knocked out again...

The highlight of the past two days was a great dinner with Justine and Melih. The excellent 8oz Filet Mignon and nice Californian Chardonnay was like heaven after losing match after match. Against French open team captained of Paul Street was another highlight.

After the first half we were down by 11 IMPs, all the boards from the second half were boring ones, so some difference had to be created in the last board. That explains my not-so-disciplined weak two opening of two diamonds. When Vesa bid natural and forcing two hearts, I was thinking for a moment for a second undisciplined action of passing, but wisely enough I didn´t. Lorenzini bravely showed his black two-suiter with three no-trumps and Vesa decided to pass. If Bessis would pass as well, 3NT would be expensive enough. If he would bid four clubs, Vesa would bid with four hearts. And if Bessis would bid four spades, like he did now, Vesa would have the taste of blood in his mouth.

I lead a the ten of hearts and the dummy was ruffing. The Jack of spades was covered by the Queen and the Ace, and next declarer proceeded with a club to the King and the Ace. The Ace of hearts was ruffed in the dummy and declarer continued with a high club, which was ruffed by Vesa. That was followed another heart ruff and another club ruff. Vesa continued with his last trump removing at the same time dummy´s last trump as well. At this moment Bessis was thinking that he´s surviving for one down. If I have a normal weak two opening, something like x 109x AQxxxx xxx, the Ace of diamonds would be the last trick for the defence. Bessis continued with a diamond to the King and when Vesa won with the Ace, declarer´s six of trumps turned out to be his last trick! Down four and 1100. Declarer could have escaped for three down by end-playing Vesa with the Jack of hearts. Vesa could cash his last heart as well, but then he is forced to concede a trick to the King of diamonds.

At the other table our Sadik plays the same contract, but miraculously escapes for one down only. So we win 14 IMPs, but that is not just enough and we are knocked out from the semi-finals.     

some improvment

On Tuesday-Wednesday we played another KO team tournament again. Since the Vanderbilt has just started, we were of course seeded to the first bracket, but without fear that we had to face a world class team in the first round and to be knocked out immediately. Against average opponents we win all our matches on Tuesday, in the semi-final we lose the second half of the match against Brazilian ladies´ team with 20 IMPs, surviving still, the first half being 44-7 to us. The final is not starting too well for us and we are down by 14 at the halfway. The second half is better, 24-15 for us, but not good enough, so we have to be content with second place. Results: http://live.acbl.org/event/NABC181/133A/2/summary

Your opponents have bid three suits naturally and then end up in three no-trumps. You hold void in the unbid suit and your partner is on the lead. It´s not 99% sure, but 100%, that partner is finding your void with the lead, right? On the following board Vesa was positively surprised when I didn´t lead a diamond.

I lead the nine of hearts, dummy tried the Jack and Vesa won with the queen. Back came a club ten, declarer won the trick with the Ace and continued with the Queen of diamonds to my King. A heart looked very tempting switch right now, but luckily for us I took a second look of the situation. Declarer would win the heart switch and play a diamond to the Jack. After winning my diamond Ace (with or without ducking one round), there´s no more chance for the defence. Declarer can enter the dummy with the Ace of spades, take his diamond tricks and play spades towards his hand. Whatever partner has in spades, declarer makes always at least nine tricks. But if partner has the King of spades, a spade switch to the fourth trick might disturb declarer´s entries.

So I continue with a low spade and Vesa surprises positively by taking the King and continuing spades to dummy´s Ace. Next declarer cashes one high heart, discarding a small club from his hand, and continues with a diamond to his queen. I win the trick and continue more diamonds to the dummy. Vesa can lean back to his chair and wait for the setting trick with the ten of hearts.

Declarer´s line was not the best one. He shouldn´t have played a small diamond to his Queen in the end position. If instead he would play the ten of diamonds and a the five of his hand, deliberately blocking the suit, he would survive. If I would win with the Ace, declarer has eight tricks in his hand. With the heart Ace already in his bag he would make the contract. If I duck the diamond ten, declarer cashes next the King of hearts and endplays Vesa with a heart. He has to continue a black suit and declarer reaches his winners in his hand.

Against the ladies from Rio de Janeiro the following board was the biggest swing for us.

My four heart bid looks aggressive, but partner is short in clubs and has at most four spades, so odds are on that he´s not too short in hearts. To my mind North should take out the double with four spades, but in that case this board would have been forgotten quite quickly.

North started with a low club to South´s Queen and I ruffed the club continuation with dummy´s six of hearts. Diamond to the Ace was followed by Queen, King and ruff. I crossed to the dummy with a heart South following with the Queen. Now if South´s distribution is 4-1-2-6, I’ll make my contract. I discard one club on the ten of diamonds and another one on the following diamond. North can ruff, but all I have to lose is two clubs and one trump trick. Unfortunately South follows to the ten of diamonds and now it looks like one down. North ruffs and greedily tries to cash the Ace of spades. I ruff and draw last trump and lose two clubs… But, wait a minute, not so fast. I just give a trick to North´s Jack of trumps and she has nothing but spades in her hand anymore. I lose one extra trump trick but get two diamond tricks in exchange! +790 and plus 11 IMPs when at the other table our teammates went two down undoubled in five spades. Of course my opponent should have returned safely a heart after the club ruff, and we would lose 9 IMPs on the board.

