It's one of those moments you'll always remember. Where were you when you made it to Life Master? And how did you feel? It's a great moment for any bridge player -- the first big milestone among what will hopefully be many to follow.
I'm closing in on Silver now, but I'll never forget how great it felt to collect my 300th point and get that gold card in the mail. It's been so much fun for me today to go through that emotion all over again with my good friend Gail. She and I traveled together to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, for a regional this week, and this morning, we won our match to advance to round 3 of the morning KO, earning just shy of 10 gold points. Gail was only .2 gold points shy of the milestone, so that win was more than good enough to put her over the top. I was so pleased to be on that team and honored to be the one to deliver the news to her (she was sitting out the second half, so she wasn't present for the comparison).
Congratulations Gail!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Sometimes it really is just bad luck.
To start the week at the Richmond, Virginia MABC Regional, I'm playing with three friends who are all on the hunt for Life Master. My partner is very, very close, and I'd love to see her go over the top this week. We were playing in a Bracket 4 KO yesterday, and won our first round handily. There's certainly no team in this bracket that we shouldn't be able to beat.
So, it was a little annoying when our first seven boards out in round 2 were minus scores. That's never a good sign. The seventh of these was really demoralizing -- partner opened, and I had a balanced 15-count. We reached what seems like a reasonable vulnerable 3NT, but the opponents took the first eight tricks when my LHO can run seven hearts and cash an ace. All I could hope was that the -300 was a push. But you never know in these lower brackets.
It was a push, but we were still down 33 imps at the half. The team turned to me to wonder what the heck we were doing wrong. I'm pretty sure they didn't believe me when I said it was just bad luck. But it really was. Of course we weren't playing perfectly, but we weren't playing -30 imp bridge, either. We were bidding our close games, and our obvious ones, and none of them happened to make. At the other table, they were being conservative, and so there was a long string of part score swings. But at imps, and at any level, it is right to bid games when there's anything close to a 50% chance that they're working. We were doing that, and 0% of our 50%-and-better games were making. Does that mean we were wrong to bid them? No. We were unlucky.
-33 imps is something like five or six part score swings (-100 where we bid a vulnerable game opposite -140 where the opps stay out is -6 imps). So let's say that we bid 5 close vulnerable games, and the opponents bid none of them (which is exactly what happened). If any two of these games had made (so we're basically hoping that 40% of our 50% chances work out -- conservative, right?), we'd be +620 opposite -170 for +10 imps instead of -6, for a sixteen imp difference per board. If we had just two of those, that's 32 imps in our favor, and -33 becomes just -1. That's if any two of these five close games had been a maker. On most days, you can count on making at least some of your close ones.
I really wanted my team to understand this, because I felt like we were playing good bridge, and I didn't want anyone to make any adjustments. Eventually, the pendulum will swing and those close games will start coming home -- and we don't want to be scared out of bidding them when the time comes.
But alas, it was a very unlucky night. There was all of one game to bid in the second half, and while we gained ground, there just weren't 33 imps in the cards in those last 12 boards.
It's demoralizing, but these things happen. Sure it's disappointing, and of course we all made mistakes here and there, but it's important not to second guess yourself when a loss like this happens. If our team keeps playing the game we've been playing, we'll win far more imps than we'll lose. Last night it just really wasn't in the cards.
So what can you do but buy a new entry? Wish us luck!
So, it was a little annoying when our first seven boards out in round 2 were minus scores. That's never a good sign. The seventh of these was really demoralizing -- partner opened, and I had a balanced 15-count. We reached what seems like a reasonable vulnerable 3NT, but the opponents took the first eight tricks when my LHO can run seven hearts and cash an ace. All I could hope was that the -300 was a push. But you never know in these lower brackets.
It was a push, but we were still down 33 imps at the half. The team turned to me to wonder what the heck we were doing wrong. I'm pretty sure they didn't believe me when I said it was just bad luck. But it really was. Of course we weren't playing perfectly, but we weren't playing -30 imp bridge, either. We were bidding our close games, and our obvious ones, and none of them happened to make. At the other table, they were being conservative, and so there was a long string of part score swings. But at imps, and at any level, it is right to bid games when there's anything close to a 50% chance that they're working. We were doing that, and 0% of our 50%-and-better games were making. Does that mean we were wrong to bid them? No. We were unlucky.
