Playing for blood

Husband-and-wife partnerships are notorious for bickering at the bridge table. The following takes that to a much more serious level.

Blogger Wolynski doesn't play bridge, but she noticed this in the U.K. Daily Mail, an online newspaper:

A company director who stabbed his wife to death after a series of violent rows over her bridge-playing ability was jailed for 23 years yesterday.

Stephen Green, 52, a former world championship bridge player, stabbed wife Carole, 57, more than 100 times.

He considered her to be a mere 'club player' and repeatedly belittled her skills in front of friends.

You can read more about it here.

They refer to him as "world championship" caliber. Newspapers don't understand bridge, so I was skeptical and went to the web site of the World Bridge Federation to check. The WBF shows that his team was 17th in the European Championships in 2003 in Menton, France. He also played in two pair events in world play in Lille, France, in 1998.

Maybe Paul Gipson (or another Europeans) knows the man, and could leave a comment.

A grand birthday for Kate

Tuesday was my bridge partner Kate's birthday. We met online to play bridge and vowed to bid a birthday grand slam -- all 13 tricks! Big talk, but could we do it?

On board #5, Kate held:
♠A K Q J 5 2 ♥A ♦A K 10 9 2 ♣5.

I opened 2♣ which showed 5+ clubs, 11 to 16 points and possibly a second suit. Kate responded 2♦, an artificial ask. I rebid 2♥showing a four-card suit (I could jump to 3♥ with five of them). Now what?

I don't think there's any good way to bid from here, so Kate bid 4NT and followed with 7♠. Here are all four hands:

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

West led the ♦8, a singleton! This has to be an awful lead. Does he really hope his partner will win the ace and give him a ruff? Haha.

Kate won and led a low diamond to ruff. West was now void, but couldn't beat my ♠9. Of course, I wouldn't have opened without that card, ahem. She now had 13 tricks: She took six spades, two hearts, two diamonds, two clubs and one ruff.

Plus 2210 was a nice birthday present for Kate worth 11.81 IMPs.

You can see all kinds of results on a deal like this, so I had to check. The board was played 79 times and a grand slam was bid and made 15 times. Three pairs went down in 7♠ and three went set in 7NT. One pair went set in 6♠, yikes! Three pairs played a spade partscore.

Results like this don't speak well for online bridge do they?

All the results are available here.

MOJO branches out

Bloggers Ken Provo and Very Josie have written that playing in 7-card stud hi/low tournaments is fun. I decided to see for myself (Wednesday night) -- on the cheap, of course. They're right -- it was fun.

What was really fun was the deal shown below. I didn't know if my A-3-4-5-6 low was good, but I was pretty sure my straight flush was good for the high half. Can you say scooper?

ACBL Headquarters has visitors

Above: Charles Goren did a lot to promote bridge, including a weekly TV show for several years. Above is one of the episodes that is on display at the ACBL Bridge Museum.

I've raved about how nice the new museum is at ACBL Headquarters. I mentioned that if you came by to see it, I would be happy to give you a tour. Guess what? Four bridge players took me up on that!

Last Friday, Chris and Mary Beth Shaw (Carlinville IL) stopped in on their way to New Orleans to the NABC. They are active promoters of Youth bridge. In early July, they conducted a five-day camp for young bridge players.

Then, on Monday Ray and Linda Lee stopped by. They were on their way home to Toronto. The Lees are responsible for the biggest bridge blog of all (I call it an uber-blog) -- Bridge Blogging. Linda blogs here and Ray blogs here.

The Lees are owners of Masterpoint Press, the world's largest publisher of bridge books.

I'm so happy these couples stopped by on their way to and from New Orleans.

Speaking of New Orleans, I'm traveling there tomorrow (Thursday) for four days, not to play, but to work. See ya'll next week.

I have sinned

I committed a cardinal sin tonight. I let some blogger money get away.

I played in a new blogger tournament called Tuesday Spewday (cool name, no?) that was set up by LJ. The buy-in was $11 and 47 runners signed up. We started with $3000 in chips, and it paid 6 places.

I was crushed early when I was all in pre-flop and my AK < KJ. That left me with $1300 instead of a big stack. I hung around and finally lost my last chips to lightning36 when a steal went wrong (I had A-5, lightning had A-Q).

Save dummy's assets

Here's another interesting bridge deal from our friends at IPBA.

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

South opened 1♠, North raised to 3♠ and South bid 4♠.

