The district finals of the GNT was help this last weekend. It was the first time the district tried holding the event on BBO, primarily due to the size of our district. I will not say it was an unqualified success, a lot of potential teams did not play in the event, especially in the Open Category, but it worked and those people that did play enjoyed the experience a lot. It was very well run by the District Coordinator, and everyone pitched in to make it a success.
We played in the A category, with me playing with Ray again. I thought we played quite well, but we lost the last match, and missed the 2 team playoff by 1 VP, ouch. There were a bunch of interesting hands, some good for us, some not so good. Here is the first interesting decision.
I think once you force a cue bidding sequence, and hear the perfect response, no Club cue and a Diamond cue, instead of 4S, you need to make a forward going move. 4S, expecting partner to bid again, is just a little too pessimistic. They had no problem bidding the slam at our table, so we lost 11 to start.
They got it back fairly quickly on this board. At our table, the West hand only bid 2D, buying the contract. With the A's and the 6 card suit, I really like our partners choice to upgrade the hand and get to 3N. With the K of Diamonds singleton onside, there was not much to the play.
We got a gift on the last board to win the first match by 16. A nice start, especially after losing 11 on the first board.
In the 2nd match, our team mates had a hard time on a couple of boards, bidding a close slam off 1 on a losing hook, then doubling a part score that made with an overtrick on a bidding misunderstanding, not getting to a cold game after a 2C opener, and finally, letting the opps off the hook when they bid the wrong game. This was our worst match, we wound up losing by 27.
The third match was fun, 3N was the contract of the match. If you got to it, it seemed to always make, even if it did not look nice from the bidding. The first one, I picked up 10852 AK85 974 K9 and after 3 passes to partners 1D call, I bid 1H. Partner bid 2C and I have a close decision. Being Vul, I upgraded my hand slightly, and partner raised my 2N to 3N, ending the auction. As you can see, the opps took their 4 Spades to start, but we had an easy 9 tricks and 10 IMPS when my hand bid 2D over 2C at the other table and they played there.
The last hand of the match was a good decisions by my partner not to hang me after I bid over an overcall. As he said after, no fit and a pre-empt meant bad splits around, and i was under some pressure with Spades over the pre-empt.
My 3N was based on having a Diamond Stopper and a fit for Clubs, not on any great confidence in making it when I bid it. A funny (mostly) thing occurred on the lead. East led the 10 of Hearts, then typed in, without being asked, that it showed 0 or 2 higher. I finally decided that I needed either it to have the Q, or West not to have too many Hearts. I was quite happy I ducked when the J of Hearts won the trick. Wound up not even needing the Clubs to break when Spades set up. At the other table, West passed, and North opened 2S. Not sure if they had an accident or not, but they got to 5S, definitely too high on the 3 of Diamonds lead. So we won this match by 15 Imps, to be in a virtual tie with the teams from our first and third matches for the lead at half time.
After lunch, we played the 2nd half of the round robin against the same opponents. We lost 6 Imps against the first team to still win a close match, but gained back all we had lost in the 2nd match to also win that. Mostly due to the opponents having a disaster bidding on 1 hand, and when the smoke cleared, they were -1700 on what should have been a part score hand, our partners played it in 1N at the other table, which can be but was not beaten.
The last match, we were in the lead by 7 VPs on the 2nd and 3rd place teams when 1 of our partners at the other table had a blind spot in a good 6H contract and went down for a 14 IMP loss. Combine that with a probable 6 IMP loss on the next board, and it set the stage for the next to last board. Do you double 4S with the East hand, knowing that you are basically down 20 at this stage?
It turns out this would have let us make the finals, by 1 VP. Instead, we missed out by 1 VP, on a really close score between the 3 teams at the top.
All in all, it was a fun event, that worked out quite well, and showed how BBO can aid in solving geography problems with medium events. For large events like the CNTC's, it will almost always be face to face, but for other events, we now have some other options for our large district.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Ooh, Those Nasty Queens
In the 2nd of 8 sets in the CNTC Final between the Todd team and the L'Equyer team, there were 2 hands where a very specific scenario occurred twice in 3 hands, with the same strange result both times.
Both hand were played by Don Pearsons in 3N, with an effective holding in Spades of KJxxx opposite 2 small, and probable 8 outside tricks. He had a 2nd stopper in the suit the opps led, so he needed 1 Spade trick early before setting up his long suit.
