May 2011
1 post
6 tags
Squeeze anyone?
The Bathurst team is leading against by a considerable margin in the USBF trials. 14 of those IMPs enriched them at board 60:
Both Meckstroth and Wooldridge played 6 notrump after South doubled a Stayman. Both took the club lead in hand (really surprised me that both Souths played the ten, I thought they good enough to play the jack) and played queen and other spade. South played the ten on the...
March 2011
1 post
4 tags
Three notrump with nine card major fit
Strul met Lall at R32 of the Vanderbilt. Surprisingly there was only one two digit swing in the third quarter and that was a pretty interesting one:
The Lalls reached four hearts on an ugly auction: 1N-2H-(X)-3H-4H. Brogeland started with the queen of diamonds and the lack of dummy entries meant that declarer couldn’t discard his losing diamond on the established club. Lall went for a...
October 2010
1 post
Board 16
The second board from the last set of the first knockout match in the Rosenblum is a really interesting board. Normally West plays 3 notrump. Double dummy sharks thrive on deals like this as the only way to beat it is to lead a spade and switch to the diamond jack at trick two. If instead south plays back his small spade declarer can win and play the queen of diamonds. The defenders can...
August 2010
1 post
5 tags
Nunes' perfect view
While we’re waiting for Philadelphia I share an incredible card reading by Claudio Nunes. It was at the 2008 Olympiad (or World Mind Sports Games) semifinal.
In the other semifinal both north-south pairs reached four spades and went down on a trump lead when they tried a diamond to the queen and later a finesse with the ten. While in Italy vs Norway Helgemo-Helness subsided in 2 spades...
June 2010
4 posts
5 tags
Hamman coup missed
In the 17th round of the European Teams Championship France took on Hungary. Barczy arrived in a doomed doubled three spades contract after overcalling his five card suit rather than his seven card one. He escaped the trump lead as Christian Mari (World Champion) led the queen of clubs. Barczy ruffed and played ace and jack of the diamonds ducked to Volcker who trumped it.
At this point Marc...
6 tags
Intra finesse - almost
The bulletin writers/editors have a much easier run than the BBO commentators as they have time to check, analyze etc… So it’s really surprising when they come up with something like this:
Jos Jacobs wrote down the result from three matches of the 11th round of the European Open Teams. Piekarek went down in six diamonds. The rest played 5 and Kholomeev went down without adverse...
4 tags
Grand Dummy Reversal
BBO vugraph commentaries suck. The commentators usually tell why their methods are better than anything else. How the players (much better ones than the commentators) should have found the play that were obvious to them from 52 cards. Or simply trying to get witty instead of commenting. Well, in fact there are two commentators whose comments I like pretty much: Michael Rosenberg and Kit Woolsey....
1 tag
Trump Tricks
In the second round of the European Teams Championship Sweden met Denmark. Per-Ola Cullin got into a tricky 2 diamonds contract.
Askgaard led a top club and switched to the eight of hearts ducked to declarer. Cullin exited with the jack of clubs taken by Askgaard while Bjarnarson contributed the queen. West continued with another heart ducked once more and declarer exited with the third heart...
May 2010
10 posts
Early endplay
The Netherlands practice match at ‘t Onstein is over halfway. It’s clear that the home teams are stronger than the visiting teams. Yet the board I chose features a nice endplay by Fantoni (who with Nunes was surprisingly left out of the Italian EC team).
Usually before an endplay in a suit contract declarer draws trumps and eliminates some suits. This time it was different. The...
1 tag
A rare squeeze
Bonn Nations Cup. Final for Ladies Teams: Germany-Russia.
Ponomareva opened two spades (natural) in favourable vulnerability. Daniela von Arnim overcalled three spades. Gromova and Auken raised their partners so the bidding finished at four clubs. Gromova led a spade to East’s ace and she played back a diamond to the queen, king and ace. A club to the king was taken by the ace and...
1 tag
Italian signal
Always funny when a contract makes and at the other table a lower bid in the same denomination fails. Exactly that happened in the Italian Teams Championship when the favourites (LAVAZZA-ANGELINI) met a weak ago.
Both Easts opened three hearts. Duboin raised to four while Nunes passed. Versace led the diamond ace and Lauria contributed the two. They are playing UDCA and Versace thought Lauria...
1 tag
Textbook hand
The South African Teams Final is on its way.
The second board featured a textbook hand (from intermediate handbook) although neither player was tested.
Bridge teachers ask their students how declarer should play a heart slam on a club lead. If declarer draws trumps he will have problem with 4-1 spades. So declarer must take the spade finesse immediately playing a middle card from hand. He can...
1 tag
Once again
Levin-Weinstein won the Cavendish Pairs once more. They were second before the last session and overtook Helgemo-Helness (another pair who traditionally finish well at the Cavendish). They had their hiccups in the last session though. Weinstein passed Levin’s takeout double of two hearts with five trumps but couldn’t beat it. And Levin let Rogoff make this game:
Levin led a heart...
1 tag
French signal
Final of the French Ladies Selection.
Bessis and Neve are defending against 6 clubs. Bessis leads the king of diamonds. Neve plays the jack and Bessis switches to a trump. wtf
In fact I heard about this problem many times before. How do you encourage with AJTx playing standard signals? Jack or ten? There are advocates for both. The tenners says that the jack should show jack-ten. The jackers...
1 tag
Missed opportunity
Cavendish Teams Round 8.
Zimmermann butchered Diamond with a 52-0 win over nine board. Still the board I picked was a push. Not gaining IMP is the same as loosing except of course for the psychological value (yes, when you are ahead in a short game its’ quite different).
Board 16 started the same way at both tables. 1 spade was passed to South who doubled. Meckstroth bid two notrump...
1 tag
No safety?
Cavendish Teams Session 2 Round 6
Mahaffey-Onstein
Board 22
This is not the deal you would expect in the newspapers. Yet it featured a nice safety play from Muller.
Both Souths led the spade eight which the declarers took in dummy. Pszczola cashed two high diamonds in hand and played a club to the king. North won and led a heart. South took the jack with the queen and played a heart back...
1 tag
Cavendish Teams started
Cavendish Teams Session 2
Zimmermann - Capucho
Board 17.
John Mohan reached four hearts via a Stayman that was neglected (rightly in my opinion) by Helgemo at the other table. Michel Bessis led the natural ace of diamonds and switched to the club six. Thomas played the nine and Mohan won in hand with the jack. Mohan had to discard his club looser on the diamond (or spade ) before the...
Catch all
Those who can’t play it, teach it. And those who can’t even teach it are the vugraph commentators.