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 play these hands 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.



    Monday) It is the evening knockout and we are playing in a tight match that was tied at the half.  It is now board 20 of 24 and the match still feels like it is tied.  Take a look at the hand below and see what you would do in my spot.



1) 11-15 HCP, at least 4 spades, denies 4 hearts, could have a longer suit.    
2) Artificial, game forcing  3) At least 5 spades, denies 3 hearts  4) Sets diamonds as trump
5) Asking for keycards in diamonds  6) Not a valid response to a keycard ask











    What Happened) I'm sure you chose Pass because that is the resonable thing to do when there has been an obvious mixup in the auction and your partner is making up for it by jumping to the "correct" contract.  Unfortunately, I am not an enitrely rational player.  I have a very strong intuitive side and it was telling me that 7NT was cold.  So, after a lot of thought about the state of the match, I decided to suck up my courage and bid 7NT not even knowing if we were off an Ace.  Pam got a low heart lead and the 10 of hearts held the trick.


      

        1) 11-15 HCP, at least 4S, denies 4H, could have a longer suit.
        2) Artificial, game forcing
        3) At least 5 spades, denies 3 hearts
        4) Sets diamonds as trump
        5) Asking for keycards in diamonds
        6) Not a valid response to a keycard ask


       

    Monday Result) I have obviously blanked Pam's line of play out of my mind as you can see in the hand above that every finesse works and she has 14 tricks on the low heart lead.  Regardless, Pam went down 1 for -50 and we ended up losing 14 IMPs on this hand and losing the match by 2 IMPs.  The only good thing is that we did not have to get up to play the second round of the knockout in the morning.


   
    Tuesday) Over the last couple of years, Pam has earned her nickname as the Queen of the Slams.  As you saw above, it was not earned by her ability to declare.  Her nickname comes from the fact that whenever she puts me into a tight slam there is always a reasonable line of play that allows me to make it.  Take a look at this hand that came up in the Tuesday Evening Swiss.  It is the last board of the second match and no one is vulnerable.  Our position in the match is hard to gauge as our partners tonight are very swingy players and the boards so far have not been flat.  Do you think Pam's abilities will have been damaged by yesterday's disaster hand?



1) 0-7 HCP, at least 4 spades  2) Asking for keycards  3) 1 keycard in spades



















    What Happened) Okay, the introduction probably gave it away.  Pam bid 6S and I had to play it in a 4-3 fit.  I wish I could tell you that our system had some method for determining the location of the Jack of trump but we don't and Pam doesn't need it anyway.  For whatever reason, she just seems to know when a slam is there. 


       

          1) 0-7 HCP, at least 4 spades
          2) Asking for keycards
          3) 1 keycard in spades



       

    Tuesday Result) I only needed two finesses so this was an easy one to make for a score of +980 and a win of 10 IMPs.  It was not a good day for our team though as we lost this match by a score of 19 - 27 and went on to lose all four of our Swiss matches that evening.



    Wednesday) Pam and I are playing an unusual system called Chilli and from our perspective the 10 alert auction you see below is a routine one that ended up placing us in the top contract.  Of course, we were playing in the second session of the BCD pairs at the time so I'm sure that our opponents were a bit hypnotized by all of our alerts.  Anyways, take a look and see if it serves as a good advertisement for the system.  It is one of our few highlights from an otherwise forgettable day of bridge.

      

    1) Artificial, 14+ HCP if unbalanced, 18+ HCP if balanced
    2) 4-6 HCP, denies a 4 card major
    3) Artificial, forcing to game
    4) 3 spades, denies 3 hearts
    5) Agrees spades, wants to know more about my hand
    6) Maximum hand with no singleton or void
       (I should really bid 3S here so Pam can use 4D as a KC ask)
    7) Asking for Keycards in spades
    8) 0 keycards
    9) Asking for the King of Diamonds
        (we can stop in 5S if I don't have it)
    10) I have the King of Diamonds but no other Kings





  







    Wednesday Result) We were the only ones in our section to bid the slam and I was the only one in the section to even make 7.  This meant that we got a score of +1010 and 24 out of the 25 matchpoints.  Of course, it was not our day in this event as we finished with scores of 47% and 54% and we could not even place in the overalls in an event that I had hoped to win when we started out.

      

    1) Artificial, 14+ HCP if unbalanced, 18+ HCP if balanced
    2) 4-6 HCP, denies a 4 card major

    3) Artificial, forcing to game
    4) 3 spades, denies 3 hearts
    5) ... (see above)

   





    Thursday) Even though our team just ended a 7 match losing streak with a 1 IMP win in the previous round (see Tuesday's hand for one loss in the streak) I am still in a bad mood because I am not fond of losing like that.  It is now the 6th of 7 boards in the 4th match of the two session Open Swiss when I pick up the hand you see below at favourable vulnerabily.  Almost instantly, I decide to make a psych bid even though I am in first seat.  Take a look and see what you would do with it.








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) I went with the tame 1H bid and by the time the auction got back around to me the bidding had reached the 5 level.  My partner ended up raising to 5 hearts and I took a gulp of air as she laid down the dummy and saw...



