Diary of a Bridge Pro #31

Springfield, April 14, 2024

  On Being Tethered

  Thirty blogs deep into this project launched in Louisville. I guess that's a little less than the rate of one per day. That I've been producing these. Usually I'll complete one of these columns the same day I start it. Generally I'll start in the morning. 

  This is the hottest day of the year so far, 84 degrees by the site on the internet that one gets this information from in this year of our Lord 2024.

  When we titled this blog "Diary of a Bridge Pro" - well, I guess we all understood - that that meant, "Diary of this Bridge Pro".

  And this bridge pro suddenly finds himself living a wildly interesting life.

  *****

  I determined, on reaching Blog #30, that I could open things up a little bit, metaphorically speaking, and explore areas far from hand evaluation or really anything to do with bridge at all - although,of course, ultimately, and through the magic of distant causal connections, there is of course always a connection to bridge.

  One of the reasons I launched these ventures (the WBS Agency and these DBP blogs) was to become better "tethered". 

  The subject of being tethered merits a full column, not this one. Maybe something later in the thirties, I'm thinking that "the thirties" is a good place to introduce more of these abstract principles, less about bridge and more about life.

  But first let's do some more bridge. We return to the recent regional I played in Florida - so much fun to zip in there and play two days of pair games!

  Last column we discussed the legendary polymath Goethe, and the greatness latent in beginnings. Today we raise the notion that we all benefit by being better "tethered" - connected to others, or at least connected to a pet, a card game, a bridge club, a religious congregation, a theater group, a Tuesday Night Darts Group - the human being is a social animal, and I expect that I'm speaking the obvious when I say we all need to interact with other human beings to remain healthy.

  I mean, duh.

  *****

  Let's go to Louisville instead, here's a hand Ellie and I had to bid together in the national pair game, Board 23:

Axxx, QJTx, xx, Axx - opposite Kx, Ax, KQJ9xx, Kxx - 

  Naturally I opened the great 11 count with four-four in the majors, not vulnerable. Worth noting the importance of the 14-16 (as opposed to 15-17) range, at least NV. Ellie responded One Diamond, and I kept things simple for him by rebidding One No Trump (I think a One Heart rebid is fine).

  There are a hundred ways to bid these hands to a normal contract like 3NT, or 4NT.

  You have to make a solid effort to find a way to a terrible contract, like 6 Diamonds. For Ellie and me that solid effort was no strain whatsoever, and we breezed into the train-wreck Six Diamond contract with an auction which had essentially nothing to recommend it:

  1C - 1D - 1NT - 4C (?) - 4S - 6D

  I had the temerity, on the day, to suggest that Ellie might have wanted to employ classic point count technique, i.e.:

  1) Use the Milton Work / Chuck Goren 4-3-2-1 Ace-King-Quee-Jack count to establish the Core HPC

  2) Add points for length (five for the fifth card in a suit, two more points for each additional card)

  3) Downgrade or don't downgrade your holdings in your shorter suit, depending on your mood

  4) Add the revised total to Partner's stated range.

  Counting extra for length, you want to have a minimum of 31/32 combined points to even investigate slam, and since you are already inflating your count by adding length, you must then be rigorously disciplined.

  In this case Ellis had 16 in raw high card points, and another three for length.

  You might want to take off a point for the short honors in the other three suits, but you don't have to.

  Add your 19 to partner's 11 to 13 (14) range, and determine:

  30 to 32 points is not enough for slam.

  So, you raise One No Trump to Three.

  Pro Tip: If you want to improve your performance at either matchpoints or IMP's, stop playing in ridiculous slams. Just eliminate those contracts from your scorecard, even if it means missing some good slams as well.

  *****

  The topic of tethering is timely, for this year's Bridge Hall of Fame Inductees have just been announced, and they include these three, in the Open Category:

  Steve Garner, Janice Seamon-Molson, and Justin Lall. Earlier today I posted the requisite congratulations on Bridge Winners, my comments about tethering are especially apt in this context.

  I had never heard the term before, I don't think, but certainly I was familiar with the case of Justin Lall. Justin and I had what felt sike a somewhat cosmic connection - correlations in our birth dates, the fact we were born almost exactly 27 years apart. 

  Certainly it wasn't "from nowhere" when in his twenty-seventh year, seeing him at a bridge club in New York, I urged him not to "Join the 27 Club". 

  For those unfamiliar with that club, it is composed of all the rock stars who died tragically at the age of 27. It's a surprising long list, and includes not only Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, but Jim Morrison as well. And that's just a few of the J's!

  I felt I "had standing" to make the comment to "J-Lall" for we both were aware of our strong bond, and we both recalled that I had visited him in Bellevue after his stunning suicide attempt - one afternoon, around 2011, Justin had taken the 4 Train south from Honors Bridge Club south to the City Hall stop. From there he strolled to the Brooklyn Bridge, walked partway across the East River, and jumped into the icy waters below.

  By an odd miracle of fate (and perhaps because he was a superb athlete, and may have shifted the angle of his feet during his descent), Justin survived the plunge into the river. A police boat hurried to his aid. When I visited him at Bellevue, he was still in an upper-body cast, but otherwise in relatively good spirits, under the circumstances.

  At the time he wasn't very well tethered, that's part of why he jumped.

  Ten years later, living in Texas, having left New York, those closest to him had him get a pet - a small dog, I lelieve. They hoped that would help him stay "tethered", I'm told.

  Probably it did, for awhile, The dog outlived Justin, which is a great loss for all of us. He was an amazing and gifted player, one of the real elite. He was extremely well-liked, and his ethics were of the absolute highest caliber. A star poker player, a champion of the underdog, he was the big brother you would want if you were getting picked on at the playground.

  He died young, somewhere in his thirties. He was a big drinker, I believe his liver gave out. 

  The thought among some of those close to him was simply that he couldn't stay tethered indefinitely, the dog could only do so much for him.

  So today we applaud the ACBL for inducting Justin, and we honor his memory, and I quote Joe Grue's comments on this subject, when I was with him shortly after Justin expired.

  :"Some people say you shouldn't talk smack of the dead," Joe said, "But I disagree. I think it's better to talk smack about someone deceased rather than to say nothing at all - at least that way they're remembered."

  Key Takeaway / Thought for the Day:

  Do all you can to stay tethered. Talk to your friends, visit your duplicate club, daven shakris, attend midnight mass.

  Go to a fetish party, join a theater group, visit your local bridge club, play ukelele at an open mic at your local tavern.

  Whatever floats your boat.

  If you want longevity, and a better quality of life as you go along: Do stuff! Stay tethered!

  And congratulations to 2024 Open Inductees Justin Lall, Janice Seamon-Molson, and Steve Carner, soon to be the newest members of the American Contract Bridge League Hall of Fame.

  - BG / DW

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