Thursday, October 7, 2010

Philly finale



Leaving technology behind
I took my laptop to Philly (to the 2010 World Bridge Series Championships), but didn't use it. I love to blog, but that would have been a distraction that I didn't need. I was trying to focus on bridge, so the laptop remained disconnected from the Internet. I did turn it on once to play free cell, lol.

Big card is big letdown
I spent some time, before going, creating a detailed WBF convention card. There was some software to download, then I had to figure out how to use it. This was pretty much a waste of time. Almost no one asked what system we used or about any of our bids other than for us to explain our Alerts. They were interested in our signals (we use upside down count and attitude), but just asked. In fact, Kate left her card on a table and couldn't find it, so she whipped out a regular ACBL convention card to take its place -- no one cared.

What were the people like as players?
They were, with only a few exceptions, competent for this level on up to world-class. This makes sense. Why would someone spend a ton of money to travel to a foreign country, stay in an expensive hotel, take time off from work, etc. unless they expected to be competitive.

What were the players like as people?
There was one jerk who claimed, flashed his cards, then acted annoyed that we asked to see them. I know you think you're a stud, buddy, but we have the right to see your cards when you claim. The large percentage, however, were friendly and courteous. Good! Speaking of nice people, it was nice reconnecting with blogger Jeff Miller.

You hold:
The deal below created a problem (rotated):

8 7
A K 6 4 2
5
A K Q 6 2
==
A K 6 5 3
J 7 3
Q 6
J 9 7

I was North (rotated) and opened a precision 1 and Kate responded 1, showing five plus spades and nine plus points. I bid 2 and, when we played a heart contract, that made Kate declarer. I must say that some partners will do anything to hog the dummy!

At one point in the auction, I jumped to 5 asking about trumps. With three to the J, she passed. Notice that if she had Q 7 3 (instead of J 7 3), then a 6 contract would have been a fairly good spot. As it was, however, we were off one diamond trick and likely one heart trick.

East won the diamond opening leadand shifted to a spade. Kate took the A and led a heart. Her left-hand opponent played the 10, won by the ace in dummy.

Now what?

If the 10 was singleton, she had to lead low towards her J to avoid losing two hearts. But, her LHO could have had Q 10, and it's matchpoints.

After some thought, she took the safety play, and it was a good thing she did. Here are all four hands:

8 7
A K 6 4 2
5
A K Q 6 2
J 10 9 Q 4 2
10 Q 9 8 5
J 10 9 4 3 2 A K 8 7
8 4 3 10 5
A K 6 5 3
J 7 3
Q 6
J 9 7

Photo by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

5 comments:

  1. I played this hand in 5 hearts as well from the longer heart hand. I played it the same way with the same safety play. However my opponent remarked that he could have beat 5 hearts by winning the 2nd round of hearts with the queen and playing another diamond to make the jack of hearts ruff.

    Cheers,
    David Gordon

    ReplyDelete
  2. That will teach me to make comments while at work.

    At my table the play was 2 rounds of diamonds and I ruffed the second round, then ace of hearts (I could have made legitimately if I had played low to the jack on trick 3) On trick 4 I played low to the jack and it was here opps could have played the queen and promoted a trump trick with a 3rd round of diamonds either forcing the jack of hearts to ruff or shortening me.

    Dave

    ReplyDelete
  3. I put it in Deep Finesse and it agreed with your analysis.

    ReplyDelete
  4. yes, the big WBF card are a bit annoying. By the time I finally got to know where to find things, we were back in acbl-land.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Andre: Thanks for the comment.

    I think they should have two WBF conv. cards. The big one is needed for extended team matches where players use fancy systems. But a scaled-down one would work just fine for the lesser events, esp when you play 2 boards a round.

    ReplyDelete