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St.
Louis 2006 Regional
Sunday
B/C/D Swiss
August
20, 2006
Jason
Clevenger
I
don't need no stinking Trumps
IMPS
NS
Vul
Dealer:
North
| North
Ron
Diehl |
East
Greg
Barnes |
South
Matt
Diehl |
West
Jason
Clevenger |
P |
2
(1) |
P |
2NT (2) |
P |
3
(3) |
P |
3
(4) |
P |
5
(5) |
P |
7
(6) |
P |
P |
P |
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(1)
21+ HCP or 4 Loser hand with long suit.
(2)
Shows 5+ Hearts with at least 2 of top 3 honors.
(3)
I really have clubs.
(4)
I really really have hearts and don't like your clubs.
(5)
I really really have clubs and don't like your hearts.
(6)
I hope you're right
Opening
Lead: Nine of Spades
When
was the last time you put your partner in 7 Clubs? With a
void in clubs? I held the West cards on the hand above on
the last deal of the last round of the last day at the 2006
St. Louis Regional. Greg Barnes and I were playing the Matt
and Ron Diehl, whose team was two Victory Points ahead of
us in first place in the Sunday B/C/D Swiss. Our teammates
Sasanka Ramanadham (North) and Mark Gilje (South) were playing
Rich Brummer (East) and Mark Daily (West) at the other table.
Sasanka and I had teamed up the day before with Matt and his
dad (along with Andrew Carver and Linda Lubek) to beat Kansas
City in Flight B of the Missouri Bragging Rights. Now we were
playing against them in the last round for first place.
We
got off to a bad start at our table in the seven board set.
I misplayed the defense on the first hand by flying up with
the trump Ace, crashing my partner's stiff King. This made
it easier for Ron to bring home a tough 4 Spade vulnerable
contract. On the second hand, we gave up 1100 against a non-vulnerable
game. That was a sure 12 IMP setback with 5 boards to play.
Not good. It was late. Everyone was tired. It would have been
easy to throw it in and play out the match on automatic pilot.
But our teams have had a great deal of success in the past
few years based on a simple principle-trust your teammates.
Cheesy? Sure, but we really believe it. We had to hope that
Sasanka would bring home the 4 spade contract with the North
cards. And we had to find a way to overcome our 12 IMP hole.
A
while ago Major League Baseball started keeping track of the
GWRBI-Game Winning Run Batted In. The idea was to identify
clutch players; those who excel in do-or-die situations and
deliver the winning run. But it turned out to be a lousy stat.
The vast majority of games turn out to be decided by a run
in the early or middle innings, which intuitively aren't clutch
situations. And guys who get lots of RBIs tend to get lots
of GWRBIs. Being a clutch hitter is much about being in the
right place at the right time. When Ozzie Smith corked one
into right for the game winning home run against the Dodgers
in the 1985 NLCS, folks did go crazy and that surge of epinephrine
seared the image (and Jack Buck's call) into their neuroreceptors
creating a significance that the stats don't bear out.
Less
so than baseball, bridge doesn't lend itself to clutch situations.
A close match may be decided on an overtrick whose importance
is not obvious at the time. A blowout is created from big
swings across several hands. It is rare to have a chance to
decide a match (and a tournament) on a big swing on the last
board. After all, the last board for us was the third or fourth
for our teammates. But here it was. I thought we had scratched
back a few points on the middle boards, so we still had a
chance. When Greg opened 2 Clubs, I knew that we had to get
to a grand slam. We don't play together often, and I had forgotten
that our agreement allowed a 2 Club opener on a long solid
suit with a 4 loser hand. It turns out that he was also pushing
to make up ground and he had only 9 HCP with a 5 loser hand.
But he did have that 8-bagger in clubs (the next time someone
whines about computer dealt hands, I can point out that we
had shuffled and dealt this one). From my side, it looked
like Greg had to have just about all the other face cards
for his bid. But after he passed up my hearts a second time,
I realized he was very distributional and that a grand was
not a sure thing. That was actually in our favor-if we really
did have all of the points, East/West would be at seven something
at the other table.
There
is one principle in bridge more important than trust your
teammates-trust your partner. After Greg bid 5 Clubs, I grabbed
a big bundle from the bid box and tabled 7 Clubs. I had been
angling for 7 No Trump; but with what now seemed a very distributional
hand, entries might be a problem. Matt led the spade nine,
won on board with the Ace. Three spades were pitched from
the closed hand on the top three hearts. The diamond ace was
cashed and a second diamond ruffed in hand. Greg started clubs
from the top and the queen fell on the first round. At the
other table West played 6 No Trump, which made after the unfortunate
lead of the King of Spades (a diamond or heart out sets it).
On
the final tally we picked up 10 IMPS for the grand and netted
another 4 IMPS from boards three through six. Sasanka made
4 Spades on the first hand (without the Ace / King crash)
for a push. Subtract 12 IMPs for the second hand and we won
the match by 2. That gave us 9 Victory Points and first place.
The Diehl team was second. This is about as much drama as
you get in bridge. And like any oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-we-won
finish, it was also an object lesson in all of those goody-goody
values that athletes prattle on about in post-game interviews
but which really are true-don't give up, trust your teammates,
do the little things that put you in a position to win.
More
importantly, when someone gives my dummy one of those that's-all-the-trump-support-you-have
looks, I can tell him about the day I put my partner in 7
Clubs. With a void.
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