BRIAN GLUBOKBrian is a highly accomplished American bridge player hailing from New York City. Glubok, an alumnus of Amherst College, has consistently excelled in North American Bridge Championships, securing numerous titles, including wins in the Jacoby Open Swiss Teams, Reisinger, and Spingold events. In addition to his domestic success, Glubok came close to victory in the World Mixed Pairs Championship in 2010, finishing as the runner-up.. Archives
October 2024
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Diary of a Bridge Pro #94/27/2024 Louisville, March 18th Recently I referred here to my desire as a bridge player to “Tap my inner Pepsi”. This is a reference to the phrase which gained some currency around the 1980’s, to “Tap (into) your inner child.” I imagine that this advice suggests that we should each tap into that inner being that continues to view the world with fundamental wonder and joy. In the same sense, I hoped to play cards like that Eastern European wizard, Jacek Pszcola. Even in a nation which produces heaps of gifted and creative card players, Pepsi is a legend. His success in Polish, US, European, and international bridge competition attests to that skill. So around 2020, I figured the best way for me to make more tricks was to “Tap my Inner Pepsi”. It’s not easy to describe just how Pepsi outperforms other declarers - but If you defend against him, you will frequently find yourself on play with two cards remaining and you are forced to lead from a holding like jack-eight into his ace-ten. What I was really telling myself with that advice was, “Don’t be afraid to risk one or more tricks, even the contract, if you think the odds justify the play.” In other words: Don’t let the good be the enemy of the great. ***** A few days ago, here in Louisville, in the large ballroom where the nationals events are being held, I saw Jacek sitting quietly at his table. I guess it was either the break round or just before the start of the second session, he was sitting alone at his table in what may have been Section F. Pepsi is a highly literate guy, an extremely avid reader, with a library in Poland of more than 10,000 books. He paused from reading a hard-cover copy of "Dune" and we chatted about his family. "Is your son much of a reader?" I asked. Pepsi's son is probably thirtyish, I inferred from our conversation. "Not very much," he replied, "Maybe five hundred books." "Five hundred books? Not much of a reader?" I echoed - "That's four-hundred and ninety-five more than most Americans have read!" ***** If you want to hire Pepsi as a bridge pro, his availability is very limited, but: He’s an excellent choice! ***** I kibitzed a four spade contract yesterday, wrote it up for the Daily Bulletin earlier this morning. Click here and consider board 7. https://live.acbl.org/handrecords/NABC241/03171502  You reach a Four Spade contract with this pair of hands: AQJxx, AT, Qxxx, Kx opposite xxx, QJxxx, AT8, AJ - There are a variety of ways to bid the hand - if you are careless you might find yourself skating off to the five level but as long as neither partner gets too rambunctious you should be able to curb your collective enthusiasm before you reach the five level. The play’s the thing - on a club lead, it seems beyond obvious to me that you should put in dummy’s jack (your club holding is Ace-jack tight opposite king - doubleton). Since there are multiple finesses you want to take from dummy - three finesses in the major suits alone, plus a possible ruffing finesse in hearts as well - why would you ever put up the ace of clubs at Trick One. Incidentally, if you played the jack of clubs from dummy at Trick One, then what would you play at Trick Two? Spade finesse, heart finesse? Hint: Cashing the ace of clubs at Trick Two might look smart but it isn’t. ***** Note to Self: You kibitzed several deals in the Leventritt Pairs, you knew Peter Leventritt, tell some Leventritt stories in a future blog. Here's more on the hand I kibitzed from the event named for Peter: You recall, Opener held: AQJxx, AT, Qxxx, Kx - Responder held xxx, QJxxx, ATx, AJ - Here are some possible auctions: 1C (Precision) - then - 1H, or 1NT showing a positive response with hearts - then possibly 2S 3S - 4S - with 28 high and no shortness in either hand, I consider it pretty sad if you play anywhere besides 4S. Undoubtedly a few pairs get into trouble after starting with a Standard 2/1 Sequence: 1S - 2H: Be careful! If Opener bids 3D, and responder returns to 3S, then you may get overboard. Also, it's possible to get overboard after 1S - 2H - 2S - 3S, too. "Go Low" Sequence: Responder could treat his 12 count as a three card-limit raise: 1S - 1NT - 2D - 3S - 4S. ***** All roads lead to four spades - the play's the thing - They lead a club - gotta play the jack from dummy, hope it holds - why would you ever go up with the ace? It's like you've got a hundred finesses to take from dummy (one or two in every suit besides clubs) and one to take from your hand (a diamond to the ten). Declarer at my table ("Don't call me Schmendrik!) rose ace of clubs at Trick One. ***** Remember that soggy old punchline, “Don't call me Shirley!”? For more highlights from Airplane, some politically incorrect, many hilarious:
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Quick Notes from the Joust4/26/2024 Paulo Brum Apr 26th, 2024 Here are some interesting deals from last night's Joust match between the WBS team and its first knockout opponent, RedTop (Hank Youngerman, creator of the Joust and host at the BridgeZone. Go check out his website!). Our team had Bob Hamman playing with myself and Finn Kolesnik - Michael Xu at the other table. I will report on some hands from my viewpoint.  With everybody vulnerable, I picked up this powerhouse and wondered how to show this hand in our improvised partnership. I had decided to show it as a balanced hand. Three-suiters are hard to bid, and when you are playing for the first time with anyone, even Bob Hamman, it is best to keep it simple. At least we will know what our bids mean! Then I noticed that I was fourth to speak, so I would probably not get a free run. Yep. After two passes, Karen Allison opened One Heart on my right. I had an easy double, and the auction continued with Four Hearts on my left, Four Spades by Hamman, pass. What do you think? Pass or make a move? I decided that Bob could have bid with weak spades and that lots of those hands would be in jeopardy at the five level, so I passed. His spades were not so bad (Kxxxx), but the rest of his hand was (Kxxxx x Jxx 10xxx), so there was no slam. A pushed board but some excitement for me.  Bob had gained two game swings for us by outdeclaring the other team when I picked up these cards. Once again I was in fourth position, but now no one was vulnerable. After two passes, the auction started with One Diamond on my right. I passed, and it continued One Spade on my left, Pass from Bob, Two Hearts on my right. Not a bad start, I thought. I have nice holdings on both of the big hand's suits. Maybe they will get too high. Nope, they stopped in 3NT after dummy bid Three Diamonds. The whole auction (with me in East):  Now I had to find a lead. To defeat this, we needed Bob to have a nice hand. If he had a nice hand and nice clubs, he would have bid them; but he could have had nice spades and no good bid over South's One Spade. Also, the opponents had not looked too hard for a possible 5-3 spade fit. So I reasoned and triumphantly led the Ten of spades. It was greeted by this dummy:
I had nothing to worry about. Finn and Michael were playing in Six Spades, making twelve tricks after a defensive slip.
