Diary of a Bridge Pro #26

7 April, 2024

  As recounted in Blog #22, five days ago, down in Florida, I was back at the hotel after dinner, doing not much of anything in the lobby, when I saw two top American pros talking, Chris and Korbel.

  I always liked this venue, the Coral Springs Conference Center and Country Club - you can sit on the balmy patio behind the hotel or visit the playing area. The night time side game was in play, four tables out of 100 active. 

  I had already done all that, looked over the recap sheets, checked my score, visited the lobby, the patio which adjoins the golf course, the barely populated playing area. 

  I’m a reflective sort, so being in that setting, I inevitably recalled my epic week there in 2018, partnering Compton on a Mahaffey Team. Also I recall that my longest conversation with Korbel took place when I ran him to the airport from this tournament in Harry’s van after the second session Sunday, I’m pretty sure it was that same year. 

  That kind of reminiscence is of little consequence to either of these guys - touring pros like Chris and Dan are generally preoccupied with the present, today's game and the one tomorrow - maybe the tournament next week. Long-term thinking might extend as far as the next nationals, but probably no further.

  When I join the duo in the lobby, Chris is telling Dan how some hotels gouge tournament tenants with high fees to rent equipment or use hotel staff for technical support.

  "Now you're stuck hearing a Harry Goldwater story," I tell them. Chris has been around since the eighties, the seventies, actually, so I figure he may have heard of Senior Tournament Director Harry Goldwater. Dan, probably not - Harry was long retired by the time Dan appeared on the scene in the 90’s.

  The incident I described was already 15 or 20 years in the past by the time I made LM in '75.

  "You've probably heard of Goldwater's Law," I tell Korbel, and I remind them both Chris and Dan that Goldwater's Law holds that "If you get a lead out of turn, you should accept it."

  Goldwater's Rationale: If the miscreant is so out of touch that he doesn't know whose lead it is, then he probably doesn't know what the right lead is, either.

  Key Bridge Point: While often ignored, adherence to Goldwater's Law (Accept the Lead) will generally show better results, in the long run, than trying to choose among the other four options. Continuing to recount my recounting:

  "So this one time back in New York Goldwater's directing at a big hotel tournament, just like you're describing, and they need to move the microphone from one end of the other, so they do - but then the Hotel's Union Electrician and head of Maintenance comes to tell them that they can't do that themselves, they have to use hotel staff.

  'But we didn't move the microphone!' Harry insists. "We kept the microphone where it was, we just flipped the room 180 degrees!'" 

  Visualizing the incident in my mind, I assume that Harry illustrated this flipping of the room with a twist of one of his large hands, somehow I think of him as always wearing a rumpled suit and having very large hands.

  Not too many directors like that anymore, no? But I could imagine Mackenzie Myers or Sol Weinstein coming up with that sort of thing. But while Mackenzie might think it, he probably wouldn’t say it, and Sollie - well, he was a protege of Harry’s, he might even have been present when the incident took place. I’ll have to ask him next time I see him.

  *****

​  Here's a bidding problem from the first session of the tournament, Board 25:

First Seat, Favorable Vulnerability (white versus red), you hold: Q87432,  92. Jx, 9xx:

  In the old days, back when Goldwater was directing at the New York Hilton and Eisenhower (an avid bridge player, you should know) was in the White House, this was considered a reasonable candidate for a psychic One Spade opening.

  Nowadays that isn't recommended. To consider all the other possibilities:

  Pass is the obvious choice.

  A light weak two bid might work.

  Four Spades is wildly reckless, very likely to either suffer a huge penalty, or goad partner into a misadventure at the five level or higher (partners are so gullible).

  Three Spades has a lot to recommend it - being NV versus V, there’s not that much chance of something bad happening - like being doubled in Three Spades and going down more than the value of their game.

  My Thinking holds that Three Spades may be the right bid, but I’d still probably pass - partners get too annoyed if you open Three Spades with such a weak hand, so it isn’t worth it.

  Let’s allow Bob Hamman (TGB) the last word on the subject:

  First Seat Favorable? Queen-ten sixth of clubs and jack fourth of diamonds, that's a minimum for a three club opening.

  So now we know: This hand is close to a three spade opening, but not quite good enough (you have the queen and the jack, but you lack the six-four pattern).

  - BG
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