Kisat ohi Las Vegasissa

Yhteenvetoa kisoista

Yhdet kisat ovat taas pelattu. Las Vegasin hälinä ja ihmispaljaus jää nyt taakse. Tätä tekstiä kirjoittaessani odottelen jatkolentoani San Franciscossa. Kauas matkustaminen tarkoittaa myös paljon odottelua, jonka voi onneksi hyödyntää tekemeällä jotain hyödyllistä. Kun aikaisemmin emme olleet kirjoitelleet mitään yleistä näistä kilpailuista, ajattelin olevan mielenkiintoista kertoa vain yleisesti (ja suomeksi) kilpailuista.

Osallistujamäärältään kilpailut olivat Amerikan liitolle (ACBL) menestys. Noin puolentoista viikon aikana kisoihin osallistui yhteensä 13 622 pöytää. Tämä oli ACBL:llä erittäin positiivinen asia, sillä viime vuonna Havaijilla järjestetyt Amerikan mestaruuskilpailut olivat hurjan tappiolliset heille surkean osallistujamäärän takia (kokonaispöytämäärä oli vaivaiset 6034,5). Varsinkin kesällä Amerikanmestaruuskilpailut ovat todella kansainväliset - amerikkalaisten lisäksi osallistuja lienee ainakin lähes jokaisesta maanosasta. Tosin tällä kertaa jäätiin selvästi pelaajamääristä,  joka oli edellisissä Las Vegasin kisoissa, sillä vuonna 2014 osallistujia oli 16 615,5 pöytää. Amerikkalaisten pelaajien keski-ikä on kasvanut jo useiden vuosien ajan, mikä näkyy myös Atlantin toisella puolen vähentyneissä pelaajamäärissä.

Las Vegas vaikuttaisi vetävän paljon pelaajia puoleensa. Näkisin Las Vegasin etuna olevan sen monipuolisuus: erilaisia hotelleja, ravintoloita ja kulkuyhteyksiä on tarjolla useita. Pelipaikkana toiminut Cosmopolitan on yksi Las Vegasin hienommista hotelleista, joka sijaitsee Las Vegasin pääkadulla, "Stripillä". Lyhyen kävelymatkan tai taksimatkan päässä on myös lukuisia huokeamman hintaisia hotelleja. Tosin heinäkuussa yli 40 asteen paahteessa ulkona oleskelu saati pidempien matkojen kulkeminen kävellen on liki mahdotonta. Monipuolinen ravintolavalikoima saattaa myös vetää ihmisiä puoleensa. Ravintoloita oli lähellä pelipaikkaa lukuisia - moneen makuun ja hintaan. Itse emme juurikaan tutustuneet ravintolavaihtoehdoihin, sillä Kauko ja Heike majoittuivat huoneistossa, jonka keittiössä Heike loihti maittavat ruoat. Lisäksi Las Vegas on helppojen kulkuyhteyksien päässä. Kaupungin suurin lentokenttä sijaitsee vain noin 15 minuutin päässä keskustasta, mikä on mukava lisä liikkumisen helpottamiseksi. Amerikan länsirannikolta (Kaliforniasta) kaupunki on myös ajomatkan päässä.

Pelipaikka, Cosmopolitan Las Vegas

Las Vegas & viihde

Kaupunki on tunnettu viihde-elämästään ja se näkyy kaikkialla. Ensimmäiset asiat, mitkä huomasin astuessani lentokoneesta ulos olivat jo lentokentällä sijainneet peliautomaatit ja viinakauppa. Kun vielä tanssimusiikin voimakkuus oli asetettu sen verran kovaksi, ei voinut erehtyä tulleensa niin sanottuun syntiseen kaupunkiin. Hotelliin kirjautumisessa suurimpia haasteita tuotti hotellivirkailijan puheen kuuleminen, sillä aulassakin musiikki oli häiritsevän kovalla. Ylipäätänsä kaikkialla huokuu viihde: kellonympäri pystyy uhkapelaamaan, käymään yökerhoissa tai nauttimaan alkoholia. Pelipaikan hotellissa järjestetään maailman kuuluisimpia allasbileitä, mikä näkyi jonottajien vaatetuksessa (tai siis sen puutteessa :)).

