Grisabel (Grizabella) is the main character of Cats, the unforgettable musical by
Andrew Lloyd Webber. She sings the most recognizable of all songs, Memory, where she
remembers her youth: I was beautiful then, she
laments.
You play 6♥.
Take your time so you don't lament: I should have thought
about it.
Lead is ♦J. How do
you play ?
My partner, BBOer Grisabel
from Umbria made short work of the hand, proving bridge is a very
simple game for a cat.
Just count your tricks: 6 hearts, 2 diamonds, 1 club = 9. You need 3
other tricks. Where can you find them?
Look at the spade spots in dummy. Once the King is out, you have 4
spade tricks available, but you need only 3 spade tricks for 12 tricks.
How do you establish the spades?
Grisabel took the lead with the ♦Ace,
played immediately the ♦King
and discarded the... ♠Ace
She then ran the ♠Queen, discarding a club, taken by LHO.
Claim!‼ No lament.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Imagination is more important than knowledge
"Imagination is more
important than knowledge," said Einstein.
This hand occurred on BBO in a JEC match last week. You have:
And see (not hear!) partner open... 1♣.
You play Walsh, so you know partner has 5 clubs and 4 spades (in some rare instances, partner could have 44). How convenient! You envision a club slam.
Do you jump to KCB? No. Control your emotions. Take your time.
You play XYZ where 2♦ is GF. Here it coincides with 4th suit forcing, more classical.
You know (almost) everything about partner's distribution: 4 spades, at most 1 heart, at least 3 diamonds and at least 5 clubs. Partner cannot have 4144, he would have opened 1♦.
Now, if you want to play a slam in clubs, you have to set trumps. So you have to bid 4♣.
But wait!
You have to ask yourself: who should ask for keycards? Partner, or you? This is very important. Who will benefit more from asking? Who can extract the maximum information from KCB? You know you have the KQ of trumps, so that Q is not critical anymore.
Here, if your partner goes KCB, he will know about your Aces and King and Queen of trumps, he will be able to ask if you have the K of heart, but not the spade Queen, which could be the most precious card in your hand if he has AK. The spade Q is maybe the 13th trick. Unless you play exotic asking bids, which happen at very high level. You have discussed sometimes about those rare birds, but never seriously sat down to establish a FIRM understanding of that machinery.
So you say to yourself: I have to ask for keycards. But wait ‼
If you go 4NT, will partner know you are asking with clubs as trumps? No. Hum…! What now?
The more you think, the less you know how to go about this business.
How can I set trumps and not let partner ask for keycards? You have to go KCB yourself, before he does.
Think again.
What do you want to know? You want to know if partner has the Ace of clubs and AK of spades. That would make 12 tricks with a spade ruff if necessary. But if partner has the K of diamonds, that would make 13. Do you see the light dawning a bit in your brains?
Imagination is more important than knowledge chimes into your head, and you see Einstein sticking his tongue out, laughing at you.
In your twisted mind, so much that you can feel your head spinning a bit, you formulate what appears to be a heresy: if I go KCB for diamonds, what will happen? You never tried to set a false trump suit to gain critical information from your partner? Well, you are missing the thrill of your life. Obviously, partner has to have confidence in you when you will drive him to a grand in a suit he never knew you had a fit.
So here goes: if you go KCB, partner will think diamonds are trumps (agreed trump suit or last suit bid) and he will answer.
With Kickback KCB, the suit above our trump suit at the 4 level is KCB. So you have the same space as 4NT with spades as trump.
But wait, you say. This 4♥ bid cannot be to play? No. In XYZ, responder with long hearts and goodish hand could jump to 4♥ to play over 1♠. And he would jump to 3♥ over 1♠ to show solid hearts and slam interest. And if he has long broken hearts with GF, he would bid 3♥ over 3♦.
4NT says 03 (I know, I know, partner could have KJxx Q KQx Jxxxx and bid the same. Aren't you a party pooper?). So partner rates to have the 2 black Aces and… the K of trumps (!), diamonds. Your mind is racing. Calm down.
The beauty of Kickback‼
Partner hesitates over 7♣. You don't move, don't breathe, don't flinch, poker face, poker everything. Partner finally passes. Phew!
I did that a few times in my bridge career, setting a false trump suit. One of my partners "corrected" 2 times (going down each time) before finally passing the 3rd time. She is still my most precious and adored partner :-)
Let's see now the rest of Einstein's quotation:
For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
Bridge sometimes invites us to travel to another dimension. You can say Yes or you can say No.