First half of the match is over. Next Thursday, May 2nd, we will play the second half, at 7pm Eastern time. So if you want to kibitz, join us there.
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Diary of a Bridge Pro #84/25/2024 Louisville, March 18, 2024 Good morning, all. Yesterday, the first Sunday here in Louisville at the 2024 Spring Nats, was a good day for New York bridge. Not that that is really a thing, "New York Bridge". True, New York has a lot of good and great bridge players (and many mediocre and weak ones too) but it is misleading to speak of a "New York Bridge Community" More like a loosely affiliated large group of sometimes vicious rivals. Or, as Gertrude Stein remarked of Oakland, California: There's no there there. ***** Yesterday, in the Platinum Pairs, the most prestigious pairs event on the annual ACBL calendar, first place went to a pair of capable New York pros, Kent Mignocchi and Joel Wooldridge. Winning the Platinum Pairs is, of course, a big deal. There were fourteen tables, twenty-eight pairs, contesting the final of the PP. Twenty times as many players were competing one flight down in the West Tower, where the larger national pair games were contested, In one of those larger events, Brad Moss and Marty Fleisher won the inaugural First Weekend Saturday-Sunday National Pair Game. Brad lives in Denver now but he is a New Yorker. His mother Gail and sister Jill are here in Louisville as well, and other relatives too numerous to count. I saw Gail a couple days ago. I asked her about the classes she is teaching back in the city and at her club in Westchester County, and she told me a heart-warming story about Brad as a teenager, and his desire to play with her in my duplicate club for his birthday present in 1984. Nice to see him notch a win with Marty yesterday. Brad is also the defending champ in the Vanderbilt Teams, which begins today, after his win in that event last spring. I was reminded of this when I read today's Daily Bulletin just now, which included a picture of the winning squad from New Orleans in 2023. Also in today's issue you can find a hand that appeared earlier in this blog series - I wrote up the hand where Ellie and I played 5H making six for 87% of the matchpoints (I guess those nine card major suit fits can be hard to find). In case you don't have the back blogs handy, the deal in question featured this pair of hands: Mine was the weak one, Ellie’s was the Major Suit Monster: AKQ8x, AKQxx, Ax, x opposite J9x, 7xxx, Jxx, Qxx - you can read more about it in today's Daily Bulletin (Page 12). For a link to the March 18 Daily Bulletin, and elaboration on the news cited above, click here: https://cdn.acbl.org/nabc/2024/03/bulletins/db4.pdf My write-up of the deal appears on page 12 - easy to miss, it's short (appropriate, since despite the twelve tricks we made, my hand was tiny.) Let me speak of the hand for a moment, for it provides a great commercial for a method I have been using for at least ten years now - I predict that within another ten years it will be adapted by a large percentage of expert pairs. The deal in question: AKQxx, AKQxx, Ax, x (Huge hand, right?) faces Jxx, xxxx, Jxx, Qxx - Using standard methods, Ellie and I found our way to the heart game. Here’s the sequence I recommend: Opener: 2C (Strong Two or 20-21 balanced) Responder: 2H (0-4 HCP, 4+ hearts) Opener: 6H (Should be a good spot - I should be able to throw partner’s extra diamonds on my spades). ***** I’ve been writing these blog entries for several days now. I hope they will be available today or tomorrow) to an audience on the internet through Stefan’s Intobridge site. Say, that reminds me of the first lines of the existential classic, The Stranger, by the French novelist, Albert Camus: Mother died today. Or it may have been yesterday, it's hard to say. Which raises a question far beyond the scope of today's blog (but maybe not tomorrow's): Why is it we do this? ***** It takes a village to produce and promote a blog like this, and I've been lucky to have a wide variety of friends who've encouraged me to write these columns. One is Paul Lewis, who was partnering jazzy Jill Marshall in Fairfield last June in a regional pair game when I faced him with Walter Schenker and he encouraged me to write a memoir, and then a bridge blog like this. I have a “Jill Hand” to feature later in this series. Spoiler alert: Jill is a very effective player! ***** Yesterday I kibitzed the last few rounds of the Platinum Pairs. When Michael Xu faced the winners, Joel Woolridge and Kent Mignocchi, he had a very tricky Four Hearts to declare. After the hand he asked me if he might have done anything differently. Let's simply look at the diamond suit, A97x opposite Tx - this suit is best played by leading towards the ten doubleton. On a really lucky day, the king-queen jack of diamonds will be tripleton, and you can ruff the third round and make the nine a winner. On a somewhat lucky day, you will find your right hand opponent with KQ543, leaving his partner with a doubleton jack-eight. Your RHO will rise with the queen ("putz," you will mutter to yourself in your ongoing internal monologue) - and then when the eight appears on your left you will smirk with satisfaction. Summoning your inner Pepsi, later