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.

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!

A neat defense from Gatlinburg

In the Friday two-session Swiss teams in Gatlinburg last week, Robert Todd and I put together a nice defense. E-W subsided in 2NT after an invitational sequence in which West may or may not have had four spades. I got off to the lead of the two of diamonds. Declarer played low from dummy, and Robert made the very thoughtful play of the seven! Declarer won with the king, cashed the king of clubs (Robert playing the six, his lowest, as a Smith echo - showing that he liked my opening lead), and played a diamond up. Not yet believing that partner had made the good play in diamonds, I split my honors to guarantee me a trick in the suit if RHO had KQx(x). East let me hold the trick. Not really seeing anything else constructive to do, I played another low diamond. Dummy won and declarer pitched a heart. A club was led to the ace, and a spade to the queen. Two more rounds of clubs were played, ending on the table, and I pitched down to AJ of spades, KJ of hearts, and the good jack of diamonds. A heart was led to my jack; I cashed the good diamond and exited the now-stiff king of hearts to the now-stiff ace, and a spade through the queen was our sixth trick for down one. At the other table, our teammates were +400 in 3NT!

On the road again

I'm in the airport at the moment waiting to head off to the Toronto Regional. If you're there, come over and say hi!

"Strip Squeeze" isn't as dirty as it sounds

Last night in the Swiss, I picked up Qxx 9x Ax AJTxxx at all red. Partner opened 1D (10-15 HCP, 2+ D), RHO overcalled 1S, I bid 2C, partner raised to 3C, and I put us in 3NT. The S9 was led, and I saw:



It looked like nine tricks if the club finesse was on, but a few other chances if not. I put up the ace of spades at trick one (trying to get LHO to continue the suit if she won a club trick) and led a top club from the board. This lost to LHO's king, and she duly continued spades. RHO won with the king and cleared spades, but five more rounds of clubs turned her hand to mush. In order to keep all of her spades, she had to either pitch her ace of hearts or come down to the stiff king of diamonds. She decided to stiff her king, but I was able to read it and play ace then queen of diamonds for my ninth trick. Had she pitched one of her spades, I would have thrown her in with the ace of hearts and forced her to lead away from the king of diamonds at the end. Here's the whole hand:

Portland Regional Update

Hi folks---

Things are going well so far at the Portland Regional. Meg and I won Bracket 2 of the Monday-Tuesday KO with friends from Vancouver, BC, and we placed 3rd in the Wednesday Open Pairs. We start a new KO this afternoon. If you're around, please come check out my lecture this evening starting at 6:15 in the main playing area. I'll write up some of the more fun hands of the week when I get some time.

Oregon Trail Regional

The fabulous Oregon Trail Regional starts today. This tournament, held at the Vancouver, WA Hilton, would be one of my favorites even if it wasn't my "home" regional. There's lots of friendly people, nice giveaways, and a great playing site in a cool downtown area. Also, District 20 has a surprising number of excellent players, and the standard of play here is quite a bit higher than you'll find at the average regional. This is gonna be great!

Quick bidding problem from the Sarasota Regional

Via Robert Todd:

♠ KQJT3
♥ none
♦ KJ7
♣ KJ753

All white at matchpoints, your partner opens 1C. RHO pops to 2H; you bid 2S. LHO jumps to 4H, which gets passed back to you.

(A) What's your call?

(B) LHO makes the cheapest heart bid (up to 6H) over your bid. Partner and RHO pass this too. Now what's your call?

Hands from the Charlottesville Regional

The Charlottesville Regional was a huge success! Almost 1600 tables, great people, great hospitality, and a great job done by both our directing staff and the hotel staff. Thanks again to Millard and his team of directors, as well as Mark and his team at the DoubleTree.

I’ve been so busy since the tournament that I haven’t had a chance to share all the tough hands that I ran across then! Here, almost a month later, are a few of the problems I faced.

In problems A and B you’re playing with an unfamiliar, but expert, partner. All problems are from knockout (IMP) play.