If you say No, because you feel it is too complicated, demanding, tiring, stressing, if you don't want to wander out of your comfort zone, fine, it's your life. You will make 6 clubs with an overtrick and saw that others were in 7, making. You will console yourself by saying At least we bid six.
But if you say Yes more often, if you take a risk, a calculated risk, if you embark courageously on an unfamiliar journey, like Theseus, so unfamiliar that you can sense your nerves shaking, and you reach safely the destination you had envisioned, you will feel so much more alive.
But you need a wife/partner who is on the same wavelength as you :-)
This hand occurred on BBO in a JEC match last week. You have:
And see (not hear!) partner open... 1♣.
You play Walsh, so you know partner has 5 clubs and 4 spades (in some rare instances, partner could have 44). How convenient! You envision a club slam.
Do you jump to KCB? No. Control your emotions. Take your time.
You play XYZ where 2♦ is GF. Here it coincides with 4th suit forcing, more classical.
You know (almost) everything about partner's distribution: 4 spades, at most 1 heart, at least 3 diamonds and at least 5 clubs. Partner cannot have 4144, he would have opened 1♦.
Now, if you want to play a slam in clubs, you have to set trumps. So you have to bid 4♣.
But wait!
You have to ask yourself: who should ask for keycards? Partner, or you? This is very important. Who will benefit more from asking? Who can extract the maximum information from KCB? You know you have the KQ of trumps, so that Q is not critical anymore.
Here, if your partner goes KCB, he will know about your Aces and King and Queen of trumps, he will be able to ask if you have the K of heart, but not the spade Queen, which could be the most precious card in your hand if he has AK. The spade Q is maybe the 13th trick. Unless you play exotic asking bids, which happen at very high level. You have discussed sometimes about those rare birds, but never seriously sat down to establish a FIRM understanding of that machinery.
So you say to yourself: I have to ask for keycards. But wait ‼
If you go 4NT, will partner know you are asking with clubs as trumps? No. Hum…! What now?
The more you think, the less you know how to go about this business.
How can I set trumps and not let partner ask for keycards? You have to go KCB yourself, before he does.
Think again.
What do you want to know? You want to know if partner has the Ace of clubs and AK of spades. That would make 12 tricks with a spade ruff if necessary. But if partner has the K of diamonds, that would make 13. Do you see the light dawning a bit in your brains?
Imagination is more important than knowledge chimes into your head, and you see Einstein sticking his tongue out, laughing at you.
In your twisted mind, so much that you can feel your head spinning a bit, you formulate what appears to be a heresy: if I go KCB for diamonds, what will happen? You never tried to set a false trump suit to gain critical information from your partner? Well, you are missing the thrill of your life. Obviously, partner has to have confidence in you when you will drive him to a grand in a suit he never knew you had a fit.
So here goes: if you go KCB, partner will think diamonds are trumps (agreed trump suit or last suit bid) and he will answer.
With Kickback KCB, the suit above our trump suit at the 4 level is KCB. So you have the same space as 4NT with spades as trump.
But wait, you say. This 4♥ bid cannot be to play? No. In XYZ, responder with long hearts and goodish hand could jump to 4♥ to play over 1♠. And he would jump to 3♥ over 1♠ to show solid hearts and slam interest. And if he has long broken hearts with GF, he would bid 3♥ over 3♦.
4NT says 03 (I know, I know, partner could have KJxx Q KQx Jxxxx and bid the same. Aren't you a party pooper?). So partner rates to have the 2 black Aces and… the K of trumps (!), diamonds. Your mind is racing. Calm down.
The beauty of Kickback‼
Partner hesitates over 7♣. You don't move, don't breathe, don't flinch, poker face, poker everything. Partner finally passes. Phew!
I did that a few times in my bridge career, setting a false trump suit. One of my partners "corrected" 2 times (going down each time) before finally passing the 3rd time. She is still my most precious and adored partner :-)
Let's see now the rest of Einstein's quotation:
For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
Bridge sometimes invites us to travel to another dimension. You can say Yes or you can say No.
If you say No, because you feel it is too complicated, demanding, tiring, stressing, if you don't want to wander out of your comfort zone, fine, it's your life. You will make 6 clubs with an overtrick and saw that others were in 7, making. You will console yourself by saying At least we bid six.