in the play you will cash the ace, dropping lefty's jack, then spin the nine from dummy's remaining nine-seven onto the table, taking a ruffing finesse against righty's remaining high diamond honor. ***** When I say, "Tap into your Inner Pepsi", I mean: - hang on, as Damon Runyon titled one of his short stories, "A Story goes with it." Damon Runyon was a NY writer of the mid-twentieth century whose bailiwick was the theater district, the racetrack, and Madison Square Garden. The residents and denizens of the far west side of Manhattan, with the rotting piers facing the Jersey side and a seedy bar dating back to the Prohibition Era never too far away. Here are some radio shows of Runyon’s material. https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Damon_Runyon_Singles ***** Back in 2020, around the time I first began playing online bridge, I told myself, “This would be a good time to try to get better - to go from great to greater. Go for the intra - finesse, the fancy ending, the winkle, the vise - don't name them, just play them, I told myself. Allow your intuitions a chance to reign. In short, I said to myself, "Tap your inner Pepsi." ***** We are taking for granted that the reader knows who "Pepsi" is - we shouldn't. We also shouldn't use the royal we in this fashion, it's annoying. Nevertheless, we sally forth, undeterred. Say, did I ever tell ya that back in my Australian days, I met a girl there, her parents with a surname of "Forth" had named their child "Sally" - cool name, right? They were a circus family, like the Wallendas, so it totally makes sense. Just sayin’. I sought a series of celebrities saying, “Just sayin’”, but I only found one - he does it really well, so here’s a link to a “Just Sayin’” YouTube clip by Modern Renaissance Man: Warning: This link contains some serious social commentary. I stumbled across it simply because I was looking for a celebrity saying, “Just Sayin’”. I linked to it because I figured:
A) The host does deliver a great “Just sayin!” B) it might entertain some of you, C) It might trigger some fresh thinking among some of you. #ModernRenaissanceMan I hope you all continue to enjoy my bridge blogs. Reader input is welcome, you can write to me directly at [email protected], or comment below if you are reading this at our Wilsonovich website. Thought for the Day: Bring an open mind to all your affairs, in bridge and away from bridge. Engage in civil discourse with those whose views differ from your own. Allow your opinions and views to evolve, or to change dramatically, or not at all - Remember: It’s your choice!
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Louisville, Kentucky, March 17, 2024 Sitting in the pleasant late-winter sun outside the venue today (March 17), I had the chance to visit a little with future bridge superstar, 19 year old (soon to be 20) Finn Kolesnik, formerly of southern California and now once more of Austin, Texas. Most of the other events resumed at 3, but the second session of the Platinum Pairs started later - 3:30 - the Day III contestants had played 28 boards at 10 AM, unlike the other pair games, where they’d played 26 - so they needed the extra time in their break. Ishmael Del’Monte, Finn’s partner here, stands nearby. It’s only the slightest bit odd for me, not to be playing. Fifty years deep into my career attending nationals (I probably made it to around 70% of those 150 NABC’s held in that span, if I had to hazard a guess), and I’ve never played so little as I did in Louisville. Perhaps I’m reinventing myself. Really, in many ways it was simply circumstance - I didn’t have any great pro dates - I did have a loose plan to play with Ed Zuckerberg on the first Thursday, one or two sessions in the regional pair game or single-session pairs. I’d discussed playing an event or two with Wall Street Walter - my core client, he and I played last spring in New Orleans - he was tempted, on the fence - the thing that put him off - get this - he’d hate to have to switch planes to get to the tournament. So we passed. I’d had a couple of appealing offers to play the Platinum Pairs - not clients, other pros - several months previous, Alex Kolesnik, Finn’s dad had suggested we play. Alex and I have been a serious casual partnership (how’s that for an oxymoron?) since close to ten years ago. I’ll use another oxymoron to describe our performance in the last four national pair games we’ve played - these were all four - session events, not the six session Legacy Events like the Platinum Pairs that carry the most weight, one run below those - in what feels like four tries, two before and two after lockdown - Alex and I had been consistently strong mediocre. My recollection won’t be wrong by much when I say we finished somewhere in the teens each of those four times. Since there are generally at least two hundred, sometimes more than three hundred, pairs in these events, it is somewhat strong to finish that high, in perhaps the top 5% of the field. Considered from the other side, that’s really nowhere - the fields aren’t that strong, dozens of top players are invariably involved elsewhere, usually in a National KO . So while I might like to say that finishes in the teens are “strong”, it is more honest to describe them as “mediocre” - on