(A) Red vs. white

A652 3 AJ74 AQT9

You open 1D (promising 4+), LHO overcalls 1H, partner bids 1NT, and RHO raises to 2H. You’re up. [Double would be for takeout here.]

(B) All red

K763 QJ95 J8752 –

Partner opens a strongish (good 14 to 17) 1NT, and RHO passes. What’s your bid / plan?

(C) Red vs. white

A65 AJT65 – T9843

Partner opens 1S, and RHO sticks in a 2D call. Systemically, here are your choices:

2H, natural and forcing to 3H;
3C, natural and forcing to game;
3D, invitational or better spade raise;
3H, invitational with long hearts and a spade fit, at least nine cards between the two suits;
4C, game-forcing with long clubs and a spade fit, at least nine cards between the two suits;
4D, game-forcing spade raise with at most one diamond;
And, of course, Other.

What’s your call?

(D) White vs. red

A3 KQJ85 Q QJT62

You open 1H in first seat, and your LHO’s weak 3D bid gets passed around to you. What’s your call?

Who says politicians can't play bridge?

Last week I found myself playing against the current ACBL President, Jerry Fleming, and a former ACBL President, Sharon Fairchild. Sharon and I had a game together two years ago, right after she started her one-year term, so I knew she was a sharp cookie. I hadn't played against Jerry enough to know much about his game.

My partner and I picked up these hands:

♠ AT874 ♥ AK987 ♦ J6 ♣ 8

♠ Q2 ♥ Q4 ♦ KT974 ♣ KT32

Here's the auction:

West	North	East	South
			p
1♦	1♠	p	1NT
p	2♥	p	2NT
p	p	p

Jerry, on my left, led a fourth-best five of diamonds. I played the six of diamonds off the board, and was pleased to see it hold. I played off three rounds of hearts to see if my luck was in there too-- and it was! They split 3-3. Rather than figure out what to pitch on the next two hearts, I decided to leave them on the table with the spade ace to get to them later. Since anything that LHO led would be good for me, I led the jack of diamonds off the table (Sharon, East, pitching a discouraging club). West won and led the jack of spades, which ran around to my queen (Sharon playing the three smoothly). I pounded out the last diamond honor and West put another spade on the table. I could stick in the ten and take a whole lot of tricks if LHO had led from KJx or KJxx, as it appeared... would Sharon have made the good play of ducking from Kxx or Kxxx?

I said, "I'm making this play out of respect for you, Sharon," and hopped up with the ace of spades. I made exactly two.



Here's the whole hand:

	♠ AT874 ♥ AK987 ♦ J6 ♣ 8
♠ J6 ♥ J62 ♦ AQ853 ♣ A74		♠ K953 ♥ T53 ♦ 2 ♣ QJ965
	♠ Q2 ♥ Q4 ♦ KT974 ♣ KT32

A great smooth duck from Sharon. When did we let expert players go into bridge politics, anyway?

A New Application of the Rabbi's Rule: From the Bermuda Regional Daily Bulletin

John Carruthers puts together the best bulletin in the business, and this year's in Bermuda was no different. Here's his statement on a play I made on Friday:

The Rabbi’s Rule states simply: “When the king is offside singleton, drop it.” McKenzie Myers, who is having a fine tournament, except perhaps for the following hand, helped Alan Douglas find a new application for the Rabbi’s Rule on the following deal from Friday’s Swiss Teams.

	♠ A5 ♥ A2 ♦ AQJ75 ♣ AT96
♠ QT975 ♥ Q98 ♦ T98 ♣ T94		♠ 632 ♥ T974 ♦ K3 ♣ KQ32
	♠ KJ8 ♥ KJ653 ♦ 642 ♣ J7

Douglas and partner Bill Tucker arrived in three notrump from the South seat. West, Malcolm Lewis, led the ten of spades and Douglas won the jack.. He immediately led a diamond to the queen – Myers played the three! No, he didn’t pull the wrong card, he was merely hoping to mislead declarer and talk him into using a hand entry to repeat the finesse. From his standpoint, Douglas was reluctant to use his heart entry to repeat the diamond finesse, which had no guarantee of winning a second time anyway. After due thought, he played the diamond ace, and the rabbi, wherever he is, smiled.

