Sao Paulo – Sr.Bowl -Last day and last gasp

September 6th, 2009  ~  Dan Jacob  ~  No Comments 

Last night with 3 matches to go we were approx. 10 VP out of a playoff spot. Today we had to play USA2, India and Japan, not an easy schedule. Our first match was against USA2 and our line-up was Arno and Marty against David Berkowitz and Mark Lair, JC and Joey vs. Dan Gerstman -John Sutherlin. We had to win to keep our hopes alive. Arno and Marty had plenty of opportunities to use their system gadgets and they did very well in the slam hands. The set contained 4 slams (3small and one grand slam) and produced 26 IMPs for our side. In the end we won by 10 (first morning victory since day one).  Here is the grand slam auction:

                                                                    4♥                     4NT (RKC)

                                                                    5♥                     5NT (we have them all-specific K’s)

                                                                    6♣                     7♠ (you must have more than AK,A)

North (Arno)
♠	1084
♥	K53
♦	A7
♣	AKJ108
South(Marty)
♠	AKQ92
♥	AQ74
♦	Q2
♣	Q7

Unfortunately we had a small loss vs. India and our chances to qualify for the KO stage diminished. With one match left vs. Japan we had only a small chance left. In the end that proved to be only an illusion and in fact the result did not matter at all (other than for personal records). Boris and Michael finished the tournament as one of the top pairs in the Butler scoring. As for me, as the NPC of a team that came here with plenty of hope, I can only state my disappointment.

Boa noite! and see you back in Canada

Dan

Sao Paulo – 6 Matches to go

September 4th, 2009  ~  Dan Jacob  ~  1 Comment 

With 6 matches left while we are not in a bad position I cannot state that we are in a good one either. The next 2 days we will start the day by playing USA 1 and USA 2. I am still confident that we can do it!

Here is a hand from the first match against Australia: Joey, JC, Arno and Marty were in. Sitting west Joey picked up

West(Joey)				East(JC)
♠	AK98652			♠	QJ7
♥	A			♥	Q10964
♦	QJ74			♦	K63
♣	9			♣	A3

After 1♥ by JC, 1♠ by Joey, 1NT (JC) Joey found out that his partner has 3 spades and one A and drove to slam. This was worth 11IMPs since at the other table the Australians stopped in game.

Sao Paulo -Passing the half mark

September 3rd, 2009  ~  Dan Jacob  ~  1 Comment 

First match of the day was against a good team from Poland. Except for the first day of the round robin so far we haven’t done well in the first match. We started with Arno, Marty, Boris and Michael. As always (at least for now) I was sitting behind north to do the entries in the Bridgemate. The first board Boris had a tough decision: you hold ♠ Q75, ♥ KQ8, ♦ Q632, ♣ A73. As north and dealer you open 1♦   and partner responds 1♥ , 1NT by you and 2♦ * (2 way new minor, GF) by partner.from there on:

I was thinking about The Clash old hit: “Should I Stay or Should I Go” – “If I go it will be trouble if I stay it will be double”. In any case Boris did go to 6NT. Here are the hands:

Dealer: N Vul: none		North(Boris)
		♠	Q75
		♥	KQ8
		♦	Q632
		♣	A73
West				East
♠	984			♠	J102
♥	96			♥	7543
♦	KJ95			♦	108
♣	J985			♣	Q642
		South(Schoe)
		♠	AK63
		♥	AJ102
		♦	A74
		♣	K10

♠ 10 was lead and as you can see you need a few good things to happen. For starters ♦ K must be before the Q to have a chance (you are not going to guess a doubleton K offside). So Boris who won the first trick with the K played a low ♦ towards the Q. West went up with the K and returned a heart. Now you try the diamonds and if they don’t split you have a double squeeze on the run of the hearts. 6NT bid and made was a push board. We lost the match 18-12, however we got 23 against Pakistan and only 16 against Uruguay. We currently seat in the 9th place 2 points out.

More later on in the week.

Sao Paulo, Day 2,3

September 2nd, 2009  ~  Dan Jacob  ~  No Comments 

Sao Paulo, Day 2,3

I had problems logging in last night so I will not provide you with any hands at this time. Hopefully tonight I’ll be able to catch up.

Both second and third day we incurred bad losses but eventually at the end of the day we managed to get back to a bit over average, thanks to hefty victories against some of the weaker teams.

Dan

“Brazilian Gold Rush” – Sao Paulo, Day 1

August 31st, 2009  ~  Dan Jacob  ~  No Comments 

After some very long flights (at least for me) we finally made it to Sao Paulo. Not all of us made it though, on Saturday 29: due to some bad weather around Washington, DC, Boris missed his connecting flight to Sao Paulo and arrived early today.

