On a rush...

Had a FUN run of cards last night sitting south... Nothing much to the play here - all the contracts were (obviously) cold as ice. However, I'd be interested in any feedback on bidding.

Regardless, it was a fun three boards in a row... Board 1:

♠ J ♥ AJ62 ♦ AKQJ3 ♣ Q74

♠ KQ873 ♥ KQ43 ♦ ♣ AK63

West	North	East	South
			1♠
p	2♦	p	2♥
p	4NT	p	5♠
p	6♥	p	p
p

Board 2 was a more interesting auction:

♠ AK93 ♥ QJ753 ♦ AKT8 ♣

♠ JT87 ♥ A84 ♦ Q6 ♣ J987

West	North	East	South
	1♥	2	2
3♣	4♣	p	4♥
p	6♥	p	p
p

I assumed that 4C was a void or stiff ace, but evaluating my hand I still didn't think I had enough to bid slam directly. Using the 30 point deck was an idea that didn't occur to me over the table... It would've yielded a calculation something like this:

• 17pts+ in partner's hand
• plus 7pts in mine outside of ♣s
• equals 24... 30-24=6, or 1.5 tricks in outside suits.

Since I thought we had clubs covered, there was no likely outside loser... So we're on a finesse. I guess I could've pushed?

Third board:

♠ A ♥ AK93 ♦ 54 ♣ AQ9532

♠ J9863 ♥ 862 ♦ AKT ♣ K4

West	North	East	South
	1♣	p	1♠
p	2♥	p	3♠
p	4♣	p	5♣
p	6♣

4♣ didn't seem to indicate particular slam interest to me, but I figured we were at least game force, so might as well play 5♣. Thankfully, partner took the push...

If anyone's here, I'd appreciate bidding thoughts... Like I said, trying to learn.

Bermuda Bowl Predictions...

Well, the Bermuda Bowl is coming up. In international bridge competition, the BB represents the pinnacle event on the team bridge calendar. For all the history and schtuff, you can click here.

Football fans, like I used to be before we lost the TV, have their office pools and fantasy leagues. There's not really anything analogous for bridge nerds, though picking the final 8 teams comes as close as anything can... This thread over on the BBO forums lists the picks of any interested parties. Before I threw mine up there, I thought I'd use them as post fodder.

I know precious little about bridge to begin with... But picking the Senior or Women's teams would be just guesswork.

So, here we go.... Team lineups are here, while the links below take you to the teams CCs.

Losing Quarterfinalists: Ireland, Egypt, China, Canada

Ireland is my dark horse... I've only kibbed Hanlon-McGann, but they seem to be a formidable pair. My dark horse pick coming out of the round robin.

Egypt, I think, has a chance to be a real surprise at this BB. If I were hedging bets, I'd put some money for them to the semifinals just for kicks. El Ahmady-Sadek are a top-shelf pair, and I think Amiry-Samir are strong as well. They've played some practices matches on BBO and seem to be firing on all cylinders.

China just is fascinating to me... They placed out of the top 10 in Estoril, but I just think it's trendy to pick the home team to make some noise.

Canada seems a lot like Egypt to me. The pairs are strong and seem to be in good form. I made this pick prior to the Canadians losing to the Cayne team on BBO, but I'm sticking with it. I think Klimowicz-Frukaz are going to be strong.

Losing Semifinalists: USA1, Norway

It's hard to pick against any team that has Rosenberg-Mahmood as their anchor pair. However, whoever these guys play in the semis, I think they're up against superior teams. Plus, their form at the Spingold wasn't all that great. So, we'll see.

I'm certainly not alone in thinking that Helgemo-Helness are a slammin' pair. But, I think that Tor's play is totally underrated (overshadowed by partner) and also believe that Saelensminde-Brogeland are going to come alive. I think Norway is going to create all kinds of problems for people.

