Welcome to the Hand of the Day. There are two ways to navigate this section. You can either right click here to save this file and play the hands (if you have a program that allows you to load and play .PBN files) without seeing any of my commentary or you can scroll down and see what I had to say about the hands. It is probably more interesting to scroll down and read but I always like to offer my partner a choice. If you are curious to see how Pam and I made out, then you can click here to see the tournament schedule and the games we played or here to see if we placed in anything.
Wednesday) It is the first session of the
Ax matchpoint Pairs. You are vulnerable and the
opponents are not when you hear the auction that all weak
1NT players worry about. What would you do with the
South hand?
1) 12-14 HCP, less than 4 hearts, less
than 4 spades
2) equal hand or
better
In case you were wondering, your choices in the Chilli system are:
Pass
- will be alerted as "willing to play 1NT doubled."
**
- "not willing to play 1NT
doubled", partner now bids his best lowest ranking minor
(perhaps it will be clubs)
2S
- 0-10 HCP at least 5 spades
Wednesday Result) I don't know
why but Pam decided to smoothly Pass and see if West could
handle the pressure. West cracked, the opponents had a
misunderstanding and we ended up with a top board. By
the way, don't count the points in the North hand, I didn't.
1) 12-14 HCP, less than 4 hearts,
less than 4 spades
2) equal hand
or better
3) willing
to play 1NT doubled
4) natural and weak
5) must have
thought it was Stayman
Wednesday Result) 2S made 3 for
+140 and a 4/4 for us.
Thursday) It's now the second
session of the Ax pairs and this time you are playing
against Jason. You listen to a relatively normal
auction until the key decision falls into your lap.
What do you bid with the South hand? If you decide to
defend the hand what do you lead?
1) 11-15 HCP, at least 4
hearts, could have a longer suit
2) 6-10 HCP, usually 4 hearts but can be bid with 3.
What happened) South doubled for penalty
and led a club (in order to guarantee the set you have to
lead a low heart or any spade). I went up with the Ace of
clubs and still managed to make 3 even though Deep Finesse (1) says that I
shouldn't. This must mean that there were more errors on
this hand that I forgot to record. In any case, this
hand is still an interesting one to play and defend.
1) 11-15 HCP, at least 4
hearts, could have a longer suit
2) 6-10 HCP,
usually 4 hearts but can be bid with 3.
Thursday Result) I ended up
making 3 for +730 and what must have been a top board.
Thursday) Normally, there is only one hand
of the day and this next one is definitely it. However,
it makes Pam and I look so bad that I had to include the
previous Thursday hand first so that I would be in a good
enough mood to even write this one down. In the four
months since playing this hand, I had forgotten it even
happened until I went through my notes. It is that
bad. So, read on if you dare.
Every so often,
Pam's brain turns off and she forgets basic stuff that has
been on our card for years. When she happens to alert my
bids and inform the table that her brain is off then I am
placed in a tough position. You see, she has told
everyone what she thinks my bid means but I am not allowed to
use that infomation. I have to bid as if Pam is playing
our system even though her bids make no sense in our system
and I know that we are on our way to a bottom board. To
make it even worse, creative thinking under pressure is one of
my weaknesses at bridge. You
can definitely see that demonstrated in the auction that
follows.
2) we have been playing Michaels for 6 years.
2) I decide that this must be a cue bid asking me to bid my best major.
3) This bid really "confused" me. What do you think it should mean? I probably took it as keycards for hearts.
3-4) I think I am allowed to pass 4S* but I now "decided" that she was trying to get me to pick a minor.
What happened) It
was a record. 5C went down 9 for -2300.
Thankfully, it was just matchpoints and there was no incident
like the one in the cartoon at the top of the page. We
actually went on to have a 50% round and a 4th place finish in
the event.
Friday) It's the
second round of a knockout and you are playing board 23 of
24. The match feels close and you pick up an interesting
third seat hand with no one vulnerable. Is it time to
make a move? Well, if your name is Jason then you know
that the answer is yes.
In the weird Chilli system that we are playing, your options for a psych bid are:
1) 1H: 11-15 HCP, at least 4 hearts, could have any suit longer
2) 1S: 11-15 HCP, at least 4 spades, denies 4 hearts, could have a longer minor
3) 1NT: 12-14 HCP, denies a 4 card major
4) 2H, 3H, 2S, 3S: these are all normal pre-empts in our system
5) 3NT: 11-15 HCP, at least 7 cards in one major headed by AKQ.
What happened) Now, Pam and I both know Gil's rule that 4H is a transfer to 4S but I have learned from experience that psyching with a void seldom works well so I went with 1NT. After your psych, the auction continues normally and the opponents get to 4S as expected. Would you take another call at this point?
1) 12-14 HCP, fewer than 4 hearts, fewer than 4 spades
What happened) I decided to pass and
hope that we could set 4S. As it turns out, 4S is cold
but when I showed out on the first round of spades, declarer
understandably lost focus and failed to make the
contract. I was satisfied that my psych had worked
until our partners got back to the table.
1) 12-14 HCP, denies a 4
card major
2) 2NT here would be artificial
3) I assume that Pam didn't double because
it was IMPs
and she only expected to
set the contract by 1 trick.
Friday Result) At
the other table, the auction went P, P, 3H, P, P, P.
This contract made 3 so we ended up losing 3 IMPs on the
hand. It turned out not to matter though as we won the
knockout by 6 IMPs. Now if 4S had made then we would
have lost 11 IMPs and lost the knockout making me look like
quite the idiot. Fortunately, I am lucky enough so that
things like that don't usually happen to me.
Saturday) Finally,
to end the section, I get to show you a hand that I think Pam
and I really did well with. You are playing the 1st
board of a 6 board Swiss match. You are not vulnerable
and you pick up a 2 point hand only to hear your partner open
a strong 1C bid. In the Chilli system you really only have 2
choices here. You can bid 1D showing 0-3 HCP or you can
bid 3C showing 4-6 HCP with at least 6 clubs.
1) Artificial
with 14+ HCP if unbalanced or 18+ HCP if balanced
What
Happened) Thanks to Pam's aggressive 3C bid and
thoughtful 4C correction we ended up in the great 5C
contract. If you are good enough to both bid and make 6C
here then you deserve all the accolades you have already
received.
1) Artificial
with 14+ HCP if unbalanced or 18+ HCP if balanced
2) 4-6 HCP with at least 6 clubs
3) Pam used to pass in spots like
this and let me go down.
Saturday Result) We were in 5C making 6 for +420 (I got a low
spade lead) while the opponents languished in 2NT -1. We
won 10 IMPs on the hand and won the match by a score of 15 -
7.
Why) At week long bridge tournaments, Pam and I have been playing this game I invented called Bridge Bingo. Essentially, I created a list of 90 different things (ranging from likely to very unlikely) that can happen during a week of bridge. Then I randomly take different sets of 30 things to create unique Bingo cards for me and Pam. Generally speaking, the items in the top line are the easiest to get while the items in the bottom row are the toughest. The first person to complete a line (or complete the majority of the line by the end of Sunday) wins the dollar amount designated for that line. It is just another way to make bridge a bit more exciting.
Because we were only in Houston for a few days, we decided to carry this Bridge Bingo card over to the Biloxi Regional. You can click here to see if the extra few days helped either of us achieve the never before seen blackout.