Do you agree with North's limit raise? I do. If he bid 4♠, North-South could miss a slam on some layouts. The North hand has eight losers, the way I count them, and that is defined as a LR. There are two losers in spades, three in hearts, two in diamonds and two in clubs. That's nine losers, but I make adjustments. You have two aces, but no queens. I subtract one-half a loser for each ace and add one-half a loser for each queen. Supposedly, this version of losing trick count comes from an old book by Milton Work. I don't use it as a bible, but more as an additional tool when I'm on the fence about what to do.

West led the ♦J, and it looks like you have a loser in each suit because spades split poorly. How would you proceed?

You should win the diamond in hand, and cash the ♠K. Your next step should be to abandon trumps and lead the ♥A and another. West will win and continue with the ♦10. You should win in dummy and advance the ♥J. Suppose East covers -- over to you.

If you ruff, West will overruff, cross to East's ♦Q and another round of hearts will promote a second trump trick for the defense.

Instead, you should discard a diamond. All the defense can do is make one more trick with the queen of trumps -- the established ♥10 is available for a club discard.

Saving both of North's aces is key to making the contract. Simple when you think about it.

Summer bridge championship kicks off

What do you get when you bring the best bridge players in the world to the Big Easy? You get the 2010 Summer North American Bridge Championship which has begun. For the next 11 days, there will be lots of bridge played at the NABC in New Orleans.

If you aren't going, you can follow along by reading the Daily Bulletins here.

You can also follow the Spingold Knockouts -- perhaps the strongest team event in the world -- by Vugraph on BBO.

I am going for the last four days only. I'll be arriving Thursday, July 29. Maybe I'll see you there.


Images copied from the ACBL web site.

Not an easy question

What turns you on about poker? The Pretender, a poker and bridge player who blogs here, asks that question.

Here is what he says:

So what gets you off when playing poker? Do you like to steal a lot of pots? Do you like to make big bluffs? Do you like tricking people into bluffing you? Do you like taking down a big starting hand with a bad starting hand? Do you like playing down the middle because you're one of those sticklers for rules and high card points (bridge pun)? Do you like to make the hero call? Or do you like to make the hero fold?

I believe that knowing what maximizes your enjoyment of the game and then choosing the right game situation for that will lead to more fun and more profits. If you want to steal pots, you should look for a table of nits. If you like to take down big starting hands, you should play deep stacked. Phil Hellmuth, for example, likes to get people to bluff into him and likes making the hero fold (masochist). But he'll frequently play online in a limit holdem game that just doesn't work out numbers-wise for that type of play.

What is it about poker that turns you on? Maybe it's something simple such as you love the intellectual challenge. But really, what does that mean? Maybe you like playing tricky and enjoy fooling the villain. Or maybe it's something else. What about you?

Walking the dog

Playing bridge with Kate last night on BBO, on board No. 5, the opponents were vulnerable and we weren't. I picked up this mitt:

♠A ♥--- ♦A 7 4 3 2 ♣A K 10 8 6 4 2

Visions of sugar plums danced in my head until my right-hand opponent opened a strong 1NT. Now what? We have a bid for this: 2♣ shows the minors. Of course, I can always bid clubs at some level, if partner bids diamonds, to show that that suit is longer. My LHO bid 2♦, a Jacoby transfer to hearts. I was shocked to then hear Kate bid 3♦! LHO bid 3♥. What would you do?

The auction had worked out very well. I know partner has a decent diamond suit because she can't have much else (most of the time) and the opponents are bidding my void. So, it looks like we are cold for 6♦ or maybe even seven.

I casually bid only 4♦, knowing the auction wouldn't end there. LHO bid 4♥. Kate bid 5♦ and LHO bid 5♥.

Now I was pretty sure we had a shot at 7♦, but I only bid six. It went pass pass double and I redoubled. The purple card in the bid box is nice and shiny -- people don't use it much.

Here are all four hands (deal rotated):

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

   West   North   East   South
   1NT    2♣(1)   2♦(2) 3♦
   3♥     4♦     4♥     5♦
   5♥     6♦     Pass   Pass
   Dbl    Redbl   All Pass

(1) Minors.
(2) Transfer to hearts.

West lead a heart and there wasn't much to the play. Declarer ruffed, ruffed a club to her hand and advanced the ♦Q. She led diamonds twice more, then ruffed another club and the board was good.

Kate told me later she almost threw up when I redoubled -- she had freely bid twice, don't forget.

Bridge has a lot of colorful expressions and one of them is "walking the dog." The idea is to bid timidly in the hopes of later getting doubled to earn a better score. Marilyn Hemenway discusses it here and Greg Earnest on his blog masthead here.

Our score was 98.66%. There was another that duplicated our score and one pair bid and made 7D redoubled! You can see all the results here.

