Since 1937, bridge players in the Twin Cities have been enjoying their membership in the Minneapolis Grand Slam Club. The MGSC meets most Friday nights, from September through the end of May.
Two games have already been held this fall. But, Friday is the first "Club Night". All players who are members of the club get to play for free four times a year at "Club Night" - and the player with the highest percentage for those nights wins free plays for the next season!
Add in a directory of members, a fun party at the end of the season - plus excellent weekly bulletins and articles, courtesy of Richard Lawson - for only $20, this is a deal not to be missed!
For a taste of what members are able to read each week - Richard's latest production below.
Attention
Sometimes I have a problem with paying proper attention. I can’t tell you what causes it; perhaps it’s early-onset something-or-other. But at the Nationals, in the GNT finals, I held:
♠ 9652
♥ K6
♦ 8
♣ AQJ43
Only ten points, so I pass in first seat. Something bothered me, though, so while LHO was also passing and my partner Andy was opening 1D, I took a closer look at my hand. It was then that I realized I had 4-2-1-5 shape. I don’t think I’ve ever held 4-2-1-5 before, and how to effectively bid that kind of shape isn’t covered in any book I could recall reading.
It finally dawned on me that I had only twelve cards showing. I’m very careful about counting cards before looking at them, so I’m pretty sure I started with thirteen. I thumbed through my cards, and to my horror the Ace of diamonds appeared. My actual hand:
♠ 9652
♥ K6
♦ A8
♣ AQJ43
I’d just passed a fourteen-point hand. Fortunately Andy had opened, so I could recover. I bid 1S, and only then realized I’d just made another terrible mistake. Andy could pass 1S.
The story has a happy ending; Andy bid 1NT, allowing me to finally bid 3NT. We got to the normal contract despite my misadventures, and Andy made ten tricks.
I can’t explain why I didn’t notice I only had twelve cards; I just simply overlooked it. Perhaps it was fatigue, although I didn’t feel tired. Whatever it was, it simply missed me.
For the Club Championship I played with Sam. You know those games where everything goes right, you don’t make any mistakes and the opponents make a ton of mistakes and you have great result after great result? Well, Sam and I had the opposite kind of game. Our specialty was bidding grands and going down two. We were already doing badly when I picked up:
♠ 987
♥ AKJ
♦ AJ88
♣ J98
A decent enough opener. After South passes, I open 1D. North passes, and Sam bids 1H. RHO now doubles and I have an easy support redouble showing three-card support. LHO bids 1S, Sam passes, and RHO bids 3S.
Well. RHO is originally a passed hand and has now taken two calls. My hand is very flat, so it’s likely that RHO’s hand isn’t highly distributional. Plus there’s a real chance I’ll be able to cash three or more hearts right away.
So I double. Everyone passes, Sam leads the Deuce of hearts, and the dummy comes down:
♠ KJ652
♥ 975
♦ 6
♣ AQ76
Looks very much like we’re cashing three hearts and the Ace of diamonds at least. It will all come down to Sam having a club or trump trick. I take the opening lead with the King of hearts, then the Ace. Confidently I lead the Jack of hearts – and declarer ruffs.
To quote Ralph Wiggum: That unpossible.
Eventually declarer loses a diamond and a club but makes 3SX, and Sam I have managed to score another bottom.
We play another board and then go out into the hallway. I ask Sam why he played up-the-line with five hearts. He said he only had four hearts. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes, he was sure he had started with four hearts.
Back into the room I go. Fortunately the round hasn’t been called and the boards are still on the table. I pull out Sam’s hand, and he does have four hearts. I look at declarer’s hand, and there are two hearts there. I look at dummy, and there are three hearts just like before. I then count the cards in dummy’s hand. There are thirteen of them. I count the cards in declarer’s hand. Thirteen again. On to Sam’s hand. Thirteen.
Finally, and only because I have exhausted all other possibilities, I look at my hand again. What I find shocks me:
♠ AQT4
♥ 63
♦ KQT4
♣ 543
♠ 987 ♠ 3
♥ AKJ8 ♥ QT42
♦ AJ8 ♦ 97532
♣ J98 ♣ KT2
♠ KJ652
♥ 975
♦ 6
♣ AQ76
I had four hearts the entire time. It had never even registered in my brain that I appeared to have two Eight of Diamonds.
Of course this changes everything. First off, I would have opened 1C, not 1D, and that might have slowed South down a little bit. I would have raised Sam’s 1H to 2H right away, and I certainly would never have doubled 3S for penalty. The whole course of the auction would have gone in an entirely different direction – and no matter where it ended up, it certainly would have been better than minus 730.
Well. Another hand to chalk up to missorting. I still can’t explain how and why it happened. Even excusing the same color, didn’t I notice that two cards had the same rank?
All I can say is that I’m going to spend a lot more time paying attention to how my cards are sorted. Because the less attention you pay, the worse your results will be.
Anyone know any good mental exercises?
-Richard
Comments