This is the first hand, Board 8.
Don Pearsons got the lead of the 7 of Diamonds, and won the Q with the A. He then led the 7 of Spades and allowed it to run. It proceeded to win the trick when Danny Miles ducked the Q of Spades. Don now had his Spade trick he needed, and could make the hand by playing on Hearts, which is what Demuy did at the other table. (He played a Spade as well, but put up the K, then played on Hearts) But he thought the Spades were positioned well now, and led another Spade to the J. Danny won this, cleared the Diamonds, and now the hand can not be made.
2 Hands later, this earily similar hand came up.
This time, Don got the lead of the 5 of Hearts to the J and Q. He led the 10 of Spades, and again it was allowed to hold the trick. And again that was the elusive 9th trick due to the lucky lie of the Diamonds. But again, Don repeated the Spade hook, Danny won the Q, cleared Hearts, and Don again wound up down 1.
At the other table, the result was the same, 3N down 1. So Don lost 11 Imps on the 2 hands, instead of having a chance at winning 13.
The Finals of the CNTC continue on BBO today.
Both hand were played by Don Pearsons in 3N, with an effective holding in Spades of KJxxx opposite 2 small, and probable 8 outside tricks. He had a 2nd stopper in the suit the opps led, so he needed 1 Spade trick early before setting up his long suit.
This is the first hand, Board 8.
Don Pearsons got the lead of the 7 of Diamonds, and won the Q with the A. He then led the 7 of Spades and allowed it to run. It proceeded to win the trick when Danny Miles ducked the Q of Spades. Don now had his Spade trick he needed, and could make the hand by playing on Hearts, which is what Demuy did at the other table. (He played a Spade as well, but put up the K, then played on Hearts) But he thought the Spades were positioned well now, and led another Spade to the J. Danny won this, cleared the Diamonds, and now the hand can not be made.
2 Hands later, this earily similar hand came up.
This time, Don got the lead of the 5 of Hearts to the J and Q. He led the 10 of Spades, and again it was allowed to hold the trick. And again that was the elusive 9th trick due to the lucky lie of the Diamonds. But again, Don repeated the Spade hook, Danny won the Q, cleared Hearts, and Don again wound up down 1.
At the other table, the result was the same, 3N down 1. So Don lost 11 Imps on the 2 hands, instead of having a chance at winning 13.
The Finals of the CNTC continue on BBO today.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Off to the CNTC
I will be in Montreal this week for the CNTC's, Canada's annual week long extravaganza to select Team Champions in Open, Women's, Seniors, and Flt B/C groups. Will try to post a few hands and results as it goes along.
If want to see results, they are available here http://www.cbf.ca/BWeek/12files/
If want to see results, they are available here http://www.cbf.ca/BWeek/12files/
Sunday, April 22, 2012
What to Lead?
Have a couple of fun hands from our recent Regional. On the first, I have 2 stories on 1 hand. From several points of view. For the first part, I will give you a lead problem. You hear the auction 2H (Weak)-5N-7H (DBL) by partner. Your hand is JT63 J4 Q2 QJ864. What is your opening lead?
Here is the whole hand. At the table, there was no actual double, so on the Club lead, it was easy to ruff out a Spade and claim. The partner of the opening leader decided not to double and put more pressure on the opening leader on a blind auction. What does everyone think, if you have a void, should you double these auctions, to make partner think?
At the other table, regular team mates of mine held the NS cards, and after a different and more complicated auction, got to 7S from the N hand. The opening lead was a Club, and my friend, without thinking about the possible problems on the hand, ruffed it on dummy. When he now played a Spade to the A, he found there was no way to make the hand. Sometimes there is no justice, the makeable Grand went down, while the easy to beat Grand made 7.
The next hand is from the finals of one of the KO's. With the opps Vul, you pick up K75 A984 T7 8643 and hear it go 1D on your left, Double by Partner, 1N on your right. You pass, and RHO raises to 3N, passed back to you. You decide to Double, ending the auction, and have to find a lead. You try the 5 of Spades, and this dummy tracks.