Check out all of the Bermuda bulletins at the Bermuda Regional web site.

Back to it

The Bermuda Regional starts tomorrow, and I'm red-eyeing it out tonight. This tournament is always the best one on the ACBL's schedule. The local organizers work with the country's tourism department to create a wonderful experience. I'll give you all the details next week (if I can find an internet connection).

To hold you over, here's a couple of matchpoint problems:

(A) Red vs. white

♠ Q2 ♥A3 ♦KQJ5 ♣AT753

Partner, in first chair, opens 1C, and RHO bounces to 5S! What's your call?

(B) All white

♠ K ♥AKJT96 ♦JT973 ♣T

LHO opens 3C and RHO lifts to 5C. D0 you bid?

It's over!

So the inaugural Charlottesville Regional is all over.

This is the most exhausted I've ever been.

That's not to say that it wasn't a fabulous time-- it was wonderful. I made some new friends and played some good bridge. It was just an immense amount of work.

The Regional was more successful than we thought it could be, due to lots of help from the DoubleTree staff. The two most notable performers there were Lee Taintor, customer service manager and Jim Moyer, executive chef. Lee was always there to help me out in any way possible, and often went above and beyond whatever I requested. Jim did a fabulous and creative job of keeping over 800 people fed quickly, tastily, and cheaply. I couldn't have done my job without them.

Also, I can't forget Renee and Tatiana at the front desk. All of the front desk people were friendly and helpful, but these two were amazing.

Thanks also to all of our volunteers, especially Nan Massie, Partnership Chair, Marie Hudick, Registration Chair, Chris Moll, Bulletin Chair, Steve Rothman, Recycling Chair, and Tammy Pepper, Prize Chair. But the hardest working person at the tournament (with the possible exception of Millard Natchwey, Chief Director) was Scott Tumperi, our Hospitality Chair. Tump was the friendly (and spectacular) bartender in the Hospitality Suite every night. We couldn't have done it without you, Scott.

Of course, the biggest thank you is to you the players. Thanks so much for taking your precious time and money to enjoy a week of bridge-playing with us!

There will be a vote in the District Six meeting in May on whether or not to add Charlottesville to the D6 regional rotation. If you know anyone on the D6 Board, please let them know how much you enjoyed the tournament.

Success!

Well, we're done -- sort of. There's still a lot of paperwork, but the tough part is over.

The first ever Charlottesville MABC Regional Bridge Tournament ended yesterday. I won't lie -- McKenzie worked ten times harder than I did during the week, and he deserves mountains of praise for that. We also had a great team of volunteers who deserve lots and lots of thanks:

Scott Tumperi, Hospitality Chairman -- what an artist! Try his made-from-scratch mixed drinks sometime.
Nan Massie, Partnership Chairman -- that's my mom!
Marie Hudick, Registration Chairman -- Marie was the friendly lady behind the desk giving you free stuff all week. Thanks, Marie!
Tammy Pepper & Chris Moll, Prize Chairmen -- These guys came all the way up from Raleigh to play bridge with us and help with this tournament, and we were so glad to have them!
Our guest speakers, Robert Todd, Shannon Cappelletti, Chris Moll, Betty Ann Kennedy, and Mark Dahl -- you guys were all wonderful.

And to everyone else who volunteered in any way, thank you thank you thank you. The tournament was an incredible success, and we couldn't have done it without you.

Over the course of the week, we had 1568.5 tables, well exceeding the hopes and expectations of most involved. We heard very few complaints, and lots and lots of compliments -- it looks very likely that we'll host this tournament again in the future. Our calendars are tentatively marked for every four years, beginning in January 2012. The District Six board will vote on this in May, so if you were at the tournament and you had a good time, please tell your D6 reps that you'd like to come to Charlottesville again. We want all the support we can get, because we absolutely want to host you again.

