Hyvä alku Atlantan kisoille / Nice start in Atlanta!

Amerikan kesän mestaruuskilpailut ovat alkaneet Atlantassa. Tuttuun tapaan jaoista kirjoitamme englanniksi, mutta muita kuulumisia raportoidaan myös suomeksi. Noin puolitoista viikkoa kovatasoista bridgeä on taas luvassa Atlantin toisella puolella. Tällä kertaa joukkueeseen kuuluvat Justine Cushing, Sadik Arf, Melih Özdil sekä tietysti Kauko ja Vesa. Pelaamme pääsääntöisesti kaksipäiväisiä pudotuspelimuotoisia joukkuekilpailuita. Poikkeuksena pelaamme viimeisinä kolmena päivänä ison Swiss-joukkuekilpailun. 

Suomen helteistä Atlantaan saapuminen ei tarjoa ainakaan helpotusta kuumuudesta kärsiville. Tunnelma on Atlantassa kuin asfalttihelvetissä keskipäivän aikaan lämpöasteiden kivutessa reilusti yli 30. Meillä on aikaa pienelle turistikierrokselle ensimmäisinä päivinä ennen pelien alkamista. Pakenemme kuumuutta sisätiloihin. Valitsemme kohteiksemme lähellä meitä olevat akvaarion ja Coca-Cola-museon. Coca-Cola on lähtöisin Atlantasta, joten heillä on myös museo täällä. Hauskimpina elämyksinä museossa ovat useiden erilaisten hauskojen mainospätkien näkeminen sekä eri tuotteiden maisteleminen. Mainoksia esiteltiin usealta eri aikakaudelta ja ympäri maailmaa, ja osa oli todella hullunkurisen hauskoja. Lisäksi museossa pääsi maistamaan kaikkia erilaisia Coca-Cola-tuotteita ja makuja. Afrikan tuotteiden maut olivat aika eksoottisia suomalaiseen makuun!

Vesa Coca-Cola-museon edessä

Akvaario on aika perusakvaario. Paljon nähtävää isoista kaloista pienempiin kaloihin (mm. maitovalas ja erilaisia haita) ja tietysti myös pingviinejä. Paljon saadaan aikaa kulumaan molemmissa paikoissa, joten turistipäivä kuluu nopeasti. 

Ihmettelemässä akvaariossa

Seuraavana vuorossa on raportointia peleistä englanniksi. Lyhyesti suomeksi todettakoon pelien alkaneen loistavasti. Ensimmäinen kisa sujui tuloksellisesti täydellisesti. Vastassa oli pelkästään ammattilaispelaajien joukkueita. Heidän päihittäminen tuntui erityisen makoisalta. Pelien jälkeen oli kiva ihailla tuloslistaa:

Voitto!

Atlanta is usually a very hot and humid place to be in July and this summer is not an exception. However, we are freezing at the bridge table, the air-conditioning blowing cold air at maximum. The first tournament is a two-day knock-out teams, starting on Friday afternoon and our first opponent is a team captained by Lou Ann O´Rourke. The first half we are doing pretty well and we are up by 16 IMPs after the first 12 boards. The second half starts even better. The first board gives us 14 IMPs.

Four clubs showed shortness, four hearts control and five clubs 0/3 keycards. With zero I wouldn´t have made a control bid, so Vesa could guarantee all the keys and the trump Queen with five no-trumps. Six clubs and six diamonds showed Kings, but then I had to slow down with six spades. Dennis Clerkin started with a heart to my Ace, I played three rounds of spades and continued with a diamond to the nine and Jack. Rest was easy, 12 tricks and 1430 for the good guys.

At the other table south was bidding the fourth suit at his second turn, North three diamonds and South three spades, fixing the trump suit. Next Ron Smith asked keycards and Curtis Cheek promised two plus the Queen with five spades. Five no trumps was inviting to grand and south accepted with a jump to seven spades.