Declarer plays low on the Spade, and Partner wins the Q. Partner then cashes the K of Clubs, before leading the 10 of Spades back to the A. Declarer leads the 6 of Hearts off dummy to the K. But you win the A, cash the Spade, and lead a Club to partner for down 1 and +200. At the other table, it was played from the other side, and on a Spade start, declarer won the A of Spades, and played a Heart to the K, when that was allowed to hold, he claimed 9 tricks for 13 Imps.
The last board was another slam hand. With no one vul, you pick up --- AKQ95 74 KQJ984. Partner opens 1S in first seat and you bid 2C, which happens to be GF, nice on this hand. Partner bids 2D, and over your 2H, bids 3C. You show real Hearts with 3H and partner bids 4C, what now?
At the table, partner bid 6C, and quickly claimed 7 when dummy tracked with A8753 6 AQJ5 AT3. The main part of the discussion afterwards was did 4C promise extras, since partner had taken the scenic route to show real Club support. I think N should not give up on the grand with all the extras still in the hand, and try something like 4H or even 4S here. There is no way these are to play when there is solid agreement on Clubs. so they must be looking for controls, which S has an abundance of.
At the other table, they got to the Grand, which provided most of the winning margin, when S directly raised 2C to 3C. I am not a fan of this, or of the later Key Card ask by N with the void, but it worked when S showed all of the missing Key Cards, not the 2 N deserved to hear about, so there was a known parking spot for the 2 Diamonds and an easy 7 bid.
Here is the whole hand. At the table, there was no actual double, so on the Club lead, it was easy to ruff out a Spade and claim. The partner of the opening leader decided not to double and put more pressure on the opening leader on a blind auction. What does everyone think, if you have a void, should you double these auctions, to make partner think?
At the other table, regular team mates of mine held the NS cards, and after a different and more complicated auction, got to 7S from the N hand. The opening lead was a Club, and my friend, without thinking about the possible problems on the hand, ruffed it on dummy. When he now played a Spade to the A, he found there was no way to make the hand. Sometimes there is no justice, the makeable Grand went down, while the easy to beat Grand made 7.
The next hand is from the finals of one of the KO's. With the opps Vul, you pick up K75 A984 T7 8643 and hear it go 1D on your left, Double by Partner, 1N on your right. You pass, and RHO raises to 3N, passed back to you. You decide to Double, ending the auction, and have to find a lead. You try the 5 of Spades, and this dummy tracks.
Declarer plays low on the Spade, and Partner wins the Q. Partner then cashes the K of Clubs, before leading the 10 of Spades back to the A. Declarer leads the 6 of Hearts off dummy to the K. But you win the A, cash the Spade, and lead a Club to partner for down 1 and +200. At the other table, it was played from the other side, and on a Spade start, declarer won the A of Spades, and played a Heart to the K, when that was allowed to hold, he claimed 9 tricks for 13 Imps.
The last board was another slam hand. With no one vul, you pick up --- AKQ95 74 KQJ984. Partner opens 1S in first seat and you bid 2C, which happens to be GF, nice on this hand. Partner bids 2D, and over your 2H, bids 3C. You show real Hearts with 3H and partner bids 4C, what now?
At the table, partner bid 6C, and quickly claimed 7 when dummy tracked with A8753 6 AQJ5 AT3. The main part of the discussion afterwards was did 4C promise extras, since partner had taken the scenic route to show real Club support. I think N should not give up on the grand with all the extras still in the hand, and try something like 4H or even 4S here. There is no way these are to play when there is solid agreement on Clubs. so they must be looking for controls, which S has an abundance of.
At the other table, they got to the Grand, which provided most of the winning margin, when S directly raised 2C to 3C. I am not a fan of this, or of the later Key Card ask by N with the void, but it worked when S showed all of the missing Key Cards, not the 2 N deserved to hear about, so there was a known parking spot for the 2 Diamonds and an easy 7 bid.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Do You Have Enough
Playing IMPS with an unknown partner on BBO, you pick up the following hand with no one Vul, and see this auction.
The question now is, do you have enough to go 7. Partner has forced to slam after showing Hearts and Diamonds, and you have both outside A's, instead of slow cards, good Diamonds, and a Heart card.
So what does partner have, he should be at least 54 in Hearts and Diamonds, if not 6-4, and probably has 0-1 Club for this auction, with a good hand. If he does not have a Spade card, then the 2 red suits in partners hand have to be very good.
