Seaside Sunday Swiss

Shocking my loyal readers, I'm actually finishing my report on the Seaside Regional in the same month as the tournament! Here's a few problems that Paul and I faced at the table. Check out the Comments to see what we decided and what others would do. Feel free to leave your opinion too!

(A) All white

AK Q53 J85 J9842

You pass in first chair. LHO opens 2H. Pard doubles, and RHO passes. What's your decision?

(B) All white

J963 K876 A9853 none

Partner passes in first seat. RHO opens 1S. Do you bid?

(C) All white again

J96 A98653 QJ Q9

LHO opens a strong notrump. Partner passes, and RHO bids 2H, transfer to spades. What's your call?

(D) All red

AKJ5 T8 4 QT9743

You open 1C (do you?), and partner makes a game-forcing raise of 3C. What's your bid?

The End of the Grinding

After winning the first pair event, we had no luck the next four days, so Paul and I finally made the switch over to IMPs for Saturday and Sunday.

We entered (and quickly exited) the Compact Knockout. We had much better luck in the evening Swiss, however. Isn't it amazing how much better your luck is when you're playing well?

All problems IMPs. Check out the Comments section at the end of the post to see what we did and what others would do. Also, feel free to leave a Comment yourself!
(A) White vs. red

AJ7 QT85 9432 J3

You pass in first chair. LHO opens 1D, partner makes a weak jump overcall of 2S, and RHO passes. Your call.

(B) Red vs. white

AJT KT753 Q4 AT3

LHO opens 1S, and RHO bids a forcing 1NT. Do you bid?

(C) White vs. red

A98763 T7 843 Q9

LHO passes, partner opens 1H, and RHO overcalls 2C. You put in a 2S bid [natural and non-forcing, by partnership agreement]. Partner now cuebids 3C. What's your bid?

(D) All red

76 Q9852 none AKQJ64

In third chair, you open 1C (do you?) and LHO overcalls 4S, which gets passed around to you. What's your action?

(E) All white

KJ97432 Q7 K9 65

RHO, in first chair, opens 1H. You're up.

(F) Red vs. white

KJ62 AJ92 KJ96 4

Partner opens 2C. Happily, you have a bid for this hand – 2NT shows three suits headed by the ace or king. Pard rebids 3NT, and it's up to you.

(G) All red

Here's a nice one for you:

AKQ73 Q842 AKQ7 none

You open 2C (anyone for 1S?), pard bids an artificial game-forcing 2D, you rebid 2S, and pard comes out with 3D! What to do with this pleasant turn of events?

Oregon Grinders: Day Five

Paul and I continued in the pairs for the fifth day in a row. I think everyone in the room was getting tired by Friday... there were some wacky things going on (like my RHO's 2C overcall of partner's 1C -- not alerted as natural, but passed by my LHO -- with 62 J653 AJ3 AKJ4; it was only down one when we couldn't figure out what the heck was happening). We certainly didn't do anything spectacular.

Here's a quick defensive problem:

Your LHO opens a 10-12 1NT, and your RHO bids a "gambling" 3NT. Partner leads an attitude four of clubs (attitude = low from interest), you play the king, and declarer follows with the deuce. What's your play to trick two?

I think it should be the king of hearts. Sure, you're going to play more clubs, but if you need to lead clubs twice from your side, partner needs to know how to get back to you. So if you cash the heart then lead the ten of clubs, partner can overtake declarer's card, lead a heart to the ace, and the seven of clubs through kills the contract. The whole hand:

Oregon Grinders: Day Four

Paul and I continued in the pairs on Thursday of the Seaside Regional. We didn't make the overalls, but scratched a bit, so we felt pretty good about it.

All problems matchpoints; read the Comments section below for what happened at the table.

(A) Red vs. white

AK -- KQJ73 KQ9742

You open 2C (do you?), pard bids a game-forcing 2D, you rebid 3C, and he surprises you with 3D! What's your bid / plan?

(B) All white

K98 K86 AK 96532

LHO opens a 10-12 1NT. Partner passes, and RHO bids a "to play" 2H. This is passed around to partner, who balances with 2S. Should you move over this?

(C) All red

Bid these two hands to slam:

South opens 1C, and rebids clubs at his first turn.

