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 #288/8/2024 Springfield, Il, April 10, 2024 I rose early in our American Midwest to put down some thoughts for today's column. It is a stabilizing factor in my unstable life, writing these blogs. Half past six, already there is traffic noise outside on West Edwards Street. The state capitol, with its towering dome, is only a couple blocks away. Discovery House is even closer - perhaps I’ll post myself near the 7 AM Meeting with friends of Bill, across the street. Like writing this blog, the fellowship I find in the company of those recovering addicts buoys me, keeps me near the surface of the sea. I’m not a recovering alcoholic, but I’ve been drinking way less - down from “Not very much at all” to almost nothing. Not that you asked, but I intend for these blogs to have elements of a diary - personal thoughts, recorded for the writer’s benefit, partly to aid his recollection. The life of a bridge pro can be lonely and isolating. I need to do all, write the blog, attend the Meetings, and do all I can to stay connected. You know what they say - It’s a dog eat dog world out there…. ***** Let's look at some bridge deals, here are some from my recent regional in Florida.  As opener, Walter held a balanced 17 point hand: Ax, Axx, AQTx, K762. I may have written elsewhere on the importance of using the 14 to 16 range for the non-vulnerable no trump range, as opposed to 15 to 17. Certainly I’ll confront that issue in time. For now, I just want to mention that it was in that very same Coral Springs Conference Center, back in 2018, when Chris Compton made me aware of the importance of this range one point or half-point reduction in the strength required for a not vulnerable no trump opening, down to 14 to 16 Not Vulnerable, in first through third seats. "It's really important to play 14 to 16 not vulnerable in the first three positions, instead of 15 to 17," Compton told me then, "It's a big improvement." Chris spoke with such conviction that I took his advice to heart, and I immediately lowered my not vulnerable no trump range. That simple change has led to a substantial improvement in my scores on deals where this change has an impact - deals where we either open One No Trump and wouldn’t have before the change, or don’t open One No Trump and would have previously (like Board 2 here). That’s not even counting the multiple collateral benefits. After Walter’s One Diamond opening, the next player, with 5-5 in the majors (KJTxx, KTxxx, K, xx) chose to overcall One Spade. Most would bid Michaels, but this guy bid a spade. Just the Facts: Sergeant Joe Friday in Dragnet Swing around to my seat - I had a rather typical hand for this situation, 5-3-3-2 with 8 points: Specifically, Q9xxx, Qxx, Jx, QJT. I'm going to zip across the street, I'll return and complete this entry. ***** Back. I'd like to see our bridge world provide a lot more of this type of group support - that's not really what we do, but perhaps we should. I’d welcome a grass-roots movement to create a similar group to meet at bridge tournaments. Defeating addiction is a good theme, but so is “wanting to be better at bridge” - the theme is less important, in my view, than the act of gathering in a group for ritual prayer or similar. Back to the bridge deal: In present tense, I hold Q97xx, Qxx, Jx, QJT: The bidding to me: 1D - (1S) - ? I’m guessing the field will bid One No Trump with this hand. It turns out that RHO had 5-5 in the majors, a hand that most will Michaels with, so I’m in a spot that won’t be duplicated often. But even before the bidding gets to my RHO, our adjustment of our NV NT range has had its impact - Walter has 17 (HCP), and most will open One No with that. At tables where the auction begins with a One Club or One Diamond opening from East, most Souths will bid Michaels rather than One Spade. A few will bid One Heart or pass - factor all that together and there may have been only a few other tables in the entire event where the bidding began as it did at my table (1C - (1S) - ?) Thought for the Day: On most bidding problems at matchpoints, it's not you against the other players who hold your cards and face the same sequence: It's you against the mountain. You against par. Rookie Error to Avoid: Don't assume that players with your cards at other tables will face the same problems. They won't. Leaving my specific hand out of it, in your favorite partnership, what does 1NT show after 1C (1S) - ?. Basic Intermediate textbooks, if they still exist, may have taught that this bid shows 7 to 10, even 6 to 10, with a spade stopper. Pioneering theorist Al Roth took a much different view - he considered this a “Free Bid” and had very high requirements for it. More like 9 to 11, and always a double spade stopper. So to me, there are two things wrong with the 1NT bid with this hand: 1) Our hand isn’t good enough 2) We have too many spades (I almost never bid 1NT with a five card holding in their suit. For the sake of this exercise, I'll imagine that I board my ten-speed bike and head up to Bridge World Headquarters (and Edgar's home) on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Obviously this is an imaginary conversation, since: A) Kaplan has been deceased since 1997, and B) in the late 1980's, when I'm setting this imaginary incident: It was quite unlikely that I'd be out on my bike in the morning hours, and if I was, I’d be unlikely to be visiting Edgar. Let’s imagine that I come up upon Edgar in front of his brownstone on West 94th Street, watering the sidewalk. I never saw Edgar water his own sidewalk, but we can pretend. I wheel my bike over to his curb, and greet him, then ask: “Say Edgar, I wanted to ask you, What are the requirements for a free No Trump response after partner opens and RHO overcalls?” “Your subtext deals with ‘Free Bids’”, he says. “‘Free Bird?’” I echo. “Don’t tell me your a Lynyrd Skynrd fan!” Naturally my reference is lost on him but he plows ahead.
