Bridge Maniacs

Interesting tournament schedules

2012-01-25T16:15:00.001-05:00

From time to time I like to check out tournament schedules from other parts of the country (and occasionally go to tournaments that aren't NABCs or in the Mid-Atlantic). Sometime last year I believe I wrote about how I admired the fact that a DC area tournament had a Board-a-match for flight A on Sunday of a sectional. Flight B was Swiss, which is reasonable. I still plan on attending that

Gripes about tournament schedules

2012-01-19T14:36:00.001-05:00

Organizing bridge tournament is hard. I get that and it's impossible to make everyone happy, but the schedule of relevant bridge tournaments for me coming up is just awful. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> There never is a tournament in D7 that goes over President's Day weekend – maybe a small sectional somewhere not particularly close to me but that's

2012 in bridge has started out opposite of 2011

2012-01-16T13:40:00.000-05:00

My first tournament of 2011 saw me win over 23 points at the Macon sectional. The first tournament this year yielded only a little more than 6 points, most of which was won in a pair game that I had estimated at 49% (but was actually 65%). Anyway, I got the 6.47 points that I needed for the next masterpoint milestone (2500 and Gold LM) by coming back from a miserable start to squeak into a tie

I Heart Moysians

2012-01-14T03:04:00.001-05:00

Last night was a comedy of errors all-around. It started with a -670 on the first board and didn't get much better the rest of the session. Emory and I each faced some tough defensive and bidding situations and guessed wrong almost every time but it's this declarer play problem that upset me the most. I found myself in 3SX after RHO opened 1H and lho hit 3S. 7xx KQx xx AJ9xx AKT9 x Kxxxx Q8x

BAM BAM

2012-01-05T14:34:00.001-05:00

This was our 9th board in the BAM that we won with a 20.5 out of 24. I'm not sure I agree with any of the bidding but it was a double game swing in our favor. I disobeyed the rule about passing when the opponents have passed a forcing bid but this was quite the exception. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Dealer: SVul: none North ♠ A543 ♥ 2 ♦

Won 3 events but overall it was a bad tournament

2012-01-03T17:56:00.000-05:00

It's a fact that team games award about double the number of masterpoints as pair games. And among team games, bracketed knockouts award the most points. The exact numbers are that pair games pay about .43 masterpoints per person per session while team games pay .87 per person per session. A couple of weeks ago I did a little analysis of the masterpoints I won and found a huge disparity. I win

2011-12-20T12:49:00.001-05:00

I feel like I should have stuff to write about but I don't really have any interesting deals in my scorecards from the 5 STaC games I played in last week. I saw lots of comical things in the last week but no brilliant things. The 27 MP I won in the STaC puts me over 500 for the year and basically in a tie for the D7 1000-2500 Mini-McKenney. yay. Here's to hoping my first 4 days at the Myrtle

Which Squeeze to play for - never mind, there's only one possibility

2011-12-07T14:33:00.004-05:00

Last night I had an interesting play problem in a slam. In 6NT, there are 11 top tricks. How would you plan on getting the 12th? North♠ AK8x♥ AKx♦ Ax♣ Kxxx South♠ Tx♥ QJx♦ KT8x♣ AQJx South West North East 1♦ Pass 1♠ Pass 1NT Pass 6NT Pass Pass Pass

Seattle NABC

2011-11-28T11:43:00.001-05:00

While many people are just getting into the swing of things at the fall NABC I am on my way back home after 3+ days there. Richard Popper and I started with a good session in the Nail LM Pairs and ended with a great session in the consolation (regional A/X pairs). Unfortunately the two middle sessions were pretty terrible, on both our parts as well as luck. Additionally I scratched with my dad in

Unexpectedly passing partner's mostly forcing bid

2011-11-23T10:37:00.001-05:00

I've had several opportunities in the last few days to pass partner unexpectedly. Last night at the club, my partner twice intervened over a 1NT opening. In the first instance, I held ♠QJxxx ♥A9xx ♦KTxx ♣- and after 1NT-P-P, partner doubled, which for us showed 1 suited with clubs or diamonds and a major. I have a decent hand and partner is almost sure to have clubs so I converted to penalty.

Spoil the Squeeze but give up the same trick in the process

2011-11-15T08:58:00.001-05:00

My hand of the tournament from the recent Roswell sectional this past weekend is this cute hand where I was all set to squeeze RHO in the black suits until Michael White made it easy for me by leading the ♣J. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Dealer: NVul: NS North ♠ Qxxx ♥ Q ♦ AJx ♣ KTxxx <?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:

Simple Black Suit Squeeze

2011-10-31T15:10:00.003-04:00

In our Swiss match against the Granovetters in the Charlotte regional flight A Swiss yesterday, I was fortunate to get to declare this deal. Dealer: E Vul: EW North♠ Axxx♥ xxx♦ x♣ Jxxxx South♠ K9♥ Qx♦ AKQxxx♣ KTx East South West North 2♥ 3♦ Pass Pass Pass West, Matthew Granovetter, led the ♥A, then after a couple of minutes continued with the deuce of clubs to Pamela's ace.