Seven spades is a reasonable contract and makes against most reasonable lies of cards. Let´s assume trump lead to the ten, club Ace, club ruff, heart to the Ace, Club ruff, unblocking the spade honours, ruffing a heart, removing East´s last trump with the Ace and claiming the contract. But not against Melih Ozdil! Melih found the only lead to disturb declarer´s communications, a small heart. The heart lead removed the vital entry back to hand and there was no way for declarer to recover. One down and a gain of 14 IMPs. Six boards later:

Clerkin brothers are playing a strong club system, so the jump to three spades was promising 14-15(16) points with a six-card spade suit. I decided to lead the Jack of spades, Vesa was following twice, but then discarding the six of hearts on the third round of trumps. The first discard is Italian, the six of hearts being not so clear signal, maybe just a neutral card. I followed to the second and third trick with the ten and the nine to show strong interest for a heart switch. Dennis Clerkin continued with a small diamond to dummy´s Queen and another diamond to his King, Vesa showing the odd number with the ten and three. I had to win the trick with the Ace, but what next?

So, I know for sure that declarer has AKQxxx in spades and Kxx in diamonds. When a defender has one master trump left, it´s normal to cash it out at the earliest possible opportunity. But now cashing the eight of spades would be of course a big mistake. When Vesa discarded hearts at the first opportunity, I was quite certain that he has 2-4-3-4 and not 2-3-3-5. From a five-card suit it would be so obvious to make the first discard. So, declarer has most likely 6-1-3-3. If declarer has the Ace of clubs, he´s claiming soon. If partner has AQ of clubs, declarer won´t make this contract. If partner has A109, any club continuation is enough. If declarer has Q10x, that´s too bad for us. But think if declarer has Q9x. If you continue with a small club, declarer will play low from dummy and probably makes the right play when you later continue the suit. But the Jack of clubs might work out well! The whole deal:

The Jack of clubs did work well, declarer winning this in his hand with the Queen. I ruffed the diamond and a club switch gave us four tricks for one down. At the other table Sadik and Melih were playing natural system and opener´s two spades on his second turn became the final contract. Two overtricks and well deserved 7 IMPs to our side.

On the second round we don´t have any easier opponents. Justine and Melih are playing against Gaylor Kasle and Connie Goldberg, while at our table we are competing against Singaporeans Hua Poon and Choon Chou Loo. The first half we win 26-21. For the second half the Singaporeans change the table to play against Sadik and Melih and the Italians Massilimiano di Franco and Andrea Manno are coming in to our table. After a quite low scoring set we win this half, with 28-16, so next day we start the semi-finals!

In the first half of the semi-final Justine and Melih are starting against Dano de Falco and Patricia Cayne. We play against the Dutch pair Bart Nab and Bob Drijver. We are still doing well and at the halftime we are up with 42-16. The second half starts well. Tim Verbeek opens one club to my right and I see AQJ8, 86543, K4, J6. We are vulnerable against not and of course passing would be the most disciplined choice with these cards. Discipline is not my thing, however, and I choose to make a canape-style overcall of one spade. Danny Molenaar passes and Vesa raises to four spades. Molenaar leads a trump and dummy is better than I deserve: K1096, J, 109753, AK3. The trump lead prevents me to make the contract by crossruffing, but luckily the Ace of diamonds is onside, and the diamonds are 3-3, so I have no difficulties to make 10 tricks. Lucky for us, our opponents are playing 10-12 NT-opening in the first seat NV. Verbeek has a balanced 15 count, so +620 is of course a very good score for us, because at the other table our teammates are opening 1NT and it´s much harder for the opponents to find their spade fit after that opening. Our relaxed feeling is gone in the very next board. Knowing that they need IMPs aggressively, our Dutch opponents are bidding seven spades missing Queen fourth in the trump suit and Queen fourth in the vital side suit. Both suits are 2-2, so seven is made and we were sure to lose 13 IMPs. That´s what happened as well, but we win the second half with one IMP, 41-40.

