3NT via four clubs, two diamonds, two hearts and one spade.

East could have foiled my good card reading by playing the ♦K under the ace -- no endplay. Perhaps she didn't read my blog piece The king's gambit. I'm offering gratuitous drivel free advice, but they won't come read it. Just sayin'.

Making 3NT for a score of plus 400 was worth 5.58 IMPs --- down one would have been minus 4.34 IMPs.

There were 63 tables in play, and 59 of the North-South pairs played 3NT. About half of them made it (almost always by North), and about half didn't. You can see all the results, if you click here.

Simple when you think about it

After East opens 3♦, you become the declarer in 6♥ on this layout (you are vulnerable, the opponents are not):

                ♠ K Q J 10 3
                ♥ 7 2
                ♦ 6 5 4
                ♣ K 10 9
♠ A 9 8 7 5                   ♠ 6 4 3
♥ 9 5 4                       ♥ 8
♦ 2                           ♦ K Q J 10 8 7
♣ 8 7 5 3                     ♣ J 6 4
                ♠ ---
                ♥ A K Q J 10 6 3
                ♦ A 9 3
                ♣ A Q 2

The ♦2 lead is an obvious singleton and West is most likely to hold the ♠A. Let's say you draw three rounds of trumps, discarding a diamond from dummy. There are no squeezes that I see, so to make the contract, you will have to set up the spades by conceding the ace, then get back to dummy to enjoy them.

One way to do this would be to lead a low club and put in the 10 from dummy. That would be a failure on this lie of the cards -- East would win and cash two diamond tricks. Besides that, an alert West could insert the ♣J when you lead low towards dummy to foil this plan.

The answer is to lead the ♣Q and overtake with dummy's ♣K. When you lead the ♠K and discard a diamond, West can win but what then? A spade return can be won in dummy, and a club exit will promote the ♣10 9 into an entry regardless of who holds the ♣J.

Are there any doubters now?

   UNC (above) warms up before playing Oklahoma.

I had to drive to work today and listen to the talking heads (Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated) on the (Fox) radio talk show about how Michigan State was going to win tonight. Michigan State this, Michigan State that -- gimme a break. Excuse me if I didn't believe it then, and excuse me if I don't believe it now.

UNC didn't just win, they demolished Michigan State -- hail to the Heels.

I wonder what they'll be saying tomorrow?

Playing for down one

In an online bridge mini-tournament Sunday evening, my left-hand opponent opened 3♦ Pass Pass to me. I held:
♠A 7 5 ♥A 10 9 3 ♦9 7 ♣K Q J 5.

After I made a takeout double, partner basically located our heart fit and drove to slam. Right-hand opponent doubled -- oops.

West led the ♦K, and these were all four hands:

                  ♠ Q J 6 2
                  ♥ K J 6 5 2
                  ♦ A J 5 4
                  ♣ ---
♠ 4                            ♠ K 10 9 8 3
♥ 7                            ♥ Q 8 4
♦ K Q 10 8 6 3 2               ♦ ---
♣ 10 8 3 2                     ♣ A 9 7 6 4
                  ♠ A 7 5
                  ♥ A 10 9 3
                  ♦ 9 7
                  ♣ K Q J 5

Yes, we've overbid, but when playing online in a short match (12 boards), you have to go for it. It's pretty much potluck (as is the IMP Pairs at the NABC, by the way, for similar reasons).

I knew (from the Lightner double) that RHO was void in diamonds, so the contract was hopeless. Could I hold it to down one? I played the ♦A and East ruffed and exited with a low club, my ♣J taking the trick. Now it was easy to draw trumps and lead up the the ♦J. That was a discard for my losing spade (after I took the finesse for the king).

Deep Finesse says that East-West can set me two after I play the ace at trick one. East can exit with a heart or one of the spade intermediate spots and I can't develop enough tricks.

To hold it to down one, I need to give up on making it and duck the opening lead. If West continues with a diamond (a shift isn't any better), I can duck if it's a low one or play the ♦J if he leads the 10.Let's say East ruffs (discarding isn't any better). If he makes the safe heart exit, I can draw trumps, ruff a club, and take the spade finesse. Let's say he covers it (ducking works out the same).