all those occasions you might as well say we “lost”. I had a recent email exchange with Alex about our record in those events, we may try again. I cite it here to explain my thinking, why I didn’t rush to accept his invite to play the Platinums. “If we can’t crack the top ten in all those soft, huge, national pair games,” I thought, “How are we even going to be competitive in the Platinums?” Louisville is not a busy city, not many vehicles or pedestrians on the street and sidewalk where we sit. Boye Brogeland, one of the big three of Norwegian (Helgemo, Helness, Boye), returns to the building for the last session of the Platinums. I haven’t been getting his emails lately, from the OCBL - I wonder what became of that. Certainly they published a great Daily Bulletin when they held events, if I recall correctly they had Brian Senior writing for them. Boye was known as “The Sheriff”, for his role in helping to clean up the sport for a moment back in 2015 and for a few years afterwards. I wonder what became of that too, next time I see him I’ll ask him. Boye is earnest like a stereotypical Scandinavian but any attempt to “clean up high-level bridge” (reduce cheating) faces huge institutional and cultural resistance - while there is some general support of initiatives in that direction, there’s way more pressure to simply sweep the mess under the rug, kick the can down the road, choose whatever metaphorical phrase you prefer - the word on the street now, the word in the driveways where players gather to smoke, the word at the picnic tables where players sometimes linger over a pitcher in the evening: There’s plenty of cheating going on now, at both the highest and near the highest levels - and not a lot of push to do much about it. ***** That subject certainly merits an entire column, perhaps I’ll write one. First I’ll look to interview some players, including Boye. But that’s not the subject of this column. I thought of Bob Marley earlier, let me include a link to a song of his here: Here in Louisville without games, planning to leave tomorrow, I am without an agenda. Usually at a nationals I’d be somewhat agitated, concerned about where I needed to be next. Today, suspended in time, I feel as if I’m in a state of mindful idleness. This is a rare nationals where I didn’t come to play, but simply to see friends and explore new ventures - and to be open to play if the situation arose.
That situation almost did arise - Vanderbilt entries have just closed, and Compton had mentioned to me the possibility of teaming up on an outstanding amateur team - Hurd and Bathurst, he said, might be receptive to a draft. I was mad keen to join up for that, I thought we’d be no worse than the best teams in the field. That team had their own huge run without me (I wrote this column on March 17th, but I’m revising it on April 18th). As far as other ventures go, with this blog and the intention to launch the WBS agency with Paulo Brum, whom I met yesterday - I’ve certainly gotten something started here. Here in the path of the Platinum contestants trickling back for the 3:30 start there’s that familiar heady feeling in the air. At most nationals I’ve been absorbed with concerns about performance at bridge - naturally. This time I’d come to Louisville not to play, but to mix with people more. So my mind is calm, without agitation, as I sit behind the venue on the bench and chat with Finn and Ish. They are now five of six sessions into the event, lying somewhere in the middle of the pack - after the first day’s qualifying they’d been either first or second in the field - they’d entered the third day somewhere in the top half of the twenty-eight remaining pairs. Finn described to me a nightmarish board he had played yesterday, where the Opponents opened with a multi Two Diamonds and massive confusion quickly set in - Finn was relying on Bridge Logic, where Ish was relying on the written defense offered by the opponents - the bidding began: (2D) - Double - (2H) - ? Finn held KQT9xx of hearts - he bid 3H - naturally he was unaware that he was showing spades - Mayhem and hijinks ensue and they wind up in 6H. Write to me and tell me what you think: Should there be written defenses to the Multi Two Diamond convention? [email protected] Before I go kibitz Finn - Ish and some of the other pairs in the final of the Plats, let me write up another bridge deal or two from my session with Ellis. Here's a link to the hand records, as a point of reference - you can track any of the hundred thousand or more estimated bridge results from Louisville that are available there - Finn’s, mine, Hamman’s, yours (but only if you attended - ya gotta be in it to win it!) https://live.acbl.org/handrecords/NABC241/03161004