Quickie from Seaside Sunday Swiss

To my loyal readers: Yes, I know I'm bouncing around chronologically a lot, but we're currently traveling --  hopefully someday soon I'll have a few hours of free time to pound out the report you deserve from the Regional. 

So you hold:

53 986 A864 T632.

All red at IMPs, you pass in first seat. LHO passes, and partner opens a strong (good 14 to 17) notrump. This gets checked around to your LHO, who doubles, showing spades and another suit. Your RHO bids a 'pass or correct' 2C, which is pulled to 2D (showing diamonds and spades, of course). Partner now makes a takeout double. Here's the auction:

P (P) 1N (P);

P (X!) P (2C!) 

P (2D!) X (P)
?

What's your call?

Regional Sundays Are Bittersweet

For me, bridge tournaments are a lot like summer camp. You've got all these people from all different places joined together for the same hobby, and for one week at a time, you're the best of friends. You probably don't talk or see much of each other outside tournament life, but it's always easy to pick up right where you left off. If you know you don't have another tournament on your schedule for a while, folding up your bidding boxes on that Sunday afternoon can be a sad moment.
I'm always glad to get back to regular life (it's really hard to get any work done during a bridge tournament, and forget about eating right and exercising...), but it does bum me out to leave at the end. Still, I look forward to Sundays, because Swiss Teams are one of my favorite events.

My first Blue Ribbon Qualification came in Reno, when we won the A/X Swiss -- also the win that put me over the top for Life Master. I've since done very well in this event throughout the year. It's nice that one loss doesn't take you out of the running like in a KO, and I feel like there's more glory to winning a Swiss event than a KO, where you only need to beat three teams for a victory.

Yesterday's Swiss game in Seaside was a fun one for me, and I've got some good stories to tell -- but those will have to wait, because as if we haven't played enough bridge this week, McKenzie and I are on our way out the door to the 11am club game here in Portland!

Seaside Regional Wrapup

The Seaside Regional is over, and it was a smashing success. Paul and I had a great time, playing mostly pairs, and we came away with somewhere between 20 and 25 points. The tournament itself was very well populated -- up a few hundred tables. In the next few days, I'll post more session recaps. Stay tuned!

Sometimes it taks three to declare

In the pairs yesterday at the Seaside Regional, I declared a hand with a little help from my friends... Nobody did anything awful, but we ended up with a ridiculous result.

Partner opened 1S in third seat (by partnership agreement), I responded 1NT, and everyone passed. The six of diamonds was led. I played the queen, dropping the ten on my right. 

I led the jack of clubs, covered by the king (good play).  I could have ducked this and dropped the queen on the next round for five club tricks, but were I to duck it, finessing again (playing East for KQx) would probably have been my play. But I wasn't going for all those tricks. All I was looking for was five tricks. -100 seemed like it would be a good matchpoint score. So I went up with the ace and shot a club back. 

West won the queen and switched to the......... queen of hearts! I covered with the king, and East won the ace. He switched back to diamonds, and I let him hold the jack. He then went back to hearts. I won and reeled off lots of clubs. West felt that he was in a pinch. He pitched his last heart and a spade, then decided that his diamonds couldn't take a trick... right he was! he pitched his eight of diamonds, then, on the last club, the king of diamonds. I pitched the ace of diamonds from dummy! The 9-4 in my hand were good, and I gave up a spade at trick 13 for making three.

Oregon Grinders: Day Three

We had a better day in the pairs on Wednesday-- a bit below average in the afternoon, and a solid 57.5% in the evening.

All problems matchpoints, of course.

(A) Red vs. white

QT98762 K643 9 A

Partner opens 1H (4+, usually 5+) in first seat. What's your bidding plan?

(B) Red vs. white

K2 AK8 876542 JT

Righty passes, and it's your call.

(C) White vs. red

74 3 875 AKQJ952

The auction goes (P) P (1N 15-17) to you. The cheapest you can bid clubs is 3C, and double is artificial. Do you bid?

(D) White vs. red

75 QT9742 84 KJ3

LHO opens 1C, partner overcalls 1S, and RHO passes. Do you have a call?

(E) White vs. red

AT872 K73 --- AJ965

You open 1C (our partnership agreement with 5-5 in the blacks), LHO overcalls 1D, and partner leaps majestically to 3NT. Do you pull?

