The pace of my posting has noticeably slowed again. For a while I was averaging once a week, but the past few weeks have been a bit busy. I have been helping out with some “supervised play” sessions, assisting the TD at a couple of afternoon games a week, primarily to learn and practice with the computer program ACBLScore (and also as a training regimen to get exposure to the practical details of directing without just being thrown in the deep end). I even got to direct a game, just a small one. And I’ve also been playing, and had houseguests, and all the usual distractions. One way and another, finding the time and energy for blog entries drifted way down the list of priorities. But now “the boss” (at least he thinks he is) has declared my training days over (that is, he’s too cheap to pay for me any longer). On the supervised play front, I was actually covering for a guy who was sick, and he’s working again. So now I’m back to the old unemployed status, and what do you know, here’s a blog post.

Here’s a hand from the Eastern States regional.

Love all, dlr N (hands rotated)

          ♠ 9 7 6
          ♥ -
          ♦ K Q 10 9 7 3
          ♣ A K 8 5
♠ A 10 8 4 3          ♠ 2
♥ K 9 7 5 3           ♥ A Q J 10 8 4 2
♦ A 5 2      [ ]      ♦ J 8 6
♣ -                   ♣ 7 3
          ♠ K Q J 5
          ♥ 6
          ♦ 4
          ♣ Q J 10 9 8 4 2

1♦   3♥   4♣   4♥
6♣   pass pass double
All pass

This seemed straightforward enough from our side. Once agent 99 bid 4♣, I didn’t see how bidding 6♣ could be wrong. West “took the money”, but actually underestimated his potential. Probably he thought the spade suit was too anemic to be useful, or at least, to gamble on. But in fact, with our spades breaking 4-3, it is a simple matter to establish the long spade for the twelfth trick in 6♥. In fact, if South had five spades, once you eliminate the spades from the North hand and the clubs from East, there is a simple endplay by leading the ♦2. (North can take one honor, but then has to lead away from the other or concede a ruff and discard).

The defence was a conservative cashing of aces followed by one spade ruff, so the penalty was actually economical even just against a game. Bidding 5♣, and then being forced to bid 6♣ or even 7♣ over 5♥ or 6♥ sounds like a much inferior approach. Making them guess at the six level seems much more logical.

I feel I also should get into print the biggest hand I’ve ever held – 29 high-card points. And believe it or not, partner produces the missing ace. Of course, that makes the deal not very interesting, since you then just bid 7NT and cash your winners. So I won’t bother with the details.

This one comes from a silver-point game.

N-S vul, dlr E (rotated)

♠ Q 6 4 3
♥ 10 4 3
♦ 5 4
♣ 8 7 5 3

[ ]

♠ -
♥ A K Q J 9
♦ A 8 6
♣ A Q 9 4 2

pass 2♣   pass 2♦
pass 2♥   pass 3♥
pass 4♣   pass 4♥
pass 4♠   pass 5♣
pass 6♥   All pass

I was playing with a different partner, one who is less sophisticated in bidding strategy than agent 99. He made two mistakes, really. Bidding 3♥ is stronger than bidding 4♥, so he picked the wrong bid there. And that encouraged me to start cue-bidding, which he really didn’t understand. Of course, when he bid 5♣, I placed him with the ♣K, which made 6♥ look like a good bet. As it stands, I think I need the clubs 2-2 with the king on-side. Close! They were 2-2, but the finesse lost, so down 1. He was a bit upset that I had pushed on to slam when he only had 2 points. But I pointed out that if he had the ♣K instead of the ♠Q, he still would have had only 3 points, and the slam would have been very reasonable.

If I followed Jeremy Flint’s advice on cue-bidding, I should have bid 4♦ rather than 4♣ (highest of “touching” controls). The following 4♠ would then have indicated all three first round controls. That actually makes sense to me, although I haven’t done much cue-bidding lately. Maybe I’ll talk it over with agent 99.