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Diary of a Bridge Pro, #64/12/2024 Louisville, Kentucky - March 17th, 2024 Too Much Light Today has been one of those days. Not in the "Sigh, it looks like today is going to be one of those days," but more like, "Wow - it looks like today is going to be an amazing day." I anticipate leaving the tournament tomorrow. Not because I'm tired of it here - I'm actually loving it here. I love playing bridge (all the more so when I’m billing a fat fee), but I love writing about it at least as much, maybe more. I leave Louisville, the current center of the bridge universe, it’s not because I can’t stay, or don’t want to stay - but rather, as a tactical retreat. Leave now and secure an extra week to work on the agency and lay the groundwork for the next NABC (July in Toronto). ***** Regarding this "blog format": I do love this medium, mad props to whoever thought this up. ***** On Today's Title, Too Much Light: Some days you’re feeling things, good and bad, just too strong. That’s the way I feel some days. Today was one of those days. When I have too many amazing encounters in a short period, I get overwhelmed and think: “Too Much Light”. ***** Apple Computer Founder Steve Jobs believed that “Vectors are important” - that is, if I understand his thinking correctly, how you start has a big impact on how you wind up. No surprise, then, that Ellis and I scored so poorly on the day, when you consider that we started with this catastrophe (full hand at the end of the story): Click on that link and consider Board 25 - Initially from my partner's perspective: You hold: Axx, KQJ98x, xxx, x - On your left, they open One Diamond. What do you bid? My long time partner (a long time ago), Edgar Kaplan, would favor a Two Heart jump overcall with this hand. Descriptive, safe, and taking away bidding room from the opponents. Ellie chose to simply bid One Heart - no jump - hardly a blunder, no doubt much of the field chose the same action. Thought for the Day: It's okay to have your bid once in a while. Opposite that relatively normal hand held by Ellie, here’s the phreak I held opposite: QJT98xxxx (that's right, nine of 'em), A, x, Kx - The bidding to me: (1D) - 1H - (P) - ? I like a Four Spade bid here, but I know contemporary partners find jumps of that sort annoying, so I contented myself with a simple call of One Spade. Now continue to listen to the bidding, ala Al Roth. Over my One Spade advance, LHO competed with 2D, and (Feigenbaum) now competed with 2H. My Rho raised to 3D, and I now bid my obligatory 4S. This was passed around to RHO, who bid 5D in what appeared to be a text - book sacrifice. For a moment it occurred to me to bid 5S or pass, but then I considered my ace of hearts, my king of clubs, my partner who had bid twice, and I made what I thought was the obvious double. Ellie led his singleton club and in what took minutes but should have taken seconds, the bad guys racked up all thirteen tricks, Five Diamonds doubled with two overtricks. For our side, this result is worse than horrible -it’s true that with our hearts blocked, we can't beat even Six Diamonds - but who’s going to bid that? No one will sell out with our million-card spade fit. "That was the worst board ever," I told Eli as I okayed the score in the BridgeMate - "I mean, like in the entire history of bridge." "I thought I should show my hearts again," Ellie contributed as we took out our cards for the second board. The full hand:  Hamman Cites Orwell This surged into my head as I walked back from the playing site to my hotel today. For many years I’ve made it a point to try to stay in contact with Bob Hamman, known widely as the greatest or one of the greatest American players of all time. Bob and I always have plenty to talk about - the last tournament, or the next one. Sometimes he and I team up for a Spingold, sometimes we partner up for a national pair game. I called him last September (2023), around a week before Bob went to Africa to play on USA2 in the Senior World Championships, our conversation ran something like this: Me: Bob, I'm leaning towards playing without a sponsor in major events if we can get a good “amateur” team. You know what events I’m talking about: Spingolds, Vanderbilts, Team Trials, whatever - . "Well, we'll see how it goes in Marrakesh," he inevitably replied. Bob's M.O. has long been to try out a series of partners and teammates - in the recent Chicago Spingold, the 2023 Team Trials, and the WC in Marrakesh, this rotating role as “Bob’s partner” was fulfilled by one Peter Weichsel - more on him some other time - "Absolutely, Bob - see how it goes at the next tournament,” I told him for perhaps the tenth time in the last twenty years. Still time for a tiny bit of enthusiasm for the wizened warrior, I reasoned, so I closed with this: “But I want you to be conscious, I want you to recognize how epic this is, Bob, that we’re even talking like this.” I continued. I didn’t mention his 5 weeks on a ventilator in 2021, instead I simply said: Bridge is finally resuming now after the lockdown and you’re still winning selection events like the Team Trials." Bob may have tried to shoehorn a couple of words into the middle of my riff at this point, but I ceded no ground. "To me," I continued, striving for maximum pomp, "I feel like this is 1946 and this is Ted Williams and Stan Musial talking..." Perhaps this is a good time to introduce what I sometimes refer to as "Glubok's First Irregular Law": If you want to have an epic life, you must treat your own life as epic. "It feels to me, Bob,” I continued, “That right now is like 1946, and we're a couple of major players, both back from the war, and now we're making plans for the future." "Feels to me more like 1984,” Bob muttered, and shortly thereafter he was off to Africa.
