Jan 23 -- Another Goal Attained

I qualified for the Grand National Teams.

Points Summary
♠     ♥     ♦     ♣	Gold	Red	Silver	Other	Total
Earned This Time		.23		.23	.46
Earned Earlier This Year	3.78	9.52			13.30
Total Earned This Year	3.78	9.75		.23	13.76
Earned Prior to This Year	11.41	45.01	21.98	17.39	95.79
Total	15.19	54.76	21.98	17.62	109.55
Required	25.00	25.00	50.00	200.00	300.00
Still Needed	9.81	0.00	28.02	152.62	190.45

Advance Planning

Monday night a local club was holding a GNT qualifying Swiss Teams tournament. W and I looked for local teammates at the Regional over the weekend (starting, of course, with E and E), but found none. I sent e-mails and made phone calls during the day Monday, but still came up empty. W didn't want to take "pot luck" on teammates, so decided not to participate. I showed up at the club alone, and found yet another E, also with few points, ready to play but without a partner. I knew this E from the Unit game and sectionals, and I had played with this E once a few months ago in my capacity as Guaranteed Partner. We had had a good session then. The game's manager paired us up, and teamed us with a more experienced pair with more masterpoints.

Overall Results

Our team finished with 40 Victory Points in four six-board matches, an average result. We finished 10th of 20 teams. The two teams we beat finished 18th and 20th, the two that beat us finished first and second. Tenth of twenty was good enough to qualify for the GNT in any stratum. Our teammates can only play in Strata A and B, but E and I can play in Stratum C as well. Each of the team members qualified as individuals, so we can arrange to play in the GNT with anyone we choose. Although our results in terms of masterpoints earned wasn't much, I still include it at the top of this post.

Session Summary scoring = Victory Points 6 boards per match
Match	IMPs	VPs	Total VP's
1	27 -  2	19 -  1	19
2	11 - 24	5 - 15	24
3	0 - 20	2 - 18	26
4	20 - 11	14 -  6	40

Two Free Lessons

In our third match, E and I faced a well-known local teaching professional player and his student partner. This player often gives free lessons to novice players at our unit game and local sectional tournaments. We got free lessons from him on two hands. On the first, the auction went:

North	East	South	West
Pass Pass Double Pass Pass	1 ♠ 2 ♦ 3 ♥ Pass 5 ♦	Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass	1 NT 3 ♦ 3 NT 4 ♦ Pass

I don't remember all the cards in my West hand, but I do remember my club suit: ♣ K Q. I had figured correctly that the pro doubled our 3 NT on a long club suit and an outside entry. After the hand he explained his action in terms of gaming theory and "sharing the risk." If he was sure to set the hand, he would not have doubled but just played and taken his profit. His double was because he was unsure of setting the hand. After his double, the situation was risky for both sides. He risked our making the contract; we risked a large penalty for going down. Unwilling to face that risk, I pulled to four diamonds and E put us in game at five. We lost the board by 1 IMP; his teammates played at 3 NT and made an overtrick. It turns out that after North's club lead East-West can take ten tricks without giving up the lead: one club, five diamonds, and four hearts.

The second lesson was also on bidding. The West hand:
      ♠ 4 3 2   ♥ Q 7 6 5   ♦  A J 7 2   ♣ A 7
The auction:

North	East	South	West
Pass Pass	1 ♦ 2 ♦	Pass Pass	1 ♥ ??

I bid 3 ♦ which was passed out. My 3 ♦ bid was not forcing, and did not give East enough useful information to enable further bidding. What should I have bid? The pro says 3 NT, and here's why. If I bid 3 ♣, invitational and showing a club stopper, then North will either double or not, thus telling South which black suit to lead after East bids 3 NT. I can draw the inference after North's second bid that neither North nor South has a spade suit with any honors and as long as five cards, as neither North nor South has overcalled with a 1 ♠ bid. Worst case, the spade suit is wide open and splits 4-4. Indeed I should have drawn that inference; with the lesson and more playing experience I'll improve in this area.

Last Word

My partner E is willing to play with me on a fairly frequent basis; now I have someone else on whom to call besides W. As with W, E and I will need much practice and discussion to improve our partnership. Thanks, E!