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 the 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.
Saturday) For a number of years, I have
taken opportunities to kibitz good players when I get the
chance. The chance usually arises in the knockouts and I
have noticed that the team I pick to kibitz loses more then
it's expected share of games. Today I have arrived at the
Canadian National Team Championships a day early and I have
picked one player
in the room I am interested in watching. Below you can see
the hand that he held. Although you may not agree with any
of his first three bids, try and put yourself in his mindset
and tell me if you think 4NT is asking for keycards or is an
offer to play. As South was thinking it over, I thought to
myself, "Perhaps North is holding 4 spades, 4 hearts, 4
clubs and 1 diamond and is trying to stop in the only
makeable contract."
What Happened) The minute
someone starts thinking in a spot like this you know they
are likely working up the courage to pass. This is what
happened at the table and it turned out to be a very bad
choice both in light of the table result and in terms of
partnership morale. Above you can see what my computer
program Jack thought of that Pass. Personally, I have
sympathy for it and I do respect the courage it takes to
make it at the table in a major team event.
Saturday Result) North/South went down 2 in 4NT for -200 and they got blitzed in this match but they did go on to win the entire event.
Sunday) Okay this is the Canadian Team
Championships in the B section and Pam and I are playing on
a very similar team to the one that finished in a heart
breaking second place in Montréal
just two years ago. This time the field is tougher but our
team should still be good enough to make the playoff round.
After an opening match loss, this hand came up in the second
match. We all know that I opened up this hand 2C in the
crazy system that
we play but what would you do in 2/1?
What Happened) I would open up 1D and rebid 2C but it
was a trick question. This hand is not interesting because
of that choice or because of the final contract or because
we won 3 IMPs here on our way to a big 66 - 27 victory. Take
a look at the par score below and you will notice that West
can make 2C on a 3-2 fit with a 6 - 2 break and West can
also make 2S on a 3-2 fit with a 7-1 break. The best part of
all is that 2S is easy to make on a normal line of play.
1) 14+ HCP and
an unbalanced hand or
22+ HCP and a
balanced hand
2) 4-6 HCP, at least 6 clubs, not forcing
Sunday Result) If E/W could
make 2H instead of 3 then this would be the most unusual
naturally dealt bridge hand I have ever seen.
Monday) I make a number of unusual choices
at bridge and if you were to study them and look for patterns
then you would notice that the majority occur when my partner
is a passed hand. Below you can see what is more or less a
normal 4H opener for me. I just kind of assume my partner is
going to lay down a hand with 8 HCP and 3 hearts and bid from
there. This is another hand that requires a story to maximize
the interest that it holds for me so scroll down and read on.
1) A good 6 card
suit plus a 4 card suit on the side comes to 10 total tricks a
lot of the time.
What happened)
Okay, this is an 18 board match. On the first board I found
myself in 2NT and even though I can cash out for 8 tricks I
decided to run a squeeze just for practice. In the end
position, I was 98% sure that my 8 of clubs was a good card
but because it was IMP's I wasn't willing to take the 2% risk
of being wrong and going down in the contract. After that hand
the opponents consoled me by saying "save it for when you
really need it." Well this is board 16 in that same match and
I really need it.
What happened) To
start with, I need the opponents to make a favourable lead
(they did) and then they need cash their Ace of diamonds to
set up my King (that happened) just to set up a potential
squeeze that I might not even need if the club finesse works.
Well all that happened so I ran another squeeze that was 'just
for practice' because I fully intended to take the club
finesse and live or die by it. Well, as I ran the heart suit,
East started to look uncomfortable and on trick 11 reluctantly
pitched the 10 of spades. Now this time I was 100% sure my 6
of spades was a good card so I cashed it and then looked to
see that East had the offside King of clubs. Wow! Surely this
must be a top board.
1) wide ranging in this spot
Monday Result) 4H
making 4 for +420 was a push. Although we won this match by a
final score of 42 - 29, this board is a nice summary of how
our week went. Our team was just out of sync the whole time
and nothing came together for us. At this point in the
tournament all we need to do to make the playoffs is get one
win in our two remaining matches. Unfortunately that is not
going to happen.
Tuesday Afternoon)
Even though I am writing this a year later and even though I
am going to include four interesting hands from our last two
matches, I still don't really want to think too hard about all
that went into our team missing the playoffs in the B section.
Let's just say that even though I have learned my lesson I
sure would not want to relive it.
Anyway, this is yet another hand that is interesting for reasons unrelated to the situation. Below you can see that I made a more or less normal IMP 3NT bid especially considering that we were playing the favourites and eventual champions in the B section.
1) 14-18 HCP,
balanced hand 2) 0+ HCP, at least 4 hearts
What happened) When you take a look at all of the hands below you will think that 3NT is completely unmakeable. Yet, according to Deep Finesse (1) the contract can be made provided that you win the Ace of clubs and make what play?
1) 14-18 HCP,
balanced hand
2) 0+ HCP, at least 4 hearts
What happened) You
need to win the Ace of clubs and then play either the 2 or 5
of hearts. Any other choice gives the opponents a chance to
set you. When I got that 2 of club lead, I made the normal
play of ducking to my King. In order to make the contract from
there I had to rely on some declarer magic to induce a fatal
error from the opponents.
1) 14-18 HCP,
balanced hand
2) 0+ HCP, at least 4 hearts
Tuesday Afternoon
Result) 3NT making 3 was worth +600 and a win of 13 IMPs but
we still lost that match by a score of 29 - 56.
Tuesday Evening
#1) This is really the bonus section. What are the odds that
you would see 3 hands in 18 boards where the dummy lays down a
great 7 card suit as trump? Well, if you are playing against
Jason, Pam and their crazy system then the odds
are certainly much higher then they would be anywhere else.
1) 14+ HCP, forcing and artificial 2) 4+ HCP, 4+ hearts, any suit could be longer
3) 4+ hearts, 17+ HCP, asking for more info. 4) 4-6 HCP, no singletons or voids
The East Dummy
What Happened) 4H making 6 for +480 was a push.
Tuesday Evening
#2) In case you were wondering, none of these hands resulted
from crazy Jason bids or tactical Jason psychs. They are all
normal system actions that just happen to wrongside the
contract.
1) 15+ HCP, completely artificial 2) 4+ spades, 4-10 HCP
The West Dummy
What Happened) 4S making 4 for +420 was a push.
Tuesday Evening
#3) This auction contains the only bid that I disagree with. I
don't think Pam's hand is strong enough for a 5D bid given the
information that I had shown about my East hand.
1) 14+ HCP, artificial 2) 4+ HCP, 4+ hearts, could have a longer suit
3) 17+ HCP, at least 6 diamonds 4) 4-6 HCP, could have 0 diamonds
The West Dummy
What Happened) 5D was down 1 for -100 and a loss of 5 IMPs. I shouldn't be too hard on Pam though. This was board 16 of 18 and as it later turned out we were down in a match that we had to win and this was as good a chance as any to go for it. It also turns out that I had 5 hearts, 0 diamonds and 0 HCP.
Tuesday Result) We lost this match by a score of 34 - 42 and
we were the first team to miss the playoffs.
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 Saturday) 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
Calgary as well as the designated winner (an x denotes a tie)
for each line. In 22 games so far neither one of us has got a
blackout bingo.
Calgary