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Diary of a Bridge Pro, #54/10/2024 Picking up where we stopped last time: (Link of our game for reference: https://live.acbl.org/event/NABC241/OPPR/2/scores/C/N/13 ) Board Eight: Again, we had problems where we didn't simply "Bid our Points". Ellis, holding AQx, AJ9x, AKTx, xx, opened One Diamond with his 18 points. I held a yarborough (near - yarborough) opposite, xxx, xxxxx, xx, Qxx. I chose to pass, rather than respond, and LHO, Max Schireson, now made a clever re-opening bid of One No Trump. My view, shaped by sharp experience, is that you have to suck it up and double here. There is some risk attached (what if partner truly has zero?) but that is a risk you must absorb. We ended up defending against One No Trump, rather than competing in hearts. The full deal:  Board Nine: I held AQ98xx, x, Kx, T9xx - Partner Opened with a weak two in diamonds and the next hand passed. Like Al Roth and others before me, I am a big advocate of playing "New Suits Not Forcing (in response to weak two-bids)". Roth is credited with inventing the weak-two, along with this method of non-forcing new suit responses. Partner, holding Void, QJx, QJ9xxx, Kxxx rebid 3C after my Two Spade response. He wound up playing there, and with favorable breaks was able to make the contract. Plus 110. Full deal:   Board Twelve: The opponents held this pair of hands: AKJx, Kxx, J, AJxxx, opposite Qx, AQxx, Q98x, Txx. Their bidding began 1C - 1H - 1S - this was alerted: "Promises an unbalanced hand". This is quite a playable method, very popular, but not always effective. Here, it led to a poor result for our opponents when this responding hand chose to make full use of that information and he preferenced to 2C (rather than bidding the more obvious 1NT). With lots of tricks available in Hearts or no trump, the club part-score reached by our opponents was not their top spot.  Board 13 featured the same theme - our opponents chose a club partscore rather than the more obvious one or two no trump. A couple of side-notes: I held Axx, xxx, KJx, KQ87 - Both Vul, there was a One Club opening on my right. I elected to double, slightly unorthodox. The opponents landed in Two Clubs, and at Trick Two declarer led towards the JT9x of clubs in dummy. While there didn't seem to be much room for partner to hold the ace of clubs, I ducked anyway, and it turned out my partner did have the ace of clubs, singleton. Had I gone up with the king or queen, we'd have crashed honors (a defensive maneuver to generally be avoided at all costs). Thought for the Day: Second hand low  Board 15: Lynn Baker opened one of her trademark Weak Two bids, with a heart suit of T8xxx - Olivia Schireson, a rising young star in the ACBL, gave her a little too much room and sold out to our Four Spade contract. I'll contribute two thoughts: 1) If you play an extreme style (super-light opening bids, pre-empts on weak five card suits), then it is important not to "give partner too much room". While it wasn't the case here, sometimes partner simply has a "normal" hand for the action taken. Something like ATxxxx of hearts rather than five to the ten. So don't dismiss the possibility that partner may have a normal hand for her call, regardless of your agreed bidding style. 2) At matchpoint scoring, with favorable vulnerability, take the save if that seems like a reasonable option. Yes, sometimes it will be a phantom, and sometimes you'll go down too many, but neither of those will happen very often. On the plus side, sometimes the opponents will take the push and compete to the five level. If that ever happens to you after you sacrifice, you should be pleased with yourself, whatever happens from there. Board 16: I looked at this hand in some depth in the previous blog. We missed a slam with AKQxx, AKQxx, Ax, x opposite J9x, xxxx, Jxx, Qxx. Despite our missing the near-cold slam (it will make as long as hearts don't break 4-0 and spades don't break 5-0), we got 87% on the board, simply for finding the right trump suit (our 5-4 heart fit, not our 5-3 spade fit). Board 17: I was a little too shy on this one: I held KQJx, AJT, T9x, AKx - With a balanced 18 points, I opened One Club - LHO pre-empted with Two Diamonds, and Ellis raised me to Three Clubs; RHO passed. In retrospect I think I should bid (cue-bid 3D), but at the time I reasoned along these lines: If partner has no diamond stopper, then Three (or possibly Four) Clubs is likely the limit of what we can make - no game for us. If partner does have a diamond stopper, and also the maximum point count, and fitting clubs, and the cards lie favorably, then - we might have game. With all those "if's" running around, I simply passed 3C. Ellie had a diamond stopper, a good fitting hand (tons of honors in the black suits), and a maximum. So if I bid 3D, and he bids 3NT, then we make a game. Department of Bad News / Good News: Bad News: We're cold for 3NT Good News: With four spades likely to go down after a diamond ruff, we got a decent board (54%) simply for making 110 in 3C. The full deal:  Board 18: We got a (near) zero when we failed to get in the bidding with good values and a good spade fit, instead selling out to 2 Diamonds. It's hard to imagine how we could fail to get in the auction on that one. (see below).  Board 19: I "committed" a weak two bid with a horrible suit and a really bad hand: xxxxxx, Qx, Kxx, xx - Partner neglected to bid 4D after 2S - (3H) - ? with A, Txx, AQJxxxx, AQ, and we got a very poor result.  Board 20: I held xx, K9xx, xx, QTxxx - Partner Opened One Spade, and, with both sides vulnerable, I passed. Ellie made an overtrick, for Plus 110. If I respond, there's a good chance we'll end up minus. So conclude what you will about responding with marginal hands, from this very small data point  Board 21: We rested in 4D, with good play for 5 - still, we made +150, for a 70% board.  Board 23: They pre-empted with a 3C opening - we didn't bid. We should have. We got a 53% board anyway.   Board 26: With AQxxxx, Jx, QJx, xx, I had to lead against the auction 2NT - 3NT. I led the automatic spade, though a case can be made for the queen of diamonds. We got 55% for minus 660, though a diamond lead might have led to north of 90% for minus 630.
At IMPs, the spade lead would be mandatory, as the best chance to defeat the contract. At matchpoints, there's a lot to be said for leading a diamond. That's about all I have to say about this session, our bridge was horrific and even some of the intermediate players among our readership should have been able to outscore us (we wound up with 46%). Still, I had a great time playing, and was reminded of the ever popular bumper sticker, more commonly citing fishing but equally applicable to our favorite pastime: Even a bad day playing bridge....beats a good day doing anything else!
