Sunday, July 7th, 2002 saw our first ever Spring IMPs
League "SuperBowl" showdown between our FIT League champions,
Team Ulli3 ("Ulli" being short for "Ulrica" and pronounced
"OO-LEE", by the way) and our GAIL League Champions, Team
Toddy. After seven boards Team Toddy established a healthy
28-14 IMPs lead. Over the next 17 boards, though, Ulli3's
squad narrowed this gap but fell short of a comeback.
Hence, by a final score of 52-42 IMPs, Team Toddy became our
first Fireside IMPs League "Superbowl" Champions. We heartily
congratulate Toddy, MBar, Gaus271 and JudyDee, along with
fill-ins DeniseB and Neophyte, for their fine victory. Very
well done!
================================================================
IMPs north IMP Board 1
Dlr: North toddy
Vul: None S QJT62 west north east south
H AKQJ852 caphotel toddy jbot judydee
D
C 8 2C 2D 3C
west east pass 3H pass 4NT
caphotel jbot pass 5S pass 6NT
S 985 S K7 (all pass)
H 74 H 96
D JT83 D AQ9754 Opening Lead: DJ
C QT42 C J76 Result: -1
south Score: -50
judydee IMPs: -11.00
S A43
H T3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
D K62 W DJ 5 7 4 D3 D8 DT C4 S8 2 T S9 Q
C AK953 N S2 6 2 A-HK-HQ-HJ-H8-H5-C8 ST SJ SQ
E A-S7 9 6 D4 D5 D7 C6 C7 J SK 9 DQ
S 2 A-HT-H3 S3 D6 C3 C5 S4 A-CK-DK-C9
One of the finest players that I have ever met is Drew
Cannell. Drew has a favourite expression: "If yer gonna
bid 'em, ya gotta play 'em!"
On this hand, N-S bid to a very shakey slam which
requires S-Kx or S-Kxx and the D-Ace onside (about an
18% chance). Here their aggressiveness would have paid
off if they had played the hand with the same exuberance
with which they bid it. With game making at the other
table, the penalty for going down five is not significantly
more than the IMPs lost by going down one. Hence, let's
try to make this one.
We start by donning our rose coloured glasses and
assuming that both point cards are onside. The problem
is that we must not only take the Spade finesse but we
must then get back to North's hand to enjoy the five
Spades. Hence, we should travel to the North hand with
one of our Hearts, plunk down the S-Queen and let it
ride. Once the Spades are established we return to the
North hand and run our 11 major suit winners to make
our contract.
Had we stopped cautiously in, say, 3NT, we would
be far more conservative. Winning our Diamond King
we would cash our C-AK and 6 Hearts and, with 9 tricks
"in the bag", we might take our Spade finesse for the
overtricks. Play 'em like you bid 'em. :)
================================================================
IMPs north IMP Board 5
Dlr: North Ulli3
Vul: N-S S Q54 west north east south
H JT83 gaus271 Ulli3 mbar believer
D 653
C QJ8 pass 1D pass
west east 1S pass 4NT pass
gaus271 mbar 5D pass 6D (all pass)
S JT62 S K
H A54 H K9 Opening Lead: D2
D 9 D AKQJT87 Result: +6
C KT962 C A53 Score: -920,
south IMPs: -9.00
believer
S A9873 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
H Q762 W 9 S2 S6 H4 C2 C6 T 5 C9 K-HA-CT SJ
D 42 N 3 5 6 H3 H8 S4 5 T HJ 8 CJ Q SQ
C 74 E T-DA-DK-DQ-DJ-D8-SK K-D7-C3 9 A-C5
S D2 4 S7 S3 S8 C4 A-H2 S9 7 6 H7 HQ
E-W did well not only to get to slam but to get to the
RIGHT slam on this one. 6C would have failed with 2 black
losers. There were two ways to make this one. The first
line would be to lose a Spade quickly and then take a
ruffing finesse in Spades, pitching our Club loser from
the East hand if North does not cover our S-Jack.
Another line is to try a squeeze. Ideally, we should
lose a spade, draw trumps (pitching Clubs) and then ruff a
Spade (in case S-Qx falls). Now we play ALL of our Diamonds
and bear down to S-J and C-K10 on Dummy with C-A53 left in
our hand. If the same person has to guard Clubs and a major
they may be forced to concede the rest of the tricks.
Which line is better? The finesse is a straight 50-50
proposition. For the squeeze to work the Hearts have to
break 6-2 or worse OR the person with the S-Queen has to
be the one holding 3+ Clubs. Consider this: if 3 of my
13 cards are Clubs and only 2 of my partner's 13 cards are
Clubs the odds are 11-10 that my PARTNER has the S-Queen
(or any other given non-Club card). Hence, I rate the
simple finesse as being ever-so-slightly superior to the
squeeze--after the S-Queen fails to drop, at least.
================================================================
IMPs north IMP Board 6
Dlr: East toddy
Vul: E-W S J73 west north east south
H A9 caphotel toddy jbot judydee
D KJ97
C A953 1S 3C
west east X 4C 4S pass
caphotel jbot pass 5C pass pass
S 64 S AKQT982 X (all pass)
H Q8432 H KT5
D AQT64 D 3 Opening Lead: S6
C 7 C 42 Result: -1
south Score: -100
judydee IMPs: 11.00
S 5
H J76 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
D 852 W S6 4 7 H3 A-H2 D4 Q D6 T H4
C KQJT86 N 3 7 3 5 7 A-SJ K-C9 J-D9
E 8-SA 2 4 3 5 Q S2 S9 ST HT
S 5 C8-CK-CQ-D2 6 C6-D5 J-D8 H7
This hand provided our champions with their margin
of victory. Everyone knows that I am a big fan of "getting
in early". South's fine 3C pre-emptive overcall set up
North's 5C sacrifice against a 4S game that garnered E-W
+620 at the other table.
Sacrifices are comparatively rare at IMPs. At MPs,
we just need to be "right" (i.e. lose less in 5C than
against 4S) more often than "wrong" (i.e. where 4S might
go down, making our sacrifice a "phantom", or going for
more than -620 in 5C doubled). At IMPs, though, it would
seem that -800 will lose us 5 IMPs versus -620 while -500
will only gain us 3 IMPs. Hence, the odds would seem to
be 5-to-3 against such close (i.e. 300 or 500 versus a
non-vulnerable game, 420, OR 500 or 800 versus a vulnerable
game, 620) sacrifices.
There is a slight flaw in this conventional wisdom.
You see, the opponents don't always double us in our
sacrifices. Yes, sometimes they forget to, but often
they bid on to the five level. Should they misguess and
actually go down in their contract the small plus that
we garner will translate to a LOT of IMPs: (420 + 5) 10
if the opponents are not vulnerable, 12 (620 + 100) if
they ARE vulnerable. Hence, the difference between MPs
and IMPs in this regard is NOT as marked as some may
think.
================================================================
Again, we congratulate the winners, Team Toddy: Toddy,
JudyDee, MBar and Gaus271 along with their fill-ins, Neophyte
and DeniseB. We also thank our FIT Champion Team for a fine
performance: Ulli3, CapHotel, JBot, Believer and Timbit. Very
well done, one and all! You can see the results at
http://www.firesides.net/teams021.htm
We'll see you all on Sunday at 11:00 A.M. PST or Tuesday
night at 5:00 P.M. PST...and in the Summer League!
Colin
P.S. Check out our sign-up site for the Summer League at:
http://www.firesides.net/signmeup.htm
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