I can now ruff a second club and cash the ♦A to discard a low spade. When I lead the ♦5 from dummy, this is the position:

                  ♠ J 6 2
                  ♥ J
                  ♦ 5
                  ♣ ---
♠ ---                       ♠ 10 9 8
♥ ---                       ♥ ---
♦ Q 8 6                     ♦ ---
♣ 10 3                      ♣ A 9
                  ♠ 7
                  ♥ A 10
                  ♦ ---
                  ♣ K Q

East is squeezed in the black suits.

[There are offshoots of this line of play (depending on whether East covers the ♠Q or not).]

For down one, we scored minus 9.82 IMPs. Down two doubled was minus 13.10 IMPs, so it could have been worse.

When I looked at the results later, I wasn't surprised to see that nine pairs went set in 6♥. I was shocked, however, to see that 10 pairs went set in four!! You can all the results here.

One more game

North Carolina is in the NCAA finals and needs to win one more game to take the title.

Michigan State is a terrific team that is playing well right now, and has somewhat of a home-court advantage. Yet, the Tar Heels are a 7.5 or 8 point favorite, depending on which place you check. Why not? UNC is clicking on all cylinders and dispatched Oklahoma and Villanova fairly easily (both by a double-digit score).

One of the schools I went to was N.C. State. The Wolfpack is a huge UNC rival -- still I can't help but pull for UNC. Who are you rooting for?

Break up the Grizzlies!

I went to the NBA Memphis Grizzlies' game Friday night. They are pulling out all the stops to get more fans to come. I scored a ticket for last February for $5.00 -- unreal.

The Grizzlies had won three in a row and were going for number four. Guess what? They won, taking care of Dallas, a play-off caliber team. Let me write that again, just to be clear: The Grizzlies have won four in a row, wow.

It's hard to get good shots when you're such a tightwad that you're willing to sit in the $5 seats, but here's a collage from two different locations:

A good laugh at the bridge table

I had one of my two live fantasy baseball drafts today, this with the Raleigh NC bridge players (I lived there for 21 years). One of the guys gave me a good laugh about a deal that happened at his table in the Wilmington NC Sectional last weekend.

This was the auction:

   West   North   East   South
   Pass   1♦      Dbl   Pass   
   1♥     2♦     Pass   Pass
   3♣    All Pass

4♥ makes on the deal, but 3♣ went down one.

Afterwards, East asked, "What was 3♣ ?

West said, "New minor forcing."

SSS - Sunday street scenes

After the basketball game last Sunday, I took a stroll down Beale Street.


[Click to enlarge.]

The statue of the man holding a cornet is of W.C. Handy, generally considered to be the father of the blues.

The photo of the kid standing on the "basketball," was taken just after the game at FedEx Forum, about 50 feet or so off Beale Street on 3rd Street. From his blue shirt, can you guess which team he was rooting for?

Notice the guy with the cans of spray paint -- he has a mask, but he's not using it! With a little more inhalation, he'll be brain-damaged enough to be a poker player.

The king's gambit

A gambit in chess is a situation in which a player sacrifices a piece to gain a positional advantage. You can read what wikipedia says about it here. You can sacrifice any piece except your king (which would end the game, obviously).

Bridge is different. You can sacrifice anything, even your king, and Richard and I saw that situation in Houston at the NABC. After not qualifying in the North American Pairs (sigh), we played Thursday afternoon in a side event (I had to begin work Thursday evening). The first round we played two tough cookies: John Diamond and Brian Platnick. You hold:
♠K 6 2 ♥A 9 7 ♦A 5 4 2 ♣Q 9 6.

You open 1♦, the next hand doubles, partner passes and right-hand opponent jumps to 2♠, ending the auction. Your lead?

Let's say you lead the ♣6 and you see this dummy:

                   Dummy
                  ♠ Q 7 4
                  ♥ K J 5 2
                  ♦ 10 7
                  ♣ A K J 10
You
♠ K 6 2                        
♥ A 9 7                          
♦ A 5 4 2                      
♣ Q 9 6                          

Diamond plays the ♣J and contiues with the ♥2 from dummy to partner's 8 (upside down), queen and you? Let's say you duck. Declarer is also watching the spots, so he boldly continues with another heart. You win the ace (Partner plays the 6), and you exit with a heart, everyone following.