“A One Spade bid by responder after a One Heart overcall shouldn't promise a huge hand - it’s a playable method, but inferior. Better to just let responder bid One Spade if he feels like it. I was wrong about this in the first K-S book, and Al was wrong about it when he presented "The Roth Stone System of Bidding". “Personal Growth Opportunity,” I remark. Kaplan continues: But I haven’t changed my thinking about a free One No Trump bid, like after 1D by partner, One Spade by RHO - Al was right about that. I thought so then (in the 1950’s when Al’s book was published), and I think so now. Typically 9 or 10 HCP, even 11, and always a double stopper in the opponent's suit, spades in this case. “That's a lot of hand to require - that’s just not how people play nowadays. Yesterday I played against a guy who had Kxx, Qxx, Qxxxx, xx, his partner opened a club, I overcalled a spade, he bid a vulnerable One No Trump with that hand, seven high and a single spade stopper. EK: How did it work out for him? BG: He went minus 200, we would probably have gone down in Two Diamonds if he passed. EK: So there you go. ****** Echoes of that imaginary conversation were reverberating in my mind when I faced this problem in Florida last week. “I could bid 1NT, sure,” I thought, “But why should I?” Reasons to Bid: It's fun to bid / We might have a game / I do have 8 HCP and it might be hard to catch up later if I don't act now. Reasons Not to Bid: I don't have much hand - no length in other suits, only a poor 8 HCP, at most 1 1/4 spade stoppers and I have to count the nine. Best Reason not to bid: I have five of their suit!." If I bid 1NT, partner would raise to two, or more likely three, no trump, and RHO would be done bidding. After I passed, partner re-opened with a double. I didn't have to decide whether or not to pass for penalties (I might bid 1NT on the second round instead), for RHO continued with 2H. I doubled 2H. My reasoning ran: Partner doubled One Spade for take-out - he's supposed to have solid opening bid values for this re-opening, and also at least three, frequently four, card length in hearts. Quick Conclusion: We have more than half the points, and at least six, possibly seven hearts. So I have an easy double. I doubled - they stayed there - I led the queen of clubs, though a trump lead, or even the jack of diamonds, would also have been fine. They floated down 800, against our possible 120 or 150, or even 400 or 430. Even down 500 would have been close to a top for us. Pro Tip: When they overcall in your five card suit, try this countermeasure: Pass!