Double

2011-10-28T13:34:00.001-04:00

There were a few bidding sequences that are bothering me from last night and one big concept that people don't seem to understand.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 1♠-2♠-X. This double shows penalty interest in one or both of the opponents' suits. All subsequent doubles are for penalty. Instead of X, 3H would be a invitational+ spade raise, and 3S would

Even if you don't play exclusion, don't bid blackwood with a void

2011-10-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

Last night was one of those sessions where the opponents could do no wrong. Well, let me rephrase that. They did lots of technically wrong things but they all turned out well for them. That sort of luck contributed to Emory and I having one of the worst scores we have had at the Warner Robins club – 52%. I saw two instances of people bidding blackwood with a void. And the people actually thought

Classic Surround Play

2011-10-17T12:54:00.002-04:00

When people are first taught about finesses, they are taught to lead low toward an honor, hoping some other honor is in front of the one you lead toward, but to only lead an honor for a finesse if you also have a touching honor (don't lead the J for a finesse of the Q unless you have the 10 also). That's a very good guideline – I still see many people who have been playing bridge a long time lead

Pinning Ten doubleton and squeezing on the same deal

2011-10-17T10:31:00.001-04:00

For once, I can say I have a clear favorite deal from a tournament. Playing with Bob Pearson, we won the Swiss at the Valdosta tournament Oct 9 with my dad and Larry Hayslip, then won the Saturday afternoon pair game this past weekend at the Athens tournament, then tied for 2nd in the Swiss in Athens (teaming with Jimmy Fordham and Enrico Beretta). Not a bad string of games even if the quality of

Hesitation Pseudo Squeeze

2011-10-07T15:41:00.002-04:00

Hesitations are things to be avoided as much as possible. This is not only to keep from giving unauthorized information to your partner but also to keep giving authorized information to the opponent. Sometimes you do have a legitimate problem and need to think but being aware of this and possibly anticipating the problem can help minimize the damage.This deal is an example of a defender

AKx opposite x is sometimes worth 3 tricks

2011-09-30T13:56:00.002-04:00

Last night at the bridge club, a place I haven't spent much time this month, Joel and I had a pretty bad game, but it was still fun. The fun was probably more due to the Malibu than anything. Here is one of our bad boards and a very interesting hand. Dealer: E Vul: none North♠ x♥ Kxx♦ A9xx♣ AK6xx South♠ AKx♥ AQJx♦ KQx♣ 98x East South West North 1♣ Pass 3♠ Pass 4NT Pass 5♣ Pass 5♦

The Familiarity Factor in Georgia Tech's Triple Option and Asbury-Gannon Swedish Canape

2011-09-26T14:03:00.001-04:00

Every time I watch a Georgia Tech football game on TV, the announcers talk about how the Georgia Tech wishbone, triple option offense is so difficult to defend. Part of it is because they are good but they do have an inherent advantage of unfamiliarity. The opposition is not accustomed to defending against an unconventional offense so regardless of whether the offense is technically any better

Is it a slam try is a search for the best game?

2011-09-15T15:40:00.001-04:00

The game before slam principle is generally a good thing to follow – it is more important to reach the right strain at the game level than to search for slam mainly because there are many more deals where you need to figure out what suit to play in than figuring out if you can make slam. Here are several uncontested auctions that Bob and I had last night in the instant matchpoint game (I would

Impossible Auctions from a GIB

2011-09-13T17:13:00.000-04:00

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When RHO passes LHO's forcing bid, you have an automatic pass

2011-09-07T14:22:00.001-04:00

Once up on a time I was guilty of letting LHO back in the auction when she made a forcing 2D bid that was passed back to me. They would up bidding their cold heart game and my partner thought I was crazy to balance. It may be right to compete in situations like that but chances are that you are allowing them a second chance to get to the right spot. Last night, there was an auction where Emory

You got +2000 and lost the Swiss match??

2011-09-06T13:20:00.000-04:00

Playing in the 2 session flight A Swiss Sunday afternoon, Alli and Bryan came back with score of +2000 for defeating 4♣X by 7 tricks. That's not something you see much. At the other table Mili and I could have set 3NT but Mili understandably led a club from her ♣AKTxxx. It was right into declarer's ♣QJ98x. Win 16. I heard Bryan and Alli tell this to many people and they always include the fact

Cell phone jammers

2011-08-31T11:52:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I spent entirely too much time reading a thread on bridge winners about the cell phone policy at tournaments, mainly the rule that they aren't allowed in the playing area of NABC events, even if off.There are many problems with that policy, not the least of which is most people blatantly ignore the rule (keeping the phone in their purse or pocket). Also, directors do little to enforce

Responder's rebid after a 1NT response

2011-08-19T14:42:00.000-04:00

Before the bridge game last night, Joel and I were debating about what to do with the following hand:♠xxx, ♥ Jx, ♦KTxx, AJxx.Partner opens 1H and you bid 1NT as a passed hand, semi-forcing, and opener rebids 2♣. What's your call? There are clearly 3 options: pass, 2♥, and 3♣. If you weren't a passed hand and 1NT was forcing, I think 2♥ is clear because if offers the most flexibility and opener