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Diary of a Bridge Pro, #44/9/2024 Play These (Louisville) Hands With MeTerence Reese was a bridge superstar from England, considered by many to be the Greatest of All Time in the category of "Player-Writer". Clearly he was among the best ever both as a player and as a bridge writer. Among the many books that he published, there was a compilation titled, Over My Shoulder. The format he used in that work, inevitably mimicked by others, consisted of a series of single deals, presented in story form, each with a dramatically different setting: this sort of thing: 1) “I arrive in Heathersford for a country congress with an enthusiastic but untutored student from the East End - her recently deceased husband made a fortune in the rag trade, and she has determined to mitigate her pain by playing as much bridge as possible….” 2) “Playing high-stakes rubber bridge at London’s Crockfords Club, you are pleased to cut the best (other) player in the club, against two of your favorite opponents….” 3) “Representing England in the European Championships in Stockholm, you find yourself facing a strong French Team in the Grand Final….” I read the book as a teen, and loved it. I don’t recall many of the specific deals, but I remember that the book in general was wildly entertaining, with tons of solid bridge advice as well. I do recall this one deal that Reese featured, who wouldn’t? The problem he posed placed you with a 13 (!) card suit. His presentation ran something like this: “Playing for medium-high stakes at the second best bridge club in London, you deal yourself this (entirely apocryphal) collection, no one vulnerable: Void, Void, Void, AKQJT98765432 - “ Reese went on to write a brilliant essay on why the “correct” opening bid with this hand was Four Clubs. I’d like to try something similar today, and write up some of the hands I played with the format Reese made famous..Let’s call upon some deals from the second qualifying session of the Inaugural Spring Nationals Saturday-Sunday NABC Pairs. Here's a link to my results from the session, including diagrams of the various hands. Try these boards with me: https://live.acbl.org/event/NABC241/OPPR/2/scores/C/N/13 “You sit down for the second session of the new Saturday - Sunday national pair game with a cynical but enthusiastic partner from California by way of London, Israel, Canada, and Goulburn. His accent is still British, and his outlook Australian. Board One, you hold: KJTxxx, Txx, Axx, x - With no one vulnerable, partner passes, then: One Club on your right. The recurring theme from this session was: "Do you make a weak jump-overcall in spades?" I did, maybe you bid One or Three (I hope you wouldn’t pass or bid four). After my Two Spade bid the auction continued: (1C) - 2S - (3H) - 3S - (P) - P - (P) Partner is a bit bewildered but essentially pleased as punch when he tables: AQxx, Qx, xxx, xxxx - it doesn’t take a Mensa membership (Reese wouldn’t use that phrase, but I can) to deduce that the opponents can make four or five hearts - conceivably even a slam in that suit, if we don’t have a spade trick on defense. The opening leader cashes the ace - king of hearts, dropping his partner’s doubleton jack, and then shifts to a club. Instead of a great board for - minus 50 against their cold game - you score what you expect to be at least 90% of the matchpoints: Plus 140 in 3 Spades, as your heart ten provides a discard for dummy’s third diamond. Key Takeaway: You can often get huge results by bidding normally. The full deal:  Continuing with the session’s theme of: Preempt in Spades or don’t preempt in Spades?:
On Board Four I held KQxxxxx, x, xxx, Ax: Both Vul - After a One Heart opening on your right, how many spades would you bid? Board Six: We suffered the kind of annoying situation one often confronts in tournaments: The opponents had a lengthy bidding sequence, some of it artificial, some of it ambiguous, something like 1NT - 3D - 3S - 3NT - 4C-5C - P - there was some commentary with the bidding, here's what I recall: 1NT (range may have been announced) 3D ("I think I'm supposed to alert that - but I don't remember what it means") 3S (after a long pause) 3NT (after another long pause) Now, another gratuitous comment, this one by the responder: "I want to alert 3 Spades". Obviously, alerts of this kind, which occur long after the bid in question has been made, are not, what phrase shall we use? "By the book". This sort of thing happens all the time in tournaments, expect this to happen occasionally against you if you participate in congresses here or in the UK (or in most any other country, for that matter). Board Seven: Partner holds K98, Qxx, Kxx, QTxx - As a passed hand, I overcalled One Spade after a fourth position One Club opening by Debbie Rosenberg. My LHO, Max Shireson, passes - Ellie does too. Note to Self: Check Ellie for a pulse, who would pass Partner’s One Spade overcall with that hand? His thinking, I assume, ran: Partner couldn’t open the bidding, so why should I go any higher than One Spade unless I’m pushed? That kind of thinking is what I call a bankrupt ideology. Failing to raise partner’s One Spade overcall to two with this hand is just bad bridge.