Viihteestä puhuttaessa on syytä mainita myös se, että Las Vegasissa on tarjolla kymmenniä ellei satoja erilaisia show-esityksiä. Tarjolla on muun muassa sirkusta, komiikkaa, musiikkia ja taikuriesityksiä. Itse ehdin käydä katsomassa yhden esityksen: Criss Angel - The Mindfreak. Pidin esityksestä todella paljon. Amerikkalaiseen tyyliin esityksessä lavasteet olivat kunnossa, mutta siinä oli mukana myös paljon muuta. Se oli luotu kuin pääesiintyjän Criss Angelin kasvutarinaksi sille, miten hän onnistui haaveissaan päästä esiintymään Las Vegasiin rakastamassaan asiassaan - illuusioiden tekemisessä. Esiintyjänä Criss Angelistä huokui inhimillisyys ja nöyryys, mikä teki esityksestä entistä elämyksellisemmän. Onnistui hän sen verran hyvin illuusioiden tekemisessä, että moni jo pelästyi luulemaan, että yleisön istuinten alle olisi ilmestynyt isoja hämähäkkejä...

Pelaaminen Amerikassa

Pelitiloina totuttuun amerikkalaiseen tyyliin toimi hotellin konferenssihuoneet. Pelejä oli muutamassa eri tilassa, jotka saa helposti selville katsomalla  päivän bulletiinista eri kilpailuiden pelitilat.
Tilat olivat sopivasti ilmastoituja tällä kertaa (ei liian kylmä!) ja valaistus oli loistavaa ainakin mielestäni.

Ennakkoilmoittautumista Amerikassa kisoihin ei ole muissa kuin pääkisassa Spingoldissa (siidauksen tekemistä varten). Yleisimmät pelien alkamisajankohdat ovat klo 13 ja 19.30 paikallista aikaa, mutta sivukisoissa käytetään myös aloitusaikoina klo 10 ja klo 14. Käytännössä tämä tarkoittaa sitä, että pelit kestävät melkein puoleenyöhön päivittäin. Aloitusaikojen myöhäisyyttä voi pitää hieman yllättävänä varsinkin, kun huomio pelaajien ikäjakauman. Varmaankin vanhempikin väestö on tottunut valvomaan myöhään.

Jokkueemme & pelimme

Meidän joukkueessa pelasivat Connie Goldberg, Hua Poon, Kien Fong, Yukun Zhang, Kauko Koistinen ja Vesa Fagerlund. Connie on yhdysvaltalainen ja Hua & Kien & Yukun ovat Singaporesta. Peliohjelmamme oli ensisijaisesti päästä päätapahtumassa Spingoldissa niin pitkälle kuin mahdollista, jonka jälkeen pelata joitakin muita kisoja. Spingold pelataan ns. "tulos tai ulos" -periaatteella eli vain ottelun voittaja jatkaa seuraavalle päivälle. Pelaamamme kisat ja tulokset olivat seuraavanlaiset:

•  Fri-Sat Knockout Teams 1 (vain Kauko). Sijoitus 3-4.
• SPINGOLD KNOCKOUT TEAMS Sijoitus 17-32.
• A/X/Y Swiss Teams Sijoitus 4-7.
• ROTH OPEN SWISS TEAMS Sijoitus 38.