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Diary of a Bridge Pro #278/8/2024 Springfield, April 8, 2024 6:58 AM, the weather is mild this morning here in Springfield, the temperature in the low fifties (Fahrenheit). I get it in my head that I should attend the 7 AM Friends of Bill gathering at the Discovery Center, across Edwards Street from my house, so I zip across the street for the fellowship and uplift available from the group, and from the reading of the daily statement and serenity prayer. Five years ago when I first visited this midwestern burg there was still a duplicate club here. Attendance was down to four or five tables in each of just a few sessions each week - maybe one evening game, the others in the afternoon. Covid restrictions marked the end for that club, and the end of regularly scheduled open duplicate bridge games in Springfield - I’ll speculate that they’d been conducted for close to 50 years, but attendance had probably been in steady decline since the nineties. From my one visit to the club, I recall it as not an especially happy place. Internal rivalries, petty resentments, processed orange cheese on Ritz crackers - you know the scene. Lots of unresolved anger in the air. . ***** Back in 2024, I’ve spent the morning working on securing players for a match in the Internet KO / Reynolds Team. I recruited a perky seventy year old former dance studio operator turned country club bridge coach to join us for some matches. This morning I also wrote some new instructional material - around eight hundred words for a piece titled: Do You or Don't You? (Open the Bidding)? I spent the balance of the morning being this new guy - the one with the bridge agency - the one triggered by a pair of events in Springfield - really a trio of events. I stopped playing in these internet KO’s around two years ago - just too hard to herd enough cats to have four for every match. But I’m resuming the practice. I'm puttin' the band back together.... That’s super important to me, what drives me here - the notion that I am part of a group, that we’re all doing this together.
***** This afternoon, I called long-time client Walter in Florida - he gave me his take on the blog and the website: He thinks it sometimes skews "cutesy". Walter is a Wall Street Guy, and what used to be called "a straight arrow". Performance art, conceptual art - not his long suit. Here’s a reconstruction of our exchange: "All this stuff about the Flying Wallendas," he griped, "Is that really necessary?" "Look, Walter, it's a character," I explained, "This Denis Wilsonovich is a character I created, from a bridge-playing family in Russia." "I get to meet this character?" "Of course, I would love for you to meet this character." "He has an accent?" Walter persisted. I sensed this was a trap question on some level, but it’s been ten years since I invented this cat, so I was unfazed by Walter’s wariness. "He has accent," I assured him. "Naturally he has accent, he is Russian guy. This is bad for you, he has accent? He talks like cross between Lev and Irina Levitina, why you ask me this?" "Why would I want to play with this guy?" "He is much more fun, and ten percent cheaper than Glubok. Plus you score much higher!" For once Walter had no counter. Game, set, match. Just one thing I didn't tell him, I guess I'll tell him right here: "You forget to give Wilsonovich ruff like you did last week in Florida, he will yell very hard on you!" - DW
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Diary of a Bridge Pro #268/8/2024 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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Diary of a Bridge Pro #258/8/2024 Springfield, April 7, 2024 I’ve been back a few days from the regional in Florida, today's the last day of play there. Most pros insist on being booked for a full week in order to travel to a tournament. I take a different approach. Many of my clients want to play only for a day or two - three, max. In Coral Springs I played only two days. Those two days featured almost 100 hands of tournament bridge, some of which you'll read about here. ***** Opening leads will likely prove to be an ongoing subject of conversation in these columns. We’ve already discussed this one:: Q, KJxxxx, Axx, T8x - 2H (Double) - P - (2S) - P - 4S - I found the club lead, we found the club ruff - tons at stake on that lead, any other lead and they get a near-top for +420. I’m familiar with the Bird - Anthias simulation books on the subject of opening leads, so I considered the club lead automatic - thanks, guys! ***** Consider Board 15 from this Set, the very first session at the 2024 Southeastern States Regional. Another opening lead problem.  You hold Jxxx, 9x, KQJxxx, A - In third position, you open One Diamond, and the bidding continues, with the two initial passes included: P - (P) - 1D - (Double) - P - (1H) - P - (3H) - P - (4H) -