-33 imps is something like five or six part score swings (-100 where we bid a vulnerable game opposite -140 where the opps stay out is -6 imps). So let's say that we bid 5 close vulnerable games, and the opponents bid none of them (which is exactly what happened). If any two of these games had made (so we're basically hoping that 40% of our 50% chances work out -- conservative, right?), we'd be +620 opposite -170 for +10 imps instead of -6, for a sixteen imp difference per board. If we had just two of those, that's 32 imps in our favor, and -33 becomes just -1. That's if any two of these five close games had been a maker. On most days, you can count on making at least some of your close ones.
I really wanted my team to understand this, because I felt like we were playing good bridge, and I didn't want anyone to make any adjustments. Eventually, the pendulum will swing and those close games will start coming home -- and we don't want to be scared out of bidding them when the time comes.
But alas, it was a very unlucky night. There was all of one game to bid in the second half, and while we gained ground, there just weren't 33 imps in the cards in those last 12 boards.
It's demoralizing, but these things happen. Sure it's disappointing, and of course we all made mistakes here and there, but it's important not to second guess yourself when a loss like this happens. If our team keeps playing the game we've been playing, we'll win far more imps than we'll lose. Last night it just really wasn't in the cards.
So what can you do but buy a new entry? Wish us luck!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Brilliant defense
England's Michelle Brunner, in the 2007 Venice Cup (Womens' World Team Championship) found a very clever defense to defeat a grand slam:
North-South had blasted their way to seven clubs on the uncontested auction
1C (1) - 1D (2)
2S (3) - 2NT
3C - 4C
5NT - 7C
(1) Strong, artificial, and forcing
(2) 0-7 HCP
(3) Huge hand with long spades
Michelle's partner led the jack of hearts, declarer covered with the queen, and Michelle ducked! She knew there were plenty of spade winners to cover the losing heart, so wouldn't be giving a trick away. Declarer's 5NT was asking for good trumps, so she knew that the only trick for their side could possibly be in the club suit. When she ducked smoothly, declarer found herself very conveniently in dummy to take the trump finesse...
North-South had blasted their way to seven clubs on the uncontested auction1C (1) - 1D (2)
2S (3) - 2NT
3C - 4C
5NT - 7C
(1) Strong, artificial, and forcing
(2) 0-7 HCP
(3) Huge hand with long spades
Michelle's partner led the jack of hearts, declarer covered with the queen, and Michelle ducked! She knew there were plenty of spade winners to cover the losing heart, so wouldn't be giving a trick away. Declarer's 5NT was asking for good trumps, so she knew that the only trick for their side could possibly be in the club suit. When she ducked smoothly, declarer found herself very conveniently in dummy to take the trump finesse...
Friday, May 8, 2009
Deja vu?
Last week I played the Fort Lauderdale Regional with Robert Todd. One afternoon, he showed me his latest article for the Sunshine Bridge News, ACBL District 9's bimonthly magazine.
Follow this link for that article. Read it before the rest of this one!
Two boards into the next session, we had this eerily similar defense:
N-S wound their way to 3H over our 3D. I started out with the queen of diamonds. Robert overtook with the king and switched to a low spade through declarer. South misguessed, playing low, and I won with the queen. I shot a spade to Robert's ace, and he returned the eight of diamonds (suit-preference) to my known jack. I then gave him a spade ruff for the first undertrick. My queen of clubs late made for a very satisfying down two.
Follow this link for that article. Read it before the rest of this one!
Two boards into the next session, we had this eerily similar defense:
N-S wound their way to 3H over our 3D. I started out with the queen of diamonds. Robert overtook with the king and switched to a low spade through declarer. South misguessed, playing low, and I won with the queen. I shot a spade to Robert's ace, and he returned the eight of diamonds (suit-preference) to my known jack. I then gave him a spade ruff for the first undertrick. My queen of clubs late made for a very satisfying down two.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Bridge on TV
...but not where I can see it, of course.
England's SkyTV has put together a celebrity bridge competition for their SkyArts channel. You can read all about it here.
Also, here's a short video of the introduction to the programme.
Does anyone know how we could see full episodes of this show?
England's SkyTV has put together a celebrity bridge competition for their SkyArts channel. You can read all about it here.
Also, here's a short video of the introduction to the programme.
Does anyone know how we could see full episodes of this show?
Monday, May 4, 2009
Time off again...
The Southeastern Regional is over. We had a fabulous time in Fort Lauderdale, making new friends and playing some good bridge. I have a few hands to share... but right now, time to rest. What a week!
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