Sunday) Welcome to Montréal for the Canadian Team Championships in the B section.  You may not be aware of this (because it is kind of hidden on this website) but I played on a team in the same event last year in Regina and finished second. This year, the team has been upgraded with two new members but we are playing in Quebec so all of our opponents are different. I am reasonably confident that we should still be good enough to finish in the top 4 and make the playoffs after the 12 match round robin but I don't have much to base that opinion on.  Read on and see how we make out.

    It's the fourth match on the first day of the round robin and this is board 9 of 12.  By now, you have realized that West is a bit of a nutter.  In fact, just two boards earlier he opened 4S vulnerable in 3rd seat with 15 HCP and 6 spades KQJ.  This time, he has opened 4S in first seat at favorable vulnerability.  Everyone has passed to you and you can tell by your hand that he does not have his bid.  What are you going to do about that?

    What Happened) South chose double here thinking it was for penalty.  He was quite surprised when his partner pulled to 5C but I wasn't.  You see, two hands previous when I got doubled in 4S and made it, I learned that North thought a double of 4S was takeout while his partner thought it was for penalty.  The opponents never discussed their misunderstanding and thanks to the fact that we were playing with screens, I was the only one that knew this.  This insider knowledge gave me the freedom to open 4S on the junk I had here. Obviously, after the dummy came down with the rest of the spade honors, North and South discussed their card but it was too late.

   
    Monday) If you have ever played an unusual system like ours, then you know that certain hands just suit that system and it is really hard not to end up in a good contract.  The hand below is like that.  Take a look at the problem from the perspective that the opponent sitting in my seat had while playing Standard.

    Tuesday) Things are going well.  We have reached the last match of the round robin and we are currently sitting in fourth spot.  We can guarantee our spot in the playoffs if we win this match against the current third place team by any amount and we will still probably make the playoffs if we lose the match by only a small amount.  You wouldn't think that would be a problem for us as we have only lost two matches out of eleven so far.

    This is the third board of the match.  Take a look at the hand below and tell me what the normal bid would be in Standard American.  I play so much weirdo precision that I am not sure if the call the opponents made was normal or not.

1) 11-15 HCP, 0-3 spades, at least 5 diamonds

    What happened) Did you choose to make a negative double?  The opponent on my right made one without much thought and North had one of the easiest penalty passes in bridge history.  Take a look at all the hands.  Would you open 1H or 1D with the North hand?  Do you think I have a normal 2D overcall or is pass more appropriate?  Can you imagine the feeling of shock I got when the dummy's Ace of clubs got roughed on trick 1?

          1) 11-15 HCP, 0-3 spades, at least 5 diamonds

   

    Tuesday Result) When the dust finally settled, I had misplayed the contract by 1 trick and gone down 5 for -1400.  At the other table, our partners had a bidding misunderstanding and ended up in 5H* - 2 for -500 giving us a loss of 18 IMPS on that one hand.

    Wednesday) Welcome to the semifinals.  Today's knockout match consists of 64 boards played in 4 quarters of 16 boards each.  After we won the first quarter by 11 IMPs, this board came up at the start of the second quarter. North has taken a view on this hand and has placed his partner in a very tight slam.  I am not surprised at this though as the previous 17 boards have suggested to me that South may be the best declarer in the B section.  Take a look at the hands below.  Are you good enough to make this contract?

    

    1) Game forcing, artificial
    2) 4 keycards in hearts

    What Happened) From my perspective, South took a beautiful line of play that ended with him making 6.  Personally, beauty like this is the real reason that I enjoy playing bridge.  It didn't matter to me that the opponents were almost certainly going to win IMPs on the hand. 

    Wednesday Result) Our partners played in 4H making 4 so we lost 13 IMPs on the hand and went on to lose the quarter by a score of 45 - 46.  We weren't really worried though.  As you may have noticed, we have been losing 1 match a day so once we got our loss out of the way we knew that we would win the rest and make it through to the finals.

    Thursday) Welcome to the Final.  Today's knockout match consists of 72 boards played in 4 quarters of 18 boards each. You join the match at board 15 towards the end of a very swingy first quarter.  You are in first seat vulnerable and open an average looking 13 HCP, 1NT.  The auction eventually gets out of hand and you end up on lead.  What is your choice here?

    What Happened)  Pam went with the Jack of spades and we played perfect defense on our way to setting the contract by 4 tricks for +800.  If you can follow the hand diagram below then you can see my best guess as to what happened.  As I discussed on the previous hand, our defense here is one of those beautiful things that keep me coming back to bridge.

    Thursday Result) At the other table, our partners let the opponents play in 1NT which made 1 for -90 giving us a win of 12 IMPs.  At the end of the first quarter we were up by a score of 61 - 43 and we never gave up that lead.  By the middle of the fourth quarter, the opponents were down 34 with 9 boards to go and started bidding and making every crazy contract but it wasn't quite enough for them as they lost by one wonderful IMP and we were the Canadian Champions !!

