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 hand (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 hand. 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 and here to see if we placed in anything.
Friday
Morning) Over the four years that Pam and I have been
playing our unusual canape precision club system, I have
gradually worked out a secret formula that
guarantees us a good result at matchpoints. The only thing
that keeps me from using it every round is the first
requirement. We must score lower then 40.00% in a
matchpoints game. Then, providing
we switch to a system that I call either No Alert Standard
or Piggy Standard, we will have a good result the very next
game. After experimenting with this I have discovered that
the effect only lasts one game and it does not continue to
work in any way if we keep playing that basic system.
I wonder how good we will do
this evening after our 36.67 percent score in the morning?
Friday Evening) I normally would not have
opened the hand you see below with 1H but I was kind of
ticked because the opponents played equal level conversion
on the previous hand and didn't alert it even though I think
they should have. Anyway, now that I did open, what would
you bid with my hand in this spot. We are playing
matchpoints, no one is vulnerable and this is just the sixth
board of the round so I don't have any sense of how we are
doing.
What Happened) Well, I considered 4S but
I went with 3S and this started a sequence that I have
nicknamed the dog and pony show. If I had bid 4S instead of
3S then the opponents are much more likely to take the
successful 5C sacrifice. After I bid 3S, West bids 4C and
Pam makes the critical penalty double. Now, when I pull it
to 4S West is either going to double for penalty or Pass but
not bid 5C.
1) When I asked
her afterwards,
Pam said her clubs
were 3 to the 4.
Friday Result) Pam made 4S for
a nice score of 10/11 matchpoints and we were on our way to
a great score of 66.48% and a tie for first overall in the
event. Below you can see the lovely picture they took of us
shortly after our win.
Sunday) Unless you
are playing at a National or a large Regional, every
tournament gives you just one option if you want to play
bridge on a Sunday, the Swiss. Well, unless I find myself on a
strong team, I don't really care if I play or not. If it
happens to be my birthday as well then about the only event I
am willing to enter is a pairs game. As it happens, this
sectional had a pairs game scheduled on my birthday Sunday so
I showed up with Pam ready to play. Including ourselves they
sold 1.5 or 2 tables worth of entries so the event was
cancelled at the last minute and we were all encouraged to
enter the Swiss. We couldn't find a team but the lovely woman
shown below did her best to find us a pair even though the
event was already starting. (1)
Now I was aware
that I was talking to "World Champion" Donna Compton
but it never occurred to me that she was looking for a partner
so that she could play on a team with Pam and I. The reality
is that Donna and I had a miscommunication of sorts so Pam and
I ended up leaving before she could put a team together. When
I talked to her later it turned out that I missed out on a
once in a lifetime chance to play on a team with a World
Champion. Despite that I still had a great birthday not
playing bridge. If you click on the image below then you can
see what I got up to.
Monday) We spent
the morning and afternoon
doing Buckys but
we got back earlier then expected so after our nap we decided
to head out to the Bridge Academy of North Dallas (BAND) and
play in their evening matchpoint pairs game. I didn't record a
hand in what later turned out to be a first overall finish for
us but I do have this picture that they took of us right after
our win. (2)
What Happened) Why did they take our picture? Well, it turned
out to be the monthly club championship game and the winners
earn a small trophy and get their picture posted on the
website. Our club in Regina would have barred us from winning
because we weren't club members but fortunately the BAND had
no such policy. Thank you for an enjoyable evening Donna.
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
Richardson as well as the designated winner (a / denotes a
tie) for each line. In 19 games so far neither one of us has
got a blackout bingo.
Richardson