Runner-up: USA2
I waffled back and forth over whether to put USA2 up on top, or in the consolation seat. I think either pick is reasonable. For my money, I think USA2 will make it to the finals relatively easy... But I can't help but thinking that age/intertia/something is starting to catch up with them. Meckwell and Hamway are the best of the best, for sure. But I think they are slipping just enough that this is the right place to seat them.

That just leaves the winners: Italy

All three Italian pairs are mega-strong... And in a long tournament, the ability to rotate players will be valuable. These guys play the pips off the cards and are fun as all heck to watch play. Creative, aggressive, solid. I think Italy will win by a fair margin.So, there you go... Thoughts? Comments? Post them in the meta below.

[Not] Managing entries

Let's try posting a hand... For starters, nothing here on this blog will be a revelation to anyone who knows anything... But they're revelations to me!

Playing a pickup on game on BBO, you sit West. Pard is a self-described advanced player. North is a known, solid, genuine expert parding with a known, solid advanced South. In other words, I'm screwed...

Dealer E Vul E/W Scoring - Lead	♠ J752 ♥ QT9 ♦ Q732 ♣ K4
♠ Q94 ♥ K3 ♦ J4 ♣ JT9752		♠ AK63 ♥ QJ742 ♦ A5 ♣ 63
	♠ T8 ♥ 865 ♦ KT986 ♣ AQ8

West	North	East	South
		1♥	p
1NT	p	2♠	p
3♣	p	3NT	p
p	p

East's 2♠ bid is alerted to N/S as natural rather than a reverse. Of course, I didn't know that when I bid my 3♣. On a 17 pt reverse, I figured we were approaching game and with any ♣ honors in E's hand I figured we were golden.

The lead was the ♠2. My plan was to win the lead and establish clubs. I'm not sure that was the right plan, but it was my plan. The problem is that I won the opening lead in hand with the ♠Q. I started to run clubs, but then realized that I would eventually get pinned in dummy and not be able to run any of the clubs I had originally wanted to establish. Given the line I chose, I should win trick 1 in dummy and then push clubs from that side.

Once I realized that I was pinned, I used the ♥K as an entry to hand and took the finessed the ♥Q in N. Thankfully, hearts broke and the next heart picked up the suit.

Lesson learned: Especially when establishing a long suit, make sure you maintain entries to that hand to actually use the tricks you worked so hard to establish.

The Rooster Crows - 1NT

Seen in the New Yorker review of the book Backwash Squeeze:

When I was in ninth grade, back in 1970, we finished our geometry textbook six weeks before the end of the school year and spent the final grading period studying our math teacher’s principal extracurricular passion, which was bridge. He gave us quizzes on the Goren bidding system, and we got so hooked that we often dealt quick hands in the halls, between classes. We played on weekends, too, sometimes at tables wreathed in marijuana smoke. Our teacher told us that we would love playing in college, as he (and most of our parents) had, but by the time I got there, in 1973, nobody seemed to know anything about it. I didn’t play again until five or six years ago, when, during a family vacation, I was reintroduced by my brother-in-law, who had begun taking lessons as part of his midlife crisis. Now it’s the main thing I think about when I’m not thinking about golf.

As a kid, I remember watching my parents play bridge with my grandparents on Friday nights. I was intrigued by the game, but by the time I was a teen the Friday bridge game had evaporated - a casualty of my grandparents' failing health and my family's increasingly busy life. I learned the basics of the game, loved it, but had few chances to play. Sadly, there were no bridge games when I went to college...

Well, I'm now devoting myself to learning the game. Only as much, of course, as a husband with two small kids and a full-time job can devote himself to anything... I have no illusions of becoming a world class player or anything of the sort. (Though, I suppose that I believe I could've been decently competitive had I started early enough)

I just want to be respectable. So, this blog will catalog my rise and far more frequent falls into the game with 635 billion hands... I welcome your comments and advice. Even more, if you're a really decent player, let me sit with you on BBO for just a couple hands and tell me what I did wrong.

Uh, switch that... Just tell me what I did right. That's bound to take less time.