The opening ceremony was very nice however it did not prevent most of us from dozing through a good part of the program. It is hard to keep your eyes open after more than 30 hrs without sleep. Since Boris was in no shape to play today Arno, Marty, JC and Joey played all 3 matches. We started against Argentina with a 2 IMP victory which translated into a tie (15-15VP). The 2nd. match was against Italy and we collected only 12 VP. Our 3rd.  and last match of the day we played Sweden. Although very early in the event, we needed something good to happen in order to get back above average. The boys didn’t disappoint and earned a 47-16 IMP victory (22VP).

Here is a hand that helped our cause: Arno held AKJ10842, A863, 9, 3 and you see your partner 1D opening bid. After your 1S response partner jumps to 3C which shows a good hand on the suits bid (Arno and Marty play a strong 1C with a Canape style). Without exploring any further Arno jumped to 6S!

Dealer: Vul:		North
		♠	Q7
		♥	K10542
		♦	876
		♣	1065
West (MARTY)				East (ARNO)
♠	9			♠	AKJ10842
♥	Q			♥	A863
♦	AQ1032			♦	9
♣	AQJ982			♣	3
		South
		♠	653
		♥	J97
		♦	KJ54
		♣	K74

 Against 6S Arno got the 4D; after some thought he let it ride to his 9 and ended up making 7 for a cool 13 IMP win. Tomorrow we play Turkey, England (a very strong team) and New Zealand. Boris and the Schoe will be in so we will have the entire team.

Tchau!

Dan

Getting ready for Sao Paulo

August 26th, 2009  ~  Dan Jacob  ~  2 Comments 

This is my first attempt to blog and since I’ll be doing some reporting from Sao Paulo for the Canadian Senior team I figured that a test run should make things a bit easier. It was shortly after the Penticton CNTC when I received a phone call from Arno Hobart (who was on his way to San Remo European Championships) inviting me (on behalf of the group) to be the team NPC (Arno Hobart, Martin Kirr, Boris Baran, Michael Schoenborn, John Carruthers and Joseph Silver). While still recovering from our team loss in the semifinals (open teams) I was honoured to be selected and accepted the invitation.  And so my attention shifted quickly to Brazil. For my part the preparation for Brazil had to do mostly with admin work so last week I was quite happy to accept to fill in for one of the practice matches arranged for the Canadian Venice Cup Team. As always Bev and Eric provided an interesting set of boards designed to challenge the partnership competitive bidding, defence and there were even a few interesting hands to declare. The practice match was arranged on BBO which makes it convenient for hand records and the sequence of play. I thought that the hand bellow provides some bidding challenges but mostly I think that it’s an interesting hand to declare after the opponents have entered the auction.

Sitting south you pick up not vul. vs vul: ♠A, ♥Q953, ♦J94, ♣J10542          and get the following auction                                           

 Without looking at North hand do you think that South should pass or considering the hand and vulnerability should bid on to 5♥?  Given the fact that a 4♠ bid by west was expected should South bid 5♥ directly over 3♥? If N has something like ♠xx, ♥KJxxx, ♦K(Q)xxx, ♣x it is pretty clear that south should bid on regardless of the vulnerability. More so if turns out that north second suit is clubs.  

Dealer: WEST Vul: E-W		North(Bryan Maksymetz)
		♠	8
		♥	K10762
		♦	Q10532
		♣	A6
West (Kiz Fung)				East(Susan Culham)
♠	KJ1032			♠	Q97654
♥	J4			♥	A8
♦	K87			♦	A6
♣	KQ9			♣	873
		South(Dan Jacob)
		♠	A
		♥	Q953
		♦	J94
		♣	J10542

In any case I did push on to 5♥ and was quickly doubled by west. The contract failed by 3 tricks (-500) after an early diamond ruff. At the other table west declared 4♠ and the contract failed by a trick. Nevertheless I think that  4♠ contract should make after N showed a 2 suiter. Let’s say you get the normal heart lead and go up with the A (no reason to duck). You play 3 rounds of diamonds ruffing the 3rd. and exit with a trump. After everybody follows to the spade, you pretty much have a good picture of the hand: north distribution must be 1-5-5-2 (or less likely 1-6-5-1) and south showed up with the ♠A and must have either K or Q of hearts. In fact S will probably cash the heart before shifting to a club. In my opinion it is highly unlikely that south will have both black aces and a heart honor. Would south bid just 4♥ after 3♥ by east rather than 3♠? I think not. Therefore should cost nothing to insert the club 9 and deservedly make the contract.

Ate depois!

Dan