Playing venue

City hall

just not improving

After four playing days 26 masterpoints is not too much! On Sunday we start again a two-day KO teams, that unfortunately ends already on the second round losing both matches in a three-way match. The first round was a three-way as well, we were still doing well, winning both matches. In this slam we gained 11 IMPs.

Two hearts was either natural or 25+ BAL. Two spades was a relay and 2NT showed 25+ BAL. Three clubs was Puppet Stayman and three hearts promised five cards. Three spades was a good raise in hearts, but after cuebid of four clubs, four hearts tried to tell that the raise was not that good after all. That was too late anyway, Vesa finished the bidding with a practical bid of six hearts.

West led a low heart and the prospects didn´t look well. With the diamonds 2-2 and the Queen as a wasted value some luck would be needed to make this ambitious contract. Vesa played a second round of trumps both opponents following. Now, if the King of spades is onside and the dummy´s fourth club could be established, then all would be well. And the Ten of clubs could be established, if the suit is divided 3-3 or if East has an honour doubleton. If West has the Queen third in clubs, he could be thrown in, if he is careless enough not to unblock that card. Anyway, our Japanese opponents should be strong enough to foresee this danger, but it costs nothing to try it. But of course diamonds shouldn´t be cashed first in order to make it bit more difficult for the defence. This time there was no difference, as West was holding KJ63, 43, T852, QJ4. After two rounds of clubs and two rounds of diamonds West was thrown in with a club and declarer got rid of his two spade losers.
11 IMPs for the good guys, because our opponents stopped at four level at the other table. From the three-way match the Japanese qualified for the second round with us. But on the next round we were knocked out, while the Japanese team went all the way thru and won this bracket. This was the whole hand:

The next day is starting badly, again. An average team knocks us out on the very first round. On the second round losers play against each other only with some small masterpoints on stake. The first board is boring one but the second is not!

South´s double of two clubs was more than questionable. Vesa´s pass denied majors but promised a club stopper. Without the stopper the right bid would have been two diamonds. I had a very easy redouble and when everybody passed, I ended up playing my Stayman with high stakes. South found the best lead of the Jack of hearts, I tried the Queen, but North was winning with the King. The Ace of hearts won the second trick, the Queen of spades the third and next the Jack of spades was ruffed by South. I ruffed the heart continuation, crossed the dummy with the Ace of trumps and took one more spade finesse. All that the defence could score was three trump tricks and the King of hearts, EW+1160. After the board our opponents were discussing how good was the double of two clubs and who should have escaped from this disaster. Anyway, the level of the play of our opponents was well below their normal standard and after 12 boards the only question remaining was how big is IMP-difference to us. The match ended with 35-7 to us. There was only one board our opponents scored something. It was number 32, at the other table our opponents found 6NT, 1440. When we managed to get only 1160, that meant seven IMPs out!

If South would have passed at our table, Vesa would have denied majors with two diamonds, I would have bid three clubs (at least four cards and FG+), Vesa three diamonds (five cards) and then three spades from me, showing at least some slam interest. With soft values Vesa would have signed off with three no-trumps and I guess I wouldn´t have continued.

In the evening we play again one session Swiss teams, winning three matches, but losing one ending up at 5th place out of 29 teams. Results: http://live.acbl.org/event/NABC181/12T3/1/summary
Nothing to be too proud of. Maybe tomorrow... 

two first days

It´s already a tradition for us, that there´s no reason to be proud of the results of the first playing day. We start with a KO team tournament, meeting Hansa´s team and losing clearly. In the evening we continue with a one-session Swiss. We start well, first blitzing a local team and next winning comfortably Sonsini's team. On the third round we meet Gary Cohler and Paul Lewis. Unluckily it´s not a BAM tournament, because we win three boards and lose only one. But the IMPs are 3-20 and we can say goodbye of winning the tournament. In the last match we play against Garozzo, losing this as well and ending slightly above average.
On Saturday we played compact KO teams, which means that there´s only four players in each team. So Justine was playing all day long and Sadik could concentrate on kibitzing us. From the first round against the team of Connie Goldberg following interesting board appeared:

Kasle led the six of hearts (4th best) and I was facing already my first problem. If Connie has a singleton honour, I should play the king from the dummy and then later establish my ninth trick from hearts. But if South has only one honour in hearts, he´ll probably lead his partner´s suit. So I played the nine from the dummy and was pleased to see it score. I continued club to the King and to the Jack and now the question was could I make an overtrick. Connie won with the Ace of clubs and returned a spade to South´s ten. I won the spade continuation, crossed to the King of hearts and finessed the clubs. Now it was time to duck a diamond to Connie´s hand. If she would return now a black card, South would be squeezed in the red suits for one overtrick. Connie anticipated this development and returned the King of diamonds to break down the entry for the squeeze.