In the final we are meeting the team of “Pepsi”, Jacek Pszczola. The Polish pair Jacek Kalita and Michal Nowosadzki are not doing their best against us and we have a comfortable lead of 17 IMPs after the first half. The second half is not too good for us anyway. After some bad boards we had a real disaster:

Sjoert Brink starts with the King of clubs, takes the King of diamonds with the Ace and plays back another club. The Queen of diamonds is the last trick for Vesa, five down and 1100 for the opponents! The result is of course very ugly, but who´s to blame? Our teammates proposed that Vesa should pass one trump, so that I could choose the longer minor. Anyway, I don´t think that would be a good idea. If you pass one no trump, then you are practically shouting to everybody that we are in trouble. But in you bid a minor, looking confident, then it´s not so easy for the opponents to double, especially if they have only three or four trumps in one hand.

After this board we are pretty sure to lose this match. Deep inside I hope that either our teammates have also a very bad half, losing a lot and not just because of our bad boards, or then they have a very nice 12 board set, so we could win anyhow. Luckily for us, Sadik and Melih are crushing Kalita & Nowosadzki at the other table, we lose the second half with nine IMPs, but we win the whole match with eight IMPs. So not a bad start at all for these Nationals! The results: http://live.acbl.org/event/NABC182/272A/2/recap

Still couple of interesting hands from Oostende

In the second round match against defending champions France I hold a good hand:

A Q 10 9 4, A J 4, A 10 6, A K. After three passes I open two clubs, artificial strong, and my partner responses two diamonds, waiting. Now I have two options, either two spades or two no-trumps. I prefer to bid two no-trumps, showing 22-24 hcp balanced, because my partner can ask five card majors if he wants to. Vesa bids next four no-trumps, natural and inviting. I have minimum points for my bid, but with the fifth spade and two tens I have to go on. So, I bid six spades, proposing the final contract, and this is passed round. Jerome Rombaut leads the seven of spades.

After the spade lead I don´t have to worry about potential trump loser, but I have one loser in each of the red suits. The straightforward line would be drawing out the trumps and testing the diamonds. If they are not 3-3, I could take the heart finesse. So, I take three rounds of trumps, ending dummy. I play a small diamond to my ten, Rombaut wins with the Jack and continues with the queen. I play the third round and when both opponents are following, I can claim my contract. 

If East had four diamonds (in which case he would play back a club instead of a diamond), I could simply trust on a heart finesse, or I could play for a squeeze. If East had four diamonds and the Queen of hearts, all I have to do is to finish my black suits. But if West would be alone to guard the clubs, I didn´t have to care who has the Queen of hearts. In the four card ending I have the last spade and A J 4 of hearts. Dummy´s last cards are K 7 of hearts, one diamond and one club. When I play the last trump, East has to discard a heart, dummy a diamond, and then it´s West´s turn to be squeezed. 

Without any squeezes we score 1430 and I´m expecting either push or 13 IMP win, depending if our opponents reach the slam at the other table. But it turns out to be that we win 2 IMPs on the board. Lionel Sebbane and Paul Seguineau had a misunderstanding in the bidding and the final contract was six diamonds. In this slam you don´t have to think about any squeeze or finesse possibilities. Either the opponent´s diamonds are 3-3 or you go down! Those lucky bastards…

Against Ireland in round number 26: 

My red suit combinations were suggesting, that partner should be declaring, if our final contract is no-trumps. However, if I would open one spade, it might not be easy to describe my hand in continuation.  John Carroll´s two hearts was natural and his opening lead the six of clubs was fourth best. Tommy Garvey is following with the Queen. Take it over from here.

After the club lead I see seven top tricks and I can easily establish the two missing tricks from the spade suit. Only if East has something like Q10xx in spades, I could establish only one extra trick from this suit. But the lead is strongly suggesting, that East has a two suited hand with hearts and clubs, so if someone is long in spades, that´s Garvey. But if I attack the spade suit first, I might lose trick to the Queen of spades and defence might continue with four rounds of clubs for one down. Any ideas?

