The Big Slick by Foxymoron

The Big Slick is an expression that I am only aware of in Poker, for ace, king (ideally in the same suit) as two hole cards. It is a very powerful hand and was named after the Santa Barbara disastrous oil slick of 1969, but its origin may go back to Roman times. It was very kind this week to Michael Mizrachi who won the first prize of $10,000,000 in the WSPOP final table persuading a fold with JJ and getting lucky against KK, by hitting an ace on the river, when he was a 30-70 dog.

He is a distant relative of the outspoken Haredi Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi and he is a fine backgammon player, who I met in Las Vegas. in Atlanta, Youtube showed four hours of the final table, free, and it was most enjoyable. 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1945268686539121105 gives the crucial hand.

A hand at the Woodberry this week reminded me of the importance of the big slick in the trump suit and why Keycard Blackwood was invented to diagnose that you had the king of trumps as well as the four aces.

Two pairs reached the grand slam here, and they knew what they were doing although they followed different routes.

Tony Mutukisna, playing with Nigel Freake, decided to open 1H in case he lost the hearts if he opened 1C. This worked well and the auction, uncontested, was 1H-1S-2C-2D*-3C-4NT(RKCB)-5D-7C. 2D was fourth-suit, game forcing. East knows that West has at least 5-5 in the round suits and went "all in" on being able to find the queen of clubs if necessary. 

Matthew Hendrickson and Ed Sanders bid 1C-1D-1H-2S(FSF)-3H-4NT-5S (2 with, for hearts)-7C. This time East knows that West is 5-6 as he opened 1C, so 7C will only require clubs to break 2-1, a 78% chance. A slightly better auction but no style marks and a joint top.

It is churlish to question whether the top spot of 7NT might have been reached. A possible auction, if uncontested, is 1C-1D-1H-1S(4SF)-2H-(5-6)-4C(minorwood)

-4H(1)-6S.  This says we can make 7C, but what do you think about 7NT? West with a source of tricks in hearts can bid 7NT. But all pie-in-the-sky.

This phrase appeared first in 1911 in Hill’s The Preacher and the Slave, which
parodied the Salvation Army hymn In the Sweet Bye and Bye:

From the day of your birth it’s bread and water here on earth
To a child of life to a child of life 

But there’ll be pie in the sky by and by when I die and it’ll be alright it’ll be alright 

There’ll be pie in the sky by and by when I die and it’ll be alright it’ll be alright