I think it is a bit of a push to bid 7, depends on how much you trust partner. And that is the problem just playing a few random hands, you do not know partners style on these hands. So would you accept the push on this hand yourself?
These were the 2 hands.
Partner passed 6D, and 7 was claimed on the opening lead. Turns out 7H also makes, but having the 5th Diamond to pitch the Spade loser on is a lot to hope for, 7D seems like the right contract. Just not sure of an easier way to get there.
Turns out though, in the wonderful world of BBO IMPS Scoring, if you are not in a straight team match, 6D scored a win of 5 imps, as just under 1/2 the field did not get to a slam, and 1 person managed to play in 3H after the auction 1D-3H-all pass. The only 7 bid was the person who checked for A's, found all of them, and barged straight into 7H, not worrying about the 2nd Spade loser or if partner had real Diamonds to take care of the little Diamonds. Hey, it worked.
The question now is, do you have enough to go 7. Partner has forced to slam after showing Hearts and Diamonds, and you have both outside A's, instead of slow cards, good Diamonds, and a Heart card.
So what does partner have, he should be at least 54 in Hearts and Diamonds, if not 6-4, and probably has 0-1 Club for this auction, with a good hand. If he does not have a Spade card, then the 2 red suits in partners hand have to be very good.
I think it is a bit of a push to bid 7, depends on how much you trust partner. And that is the problem just playing a few random hands, you do not know partners style on these hands. So would you accept the push on this hand yourself?
These were the 2 hands.
Partner passed 6D, and 7 was claimed on the opening lead. Turns out 7H also makes, but having the 5th Diamond to pitch the Spade loser on is a lot to hope for, 7D seems like the right contract. Just not sure of an easier way to get there.
Turns out though, in the wonderful world of BBO IMPS Scoring, if you are not in a straight team match, 6D scored a win of 5 imps, as just under 1/2 the field did not get to a slam, and 1 person managed to play in 3H after the auction 1D-3H-all pass. The only 7 bid was the person who checked for A's, found all of them, and barged straight into 7H, not worrying about the 2nd Spade loser or if partner had real Diamonds to take care of the little Diamonds. Hey, it worked.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
A Bit of a Pushy Game
When you are playing with an exhuberant partner, many interesting things can happen, especially if you are not shy yourself. This hand came up last night at our IMPS League, playing against a young but good team. I held 653 K86432 6 K97 with everyone vul. Partner opened 1D in first seat and RHO bid 2C. I decided that I wasn't missing much unless partner bid again, and I didn't like coming in with a bad suit and effective 3 count.
This went P on my left, and partner re-opened with a double. This can quite often be a strong NT, since we play a weak NT system. RHO passed, and I decided I now liked my hand, so jumped to 4H, ending the auction. The opening lead was the A of Clubs, and a somewhat dissapointing dummy came down.
Partner was certainly feeling as energetic as I was on this board, but we are here and at least the Club lead was helpful. If the A of Spades is onside, there is not that much to worry about with this aggresive game. Just not sure it is when the A and another Club get led, and LHO could not take a call.
First order of business is to win the second Club, and play a Heart to the A and another to the K. RHO started with the stiff J, and pitched a Club on the 2nd Heart. Now, ruff a Club to board to eliminate that suit as LHO sheds a Spade, then off board with a small Diamond, since I do not have the spot cards to lead up to it. RHO wins the J of Diamonds, then thinks for a minute and returns the A of Diamonds. I ruff this and play a Spade to the K and RHO's A, then win the J of Spades return on board. Play the Q of Diamonds, ruff the K when it appears, Heart to board for a Spade pitch on the 10 of Diamonds, and claim 10 tricks.
As I told RHO later, he probably needs to count out my hand and realize that the J of Spades out when in with the J of Diamonds destroys my communication, and can not really cost. Anyways, they did not find this bid at the other table, so that became a 10 IMP pickup, instead of a 6 IMP loss. Partner said after the hand he thought I must be waiting with a penalty pass for a reopening double, so wanted to oblige me.
This went P on my left, and partner re-opened with a double. This can quite often be a strong NT, since we play a weak NT system. RHO passed, and I decided I now liked my hand, so jumped to 4H, ending the auction. The opening lead was the A of Clubs, and a somewhat dissapointing dummy came down.