I finally held it

I've always heard that A-2-A-3 double-suited is the best starting hand in Omaha-8, but I've never held it. I've played O-8 limit with a half-kill in casinos, and I play online for cheap stakes late at night when I'm bored. Today, I took the plunge, and played in a cheapo, online $5 Omaha-8 MTT, and was finally dealt it (see image above). I raised, and everyone folded. C'est la vie.

I'm not sure I've ever played an Omaha-8 tournament before, although I might have in the Sunday night Poker Slut tournament series sponsored by Gadzooks.

Omaha-8 tournaments, oh my! What's next, maybe Stud-7 H/L tournaments like VeryJosie or Ken Provo play? Why not? They are probably fun.

I did manage to sneak in the money to (basically) get my entry fee back - w00t.

Maybe I created James Bond?

I write like
Ian Fleming

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Actually, I probably write more like Molly Putz, but Ian Fleming is what this web site sayz.

New form of slow roll

I've been seeing something a lot lately. One player raises all in, the other has the nuts and thinks a long time before calling. Say what?

It happened to me tonight (see image above). I raised before the flop and was called. I hit middle set (J-J-J) on the flop and raised -- villain called. The turn was a nothing card, so I bet again. The villain raised, and if I called, I would have had maybe $200 left, and I was never folding, so I put in the last $200.

Now the shenanigans started. The guy thinks and thinks, goes into his time bank and finally calls with top set (Q-Q-Q).

Must be some pimply-faced high school kid who thinks he's cute. I don't.

Bridge history preserved

Here are a few more images from the new ACBL Museum and Hall of Fame. Above is a film loop that shows bridge players from various tournaments. If you come visit us, check it out -- you may see yourself!

Joan Schepps donated more than 600 trump indicators. They used to be used by party bridge players who couldn't remember what trumps were. Players who couldn't remember what trumps were, would also usually forget to set the the indicator! Above is a close up of a few. If you don't know what a trump indicator is, see here.


The ACBL Bridge Hall of Fame is fun. Photos are in both color and black and white. There are interviews of many of the living members that you can watch by touching or swiping the screen with your finger.

Photos by MOJO and taken with my P&S at the Grand Opening June 28.

Making the newspapers

Playing bridge online with Notzia tonight, I had a chance to make a newspaper play. I held:
♠J 10 4 2 ♥10 2 ♦-- ♣A K J 9 6 5 2

I passed and left-hand opponent bid 1♠. Notzia passed and RHO bid 2♥. I jammed the bidding with 4♣. LHO bid 4♥ and RHO bid 4NT. LHO responded 5♥ and RHO bid slam -- 6♥.

I was all set to lead my ♣2. On a good day, Notzia would win it and give me a diamond ruff. In fact, here were all four hands:

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

Unfortunately, I had a partner who was thinking. He was pretty sure I didn't open 3♣ because I had a flaw (such as four spades) -- otherwise, the bidding didn't make sense. So, he took the sacrifice in 7♣ which was doubled.

I guessed the hand well to only go down 500 for a 4.75 IMP loss. I don't mind losing the IMPs, but I hate to lose the newspaper play. If I can't make the newspapers, at least I can make my own blog.

The board was played at 68 different tables, and you can see all the results here.

Staying out of trouble

I always look forward to the International Bridge Press Association (IBPA) Newsletter each month. They have deals constructed by Tim Bourke that are amazing.

In the deal below, you are South. You open 1NT and partner makes a Texas transfer to 4♠. Let's make it easy and show all four hands. How do you play after the ♦Q opening lead? Take a look:

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

You can see that to play the ♠K and another to the jack will fail. East can win and shift to a heart for three more defensive winners.

An alternative is to play the ♠K and ♠A, then run clubs. You hope that if East has the ♠Q, he also has three or more clubs. As you can see, that fails, too.

The winner is to lead a low spade from dummy at trick two and insert the 9. You can win the return, arrange to draw trumps and then run clubs.

This technique is called an avoidance play and you can read more about it on Wikipedia here or on the JennBridge blog (Jennifer Jones and Bob Klein) here.

Poker pearl #50

In the June 30 issue of Card Player magazine (see scan above), Alan Schoonmaker was asked:

Question: Losing streaks make me feel like a big failure. How can I overcome this feeling?

Answer: (paraphrased)

1. If you can't accept poker as it is, including all of its frustrations, don't play.

2. Poker is a game, not your life. One way to deal with it is to have many outside activities. Successes in some will overcome your negative feelings about your poker losses. If you let poker dominate your life, mood swings will damage more important parts of your life such as work and personal relationships.

