Reporting live from the NABC in San Francisco. This city is getting decked out for Christmas and it is glitzy, spectacular and grand. There's still time to get to this beautiful city for some great bridge!
I'm taking a break today and the possibilities are endless. Take a walk, take a swim, visit a museum, ride a cable car, shop, have a great dinner and finish up with some good kibitizing. There's an exciting semi-final match going on in the Senior KOs which I plan to check out.
In preparing for my talk on Losing Trick Count tomorrow morning, I have been keeping track of hands where LTC was used successfully. Here are a couple--one from teams and one from the Life Master Pairs earlier this week.
1. In a KO match my partner opened a strong notrump and I held:
♠ 10987xx
♥ AJxxx
♦ xx
♣ void
The hand contains 7 losers so I decided to be aggressive and push to game. Accordingly, I transferred to spades and then jumped to 4♥. Partner, holding, oddly, 2-2 in the majors corrected to 4♠.
♠ Jx
♥ Kx
♦ AKxxx
♣ Axxx
Hearts broke 3-3 and the only tricks he lost were the A,K,Q of spades. We won 11 IMPs (as well as the match) as the opponents went down in a minor suit part-score.
2. In the second qualifiying session of the Life Master Pairs, I opened this hand 2♦, Flannery, (5 hearts, 4 spades, 11-15 points) and partner invited with 3♠. (Board 5)
♠Q1052
♥AQJ53
♦ KJ
♣43
As the range for Flannery is 11-15, my 13 point hand was exactly in the middle. I studied the hand for a moment, trying to decide what to do and then I counted my losers. I decided that a 6-loser hand was sufficient to accept the invitation so I bid 4♠.
♠Q1052
♥AQJ53
♦ KJ
♣43
♠K9643
♥6
♦ Q86
♣KJ108
Partner played it well and our score of 420 earned the great score of 47 out of 50 matchpoints--part of a 62% session!
When in doubt, count your losers.
See you at the table!
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1 comment:
I hppe your talk went well - I'm sure it did.
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