Declarer now leads a spade from dummy and partner plays the ♠J, declarer the ace, and you? Well, I've given you a big clue in the title of this piece and in the introduction. If you play low, it's too late, he makes four.

Here are all four hands:

                  ♠ Q 7 4
                  ♥ K J 5 2
                  ♦ 10 7
                  ♣ A K J 10
♠ K 6 2                        ♠ J 10 9
♥ A 9 7                        ♥ 8 6 4
♦ A 5 4 2                      ♦ Q J 6 3
♣ Q 9 6                        ♣ 8 5 4
                  ♠ A 8 5 3
                  ♥ Q 10 3
                  ♦ K 9 8
                  ♣ 7 3 2

Declarer can lead another spade and eventually discard two losing diamonds -- one on a club and one on a heart to make four. If you played the king's gambit and dropped it under the ace, partner will get in (declarer has to get trumps out before he can take his discards) to lead a diamond through to hold declarer to three.

Some clues were there: Declarer didn't lead trumps right away and partner played the ♠J. It's easy to find the right play after the deal is over, but would you see it in time at the table?

This was board #8, and you can see the hand record on the ACBL web site here.

An average round

Playing in the North American Pairs at the Houston NABC, you sit down to play and find out your first-round opponents are two of ACBL's best: Ralph Katz and Nik Demirev.

Board #25 is the first deal and I was South:

                ♠ A K 10 5
                ♥ 10 6
                ♦ Q 9 5
                ♣ K 7 6 4
♠ J 8 7                         ♠ 4
♥ A 7 3 2                       ♥ Q 9 8 4
♦ A K                           ♦ 10 8 6 4 2
♣ Q 9 3 2                       ♣ A 10 8
                ♠ Q 9 8 3 2
                ♥ K J 5
                ♦ J 7 3
                ♣ J 5
==
       West   North   East   South
               1♣    Pass    1♠
       Pass    2♠    All Pass

West led the ♦K then the ♦A. You ask and they say that they lead ace from ace-king, so we all know this is a doubleton. On the ace, East plays a low diamond and West shifts to a club. You decide that East couldn't know to ask for a club with the queen, so you call low from dummy and East plays the ♣A. He returns a diamond and West ruffs and exits with a trump.

You finish drawing trumps and have to decide how to play hearts. It's pretty easy, really, because if East had the ace, he would have asked for that return. So, you hope the ♥Q is onside and lead a heart to the jack and ace -- making two and plus 110.

Deep Finesse says you can always make the contract, so you are surprised to score 21 out of 25 matchpoints on the board. After looking at the hand record, you can see why. They can make 4♥ their way if they guess to make an intra-finesse in the heart suit. Unfortunately for them, neither could enter the bidding.

They turned the tables on us on the next deal, board #26. I've rotated the hands so that Ralph is South:

                ♠ 3 2
                ♥ A 8 6 3
                ♦ 10 3
                ♣ K J 9 7 2
♠ K Q 9 8 4                 ♠ 10 6
♥ Q 10 7                    ♥ 9 2
♦ A K 8 7                   ♦ Q 6 5 4 2
♣ 3                         ♣ A 10 8 5
                ♠ A J 7 5
                ♥ K J 5 4
                ♦ J 9
                ♣ Q 8 4

With both sides vulneratble,South opened 1♣, I overcalled 1♠, and North made a negative double. My partner passed and South bid 2♥, ending the bidding. Our wimpy ways cost us on this deal. Deep Finesse says we can make 3♠ or 4♦, ouch.

I cashed the ♦K A and shifted to the ♠K. Ralph won and led a club to the jack. Partner took the ace and returned the ♠10. Declarer ducked, but I overtook and returned the ♠4. Partner ruffed and led a club for me to ruff. I led a fourth round of spades and Ralph was under the spotlight. He finally ruffed with the ♥A (!) and led another heart to his king and conceded down one for minus 100.

If South had not played as he did, down 200 would have been an awful result. As it was, he scored 21 on a 25 top -- exactly an average round for both sides! Unfortunately, we failed to qualify for the finals on day two and Ralph and Nik finished fourth.

You can see the hand records at the ACBL's web site, if you click here.