Shock the monkey

Above: A flag flies on the Fourth of July at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica MS.



When I was younger, the Fourth of July was a day to cook out, drink some beer and watch fireworks. I knew it was our country's anniversary, and it had importance, but I don't think I really "got it." Now, I more fully realize its significance. I think it's because I'm getting old. Old farts get conservative and all that.


Besides thinking about our national holiday yesterday, I went to the Horseshoe Casino to play in their Sunday tournament. The buy-in was $110 and 50 runners signed up. I felt good; I was ready to play.

Instead, I busted out early, mainly due to this deal: I limped in with Q-J from early position. The next player raised, two others called, so I did, too. The flop was Q-10-9 rainbow. I checked, the raiser and another checked, and the last-to-act guy made a pot-sized bet. What would you do? I think I should have re-raised to make sure the other two folded and also to find out where I am. Folding would have been okay, too -- I didn't have much invested. Instead, I called.

The turn was a King, giving me a straight on a rainbow board! Yes! I bet two-thirds of the pot and got a call. Hmm. The river was a rag and I checked. The villain bet big. I called and he had A-J for a higher straight. I was ahead on the flop, but gave him a free card. Sure, it was unlucky that it worked out like it did, but I don't like my play.

Because of this, I was short-stacked and pushed with 9-9 (trying to double up and get back in the game), only to run into A-A -- GG me.

Remember when the bridge over the Mississippi River fell in Minneapolis? They say a bridge doesn't just fall down -- any catastrophe takes a series of events. That can be true in poker as well.

Let's look at the series of monkey plays. I limped (not good) with a trouble hand of Q-J. I failed to lead out or check-raise when I hit my hand on the flop. Next, I called a big bet on the river. Could I have played it any worse. Then, on tilt, I made another monkey play and pushed with 9-9! Patience is one of my strong points, but not on monkey day.

Cover me when I run
Cover me through the fire
Something knocked me out' the trees
Now I'm on my knees
Cover me, darling please
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don't you know when you're going to shock the monkey

-- Peter Gabriel

Photos by MOJO and taken yesterday with my P&S.

Warming up on the Fourth of July

I am going to play in a tournament at the Horseshoe Casino later today, so I decided to play in an online $1 sit and go to warm up. Golfers, baseball players, and all sorts of people spend time warming up before their competition, so why not poker? It gets your mind working in the right direction (or something like that).

The game was 9-handed and I folded the first hand, clicked on "sit out" and headed for the shower. After, I shaved and did my other morning hygiene stuff.

Finally, I got back to my sit and go. One player had already busted out, and of the other seven, I had more chips than four of them by just being blinded off! The low levels really are bad, aren't they?

An orbit or two after I rejoined the game, this deal played out (click to enlarge):



I love the smell of quads in the morning. I checked and the villain bet for me (I found out later he had ♠K ♠7. The turn hit his king. I checked, he bet, I min-raised (alarm bells should go off for him that I have at least one 8), but he called, then called my small river bet.

On second thought, how is playing against these people going to "warm me up" for a real game?

How low can you go?

I recently posted about a slam that Kate and I bid with a combined 22 high-card points. You can see what I wrote here.

Last night, I played at the local club (we call it the local dups) with Brent, and we did even better! We bid 6♠ with only 20 HCP. I don't know the exact East-West hands, but here are ours (hands rotated and low cards are approximate):

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

       West   MOJO    East   Brent
       3 ♦   Pass    Pass   3♠
       Pass   4♦     Dbl    4♥
       Pass   5♣     Pass   6♠
       All Pass

Note the double of 4♦ by East. This told our side that we were playing with a 30-point deck and helped us bid the slam.

West led the ♦K which was ruffed in dummy. A spade was led to the queen, a club back to the board and the spade finesse repeated -- making seven! Notice that if the club was ruffed, then that meant the ♠K was dropping so the contract was safe.

We scored 8 matchpoints which was a top.

Just do it

If you like funny, go here and start at the beginning. Don't ask why - be like the Nike commercial and just do it.

Karma is a bitch

I played at a tournament at the Horseshoe Casino last night. There were 40 runners and the entry was $110.

With 40 players, they play five places. When we were down to six of us, someone suggested that we save $110 for the bubble boy. It's disheartening to play all night and then not even get your money back.

Everyone agreed but one guy. Guess who busted out sixth? Yes! The guy who wouldn't agree donked away his big stack and got nothing for his four and one-half hours of playing.

Don't you think he had it coming?

Photo by MOJO (that's me) and taken with my P&S last Sunday.