At the other table the contract was the same, but Justine decided to lead the Queen of hearts. The rising Swedish star Simon Hult took the lead with the King and played a club to the King and to the Jack. Now Melih found the imaginative switch of the Jack of diamonds! Declarer ducked but took the diamond continuation with the Ace. Now the declarer was in trouble and whatever he did, there was no way anymore to make nine tricks.

On the second round we meet a strong team again, a squad sponsored by Richard Schwartz. And again we are winning comfortably, reaching the semifinals. In the semifinal, the team consisting Steve Robinson and Peter Boyd are slightly better than us so we have to play the match of the third place. A local team has reached surprisingly so far, and we have no difficulties taking the bronze.     

You can find the results here: http://live.acbl.org/event/NABC181/103A/2/recap 

looking back

Nyt Philadelphiassa on alkamassa yhdestoista kertamme yhdessä North American Nationals -kilpailuissa. Näitä kilpailuja järjestetään kolme kertaa vuodessa. Spring Nationals maaliskuussa, Summer Nationals heinäkuussa ja Fall Nationals marras-joulukuussa. Aloitimme 2014 Providencessa Hansa Narasimhanin sponsoroimassa joukkueessa, vuoden 2016 alusta siirryimme Justine Cushingin joukkueeseen, Torontossa palasimme hetkeksi yhteen Hansan kanssa ja nyt alkava vuosi on taas sovittu Justinen kanssa. Alla tilastoa aikaisemmista kisoista. Pelipaikka, joukkuetoverit, sijoitus jälkimmäisen viikonlopun pääkilpailussa (Jacoby, Roth tai Keohane Swiss Teams) sekä saavutetut ACBL:n mestaripisteet.

Providence:

Hansa Narasimhan, Jay Barron, Johan Säfsten, Ola Rimstedt, 14, 44.9mp

New Orleans:

Hansa Narasimhan, Johan Säfsten, Ola Rimstedt, Mikael Rimstedt, ei fin, 25.8mp

Chicago:

Hansa Narasimhan, Nikolai Demirev, Maarten Schollaardt, 22, 51.5mp

Denver:

Hansa Narasimhan, Nikolai Demirev, Maarten Schollaardt, 8, 105.7mp

Reno:

Justine Cushing, Melih Özdil, Benito Garozzo, 26, 116.8mp

Washington:

Justine Cushing, Melih Özdil, Sadik Arf, 8, 161.1mp

Orlando:

Justine Cushing, Melih Özdil, Sadik Arf, 20, 113.9mp

Kansas City:

Justine Cushing, Melih Özdil, Adam Mesbur, ei fin, 112.5mp

Toronto:

Hansa Narasimhan, Carlos Pellegrini, ei fin, 53.4mp

San Diego:

Justine Cushing, Melih Özdil, Adam Mesbur, 6, 141,72mp

Vaikeuksien kautta perille

Kaiken piti olla niin helppoa. Icelandairin lento Reykjavikin kautta New Yorkiin. Perillä kuuden jälkeen. Metrolla JFK:n kentältä Penn Stationille, josta junia Philadelphiaan tunnin välein. Katsotaan vain mihin ehditään ja puolentoista tunnin junamatkan jälkeen hotellihuoneessa nukkumassa ehkä jo kymmenen aikaan. Mutta. Laskeuduttuamme New Yorkiin huolet heräävät. Kiitoradalla vastassamme on aura-autojen armeija, ja lunta pyryttää vaakasuorassa tasossa. Tästä ei välttämättä hyvä seuraa.

Maahantulomuodollisuudet sujuvat yllättävän nopeasti, ehkä kaikkien peruttujen lentojen vuoksi, eikä metroasemalla lipunostoharjoitteluun kulu myöskään liikaa aikaa. Mutta sitten joudumme ihmettelemään, miten lumimyrsky voi hankaloittaa metroliikennettä. Normaalin puolen tunnin sijasta matka Manhattanille kestää lähes tunnin. Metroasemalta joudumme nousemaan ylös ja kävelemään pari korttelia juna-asemalle. Pari korttelia ei kuulosta pahalta, mutta matkalaukkujen kanssa sohjossa kahlaaminen oli kunnioitettava urheilusuoritus. Päästyämme Penn Stationille vilkaisu lähtevien junien näyttötaululle ei näyttänyt hyvältä. ”Cancelled” tai ”Delayed” luki useimpien lähtöjen kohdalla. Ja lipunmyyntiin yli 50m jono!

Tunnin jonottamisen jälkeen saatiin kuitenkin lippumme ja suoraan junaan. Mikä helpottava tunne, kun juna vihdoinkin nytkähti liikkeelle. Ei tarvitse lähteä hakemaan hotellihuonetta Manhattanilta räntäsateessa ja köyhtyä vähintään 200 eurolla, kun maksettu huone on Philadelphiassa odottamassa. Kun vihdoinkin saavumme perille, paikallinen aika on yli yhden yöllä ja kotona yli kahdeksan aamulla. Ei muuta kuin puolikuolleena nukkumaan. Blogipäivitys sai jäädä seuraavaan päivään…  

Seuraavana päivänä sää oli jo aurinkoisen kaunis eikä lumesta ollut kuin rippeitä jäljellä.