Posted 4:41 PM by Floyd

It's time for some bridgeblogging!

I noticed that Matt Welch has mentioned Tim Cavanaugh on
his blog. A few months back Matt made an offhand reference
to "my bridge partner Tim Cavanaugh" and I sent him an email
which was roughly like this:

Hi Matt! It's cool that you play bridge. So do I. Do
you play a strong club? I play a cool strong club system
where like you open your second longest suit. And 1H - P
- 1S? It shows three! Do you want to, like, play some time?

I suppose it wasn't that bad, but you can imagine
my mortification when his reply said

No, I don't play bridge. I was just trying to be witty.

And then he changed his name to Mart Walsh and moved to
Phoenix. <rimshot>Which is why he complains about
the heat.</rimshot>



Back to bridge geekery. I played last week at the Santa
Clara Regional, which is the largest tournament in the
San Francisco Bay Area. It's held over seven days (ending
on Labor Day) at the Westin Hotel in a large room right
next to the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Wednesday I played a side game in the afternoon with my
friend Michael Sclafani. We had nothing special, say
a 53%. There was one cute defensive hand which I will
describe later.

In the evening I played in a one-session Swiss with my wife
Sherry, and Michael played with our friend Mike Cohen, who
was nice enough to come down from Marin. My wife and I missed
several slams. The two Michaels played well but we were at
dead average after the four matches.

Thursday evening I played with my friend Brian Kemper. I didn't
play well and we scored badly. At this point I was upset with
myself over my poor play.

Friday I played with Dan Voorhees, an expert player from Santa
Rosa. We were playing in a knockout with a couple from Sacramento,
Veronica and John McMurdie. Ronnie wants to win as many masterpoints
as possible (she has nearly 14,000) and therefore she plays as
many sessions as possible -- at regionals you can often play
three sessions a day. She must have unbelievable stamina
because after a few days of two sessions a day I am drained.

The knockouts were supposed to be four sessions, two on Friday
(1 and 7 p.m.) and then Saturday and Sunday morning at 9 a.m.
There was a Flight A and a Flight B event. Flight A drew 7
teams so they knocked it down to three sessions. We were in
a three-way with the best two teams in the event; one had
my friend Wayne Stuart and his partner Wafik Abdou from Bakersfield;
the other had some excellent players and was the multicultural
special (the players were Indian, Chinese, Polish, Iranian, and
Russian).

We played against Wayne/Wafik and had a good set. Then we went
to the other team's table where I played against Sri and Doug.
I hacked the play in 4S but otherwise we did well. Our teammates
had a good card and we were up about 10 imps in both matches.

In the second half Wayne and Wafik did well against us and bid
a game that was not bid at the other table. They gained 20 imps
to lead by 8. Unfortunately they were getting killed by Sri's
team, so all we needed to do was to hang on in our second half
and we did, winning by 8. All teams had won one match and it
was Sri's team and our team advancing on "ratio" (basically
we scored more imps than we gave away).

A peculiarity of three-ways: Wayne's team beat us by 8 and lost
by 60 or so. But they were only eight imps from advancing; if
Sri's team had beat us by a small amount, we would have two losses
and could not advance, even though the aggregate imp loss would
have been say -10 for us and -50 for Wayne's team.

In the evening we played Charlie James and his wife Andrea.
They were playing with some teammates from Hawaii. Here's
an elementary play problem from the first half:

x xx AKT98xx Jxx

I held this hand second seat, red on white. It went pass and
I opened 3 diamonds; it went all pass. LHO led the CK (A from AK)
and here was the dummy:

KT9xxx KQx QJ xx

LHO then switched to a trump. Plan the play.

Answer: Overtake and lead a spade. If you play a club another
trump will come back (even if trumps are 3-1 the remaining club
honors are split, so they can arrange to win in the hand with
trumps remaining). By leading a spade, you set up a club pitch
while there is still a trump to ruff the third club.

When I played this hand the spade ace was offside, but I had the
satisfaction of making the correct play.

We won by 18 and I left to get some rest. Saturday was going to
be a big day; I had to return at 9 for the final, and Dan and
I were to play pairs at 1 and 7:30. One good thing about knockouts
is that they are fast; I was able to leave around 10:30.

