What) First contested in 1929, the Goldman pairs is the oldest pairs title in the world and one of the few two day pairs events that can be found at a regional these days.  During it's long history (1), the event has been won by many of the big names in bridge history and the top players today always list a win in the Goldman on their bridge resume. If you want to experience the best that New York bridge has to offer then this is the place to do it.

    Where) Park Central Hotel (870 7th Avenue at West 55th Street) Starts on Saturday at 1pm and 6:30pm.  If you qualify then it continues on Sunday at 11am and 4pm.

    Why) Pam wanted to experience the best that New York bridge has to offer but the ~ $300 nightly fee for parking and a hotel room did not seem worth it to either of us.  After I found out the decent yet inexpensive Best Western Jamaica Inn in Queens was right next to the subway, all this changed and we decided to play three days in New York and test our skills. 

    As usual you can either right click here to save this file and play the hands (if you have a program that allows you to load and play .PBN files) without seeing any of my commentary or you can scroll down and see what I had to say about the hands.  It is probably more interesting to scroll down but I always like to offer my partner a choice.  If you are curious to see how Pam and I made out, then you can click here to see the tournament schedule and the games we played and here to see if we placed in anything.

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    Friday) We decided to play in todays two session open pairs as a warmup for the Goldman Pairs tomorrow but things have not been going well.  In the first session, the new (for us) across the field scoring meant that only one pair (at 56%) in our section managed to break 50% while 5 of the 10 pairs were below our score of 43.79%.  Our second session is running slightly above 50% but that is not going to be enough to get us any points.  In addition, the energy in the room is strongly negative and the married couple we are sitting against for the last board of the last round is quite agitated.  Take a look at the hand our opponent was holding and see if you can guess what bid she made.

    Friday) She made a very unusual negative double and thanks to a quirk in our bidding system I was able to find the perfect lead.  According to Jack, the opponents should still be able to make 2H but when the defense starts out with Ace of Spades, 3 of spades - rough, 7 of clubs - ?, you have to be thinking clearly to do that.

    

          1) 10-15 HCP, at least 4 spades, 0-3 hearts,
               could have a longer minor
          2) rescue, 0-8 HCP, should be short in spades

   

    Friday Result) To the "delight" of his partner, declarer went down 2 for -100 which gave us a near maximum 25 of 26 matchpoints but left us at 51% and out of the money again.  There is no real reason to make this the hand of the day other than to congratulate Pam on the quality of her play this night under very tough mental conditions.  Congratulations partner.  Do you remember when a result like this would have been impossible for you?

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    Saturday #1) It's the first round of the Goldman Pairs and we are getting blown out.  When we finally make it to round 7 of 9 our score is bad but we are playing against Hemant Lall (6 NABC titles) and Reese Milner (2 NABC titles) so I am excited anyway.  On the first hand we play decent defense against a tough 1NT contract and this hand comes up next.  After a normal enough auction, Pam ends up playing 3S in a 9 card spade fit with a 4-0 break.  Take a look at the hands below and see if you can figure out how many she made.

      

          1) 16+ HCP, artificial.
          2) 4+ HCP, 4+ spades, could have a longer minor

   

    Saturday #1 Result) Pam was in 3S making 4 for +170 and 19 of the 26 matchpoints.  Now admittedly, her route to making 4 was made easier when Milner lead the Ace of hearts followed by the Ace of Diamonds.  To her credit, Pam spent some time thinking about the hand and managed to work out the fact that Lall was false carding (he dropped the club queen on the second round) and make the right plays.  I was impressed and Lall gave Pam a sincere compliment after the hand was over.  Milner saved his compliment for the next hand.  After stopping in 4S on a hand that is close to making 6, Milner made a complicated claim at trick 1 for 11 tricks.  As it turns out, even though 11 tricks is the maximum, 12 tricks was available to about half the field.  Now at the time I thought that Milner was just giving Pam and I some respect because of the previous two boards but perhaps he claimed that way because he was on his way to a 38% and they were the only other pair in Section O besides us to score less than 40%.

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    Saturday #2) Now that our 38% ended the pressure of trying to qualify for the second day of the Goldman Pairs, we are back to playing at our usual 50% standard of bridge during the second session.  This hand came up about 1/3 of the way through that round.  Now, I have read the reports on a number of appeals about unauthorized information during the bidding.  The appealing player always tries to argue that a reasonable person would have made exactly the same choice they made even if they did not have that information.  In the hand below, I was the person making the "reasonable" choice.  Your job is to analyze the hand and see what your unbiased choice would be.

1) 11-14 HCP, balanced, 5 card major possible      2) majors
3) 11+ HCP, asking for a heart stopper
4) yes, stopper may be as bad as Qxx or Jxxx

    What happened) I decided to pull to 4C and I got to play it undoubled.  After play was complete, the director was called because during the auction Pam alerted my 3C bid as showing 11+ HCP and a 5+ card heart suit.  This meant that in her mind 3D is showing heart support, a maximum hand and is forcing to game.  Given this information, the director ruled that passing 3NT doubled was a logical alternative with my hand so the final contract was changed to 3NT doubled down 2 for -300.

    

    1) 11-14 HCP, balanced, 5 card major possible    
    2) majors
    3) 11+ HCP, asking for a heart stopper
    4) yes, stopper may be as bad as Qxx or Jxxx

    Saturday #2 Result) Minus 300 was worth 4 of 26 matchpoints and 4C making 4 for +130 would have been worth 21 matchpoints.  Did you think my 4C bid was reasonable?  Now that I have had time to think about it, I am inclined to agree with the director's ruling although I have to question Pam's pass of 4C.  (update: I just reread this hand a year later and now I am inclined to disagree with the director's ruling.) If, as seems likely, I explained her 3D bid during the auction then doesn't this unauthorized information prevent her from passing 4C and compel her to bid 4H?

    Saturday Aside) I am starting to think that a rule system as complicated, contentious and unsuited to actual human psychology as the bridge rules regarding unauthorized information needs to be changed to something more workable.  I know that screens mostly eliminate this problem but I don't enjoy that solution for social reasons.  Surely there must be something better.

    We ended up finishing the second session with a respectable 47% (7th out of 11 pairs) but it was not even close to enough to make the second day.  If you would like to see Sunday's final results from the Goldman Pairs then click here.

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