But if you say Yes more often, if you take a risk, a calculated risk, if you embark courageously on an unfamiliar journey, like Theseus, so unfamiliar that you can sense your nerves shaking, and you reach safely the destination you had envisioned, you will feel so much more alive.
But you need a wife/partner who is on the same wavelength as you :-)
Monday, January 23, 2017
The F Factor
I wrote many bridge articles in my time (see my blog), but there is one I didn't write. I had the idea but never wrote it.
With the evolution of the world to become slowly (2 steps forward, one step backward, said Obama recently) a better place, with equality and justice for all, women proclaimed there is a woman's way to do things, different from men, with more empathy, more understanding. They organized marches and manifestations to demand more women at high levels of business, government, etc.
So to keep pace with that movement, I came with the idea of creating a new version of RKCB, the FRKCB, F standing for Feminist. In a slam sequence, 4nt would ask first: Do you have the Queen?
Now there is a new thing in meteorology that again starts with F. No, it is not Feminist, but sort of. They call it wind chill factor, or wind factor, or whatever, that we can all regroup under the word Feeling. You look at a thermometer and read minus 10. The weather woman will add that this minus 10C actually feels minus 14C.
In the summer, you look at the same thermometer and read 30C. The same weather woman will tell you now that you will feel 34C because of the humidex factor, again that Feeling thing.
Would you believe I saw it happen also at bridge recently? First I have to tell you that, in my club, everybody plays the old fashion way: partner opens 1something, if responder jumps to 3 of that same suit, it is the gold old limit raise.
Why do I mention that? Nothing new, you say? Yes but, at my club (maybe at yours too), there is a twist: they all play limit raise game forcing. Facing a limit raise, they all bid game. Don't ask, I stopped a long time ago trying to explain that to them. When they see +420 on Bridgemate, that is all they want to know. And if they see -50 or -100, they say Nothing works today.
So when opener passes this limit raise, you know you are generally heading for a minus score, that will feel like a zero.
Yesterday, at my club, RHO opens 1♥, I pass and his partner, a woman, bids 3♥, all pass.
She tables dummy:
♠AQJxx
♥Q10x
♦Jxx
♣QJ
When asked why she didn't go to game with 13 points and a fit, she answered: I didn't feel like it.
That's when I understood that the Feeling thing had spread to bridge.
Do I have to tell you declarer made just 3? Did I have to tell you we got a cold zero? And that zero looked like a zero, it walked like a zero, it felt like a zero, it was a real ZERO.
With the evolution of the world to become slowly (2 steps forward, one step backward, said Obama recently) a better place, with equality and justice for all, women proclaimed there is a woman's way to do things, different from men, with more empathy, more understanding. They organized marches and manifestations to demand more women at high levels of business, government, etc.
So to keep pace with that movement, I came with the idea of creating a new version of RKCB, the FRKCB, F standing for Feminist. In a slam sequence, 4nt would ask first: Do you have the Queen?
Now there is a new thing in meteorology that again starts with F. No, it is not Feminist, but sort of. They call it wind chill factor, or wind factor, or whatever, that we can all regroup under the word Feeling. You look at a thermometer and read minus 10. The weather woman will add that this minus 10C actually feels minus 14C.
In the summer, you look at the same thermometer and read 30C. The same weather woman will tell you now that you will feel 34C because of the humidex factor, again that Feeling thing.
Would you believe I saw it happen also at bridge recently? First I have to tell you that, in my club, everybody plays the old fashion way: partner opens 1something, if responder jumps to 3 of that same suit, it is the gold old limit raise.
Why do I mention that? Nothing new, you say? Yes but, at my club (maybe at yours too), there is a twist: they all play limit raise game forcing. Facing a limit raise, they all bid game. Don't ask, I stopped a long time ago trying to explain that to them. When they see +420 on Bridgemate, that is all they want to know. And if they see -50 or -100, they say Nothing works today.
So when opener passes this limit raise, you know you are generally heading for a minus score, that will feel like a zero.
Yesterday, at my club, RHO opens 1♥, I pass and his partner, a woman, bids 3♥, all pass.
She tables dummy:
♠AQJxx
♥Q10x
♦Jxx
♣QJ
When asked why she didn't go to game with 13 points and a fit, she answered: I didn't feel like it.
That's when I understood that the Feeling thing had spread to bridge.
Do I have to tell you declarer made just 3? Did I have to tell you we got a cold zero? And that zero looked like a zero, it walked like a zero, it felt like a zero, it was a real ZERO.
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