Everyone said that for a first time tournament, it was exceptionally successful. We had players from Oregon, Maine, Florida, Poland, and everywhere in between. We had celebrity guests from all over, and Bracket I was tons of fun.

We got knocked around a lot in the top bracket, but we had an absolute blast playing against those heavy hitters, and we had a couple of solid wins, including another victory over the Meckwell team (making me and McKenzie 2-0 against them!). My favorite experience of the week was playing against the Fireman team, with Alan Sontag and Mike Seamon at our table and Shannon Cappelletti and Phyllis Fireman at the other. I've seen Sontag all over the place, since he's from the DC area, but I'd only ever played two boards against him in a sectional prior to this week. He and Mike were such friendly opponents, and the nicest part of the experience was that they both took us seriously, even though these guys have more championships than we have sessions together.

I didn't get any lessons in those 24 boards, but I learned a lot. It's amazing what you can pick up from a couple of hours with some top players. It was a great experience also, to play against such heavy hitters without getting frustrated or intimidated. I held my own; Z played as well as he always does, and our teammates were solid, too. The end result? Lose by 1. Damn! Oh well -- did anyone really expect us to beat these guys? Maybe next time!

Thanks again to everyone who came to the tournament, especially those of you who volunteered your time for us. We can't wait to see you all again, hopefully in 2012, and of course before that, somewhere else on the trail!

Regional Time!

The Charlottesville Regional starts today! Meg and I are the co-chairs of the tournament, so I don't know how much time I'll have to post this week. I'll try to put as much up as I can...

For a warmup, here's a bidding and play problem faced by England's Phillip King (coauthor of The Kings' Tales and many other fabulously entertaining bridge books).

Phillip was in fourth seat at all vul and held

♠ A ♥ 543 ♦ AQJ82 ♣ AK52

His LHO opened 3H, and there were two passes to him. What would you bid in this situation?

Phil pulled out a brave 3NT! Here's the whole hand:

Dealer S Vul All Scoring IMPs	♠ KQT94 ♥ K ♦ KT63 ♣ 963
♠ J7532 ♥ T8 ♦ 94 ♣ J874		♠ A ♥ 543 ♦ AQJ82 ♣ AK52
	♠ 86 ♥ AQJ9762 ♦ 75 ♣ QT

West	North	East	South
			3♥
p	p	3NT	p
p	p

South was leery about leading away from his hearts, so he started with the ♠8, won by declarer's stiff ace. The ace and king of clubs were cashed, and King was pleased with the drop of the ♣QT giving him two entries to dummy in the club suit. He led to the ♣J (South pitching the ♠6) and tried to run the ♦9. North covered with the ♦10 and King won with the ♦J. He played his last club up to the dummy, South pitching a heart and North a spade. Then came the ♦4 to the ♦8 (both defenders following) and he stopped to take in the distributional information.

If diamonds were 3-3, he could cash the ace and claim ten tricks - five diamonds, four clubs, and a spade. Could that be the case? He decided not. South had led a spade and pitched a spade, so he had two there. He'd followed to two clubs and two diamonds. With the opening 3♥ call almost always showing 7, all thirteen of South's cards were known! So there wouldn't be a friendly diamond split. Since he knew all thirteen cards in the South hand, he could work out the North hand as well. These are the remaining cards as seen in declarer's mind's eye:

Dealer S Vul All Scoring IMPs	♠ KQT ♥ ? ♦ K3 ♣ ---
♠ J753 ♥ T8 ♦ --- ♣ ---		♠ --- ♥ 543 ♦ AQ2 ♣ ---
	♠ --- ♥ ?????? ♦ --- ♣ ---

Taking the only chance he could see, he led a low heart from his hand! South (who, remember, had AQJ9762) couldn't work out the position (the ♥A from him allows him to claim the rest of the tricks!) and played the ♥J. North had to win the trick and was endplayed into giving declarer two spade tricks or two diamond tricks. Declarer just lost two spades and two hearts for a scary +600.

