Diary of a Bridge Pro #11

​Springfield, March 28, 2024 

  Now that I have DBP to maintain, my life has changed.  I feel as though I’m rolling out Glubok 3.0. I’m better “tethered” now. I learned this term when Chris Compton spoke of it a few years ago in a conversation we had just after Justin Lall died - Chris told me that in JLall’s last years, he gained some tethering by having a pet.

  Maybe this blog will help keep me better tethered - isolation stinks.

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  Sunday I fly to Florida to partner up with my client Walter for a couple of pair games at the regional there. Playing in tournaments, not playing in tournaments - it raises identity issues for me. If I don’t play bridge, do I exist? 

  Some folks sail through life without confronting issues of personal identity.

  I am not one of those people.

The hotel lobby in Springfield where I'm typing this is swarming with many dozens of high school students from around the state of Illinois - earlier today I managed a dozen minutes at the 12 - step meeting across the street. I get great uplift from their meetings - also the pre-meeting in the parking lot, and sometimes the post-meeting as well.

  I think our bridge scene could borrow several of their rituals to our benefit - each meeting includes a moment of silence, the serenity prayer, an assertion of the group’s non-affiliation and the broad guarantee of free membership for those who desire to not drink.

   I saw the Carole King play at the local theater the other night, I found it super entertaining and also very emotionally moving. I was around 12 when Carole King had the world’s best-selling album ever with “Tapestry”, The characters in the King play were from the same world as the kids I grew up with, except 15 years older and 30 miles to the southeast, NY’s Westchester County as opposed to King County, the borough of Brooklyn.
 
  Here’s King singing “Beautiful”:

 Here's some Platinum Pairs from the recent nationals in Louisville:

  Consider Board 24.

  The expert pair I watched had a modern sequence to 3NT.

 A bidding idea that once seemed wacky now seems reasonable:

 1C - 2NT (forcing, 13-15, may have a major) - 3C: Do you have a four card major?

  Regardless of the bidding sequence, all roads lead to 3NT - at the table where I watched, South stabbed from his three small hearts, rather than a diamond lead from King-fifth - on this hand that was a good move.

  Declarer won and hooked the club - I think North should duck here - this is kind of a “feel play”, rather than one based on analysis - with that club lay-out (AQJ9 in dummy, with you holding King-ten-fourth behind the dummy), you’re usually better off ducking. So duck!

  At the table the defender took the first club and played a second round of hearts.

  Declarer let the heart go around to dummy and cashed a high club.

  At this stage, it seems to me you want to play a spade to your king and a spade to dummy’s jack - no rush to play on clubs, save that for last - retain the option to finesse against the ten of clubs in the ending.

  Music lovers among the readership may appreciate this link to a second Carole King song:

  "You've got a Friend" - with James Taylor, 1971

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My Wish For You, Today’s Pro Tip: 

  Get tethered, stay tethered!

  Thanks for reading, more tomorrow.