Diary of a Bridge Pro #36

Springfield, April 17

The weather started off amazing this morning, and my day did too. I arrived at the Discovery
House around a dozen minutes before seven. Approaching the building, I fell into step with a
gorgeous blond midwestern woman, a radiant artist type. In the meetings and around the group,
Dana is always upbeat and encouraging. Today, in those marvelous minutes of the pre-meeting,
she opened up to me about her own extensive trauma, and shared some tips on how she'd
dealt with it.

Yesterday, I spoke a few sentences in Group - rare for me.

I read that script and was enchanted for life with one particular bit of dialogue from that scene:

Dr. Evil: (world-weary): My childhood was typical - summers in Rangoon, luge lessons -
(sighs) -

*****

The outpouring of encouragement I received from other people there has been positive and
transformative for me. I'll take this chance to encourage you to consider attending a meeting if
you're thinking of it - and if not a 'Friends of Bill" meeting, then find your group uplift wherever
you can - churches and temples are a natural place to go, but yoga classes and pickleball
games are good choices too.

Let me put in this Traveling Wilburys song here - I may have used it already but who cares?

Thought for the Day: Find a group and participate - if only as an outsider.
*****

Life is about change, they say - change is the single universal element. Coping with change is
hard for most everyone - first you have to resolve to accept it, then you have to manage it - and,
if you're here on the back nine (golf metaphor for the second half of life, post 35 or 40, say - like
a majority of our writers and readership - then you have to manage that change with less energy
and less societal support then you had yesterday, and a decade ago. And tomorrow you may
have less still!

One change that the entire society has undergone in the past five years: We are much less
engaged with one another. This is the sort of change I would notice, and I certainly have - but
lately I've heard others comment on this, as a voluntary assertion, not brought on by me.

​Let's look at a bridge deal, from my recent trip to South Florida to play in the regional there.

I held QJT8xxx, xx, Void, K97x - My partner Walter opened One Heart - I responded One Spade. I don't hate a 4 Spade response, but it is a bit of an overbid - the hand may be ours for eight or nine tricks in spades, why rush to a minus score: My LHO bid 2D, and partner bid 3C.

Bidding theorists could debate whether that 3C bid is forcing - as a practical matter it probably shouldn't be, for Opener doesn't want to have to pass with a good opening bid like Qx, KQJxx, x, AQTxx - but he doesn't want to force, either. Proponents of a limited opening bid system like Precision with trumpet the merits of that approach, but that isn't the point here, either. Most of us don't play Precision, and limited opening bid systems have its own problems associated with them.

Over Partner's Three Club bid, I simply "put it in Four Spades", making our entire sequence:

1H (P) - 1S - (2D) - 3C - (P) - 4S - (P) - P - (P)

I received the apparently favorable lead of the ace of diamonds, and Walter tabled a very solid
hand: A, AQxxx, KJ, AQJxx - I ruffed the ace of diamonds and considered my line of play (not
necessarily in that order). Clearly I would play the ace of trump at Trick Two. Now I would have
to choose how to come back to my hand to drive out the king of spades. Two ways back:

1) Cash the king of diamonds, throwing a heart, then play ace of hearts, ruff a heart with the
eight of spades, then lead the queen of spades.
2) Come to the king of clubs and lead the queen of spades from hand.

Line One will be wrong (lose a trick to Line 2) when LHO has a singleton heart and the nine of
spades.

Line Two will be wrong when one player has a doubleton king of spades and three small clubs,
, and the other has three small spades and a singleton club - in that variation, crossing to the
king of clubs will expose me to a club ruff.

I reasoned: A singleton club with three small spades is unlikely - if RHO had that he might well
have raised diamonds - therefore, I should be safe crossing to the king of clubs.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that that was a poor play - the risk is real, and the
alternative line - coming to my hand with a heart ruff - is much safer - only wrong when there is a
singleton heart on my left, along with the nine of spades in that hand as well.

So I made a bad play on this hand, exposing myself to a club ruff by coming to my hand in the
wrong suit - I got away with it - LHO won the king of spades and didn't play a second club.

Thought for the Day: No Good Deed goes Unpunished - but sometimes you get away with a
bad play!

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