Charlottesville Sectional

The Charlottesville Winter Sectional was an amazing success. Table count was up a lot from last year. It was successful for us, too -- for the second Charlottesville tournament in a row Meg and I were 1st and 2nd in the masterpoint race. (You can check out my post on the last tournament here.) This time, she edged me out-- she played one session with our friend and teammate Geoff (3rd on this tournament's list) while I played with our buddy Al. Meg and Geoff placed, we didn't... so it goes. I'll get her next time!

Playing together, we had two event wins and three third overalls. This was a surprisingly strong showing; I wasn't expecting to do great things this tournament. We'd just made the switch over to playing Transfer Precision. There are always some speedbumps with system changes, especially sweeping ones like that.... and there were. Happily, the few misunderstandings we had didn't cost. Our best event was the Saturday night Swiss-- we won all four of our matches for a total of 72 Victory Points out of a possible 80. We outscored the opponents 119-3! Those 3 imps were my fault. I held:

♠	J3
♥	QJT973
♦	95
♣	T95

Meg opened 1C (strong, artificial, and forcing). I could have bid 2H to show 4-6 HCP and a long heart suit, but I decided that Jx of spades wasn't worth the full 1 HCP. I planned to show a 0-3 hand on the next round...and maybe I should have. So I bid a conventional 1D, (usually) negative.

If Meg had rebid 1H (Kokish; hearts or balanced), I could have rebid 2D showing an awful hand with long hearts. But her rebid was 2C. Now I reevaluated... I had a fit for partner's long suit and two doubletons! So I bid 2H trying to find a fit there. When she rebid 3C, I gave up.

She went down two for -200. The opponents went down 100 in 2H at the other table. Had I bid 2H immediately or passed her 2C, we would have pushed the board and been perfect for the event! Oh well...

Not So Far Away Anymore

When I first signed on to be chairman of the first ever Charlottesville Regional bridge tournament, it seemed so far away. All of a sudden, it's just a little more than a month away, and things are coming together quite nicely.

Planning has been work, indeed, but it hasn't been the nightmare everyone seemed to think it would be. We had enough time that most things were pretty well spread out, and of course lots of great advice from other MABC tournament officials. We've been finalizing lots of details this week. McKenzie got our registration gifts ordered, and we predict they will be a big hit. Since this may be the only regional Charlottesville ever gets (and because we might get more of them if it is a good one), we want to make sure to focus on the players. We're stretching our budget as much as possible to provide good gifts and hospitality, and we put a lot of thought into what those gifts would be.

We've still got a little bit of work to do as far as door prizes. This isn't a requirement, but we'd like to do it, so we're going to go out and try to get donations from nearby restaurants and retailers. That's one of the things we've been putting off, though, because it seems like a drag. We've got our committee chairpersons in place, and we're very thankful for everyone who's volunteered to help so far.

My mom, Nan Massie (CHObridge at aol dot com), is the partnership chairman, and she would like some folks to step up and be guaranteed partners, and also partnership desk helpers. If anyone is interested in helping with that, please send her an email. We need volunteers to man the registration desk as well, so you can email me or leave a comment here if you'd like to help hand out the gifts. All desk volunteers (partnership and registration -- prize desk is covered!) will work 30 minute shifts either before or after the sessions, and will receive a free play for every two volunteer shifts.

The last thing we need volunteers for is the hospitality. If anyone is interested in bringing food for the hospitality suite on any evening of the tournament, these donations will be greatly appreciated! Again, comment or email me if you'd like to help with this, or just want to help with preparations in the hospitality suite.

All volunteers will receive free plays and access to the exclusive tournament VIP suite, where there will be private hospitality for the tournament committees. That's where you get to hang out with us:)

We were pleased to learn that the entire hotel is almost completely booked with bridge players. That's a very good sign for our attendance, and we can't wait to see this all come together. We hope to see you there!

Virginia Beach Morning Compact KO: Day Two

After barely surviving both round-robins of the day before, Geoff and I entered the semi-final of the Morning Compact KO.