I decided to continue with clubs to the second trick. Of course, I would have something to explain to my teammates, if East made his opening lead from a six-card suit! Luckily West is following to second round of clubs and I´m not down yet. The idea of playing clubs is to see how the suit is divided between the opponents. If they are 4-3, I can´t fail to make my contract. If they are 5-2, Carroll might not take all his club tricks being afraid to rectify a squeeze against his partner. The clubs are 5-2, Carroll take two more rounds, then takes a long pause but finally plays the fifth round as well. Garvey discards three diamonds and I give up one diamond from the dummy. From my hand I discard one spade, one heart and one diamond. East plays next the six of diamonds. Where are we now?

West´s three diamond discards are telling, that he had originally six cards in that suit. I´ve lost already four tricks, so I can´t afford to make a wrong view in the spade suit. I take a second round of rounds and East´s six was singleton, as expected. If East had 2-5-1-5, I just have to make right guess in spades. But if he had 1-6-1-5, the contract is assured. My next move is to take two rounds of hearts to confirm the exact distribution. If East has 1-6-1-5, West is squeezed on the second round of hearts. He has to keep his master diamond and therefore he has to discard one spade. Then I can continue with the King of spades and take the marked finesse against West. But unfortunately, West is following to the two rounds of hearts, so I know that East had 2-5-1-5 and now I have to make the right guess in spades. Would you play for the finesse or the drop?

I continued with the spade King and small to the Jack, being quite confident that the finesse will be right. Remember the discards of Garvey. If he had 10xx, xx, QJ10xxx, Qx, he wouldn´t discard three diamonds, because declarer might have AJxx, Axx, Axxx, Kx. The whole hand:

Unfortunately, the lead against the same contract is the Jack of clubs at the other table and declarer´s worries were over.   

Written by Kauko

What a big disaster!

In the 21st round we meet Spain and the match is still quite flat after 11 boards, the Spaniards leading with 25 to 23. In the closed room we are playing against father and son, Federico and Gonzalo Goded. After the 12^th board the match is not flat anymore. I hold A J 5 3 2, A Q 9 5 3 2, J, Q. We are red, the opponents green and my RHO passes as declarer. My first question is, which major I should open with. Our system allows us to reverse with 6-5 with good looking 13 hcp. I´ve got 14, not so good looking, but still I decide to open with one heart. The father is overcalling two clubs, Vesa passes and the son is raising pre-emptively to four clubs. Nasty opponent’s! Would you bid something in this situation?

Pass is out of the question. If partner has anything useful in majors, we´ll easily make four in a major. But if I bid four hearts, partner passes and we might go down when four spades could be cold. Four spades would show my distribution nicely, but the four hearts could be the contract we should end up. The double looks like the best move. It is for take-out and in principle I show some diamonds as well. But if partner bids four diamonds, I could continue with four hearts promising both majors. So I double, but when the tray comes back, I´m almost having a heart attack! Partner has bid five diamonds, doubled by my RHO. What next?

The question is, was the diamond bid based on just a long suit or is partner having some values and supporting me, thinking if I have some diamond length? If Vesa has like x x, x, K x x x x x x, x x x, he should bid five diamonds if I´d have some diamond length and extras. I decide to pass, which is not the best, when the whole hand is:

We go down three doubled, -800 and minus 16 IMPs, when the Spaniards are making four spades at the other table. It is not easy to say whose more to blame for this disaster. This time Vesa should have bid only four diamonds and we would have ended up playing four in a major. But if he bids four diamonds, that would end up the bidding if I had a proper distribution (4-5-4-0) without extras and we might be cold for six diamonds!

Anyway, our bidding was certainly not professional, but our attitude was. After the board not a word was exchanged, the result was scored and next board set at the tray as usual. And even after the match, instead of accusations, more attempt was made to analyse the situation, how to avoid these kind of disasters in upcoming events.

Written by Kauko