***** Tuesday night Walter and I had dinner at the "go-to" restaurant in the shopping mall which adjoins the hotel complex. It’s called “The Latin Place”, favored by staff at the hotel and guests seeking a bite at a mid-range restaurant, convenient and unpretentious. Back at the hotel, touring pros Dan Korbel and Chris Compton were chatting by the front desk. The protocols among pros and players in these situations are established by custom. I judged from their body language that their conversation wasn't too personal. Chris had driven to the beach (he’d invited me along, a couple of hours previous) and it’s a pretty safe bet, though not a full-on lead-pipe cinch, that Dan had had dinner with his teammates - I think I saw them all leave together around the type Chris left for the sunny sand of Fort Lauderdale. I joined the pair of them and Inevitably Chris and Dan were engaged in some shoptalk. This day that shoptalk concerned the high cost of hiring hotel workers, often unionized, for audio/video support. If the tournament committee wants to hire local vendors, Chris explained, sometimes hotels insist on approving the specific workers or firm. This triggered a series of thoughts for me, so I jumped right in: "You're going to get stuck hearing a Harry Goldwater story now," I warned them. ***** Louisville ended eight days previous, and in between the spring San Diego regional had been conducted. I was conscious that these Florida and San Diego regionals seem connected to me, because around 2018 Chris and I had teamed up for both: As partners, on a Mahaffey Team in Florida, then as teammates, with our respective clients Steve and Walter, in San Diego one day later. This year Chris and Dan were the only two players at the tournament to attend all three congresses: 10 to 12 days at the Louisville nationals, a week in San Diego, now here in Florida, beginning play around 15 hours after finishing the Swiss in SoCal. Those two are a pair of serious Road Warriors, right? After I played in 2018 in those two consecutive regionals with Chris (back then there were held later in April), I got it in my head that I should sponsor a three week program, for players who wanted to compete not only in Florida and San Diego, but also in the ginormous regional held every year in Tennessee. I even came up with a slogan: "Take the Compton Challenge:" 1st Week: Southeastern States, Miami 2nd Week: Southern California Regional, San Diego 3rd Week: Annual April Regional, Gatlinburg, TN ***** The tournament calendar is different now, perhaps we’ll have to go with something like this: Take the Korbel-Compton Challenge First Week: Spring Nationals Second Week: San Diego Regional Third Week: South Florida Regional, Southeastern States Fourth Week: Laundry Week - Go home, visit Cuba, or stay in south Florida and play duplicate. Your call. Fifth Week: Gatlinburg Bridge Jamboree ***** I’ll open Blog #26 with the Harry Goldwater story, and end this one with a declarer play problem, based on Board 15, which we cited above. ***** Let's conclude this column with a play problem: How would you declare 4H on these cards? Tx, Qxxx, A9x, Qxxx opposite AKQx, AJxx, Tx, KTx - LHO opens One Diamond and against Four Hearts he leads the Ace of Clubs and shifts to the King of Diamonds at Trick Two. There is a winning play - I didn't find it - the defense erred as well (lucky for me). The winning play is to win the ace of diamonds - ducking the first round of diamonds may be best, so RHO can’t be reached for the club ruff with the hypothetical diamond jack - and after winning the diamond Ace, play Ace of Hearts, Jack of Hearts. With this line of play, the opening leader is out of trumps by the time his partner wins the king of hearts. With this line of play, rather than the simple trump finesse, there’s no club ruff for the defense when RHO wins the king of hearts, at that point the opening leader will be out of trump - he only started with two.
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Diary of a Bridge Pro #248/8/2024 Whole lotta convergence going on - Elvis in Hawaii: Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On: Amazing days, one after another. Let me try to share my sense of wonder at events with you. I find myself reminded of Johann von Goethe, the noted elite thinker / polymath, prominent in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. Recent events remind me of a Goethe quote I had printed on a business card for quite some time: "Beginnings have a magic to them. Begin something!" ***** Goethe wrote in the late 1700’s and into the early 1800’s. I definitely love what he had to say about beginnings! ***** They call Goethe a polymath - I had to look that up, maybe you’re not familiar with that word either: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polymath A person of encyclopedic learning - what a fine thing to be! Or, if it sounds like too much work to become that learned: What a fine thing to be known as! ***** Morning in this small midwestern city - a day of short group meetings. Very early, I caught some of the gathering of Friends of Bill across the street from my place. Later