Saturday morning we faced Frank Bessing and Jennifer Jones from
Santa Rosa, and a couple from LA. They had beaten Sri's team in
the other semifinal. Dan and I were solid but our teammates had
a tough match, and we were 17 imps down. In the second half
we had another solid set, except that I pushed to four spades
when I could have settled for a partial and went down.

When we came back to compare I could hear the opposing player in
my seat say "I gave back our whole lead on one board". I knew
the hand he was talking about; they had bid to 6N at our table
and I had a potential trick in each suit. I worked out to pitch
the red queens and keep the long spade from JT9x, but that was
for just the overtrick. Our teammates had bid 7N, and my
counterpart had not worked it out. That was win 11, but the rest
of the card was not enough. We lost by 5. (Had I settled for
a partial on the hand I mentioned, we would have tied.)

I got some pizza from the snack bar. (You can tell pizza is going
to be bad if it's an oblong shape.) Then Dan and I started
a two-session pairs. We did well in the first session with a 61%,
but we each made a couple mistakes and could have had a crusher.
In the evening session I think the fatigue started to show, and we
had several bad boards for an average game. Still it was an exciting
run and some good experience for me.



Here is the most interesting play problem, from Saturday's first
pairs session:

4th chair at favorable, I held K9732 KT6 A74 Q7. The auction was
simple: 1D from partner, 1S by me, 2S, 4S. Here was the dummy:

AQJ A742 K865 64

LHO led the club 5 and RHO won the king and ace of clubs. Then
she played a third club (LHO appears to have started with five
clubs).

Let's say they had grabbed their two clubs and led a trump. I
would have pulled trump and led a heart from dummy, trying to
find RHO with QJ or any three. I use the 13th heart to shake
my diamond loser.

But when they give me a ruff-sluff I want to shed from my weaker
suit and try to find that suit 3-3. So I pitched a diamond from
hand and ruffed on the table. I cashed two more trumps and found
that RHO had started with Txxx of trumps, so she promoted a trump
trick for herself.

I played a diamond to the king, pulled a third round of trumps,
and played ace and a diamond. They broke so I had a heart shake.
(This is called the "rocket in a rocket".) Hearts were not 3-3 (RHO had Qx)
so I would have gone down left to my own devices.

The careful player will note that I can try to make five! The club
carding and the first two rounds of trumps tell me RHO is 4xx4.
If she has three diamonds she must be 4234. If the two hearts are
QJ I can make five as follows:

Club AK and ruff-sluff
AQ of trumps (RHO now has Tx)
Diamond K, A, ruff
Heart king and ace

Dummy has - xx x -, with the diamond high
RHO has Tx - - x
I have K9 T - -, with the heart high (as the QJ fell)

Now I lead the diamond. If RHO ruffs I overruff, pull
her last trump, and the HT is good. If she pitches I
pitch my good heart, and the lead is in dummy for a trump coup.



The most interesting defensive hand was on Wednesday afternoon
while playing with Michael.

I had Q875 QJ9xxx x AJ. Second chair, red on white, it went
pass to me and I passed. LHO opened 1D, partner passed, RHO
bid 1S, and I bid 2H.

LHO bid 2S and all passed. I led the queen of hearts and
found this dummy:

AJT4 AKxx JTx xx

Declarer covered and partner ruffed with the nine of spades!
Then he cashed three diamonds. On the third diamond declarer
pitched his heart loser and I shed two hearts.

Partner switched to a low club. Declarer played the ten
and I won the jack. At this point the hand is an open book.
Declarer started with K632 Txx xx QTxx.
Declarer is currently looking at K632 T - Qxx.
Dummy has AJT4 Axx - x.
I am holding Q875 QJ9 - A.

I considered cashing my club ace and leading a heart. Then
declarer can ruff a heart, finesse in trumps, ruff a heart,
and cash the king of spades leaving dummy with AJ of trumps
over me. Down one.

Instead I led the eight of spades. It went jack, outshow,
small. Declarer cashed the heart ace, ruffed a heart and
led a club. I exited with the seven of spades. Now the
position is

Dummy: AT4 x - -
Me: Q(7)5 J - -
Declarer: K6 - - xx

Declarer had no way to take four tricks and went down two.
In some variations I would take the last trick with the 5
while dummy still had the 4!

By the way, I have no idea why partner did not bid 3D
with 9 - AKQxxxx Kxxxx. If he takes a club hook we can
be +110, but then I would not have had the chance for
such an interesting defense!