    What Happened) You can see the actual scores for the final of the CNTC B below (the results of the second quarter got reversed on the internet and the results got changed the next day to show that we lost but the final score was never shown correctly).  With 66 of 72 boards complete we were winning by a score of 149 - 137. We lost the last 6 boards by a score of 1 - 37 and there were three swing boards that made up 30 of that.  Below you can see what happened (as impartially as I can reconstruct it three months later) and afterwards I will tell you how I felt about it then and how I feel about it now.

    Thursday Disaster #1) My partner Larry claims that he hears a little zing in his head when the auction goes Pass, Pass to him and he looks down to see a weak hand.  Our joke is that the weaker the hand you have in 3rd seat, the greater the necessity for you to make a pre-emptive bid to keep the opponents out of their sure game and probable slam.  In the hand you see below, the vulnerability is not in your favor but you do have a shapely hand.  What bid do you think I should make here?

    What Happened) I decided to try the Jack of clubs but I knew that was going to be a disaster as soon as I saw the dummy.

    Thursday Disaster #1 Result) As you can see, 3NT is unsettable on any lead providing that the declarer decides to finesse for the Jack of spades.  In real life, 3NT is a tough contract to make if I decide on the heart lead.  At the other table, our partners were in 3NT going down 1 so we lost 11 IMPs on that board.  Now that you have all the facts I can recall, who do you think deserves the blame for this one?

    Thursday Disaster #2) There are now three boards to go and the score is actually 148 - 155 although I don't know that of course.  This time we are vulnerable and we have the bidding to ourselves but in the crazy system we are using, I have a tough choice to make.  Take a look at my hand and your options and see what you would choose.

1) 9-14 HCP, 0-3 Hearts, 4+ Spades, unbalanced hand, longer minor suit possible

          1) 9-14 HCP, 0-3 H's, 4+ S's, longer minor suit possible
          2) 0-10 HCP, at least 5 hearts

    Thursday Disaster #2 Result) I was in 2H making 3 for +140 but everything split normally so the opponents made 4NT giving us a loss of 10 IMPs on the hand.  Now that you have all the facts I can recall, who do you think deserves the blame for this one?

    Thursday Disaster #3) It is one hand later and I have picked up a good hand that has me thinking about a possible slam after Pam opens the bidding 1NT.  You transfer to spades and once again you get to pick from some unusual options thanks to our crazy system.

1) 11-14 HCP, balanced hand

    What Happened) I took a pessimistic view of the hand and decided to investigate slam only if Pam had spade support.  I did not like the prospects of Pam making a no fit 6NT on 30 or 31 HCP.

    Technical aside) Personally, I might have upgraded with Pam's hand and opened 1D (15-18 HCP, balanced hand) but her 1NT bid is technically correct.  I have now decided that my spot cards (especially the spades) are so good that it makes up for the no fit and means I really should have made some sort of slam try.

        
          1) 11-14 HCP, balanced

    Thursday Disaster #3 Result) Pam was in 3NT making 7 for +520 but the opponents got to 6NT so we lost 9 IMPs on this one.  Now that you have all the facts I can recall, who do you think deserves the blame for this one?

    Final analysis) We did not actually play the boards in numerical order.  At our table, the only board that looked like a sure loss was the missed slam you saw above and we clearly made that back on subsequent hands so although I wasn't happy with our card when we went back to compare, I didn't know that the match was lost.  My suspicion is that our N/S opponents started at a different place in the board rotation and in the first few boards they went down in two pushy slams and then had to make it up by bidding every single game that they could.  That is just a theory.

    Anyway (I was then and still am now) satisfied with the bridge that I played over the week and during the final set of 18 boards that decided the winner.  Our opponents played well in beating us and were deserving champions.

    Friday) Okay, the pressure is off.  After days of increasingly tense bridge, Pam and I have entered the first qualifying session of the Canadian Open Pairs and we are playing for fun.  Our opponents in the last round don't know that though and probably assume that they are sitting down against Jason the pro playing with Pam the client.  On the last board of that round, the auction gets exciting.  Take a look at your 3 HCP and choose a bid. 

1) Artificial, 14+ HCP, unbalanced hand
2) 0-6 HCP, denies 4 hearts, at least 5 diamonds

    What Happened) South went with Pass. When we were playing in Toronto, someone we had just met described the South player as "one of the best in Ontario."  I don't know if that is a true assessment and I don't know what sort of agreements and style of bidding he and his partner have but I do know that I would be nervous about passing here because Pam the "client" has just redoubled the contract.

        
          1) Artificial, 14+ HCP, unbalanced hand
          2) 0-6 HCP, denies 4 hearts, at least 5 diamonds
          3) I decided not to alert the opponents that I had
              never ever seen Pam make a business redouble.

      
    Friday Result) 5D** made 5 for +800 and 24.5 of the 25 matchpoints.  I was quite surprised that we did not get a cold top for this result so I went and checked the scores in the other section to see who tied our score.  The only other N/S pair to match our score was Rupa Krishnan and Dow Cooney (the auction was identical) who up until today had been our partners for the entire week. 

    Thanks ladies. Pam and I had a very enjoyable tournament and your good play all week was a big part of that.

    Below you can see my Bridge Bingo card from Montréal as well as the designated winner (a / denotes a tie) for each line. In 12 games so far neither one of us has got a blackout bingo.