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Diary of a Bridge Pro, #34/6/2024 The experts have spoken. In our inaugural column, we looked closely at this deal: (Board #24):  I asked a handful of star players and other friends which opening bid they would prefer with the West hand (AJT9x, KTx, ATx, Jx). By a decisive margin, the feeling was that this 13-point hand should be upgraded to be treated as 14 HCP - playing a 14 to 16 point no trump range, this hand, the experts concur, should be opened 1NT, not One Spade. Marty Bergen, the prolific and popular bidding theorist, replied promptly from Florida. Similar thoughts were expressed by Jeff Rubens, Joe Grue, Alex Kolesnik. Paraphrasing, Marty said: If the hand isn't strong enough for a One No Trump opening (whether you start your no trump range at 14 or 15), then - Pass responder's semi-forcing no trump response. With this approach, Opener might begin with One Spade with KJxxx, Qx, KQx, KTx, and might then pass Responder's semi-forcing no trump response. If you play that way, then you’ll almost no need to ever bid a three card suit over 1NT. Marty makes that point specifically, asserting that he would only bid a three card suit as opener with an awkward hand like Axxxxx, AKx, Axx, x. Incidentally, if you ever rebid 2D over 1S - 1NT with a hand like Marty’s example, you’re hoping for partner to have a hand like x, Qxxxxxx, xx, Axx - the type of hand that will bid Two Hearts over 1S - 1NT - 2D, or pass after 1S - 1NT - 2S. Joe Grue was playing with his usual partner, the perky and popular Gillian Miniter of New York. I discussed the hand at some length with him between rounds of the pair game. Joe plays very fast, more often than not he has time between rounds. "If my range starts as low as 14, I’d open 1NT even without the good spade spots," Joe told me. “If I did open 1S and partner invited (with a forcing no trump followed by 2NT or 3S over 2D), then I'd definitely bid a game." Our panel felt less strongly about responder's second bid - with x, Jxx, Qxxxx, KQxx, I got the sense that after 1S - 1NT - 2D - ?, they expressed a slight preference for a raise to Three Diamonds rather than Pass. Since a perfect hand opposite, with opener, might produce a slam (AJxxx, x, AKxxx, Ax) we can see why responder would want to keep the bidding alive. But a raise could lead to a minus score with a plus available in 2D (Partner might take a third bid over our raise to Three Diamonds and go down at a higher level, or he might just go down in 3D with a solid minimum opening hand like KQxxx, xxx, KJxx, A, losing three heart tricks and two aces). ***** This is a rare week at a tournament where I have minimal plans to play - I just wanted to see people, maybe strike up a new partnership or two, mine for new clients, network a little. I did play yesterday - that morning I ran into Ellie Feigenbaum, a club-owner from Southern California (by way of England, Israel, and Canada), and we entered the new national pair game scheduled for the "first weekend". Ellis and I had a marvelous time, though the bridge was from hunger - here are some interesting deals: Against Lynn Baker and Olivia Schireson, I held Jxx, xxxx, Jxx, Qxx - Partner Opened Two Clubs, I responded Two Diamonds, and Ellie rebid Two Spades. We hadn't taken the trouble to agree to play "Cheapest Minor Double Negative", so I didn't want to invent a Three Club bid here - instead, I tried to "slow things down" with a 2NT bid - if partner raised me to 3NT, I intended to "put him back" in 4S. My thinking ran: "If I raise 2S to 3S (2C - 2D - 2S - 3S), partner is likely to think I have a good hand in support of spades - perhaps a four card fit and as much as seven or eight points - (with nine/ten or more, I'd probably drive past the four level myself if opener tries to settle for game). This hand is nowhere near that good. If I raise to Four Spades, partner may accept that I am trying to show weakness, but my own feeling about this sequence is that I don't mind having a bad hand for the raise to Four Spades (at one time this jump-raise denied an "outside ace or king"), but I prefer that my bad hand include a) maybe a little something - 3 to 5 HCP, maybe a king), and, more important, a four card (not a three card) fit." The method behind this madness manifested when my 2NT rebid triggered a Three Hearts bid by Ellie, making the sequence to date 2C-2D-2S-2NT-3H-? I had intended to preference spades on the second round - certainly I would have done so had Opener bid a minor at his third turn. But when partner showed a second suit of hearts, matching my four card holding, I switched horses midstream and raised Three Hearts to Four. Ellis held AKQxx, AKQxx, Ax, x - He bid Blackwood and settled for 5H. Since slam is nearly cold (Declarer discards dummy's two diamond losers on his fourth and fifth-round spade winners), you might think we would get a bad board for plus 680  If you thought that missing this nearly-cold slam in a national pair game would get you a poor result, think again. While Plus 1430 would have garnered well north of 90% of the matchpoints, so few pairs found hearts as a trump suit that even plus 680 was worth 87% of the available MP's.
This represented something of a "fix" for Lynn Baker and young Olivia - as she reminded me in the lobby tonight, very few pairs were able to find the heart fit (I'm not sure why, I guess most responders raised spades after the bidding began 2C - 2D - 2S). Before the round began, I was able to make Olivia aware of Lynn's achievement as a crew star, rowing for Yale for their legendary national champion crew team in the late 1970's. So that was a highlight for me. And while I could write an entire blog about the bidding problems that arose during my session with Ellie yesterday (and I very well may do that shortly), I prefer to write mostly on the human element - for example: David Caprera, retired Colorado lawyer with pony-tail, has been partnering bridge legend Bob Hamman here. He will be working with Bob on a second volume of Bob's auto-biography, and they are partnering up as part of the package deal. As players settled into a new round, David was standing away from the playing tables, twisting his torso to relieve some of his obvious discomfort. The ubiquitous Mitch Dunitz (ubiquitous to me, at least - I've kibitzed him, lounged at the bar with him, and played against him too, already this week) is involved in that book project as well, I believe. So it's appropriate that he threw a wisecrack in Caprera's direction, some reference to the stress Dave appeared to be suffering under... "The Bob Hamman Experience!" I called out, as loud as I could get away with - "Sounds like a ride at Disneyland!" "Definitely an E-Ticket," Mitch called out in reply. My satisfaction with this exchange wasn't lessened by the need for me to explain to Ellie and our European opponents what an "E-Ticket" is/was: the ultimate thrill. https://yesterland.com/abcde.html This feels like a good place to pause - it does compel me to offer a good slogan for the League to use when promoting these national tournaments, though: "National Events at the NABC’s: The Ultimate E-Ticket" Final thought: I’m always happy to get your feedback, comments, and questions at [email protected], and as comments here in our website. - BG |
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