Tuloksia voi pitää kohtuullisen hyvinä. Spingoldissa jokainen ottelu on todella haastava. Jo yhden ottelun voittaminen on erinomainen asia. Roth Open Swississä oli täpärällä, että pääsimme kolmannelle päivälle. Onnistuimme voittamaan riittävän selvästi, jotta pääsimme kilpailun viimeiselle päivälle. Todettakoon tässä vaiheessa, että meidät Spingoldista tiputtanut Zia Mahmoodin joukkue ei kilpailun viimeiselle päivälle selvinnyt. Kisassa taso on oikeasti siis kova. Valitettavasti viimeinen päivä Roth Open Swississä ei sujunut hyvin. Väärät valinnat seurasivat toisiaan, joten tyytyminen oli sijoitukseen finaalin loppupäässä.

Kilpailuissa ykkösluokan menestymisen saavuttamiseksi vaaditaan vielä harjoittelua. Erot ovat sen verran marginaalisia välillä, että yhteenkään nukahdukseen tai systeemikämmiin ei ole varaa. Henkilökohtaisesti sanoisin myös, että keskittymiskyvyn pitäminen täydessä kapasiteesissaan vaatii vielä työstämistä. Pieniä askelia ottamalla eteenpäin voi vielä joskus olla mahdollista kamppailla aivan kärkisijoituksista.

Two defensive slips in one board

In Spingold knock-out we were down 55 IMPs before the last 15 boards. In the last segment the boards were quite boring, so in the end my concentration was not the best anymore, knowing that even a miracle is not enough to win the match. Six boards to go and another partscore came up.

Two hearts was weak and three spades was natural and inviting. Vesa started with the King of clubs and David Gold won the trick with the Ace. He continued with the three of diamonds to seven, Jack and I won the trick with the Ace. Gold ruffed my club return and played the King and the Queen of diamonds, Vesa showing an even number and dummy discarding a club. You can see the position in the bridge movie below. What is your plan?

At the table I didn’t spend too much time with ruffing and returning the ten of spades. Gold played the Queen, Vesa won with the Ace and continued with spades and I won with the King. What next?

Clubs, what else. The whole deal:

Did declarer make his contract?

Yes. Gold finished his trumps and in the end Vesa was squeezed in the red suits. What were my to mistakes?

If I return the King of Spades instead the ten, Vesa will win the second round of trumps and he can cash his diamond ten as a setting trick. I still had a second chance. If I would have played back a heart after the King of spades, the entry for the squeeze is gone and the contract fails. Declarer also made a mistake. He should play only one high diamond from his hand and then ruff a small diamond. After that the contract is unbeatable.

Two-way finesse

On Thursday we played swiss teams, eight rounds of six-board matches. Two first rounds we won our matches against average standard opponents. The third round opponent was already much stronger, team captained by Gaylor Kasle, but we kept on winning. The following board had a challenging declarer play problem.

Joshua Donn started with the nine of hearts, attitude leads. What is your general plan?

Establishing the diamonds is not a good idea. You can make four diamond tricks only if North has honour-ten third in the suit. Most often you can make three diamond tricks. Three hearts and two spades brings the total up to eight. If you try to establish the ninth trick from clubs, the defenders might take two diamonds, two clubs and one heart. So, it’s much better line to start with the clubs. If I can make two club tricks, three spade tricks are enough to make the contract. How should you handle the club suit?

If opponent’s clubs are 3-3 or if the nine is doubleton, there is no problem. If North has an honour doubleton, you can make two club tricks only with good guessing. If South has Ax or Kx of clubs, you succeed if you play twice low club from your hand. So, I took the lead in my hand with the Jack and continued with a low club, South took the King and continued with the two of diamonds to North’s Queen and my Ace. My ten of clubs held the next trick and South won the third club with his Ace, North following the suit. South continued with a small heart. Follow the play in the bridge movie below. How are we doing?

Not too well. The diamond switch was not welcomed. If I now lose a spade trick to North, he plays back a diamond and I might lose five tricks. There is no point of finessing the other way. If I play the ten of spades and lose the trick to South’s Queen, he plays back another heart and the entry to the third spade trick is gone. To see some discards from the opponents, I cashed my good club from the dummy, both opponents discarding hearts. Next I played diamond to my Jack. If North has the King, I have my nine tricks. And if South has K10xx, I cut the communications between the defenders.