this morning I got a few minutes uplift at the morning shabbos prayer at the synagogue across the street from the cafe where I'm typing this for you, I interpret that as something of a “trigger” - I've resolved to be more receptive to signs and "triggers" in life - let's hear from Chris Hynde of The Pretenders. ***** The Pretenders, Hey-Ho, Ohio: I intended to embed that great Pretenders song and then in looking for the lyrics I learned: That song was originally the B-side(!) of an even bigger hit for the band, "Back on the Chain Gang". In the last several columns I’ve relied upon "Putting the band back together" (think Jake and Elwood) as an ongoing theme. I think of Chryssie Hynde in that context, for while management and many fans wanted her to be simply supported by anonymous musicians, she insisted instead that she wanted to be “part of a band”. Some of us crave a tribe or similar to belong to, I guess that’s what I’m getting at here. Original lyrics plus video clip:. https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/16535/ I’ve been taking it for granted that readers will know what a “B-side” is. And on the “Diary” front, there’s great live music playing as I write this to you, Rich himself on guitar at Stella's cafe this morning. ***** Chain Gang, Official Video: I'm inspired by Chryssie's music to the point of thinking: "I ought to write at more length on the theme of belonging." ***** Her music inspires me deeply, like that of several other female singer-songwriters among her contemporaries - Joni Mitchell, Carole King. Regardless, let's hear from Chryssie again: Lyrics, video clip, Don't Get Me Wrong https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pretenders/dontgetmewrong.html YouTube Video Clip of Don't Get Me Wrong Thought for the Day: Cross the Diamond with the Pearl
Closing Thought: I notice there was no bridge hand in this blog - I’ll put double in a future column, to compensate!
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Diary of a Bridge Pro #238/8/2024 A typical 80-something degree day in South Florida - light breeze - ideal golf weather. Good bridge weather too. Walter's just arrived here at the site, he and I are discussing Board 13 from yesterday.  Walter and I had a pair of balanced hands, 21 HCP opposite 9 HCP - AK, AK8x, AQJx, xxx opposite Jxxx, T9xx, xx, AKJ.
Recommended WBS Sequence: 2C - 2D - 2NT - 3NT Commentary: First, evaluation - the contemporary credo of bridge pros in this spot, emanating from what we’ll call the “Las Vegas School”, is: “Upgrade often, never downgrade.” Should we upgrade Opener’s 21 HCP to 22 or more? I consider it a toss-up. The case for:
Against weak defenders, upgrade. Against strong defenders, don’t. To get a second opinion on how to evaluate this hand, earlier this morning I visited (Richard) Pavlicek's site to evaluate the hand. His site is amazing - here's a link: http://www.rpbridge.net/rpca.htm So here’s some more on how I think pairs of hands like this should be bid: With hands in the 21-22/23 point range, do a “raw evaluation” (not much more than counting the unadjusted HCP), then A) Bid as dictated by your method, and also B) In close cases, lean towards i) be more inclined to upgrade against pairs you perceive as weak defenders, and ii) go with the bid that is more likely to lead to “A good auction” for your side. Typically, auctions that start with 2NT are not especially good. So if you play “Good 19 to 21” and want to open this hand with One Diamond: KJxx, Jx, AKJx, KQJ and open this hand 2C: KJTx, Kx, AKJT, KQJ, I think that’s reasonable. Now let’s consider responder’s problem, holding Jxxx, Txxx, xx, AKJ - Opposite an expected 20-21 points, I think it’s reasonable to simply raise 2NT to 3NT. The reasoning is: When our side has 29 or 30 (31) HCP, no trump will usually be as good or better than even an eight-card major suit fit. At matchpoint scoring, we make this determination because with that many HCP, there’s a fair chance that no trump will score the same number of tricks as the suit - 660 will beat 650. At IMP’s we reason: A bad trump split (5-0 or even 4-1) might scuttle our major suit game, but with that many HCP, 3 No Trump should be safe, a sure plus. In both situations, we reason: At this point we don’t know that we have a four - four major suit fit, and the simple act of looking for one has costs attached - both opener and responder will reveal something about their hands, or our artificial Stayman bid or response may be doubled for a lead. So while it’s rare that these costs apply, sometimes they do. it isn’t free, to look for a fit. We caught another overall on our second day playing - back to the Hard Rock Hollywood Casino that night, I’m a recent convert to Omaha poker, I now love playing PLO and the Hard Rock - Seminole is one of the most popular places in the world to do exactly that.
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Diary of a Bridge Pro #227/28/2024 Take the Game, |
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