I've got to admit...

Things are looking up, at least as far as my bridge playing goes. I actually played at the Manhattan last Sunday, with Agent 99. And I have more dates set up with both Agent 99 and Elwood, and Rose left me a message the other day - I need to call her back. I'm well on the way to getting a two- or three-times-a-week playing schedule arranged. I'm not close to being at my best, of course, which makes blogging a dubious affair. But it looks like I should be getting up to speed by the end of the month.

Which is what it's all about. The week after Christmas is the Edgar Kaplan Winter Regional in New York. Both Agent 99 and Elwood are interested in playing with me, so I have to do my best to get back in training, fast. I don't think there's any particular training regimen that works better than just playing as much as possible, so we'll see how many games I can fit in before Christmas. Hopefully, this year there won't be any blizzards around to screw things up.

Here's the flyer:
http://web2.acbl.org/tournaments/Ads/2011/12/1112015.pdf

Italy's out

So much for my predictions - Italy have lost their semi-final match against the Netherlands. It was nip and tuck till towards the end, when the Netherlands opened a lead by bidding two slams that the Italians missed (and got a few smaller swings too). With only half a dozen boards left, the Italians were suddenly 36 IMPs down, and there was no real chance presented in those last few boards to get it back. The Dutch team comprises three well-established pairs, and they've played very well so far (obviously). In the past, I've been (on occasion) disappointed by the Dutch, but they seem to have peaked at just the right time, and the final against USA2 should be a cracker.

Another team that has sprung a surprise is Indonesia, in the Venice Cup. I was thinking that England were heading for the final, and the next thing you know, Indonesia stormed back and beat them.

World Championships

I'm still not up to snuff as regards being physically able to go to the bridge club and either working or playing. But the computer in the corner is within reach, and the world championships are here again. So I will be visiting the BBO Vugraph and trying to follow the action.

It will be a tough competition once again, with so many closely-matched teams participating. I chose Italy in the BBO Bermuda Bowl "guess the winner" competition, but that was as much sentiment as anything else. They are extremely good, of course, but so are the US teams, China, and so many of the others. I remember being surprised by Bulgaria last time around, and they're in the running again. So who do you fancy?

still alive

I'm afraid my return home proved to be somewhat premature, and I spent most of June and July back in the hospital. Maybe just a few weeks more before I can blog coherently.

hiatus

I apologise to my faithful readers (both of you). I'm afraid I spent most of May in hospital, quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Hopefully, a few more weeks will see me back in the swing of things.

Blackwood with a void

I forget sometimes (OK, most of the time) just how little competitive experience Agent 99 has. Not that I'm so terrifically well-seasoned, but I have been playing a long time, and I've lost to some internationally renowned players. And I spend an inordinate amount of time on the internet making myself feel closer to famous players, too. So there's actually a fair amount of stuff that is familiar to me that is probably a complete blank to her.

One of the more basic blind-spots cropped up the other day. What do you say when partner wheels out Blackwood, and you have a void?

Apparently, Agent 99 had never met this little conundrum before. Her improvised response was to treat the void as a key-card, which rapidly generated a zero as I put her in seven, and the defence found their ace. We were having a bad game anyway, and just to rub it in, some other pair bid and made seven on the wrong opening lead.

But there is an accepted way to respond. I suppose I thought Agent 99 must know it, but there's no reason why anybody would, unless they've been shown it. The basic scheme is to answer 5NT holding 0 or 2 keycards and a void, or bid 6 of the void holding 1 or 3 keycards and a void. There are some caveats and wrinkles, of course (there always are).

First of all, showing a void when you hold 0 keycards is hardly ever done. The only time Eddie Kantar (the RKC authority these days) would countenance it is when partner already knows you have a terrible hand, and is bidding RKC anyway. The sort of example Kantar gives might involve a 2C opening and relatively weak responding sequence, or something.

Second, only show useful voids. A void in partner's first-bid suit when you have agreed his second suit as trumps is almost certainly not an asset, and not something to brag about.

Third, if your void is in spades and hearts are trumps, and you have an odd number of keycards, you can't jump to 6S because that takes you past 6H. Jump to 6H instead.

This takes care of hearts and spades as trumps, when 4NT is the RKC asking bid. For us, it gets a bit more confusing when a minor suit is trumps, and we use Redwood, but it works just as well. Instead of 5NT to start showing voids, if you count the steps you see you get to 5D when the asking bid was 4D, or 5H when the asking bid was 4H.

Let's say clubs are agreed, and 4D is bid as 1430. Now,
4H = 1 or 4
4S = 0 or 3
4NT = 2 without the QC
5C = 2 with the QC
5D = 2 with a void
5H = 1 or 3 with a void H
5S = 1 or 3 with a void S
5NT = 1 or 3 with a void D
6C = I can't remember all this crap

Similarly, when diamonds are trumps and 4H is 1430:
4S = 1 or 4
4NT = 0 or 3
5C = 2 without the QD
5D = 2 with the QD
5H = 2 with a void
5S = 1 or 3 with a void S
5NT = 1 or 3 with a void H
6C = 1 or 3 with a void C
6D = I can't remember all this crap

As you can see, 5NT has become a “spare” bid, and can be used to show a void in the suit immediately higher-ranking than trumps. All the other voids can be named explicitly when you have an odd number of keycards.

Misadventures In Manhattan

Elwood resurfaced for his first game at the club since mid-January. Of course, I celebrated by playing eleven hands and only being dummy twice, but he didn't seem to mind. And it was a decent field for a club game, with at least half a dozen pretty good pairs in nine tables. The weak notrump seemed to be working well.



South's strategy of passing over 1NT and then doubling for takeout is standard practice. But on this hand, she is at the top limit for the initial pass – some might say over it – and the final result is below average.



North-South seem to have been paralysed by the bidding. To me, a bid of 2H from North over the transfer seems clear-cut. Even if you haven't discussed it with your partner (and even in a club duplicate I would expect that most pairs have), it should be pretty obviously for takeout, and North has the perfect shape for it. According to the computer, neither 2H nor 4S should make. To add insult to injury, half the field bid and made 4S, while I somehow scrambled 8 tricks the other way.

That last opening was a bit ugly. This one was even worse, and even more effective.



The opening was enough to keep out South, and the transfer bid shut out North. So we played quietly in clubs, and again I made a contract that should have failed. But this time, the North-South game was real, even though difficult to bid. A couple of pairs even made it doubled.

An odd occurrence was that board 24 of the set in use was mis-labelled. The dealer was shown as East rather than West. That made a big difference to the auction.



Not a very coherent auction, in my opinion. In the end, that worked in our favor, since nobody seemed sure of who could make anything. If the opponents double, they get a top. When they didn't, we got an almost-top.

Anyway, we finished up second on about 64%. Not bad for a come-back game.