Diary of a Bridge Pro #19

​Toronto, July 21

  Last week's heat wave here has broken and the weather is now ideal - the several thousand players who have congregated for the summer nationals are generally in great spirits as we gather for the games at the Metro Convention Center and patronize the local restaurants and watering holes.

  The Blue Jays are playing baseball at home this week, blocks from the tournament site. Pedestrians in branded gear stream by in droves, mixing with the bridge players and also with a talented busker playing weathered classics like this one by Roger Miller: King of the Road:

​ I'm typing this for our readers from my new digs, an elegant mini-suite on the 41st floor of the Queen Street Sheraton - this is how I want to live! The suite came my way via one of bridge's most legendary Road Warriors, Chris Compton - let me take this opportunity to thank he and his wife Donna for passing it along to me, it's great here. 

  Here's a quick bridge hand, then a bit more on some subjects of even greater personal interest.

 Board 10, from the first session of the newest National Pair game, the two-day (Saturday-Sunday) Open Pairs. 

  South holds J9876, void, QJx, AT9xx - after a 1H opening on his right, both sides vulnerable, he made a Michaels 2H cue-bid. Some other time we may debate the merits of this convention, and the use of it with this hand. Certainly it is wildly popular, and certainly many or most players might take that same action with that 5=0=3=5 eight count - 

  After 1H - (2H) - ?, I contributed my auto-pass with Qx, xx, ATxxx, Jxxx - the bidding continued with 2 Spades on my left, 3 Hearts from partner Kismet Fung, all pass.

  After a spade lead, Kismet played well to make ten tricks and notch a 75% board for our pair. 

  Here is the key point I want to note about this board: South should have led a diamond from Queen-jack third, not a spade from Jack-nine-eight fifth.

  Avid students of bridge literature will be familiar with this seminal classic on opening leads:

 https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Suit-Contract-Leads-David/dp/1554947693

  If you haven't read it recently, or ever, I'll provide you the key conclusions:

  Leads from worthless holdings (three or four small) are good.

  Leads from broken honor holdings (K9xxx, J98xx, QTxx) are bad.

  Leads from three card holdings headed by two honors are good.

  On this deal, a diamond lead from queen-jack third would have gained at least one trick for the defense, possibly two, compared to the spade lead to jack-nine fifth.

  The swing in matchpoints from the choice of opening lead on this deal is substantial - we got 75% for plus 170, would have gotten 56% for plus 140, or 21% for minus 100.  Over half a board swing, potentially, from his choice of opening lead.

  Executive Summary: Take care with your opening leads, avoid broken suits, lead from holdings like Queen-jack third or Jack-ten third whenever that seems a reasonable choice.

​*****

  I've determined that for upcoming blogs, I want to deal more with subjects like bridge as a path for personal growth. I believe that this is where bridge can be it's most valuable to those of us who play (pretty much everyone reading this). I have a ton of work to do in this area, I suspect it never ends - you never get there, you're always going there.

  *****
 
  A reader / editor has suggested to me that this column should feature more "Inside Baseball" ("Inside Bridge"?) type material - how do bridge pros deal with client - poaching, for instance?

  My anecdote from the first full day of the tournament ties together a ton of those themes - Compton, client - poaching, personal growth - so, here:

  Day before yesterday, I joined the Comptons at a local eatery for a great late lunch - Scaramouche. Their website, if you're interested:

  https://www.scaramoucherestaurant.com/

  As Chris tried to convince me to take his second suite off his hands (I'm glad I did!) I bared my soul and talked with the Comptons about personal growth and related matters, like rehabilitating Glubok - healing broken relationships, especially.

  "Well, naturally, bridge pros hate it if you steal a client," Chris commented.

  This is of course self-evident, but also a real issue - only so many clients, and so many pros, and in the vast majority of cases a bridge pros next client used to be someone else's - certainly if we were barbers, we couldn't give haircuts only to customers who'd never had one.

  Still, I aspire to better relations, so - 

  That morning at the tournament, I had chatted with a prospective client - an interesting guy, he was a tech tycoon who invented the leading double-dummy solver (not Goren in a Box, the other one) in his spare time - he was playing with a Vegas pro in the first day of the LM's when we spoke - not sure if I should mention names here, but the point is:

  I aspire to better behavior - so when I saw the pro with his beautiful side-kick just after my lunch with Chris and Donna, I approached him and said:

  "This is probably the worst time to speak with you (who relishes being interrupted under those circumstances?) but - I spoke with Bill this morning about playing, but ... if you'd rather I didn't .... I won't....I didn't know if he was one of your main guys, or just someone you play with every five years...."

  "No, he's my main guy," the pro acknowledged.

  "Well then I won't ask him to play," I said.

  "Well you can if you want," the pro told me, diffident.

  "Of course I can!" I asserted, vehement, my old abrasive self once more. "This is America."

  Actually, we're in Canada, but that's a free country too, as they say.

  "But I won't," I concluded. "I'll be friendly with him, but no playing bridge!"

  "Thanks, Brian, I appreciate it," Dan told me.

  *****

  Key Takeaway: It's NEVER too late to try to be a better person. And always worth the trouble. And who knows? You might get some blog material out of it.

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