    

    1) 11-15 HCP, at least 4 hearts, could have a longer suit
    2) 0-25 HCP, agrees hearts, asks for more information



   

    Thursday Result) Would you believe that it turned out we were in the Par Score and I went down 1 for -100 and a push?  Although I doubt that my psych had anything to with it, we went on to win that match by a score of 17-3.  After the lunch break, we had three more good wins and managed to earn our first gold points of the week.



    Friday) It's the two session open pairs and Pam and I are on our way to a good finish.  Although our first session was only 52%, we are having a great second set and I have started to imagine that this may be the day when I become a Life Master.  We've made it safely to the 28th and final board and I am relieved to look down and see a near Yarborough.  Although I got a little nervous when Pam made a passed hand pre-balancing double and forced me to bid, once the opponents end up in 3NT, I calm down again and prepare to take the last hand off.  Take a look at my hand, how could it possibly matter what I discard?  Well, little did I know that I was about to get squeezed. 







Can you even guess which two suits I will be squeezed in?
















    What Happened)  Below you can see the hand.  Based on North's double and the low club lead, there are an easy 12 tricks there for taking.  Perhaps because it was the last board, or because I bid 1S, or for some unknown factor, West ended up in a very strange end position that you won't believe until you see it.

      


 
    



    









    What Happened)  Here it is.  If you can follow the hand diagram at the right then you can see my best guess recreation of the path that got us here.  As West leads the Queen of clubs, I (South) know where every remaining card is.  Which of my three cards would you discard at this point?

      


 
    




    What Happened)  I decided to keep my winning 8 of hearts and hope for the best.  When West tried to cash the 6, I scored the 8 to hold the opponents to -660 and give us a top board of 6 out of 6 matchpoints.   Our final score was a strong 63.39% but it was only enough to move us into third place overall.  Oh well, I guess I will have to remain a non-Life master for at least one more day.










    Saturday) In addition to our Bridge Bingo bets, Pam and I enjoy making other small wagers during the week.  In this case, we decided to bet on whether or not she could carry me to my Life Master in Edmonton.  As you may be aware, I have been trying to become a Life Master for at least the last two years and I have played in many two session pairs events with a few different partners but the closest I have come to achieving it was a third place finish in Penticton with Larry and the third place finish with Pam yesterday.  Because of all that, I offered Pam 50-1 odds that she could not help me make Life Master in Edmonton.  She agreed to the $2 bet and certainly played well enough to win the $100 yesterday.  I wonder how good she will play today?

    In case you were wondering, they handed out the pin above during the pairs game yesterday and Pam's middle name is Rose.



 



    Saturday) Okay, it is the second session of the two session pairs and Pam and I are nicely placed to win the whole event.  We had a 62% in the first session and things seem to be going well in the second.  There are two hands from tonight and I am going to put you into Pam's shoes as she tries to win the $100.  In this hand, the opponents are vulnerable, you are not and your "crazy" partner Jason has made a michaels bid showing the majors.  What would you do with Pam's hand?




1) Both majors, at least 5-4













    What Happened) Pam made the right choice and passed and then she played perfect defence.  When the opponent made a declaring error we pounced and collected +200 and 23 of the 25 matchpoints. 

       








    Saturday) There were 33 tables and many good pairs in this event.  How will you handle a good pair who make a crazy interference bid over our strong 1C opening?  As expected, we are vulnerable and the opponents are not.




1) Artificial, 14+ HCP if unbalanced, 18+ HCP if balanced
2) Diamonds or both majors   3) Forced   4) Penalty
















    What Happened) Were you good enough to find the 4H call?  Pam made the perfectly reasonable bid of Pass and we were only able to set 4D by 3 for +500 and a near bottom score of 1 out of 25 matchpoints.

       

          1) Artificial, 14+ HCP if unbalanced, 18+ HCP if balanced
          2) Diamonds or both majors  
          3) Forced  
          4) Penalty


      

    Saturday Result) Although it felt like we both played well enough to win, our second session only matchpointed out to a respectable 52% which left us with a 7th place overall finish.  Oh well, there is always one more tournament wating to give me another chance. 

Thanks for the good effort Pam.







    Sunday) One of the other games I play at bridge tournaments is called, "Try to predict how good a bridge player is by reading his partnership card and analyzing his handwriting."  This means that whenever I fill out a partnership card, I take extra care to produce something interesting.  The one you see above did not entice our eventual teammate, a nice woman from Vernon with approximately a hundred points named Bonnie Turley, to call us.  I did catch her reading our card and convinced her that even though I had 10 times as many points, I still wanted to play with her and her partner in the Sunday Swiss. 

    The first half of the Swiss did not start well but our team became more confident despite that and we managed to win our last four matches and earn some gold points.  Everyone was totally pleased about that except for me.  I was only mostly pleased. You see, if we had finished 1 Victory Point higher then I would have earned enough gold points to go over 300 gold for my bridge career.  Fortunately, I was smart enough not to mention this to our teammates until after the Swiss was complete.



    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.

    Below you can see my Bridge Bingo card from Edmonton as well as the designated winner (a / denotes a tie) for each line. In 9 games so far neither one of us has got a blackout bingo.




Edmonton