Winnipeggers do not use the word "cold" to
describe their weather. Instead, they use polite
euphemisms. "Nippy" means that any exposed skin
turns to the consistency of hockey pucks after
two minutes. "Fresh" means that the wind is
howling along at hurricane velocity, shooting
daggers of ice into the eyes and skin of anyone
silly enough to step outside. The worst, though,
is "crisp". This translates to zero degrees...Kelvin!
One does not have to worry about what to do on a
"crisp" day, since all activity stops at the molecular
level.
I have learned that Vancouverites have a similar
reluctance to use the word "rain", preferring instead
the expression "liquid sunshine". Saturday was
the one and only day when we saw sunshine in its
more conventional form. Everywhere we looked, we saw
Vancouverites making spectacles of themselves, singing
and dancing in the streets. They apparently mistook
that odd-looking yellow globe in the sky for some
kind of cosmic camera flash. Everyone was "hamming it
up" for the pictures.
Having finished well in the Qualifyings in the
Open Pairs, Bill "Wintaka" Treble and I proceeded to
score a 54% and a 52% in the Finals, finishing 79th
out of 180. This may not *sound* impressive, but
considering the strength of the field, we were very
happy with our result. :)
We might have done better had I not held solid
"moogals" for most of the session. Indeed, I passed
throughout on 16 out of 26 of hands. Do not expect
to see THAT again in your lifetime! :)
There is an old bridge saying: "Treat 'em
rough and tell them NOTHING!" This does not mean that
we don't have to explain our bids to our opponents.
Rather, it means that when we know where we want to
go, we should bid the final contract and not make bids
which will only help the defenders. The peculiar
bidding system that Billy and I use ("The Canadian
Club") takes this to an extreme. The forcing hand
generally makes meaningless bids to derive enough
information from partner to bid the final contract.
Take this hand against Mr. Soloway and his partner:
Pard
S- A3
H- 64
D- J932
LHO C- KQ1085 RHO
S- J9864 S- Q1072
H- Q52 H- 1097
D- 1076 D- K54
C- A9 Me C- J76
S- K5
H- AKJ83
D- AQ8
C- 432
Me LHO Pard RHO
1C* Pass 2D* Pass
2H* Pass 2NT* Pass
3C Pass 3S* Pass
4C* Pass 4D* Pass
5C Pass Pass Pass
1C was strong, artificial and forcing. 2D
showed 8+ HCPs and 5+ CLUBS. 2H did NOT show
Hearts; it was like Stayman, asking for a second
suit. 2NT showed 4 Diamonds. The rest of my bids
were natural. Over 3C, Billy showed his spade
strength and a minimum. His 4D showed a dead minimum
and promised the Club Queen. I stopped in 5C.
LHO did not have much to go on here. He
logically inferred that my failure to bid 3NT
after hearing about my Partner's Spade strength
and Diamond length must mean that I am WEAK in
Hearts. His well reasoned but MOST unfortunate
Heart lead was gobbled up by my H-Jack and I
drew trumps.
How good a score was 420 here? In 3NT,
everyone led a spade, and continued another
spade when in with the C-Ace. Those Declarer's
who were not content with 9 tricks (400) had to
choose between the Heart and Diamond finesse for
a possible overtrick. Since the Heart finesse
MIGHT reward them with 12 tricks if the H-Qxx
were ONSIDE, most ambitious declarer's took the
Heart hook and ended up DOWN one! :)
Mr. Soloway was happy to get away from us
Canadian Clubbers. He left our table so fast we
had to pause to check our deodorant! :))
| If your computer
has MIDI capacity, you have been listening to Peter Gabriel's "I Have The Touch". |