Match One: We met up with one of the teams that had beaten us the day before.

(A) All white

T9764

432

AK95

Q

RHO opens 2S, which gets passed around to partner. He balances with 3H, and RHO passes. What's your call?

(B) All red

T72

Q43

KT72

AT2

RHO opens 2NT, 20-21. Everyone passes. What's your lead?

We had a great time of it at both tables -- final score (for 12 boards): 54-4. Revenge is sweet.

Match Two: We played against the Grand Old Couple of Mid-Atlantic bridge, the Bloomers. Always tough but always fun, George and Judith have been winning bridge tournaments since before my parents were alive.

(C) All white

KJ9

AK5

K874

T43

The opponents have the uncontested auction of:

1NT [15-17] - 2D [transfer]; 2H - 3H; 3NT - Pass.

What's your lead?

(D) Red vs. white

J8

Q5

98542

Q964

LHO passes, partner opens 1D, and RHO bids 1S. What's your call? I bid 2D... but whatever you do, you'll be on lead against 4S when LHO forces to game. What's your lead?

(E) All white

KQJ4

A

KJ9763

A6

Partner opens 1H. You force to game with 2D, and he rebids 2H. You show your second suit with 2S, and he rebids 2NT. What's your bid?

Final score: 40-10. We were much stronger as a team on the second day, and Geoff and I had many fewer misunderstandings. Hopefully we get the opportunity to play again sometime soon.

Boston NABC starts today!

Today is the start of the 2008 Fall NABC in Boston, MA. I'll be there through the bitter end. Internet access may be limited, but I'll try to keep you up to date on what's going on!

Thursday A/X Swiss, second session: Virginia Beach

At halftime, we had 56 Victory Points on a 40 average.

I didn't keep as extensive a record as in the first half-- I apologize!

Match 5: We played another team of unknowns.

On the first board out, I held

(A) All white

52

3

KQJ986

AKQ3

The auction goes (2H) P (3H) to you. What's your bid?

Then I held

(B) All red

975

Q9

A7643

AQ6

In second seat, I passed. Does anyone agree with me here? My LHO opened 1S, and this got passed around to me. What should my call be?

Final score: 11-3; 14 VPs. Total: 70

In match six, we played against ACBL Hall of Famer Fred Hamilton and his sponsor. My big decision in this match came on this board:

(C) Red vs. white

53

652

AQ862

KQ2

LHO [sponsor] opened 1D, pard doubled, and RHO passed. What to

Final score: 17-1, 4 VPs. Total: 74

In match seven, things didn't get any easier... fellow HoFer, five-time Bermuda Bowl champion, and fifteen-time National champion Billy Eisenberg was at our table.

(D) All white

AJT2

KJ8653

K

64

In fourth chair, I opened 1H. Partner made a Druryish 2D bid (3+ card support, limit raise). Should I sign off in 2H or continue on?

(E) All red

42

Q7

A863

KQJ32

Here's another one of those second-seat passes that nobody will agree with. Bear with me.

In fourth seat, partner opens 1S. You bid 2C (natural!), pard rebids 2S, and you bid 2NT [do you?]. Pard now bids 3H, which gets doubled on your right. What's your call?

Final score: 24-14, 14 VPs. Total: 88

Going in to the last match, we had a chance to win. The Hamilton team was leading the event with 95 VPs, but if we had a big win and them a small one, or us a medium win and them a loss, we'd be there.

Surprisingly, in match eight, we met another team of unknowns. Still, to be in the hunt this late, they had to be strong...

(F) White vs. red

AJ63

95

75

AJT84

Partner opens 1D, and rebids 2D over your 1S. Your call.

We had a solid set, but our teammates had the best set of the week!

Final score: 36-0, 20 VPs. Final total: 108 VPs out of 160.

We rushed to the scorers' table only to find out that Hamilton had squeaked out a medium win -- and 109 VPs. Nuts! Second place in a tough event like that was very nice, but one or two more victory points wouldn't have been that tough to find...