Unfortunately, South wins the Jack with his King and plays one more heart, North discarding a spade. In the four-card ending dummy has just spades left and I have two spades and two diamonds. You can see the position in the bridge movie below. What now?

Gaylor Kasle was first discarding his last heart and after that one spade. It indicates strongly, that his distribution is 4-3-3-3. From five card suit the obvious first discard is a spade. If North has the Queen of spades, I should let the ten run, play a spade to the King and exit with a diamond. It doesn’t matter who’s winning the next to last trick, both opponents have spade as their last card. If South has the Queen of spades, I can make an overtrick with a normal finesse. Which way?

There is one indication, that I should play North for the Queen of spades. If South had Qxx 9xxx Kxx AKx, he might have made a take-out double of my opening bid of one club. Therefore, I let the ten of spades run and made nine tricks the whole hand being:

At the other table the play was following the same lines. Connie also found the mean switch to diamonds. The Polish declarer also misguessed the diamond suit and when he finessed the Queen of spades from the South hand, we gained 13 IMPs from the board.

Disasters do happen at the top level!

The game of bridge could be also called as a game of mistakes. Everybody will make a lots of mistakes - that's something that cannot be avoided. The best make less erros but still time to time they may end up in a silly contracts. The following hand is an example.

After partner opening and right hand opponent's 1NT-overcall I was happy to start doubling them. Eventually I was almost on cloud nine when they ended up on playing my best suit, doubled.

The defence was merciless. Furthermore, the declarer was so unhappy about the contract that failed to cash one of his obvious tricks. You can follow the play in the bridge movie below.

1400 was a nice score to collect! Something to be learned?

Even the experienced players end up in silly contracts - it is human. Even when playing a dumb contract, you should focus on the board, and after it is over try to forget it as soon as possible. It is only one board - it should not ruin your entire session.

The hotels are connected to each other in Las Vegas via pedestrians sky-bridges, as in picture above

Knocked out in the round of 32

Our opponent's for the round of 32 were a team captained by Hemant Lall, playing with Reese Milner, Sabine Auken, Roy Welland, Zia Mahmood and David Gold. Facing a top class opponent means that you should be playing your best game and also have your share of luck to be able to advance for the next round. With 60 boards to be played in the match we were expecting to have a lot of interesting boards.

Zia Teaches Us A Slam Bidding Technique

The following board from the 3rd segment proved to be too difficult for us. You be the judge how it should have been bid... The bidding has gone as shown in below.

You can see the explanations of the bids by clicking the bids on the bridge movie above. So far the bidding has been basically forced with the agreements we have.

Now it is a decision time. Should you stay or should you go?

The whole deal is shown below:

If you managed to reach 7 diamonds, I congratulate you. It is not easy to bid as the key card is the queen of clubs. With our agreements, we did not have an easy solution to find out the queen.

Zia Mahmood and David Gold reached it, well done by them. How were they able to do it?

They used a convention called a 6 Ace Roman Key Card blackwood. After a similar beginning to the auction, the strong hand was able to find out the club queen and both minor suit kings. That was all that was needed to reach the grand slam.

Above pictured Zia and David. Picture by Francesca Canali.

Two boards on the same theme

On the round of 64 of the Spingold knock-out teams there were two boards with a similar kind of squeeze. From the first segment board number 6:

Two diamonds showed majors and four no-trumps asked partner to pick a game in a minor. Douglas Doub started with the two of hearts to his partner’s Ace and Adam Wildavsky returned the two of diamonds to the second trick. What is your plan?