Partner was certainly feeling as energetic as I was on this board, but we are here and at least the Club lead was helpful. If the A of Spades is onside, there is not that much to worry about with this aggresive game. Just not sure it is when the A and another Club get led, and LHO could not take a call.
First order of business is to win the second Club, and play a Heart to the A and another to the K. RHO started with the stiff J, and pitched a Club on the 2nd Heart. Now, ruff a Club to board to eliminate that suit as LHO sheds a Spade, then off board with a small Diamond, since I do not have the spot cards to lead up to it. RHO wins the J of Diamonds, then thinks for a minute and returns the A of Diamonds. I ruff this and play a Spade to the K and RHO's A, then win the J of Spades return on board. Play the Q of Diamonds, ruff the K when it appears, Heart to board for a Spade pitch on the 10 of Diamonds, and claim 10 tricks.
As I told RHO later, he probably needs to count out my hand and realize that the J of Spades out when in with the J of Diamonds destroys my communication, and can not really cost. Anyways, they did not find this bid at the other table, so that became a 10 IMP pickup, instead of a 6 IMP loss. Partner said after the hand he thought I must be waiting with a penalty pass for a reopening double, so wanted to oblige me.
Monday, March 12, 2012
A Routine 24 Imp Swing
Had a truly wild hand this week in a practice match on BBO. Our opps at our table did really well to score the max possible on the hand, or so we thought. Turns out our partners at the other table had us totally covered, even if we got a magic plus score, we were not going to cover their score :)
Here is the hand from our table
My partner was a bit exuberant with the S hand, yes, E overcalled 1D not 1H, we assume it was a mis-click, but he did not ask for an undo. The negative double deserved to have me jump in Hearts, but the opps did. It served to get us to Spades.
When E pulled the double of 4S (which was going to be hard to make but had some chances if guess most things right) to 5H, and his partner re-doubled, the play was not very exciting. We were quickly minus 1200 on the board, and did not figure this could be good. Little did we know.
Here is the other table however :)
The auction needs a little explanation, 2D was multi, usually a weak 2 in a major, 3C showed an overcall in Clubs, limited, and E thought the opps could make anything they wanted, so he jumped to 6H, which he thought was pass or correct. We were still losing a bunch of IMPS on this, but when it came back to him Doubled, he thought partner had decided it was to play, not pass or correct, so he decided to make his own correction, assuming partner would now put him in their suit. W decided he had made his choice, and he had the Q of Spades, so since it sounded like partner was walking the dog, he sat the Double, as did E. The hand did not play well in 6S Doubled. I think they can hold it to 2 tricks, but holding it to 3 worked out well.
The +1200 at one table and +2900 at the other works out to 24 IMPS, not a record, but a healthy portion of one. We managed to win on the other boards, but that proved a little difficult to overcome.
At least everyone had a good laugh.
Here is the hand from our table
My partner was a bit exuberant with the S hand, yes, E overcalled 1D not 1H, we assume it was a mis-click, but he did not ask for an undo. The negative double deserved to have me jump in Hearts, but the opps did. It served to get us to Spades.
When E pulled the double of 4S (which was going to be hard to make but had some chances if guess most things right) to 5H, and his partner re-doubled, the play was not very exciting. We were quickly minus 1200 on the board, and did not figure this could be good. Little did we know.
Here is the other table however :)
The auction needs a little explanation, 2D was multi, usually a weak 2 in a major, 3C showed an overcall in Clubs, limited, and E thought the opps could make anything they wanted, so he jumped to 6H, which he thought was pass or correct. We were still losing a bunch of IMPS on this, but when it came back to him Doubled, he thought partner had decided it was to play, not pass or correct, so he decided to make his own correction, assuming partner would now put him in their suit. W decided he had made his choice, and he had the Q of Spades, so since it sounded like partner was walking the dog, he sat the Double, as did E. The hand did not play well in 6S Doubled. I think they can hold it to 2 tricks, but holding it to 3 worked out well.
The +1200 at one table and +2900 at the other works out to 24 IMPS, not a record, but a healthy portion of one. We managed to win on the other boards, but that proved a little difficult to overcome.
At least everyone had a good laugh.
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