Oregon Grinders: Day Two

Paul and I continued along in the pair games on Tuesday, with less success than Monday. We scratched both sessions, but didn't make the overalls.

All problems matchpoints.

(A) All red

AK J53 A875 AKQ6

RHO opens 1H. Assuming you double, what is your action over partner's 1S?

(B) All red

T42 J4 QT852 J63

The opponents bid uncontested to 6S on this auction:

1D - 1H;
1S - 4NT;
5H - 6S.

What's your lead?

(C) White vs. red

J63 J5 K543 A762

You pass in first chair, LHO opens 1H, pard overcalls 2D, and RHO jumps to 4H. Do you or don't you?

(D) All white

A987 JT7642 9 KT

Pard opens 2H (!) in second seat, and RHO overcalls 2S. Your bid.

Pardon me while I vent about a lousy afternoon session

I'm not pleased with my bridge game lately. I know I can do better, and often I'll sit and think about a play or a bid for a long time, only to realize what I should have done differently a second too late. That's really frustrating. I've been playing like a B player, and I'd like to think that I'm not one. I think I've been too distracted by how awesome Oregon is:)

I have this bad habit of assuming my opponents don't know what they're doing. I mean, quite often, these theories are confirmed, but then again, not everyone is an idiot, and when I take someone for a fool who's not one, I get schooled. And I don't recognize the good players on the west coast yet. I guess that'll come in time.

I misplayed a hand earlier today because my LHO gave such flagrant body language, I was sure she had a trump stack. The auction went P (1D) to me, I bid 1H, and it passed around. When she picked up her pass cards, she jerked them off the table and SLAMMED them into her bidding box. When she led, she practically threw her card at her partner. I was sure she was pissed because he hadn't recognized her trap pass and reopened with a double, so I didn't draw trumps, thinking that she had all the honors I was missing to my left. Turns out, she was just a grumpy old bitch, and trumps broke 3-3 with the honors onside. Dangit. I was down one instead of making one or two.

That kind of thing gets in my head a little more than it should. I know I could play a lot better if I could just move on after tucking the cards away. Oh well. Harvey and I finished the afternoon session somewhere in the middle of the pack, and I'll try to shake off my bad afternoon and do some good things this evening. We're still alive.

I'll post some hands at the end of the day, if I'm up to talking about it then. I do feel like Harvey and I had some great auctions in spite of all the mediocrity, I just don't want to think too much more about this afternoon for a while. It was one of those really frustrating sessions that you just want to leave behind you.

Oregon Grinders: Day 1

Paul and I are playing all pair games at the Seaside Regional. We started off hot by winning the Charity Pairs Monday night. According to the directors, we led wire to wire and won by a landslide. There were a lot of fun hands, and we handled them well, surviving three near-zeroes. That just goes to show you that you shouldn't let one bad board ruin your session...

Our first set of two boards warned of a wacky set of hands:

I was North and made 3S with a little help from my friends for 26 of 34 matchpoints.

Systemically, we open 1C with 5-5 black hands. We got to absolute par by saving over 4H. Do you agree with 4S by me? West, understandably, took the push to 5H with his 6-5. +200 was worth 32 of 34 matchpoints.

OK, here's some problem hands for you to chew on. Feel free to share your answers and read others' opinions by clicking on the word "Comments" at the end of this article. I'll also tell what happened at the table in that section.

(A) White vs. red

A32 KT4 5 JT8643

LHO (a solid citizen) opens 3S; pard doubles; RHO passes. Your call.

(B) All white

Q52 Q987 KQJT QJ

RHO opens 1C. You're up.

(C) Red vs. white

A K52 Q98652 Q96

You open 1D in third seat. LHO bounces to 4H, and partner makes a negative double. Your bid.

(D) How should these hands be bid at all white? South starts, and East bids (or doubles) hearts at her first opportunity.

Seaside Regional begins!

We'll be playing at the famous and fabulous Seaside, OR Regional this week. Our old friend Merlin will be putting the results up daily at the District 20 website. We'll certainly be having good times with good friends... but hopefully we'll throw some good bridge in, too. We hope to have time to update the site daily, so check back all this week for fun tales and fun hands from the tournament. If you're also attending this great tournament, plesae track us down and say hi!