When dummy came down, I was pretty certain that North has all the remaining trumps. The diamond return revealed anyway, that I don’t have to worry about a trump loser. Why was North doubling the final contract, then. The reason is quite obvious. He must be void in spades and he wanted South to lead that suit. Therefore, the trumps must be drawn before any spade finesse. I took the diamond continuation with dummy’s Jack and continued three more rounds, West discarding one spade and three hearts. Next spade to the Queen, which holds, North discarding a heart, as expected. Now I had two ways to make my contract. Can you spot both of them?

East’s distribution must be 6-5-1-1. If I continue with any club but the Ace to the next trick, either defender has to give me an entry to a second spade finesse. But much nicer way is to make an immaterial squeeze against North. I took the Ace of spades, ruffed a spade into my hand. In the five-card ending dummy had just clubs, I had the King of Hearts, one trump and three clubs and North was down to two small hearts and KJ7 of clubs. When I took my last trump, Wildavsky had no answer. If he discards a club, I concede a club to him. When he discarded one of his hearts, I cashed the King of hearts and endplayed him with a club to the Ten. At the other table our opponents chose their other eight card fit, but went two down in five clubs so that was a 14 IMP gain for us.

The very first board from the second segment: Venkatrao Koneru started with the six of spades. What would your line of play?

Besides the two sure trumps losers you have three potential diamond losers. Spade ruff or two is your big concern, but the obvious line is to win the lead in dummy and take the diamond finesse. Is that a good idea? To play a diamond to the Queen and see what happens? What happens is that you go down. East takes the King of diamonds and continues with three rounds of hearts. The whole hand:

Hua realised that there is no reason to take the diamond finesse on the second trick. If West has the King of diamonds, declarer has always ten tricks if the defenders can’t organize any spade ruffs. Correct line is to play trumps immediately. East wins and plays back a club, which you ruff. A second round of trumps is followed by a second club ruff. Next declarer takes his last trump and plays two more rounds of spades. In the five-card ending North has one spade and four diamonds, West KJ5 diamonds and two clubs and South one high spade, two diamonds and A10 of clubs. What East can discard when a spade is played from the dummy? If a diamond, he can win the diamond continuation, but declarer takes the rest. If a club, declarer takes the Ace of clubs and endplays East with a diamond. At the table East made it easy for Hua with returning the Jack of diamonds to the third trick. Koneru hoped to find the Queen of diamonds from his partner’s hand, but this time the unlucky diamond switch resulted an overtrick, when Hua could ruff his both diamond losers in dummy.

Declarer play problem from Spingold 2019, Round of 64

The Summer Nationals are being held in Las Vegas where summers are extremely hot. The temperature is over 40 degrees Celsius daily! No wonder, most visitors stay inside. The air-conditioning is really needed! Unfortunately, the Americans seem to love really cool air so it may be freezing. Quite a difference compared to outside...

This year we managed to qualify for the round of 64 of Spingold. The following board from the round of 64 was a challenging declarer play problem. After natural bidding you are playing 4H. Opponents are playing UDCA (low = even, encouraging). What is your plan?

There seems to be at least a spade loser, a trump loser and a diamond loser. It seems natural to start the play with a diamond towards dummy´s honors. So you play accordingly and East wins the trick with the ace. The club is returned. You can follow the play in the bridge movie.

What now?

Now you need some favorable lies - the goal should be to force the opponents to open up the spade suit in the end. There is also a tiny chance of QJ tight in hearts. Noticing West`s count signal in diamonds you play a diamond to the dummmy and ruff a diamond to the hand. Follow the play in the bridge movie below.

When you cash the heart K, East plays the J. What now?

If the hearts are 4-1 and even if you take the heart finesse, there simply does not look to be enough entries and winners to make the contract. So, you just have to hope the hearts are 3-2. You play heart to the Ace, all following with low cards.

Nice try by East! - he surely has QJx in hearts and was giving a losing option to the declarer. The play continues as follows: ruffing dummy`s last diamond and ruffing a club. Now you are able to endplay East with a heart. Follow the play of the hand in the bridge movie below.

The play was similar at both tables. Anyway, a nice way to make a push board!