The Albatross by Foxymoron

Often, to amuse themselves, the men of a crew

Catch albatrosses, those vast sea birds

That indolently follow a ship

As it glides over the deep, briny sea.

Three under par in golf is known as an Albatross. The expression seems to go back to 1929, in a match between Durham and Hartlepool. "One certainly didn’t hear of any ‘albatrosses’ or even ‘eagles’ but certainly some ‘birdies’ were achieved." was the report. Of course, in bridge, -3 is not usually a good score (unless a save at favourable vulnerability), and is well below par. 

My result on this hand was an "albatross around my neck", an expression that stems from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and prevented Stefanie and me from doing better in the recent SIMs. It was close to a nationwide bottom, but I had no regrets.

We reached 4S by North after the auction (Pass)-Pass-(1H)-1S-(2H)-2S-(Pass)-4S-(All Pass). East led his singleton diamond and I had to decide on the play. The opening bid by West strongly suggested to me that he had the king of spades and a losing spade finesse would surely lead to a diamond ruff. I decided to play ace and another spade but East won, played a heart to the ace and had a diamond ruff anyway so I only made 10 tricks. Of course, taking the spade finesse would have made all 13 tricks, six diamonds, six spades and an ace. My result was therefore "three under par", an Albatross, and the seven pairs that notched up +510 were no doubt mocking me.

The Offside King by Foxymoron

 An interesting quiz question is "who was known as the offside king?" Clearly it relates to football and the answer is Sergio Aguero, the prolific Manchester City striker.  He was offside the most times in the Premiership - around half the time he was in the opposing box. That was good value for his team, of course, as in the other half of the time he scored, as in the famous goal at the end of the 2012 season. AGUERRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ...

The chances of a king being offside in bridge is about 50%. Jill Shortman had some "king-guessing" to do on the following hand from the Woodberry duplicate:

Roly and Jill reached a reasonable 6H by West after the start 1S-2H and North, your scribe, found the most testing lead of a diamond to the queen and ace. Without the diamond lead, you would cash the ace of hearts and then take the spade finesse after giving up a heart. 

I would lead the queen of hearts from West against most players, and if North does not cover, I would rise. As Zia famously says in his new book, "If they don't cover, they don't have it." Of course, North should reason that his partner does not have Tx in hearts, and not cover from Kx, but people don't. 

The correct technical line is the one Jill chose. To take the heart finesse. Two down was the result and virtue had to be its own reward. Someone with far more classical knowledge than I corrected me when I claimed this expression derived from Cicero, whereas it appears in works by the poet Ovid.

l'appel du vide by Foxymoron

The heading translates as "the call of the void" which is an unfortunate phenomenon, known in psychology as autokabelesis.  It causes people, usually young males, to jump off a high structure. Archway Bridge in North London sees examples of this, and was the subject of a tasteless prank hoarding a few years ago, which caused at least one reader of Private Eye to extend his subscription ...

In bridge, when responding to RKCB, one has to decide what call to make with a void and whether to jump. Fortunately the stakes are not as high, but a missed grand can be the result of a misunderstanding. One method, discussed on Bridgewinners is: 

For an odd number of key cards and a void, you jump to 6 of your void if the void is in a suit below the trump suit, or 6 of the trump suit if the void is in a higher ranking suit.

The chances of partner having read the same post from some years ago are minimal, however. I think the right method is to jump to a level higher with a void. but never to bid above the trump suit at the six level.

The following hand proved beyond our methods, but we still emerged with an unexpected top.

We bid, uncontested, 1S-2C-3S-4D*-4H*-4NT*-5S*-6S. I think the fitting queen of clubs merits an upgrade to 3S after a 2-level response. 4NT was keycard for spades, and we had no agreement on how to show two key cards plus the queen of spades plus a void. I think that 6S is probably the call, but would it be interpreted correctly? And if South had hearts, then 6S would not be a wise choice as that would commit the partnership to 7H. The answer, of course, is to play kickback and minorwood, but that is a lot more work for occasional partnerships.

I am not sure why others could not bid a small slam. A phrase in Genesis Rabbah comes to mind: בשוק סמייא צווחין לעווירא סגי נהור, meaning "In the street of the blind, the one-eyed man is called the guiding light" and this predates the Erasmus quote I used some weeks ago by a millennium.

Dummy Reversal by Foxymoron

The expression "dummy reversal" is normally used when you ruff twice or more in the hand with more trumps. But it has come to be used for ruffing in hand twice when you have a 4-4 fit before drawing all the trumps. That opportunity presented itself in the weekly game yesterday:

We bid 1C-(2S)-Dble-(3S)-4H-All Pass, which was an auction replicated at a good number of tables. Looking at the hand in the pub afterwards I wondered if I should have made 12 tricks as Deep Finesse does on this hand, but it was not without risk. East led the ace of spades and switched to a diamond at my table, to West's king and North's ace. Now it looks normal to play a heart to the queen, as you can pick up Hxxx in either opponents' hand. It is more likely that East will have a singleton heart if anyone does. Now the plan is to ruff two spades in the North hand, but that runs the risk that the trumps are 4-1 when you will lose control. The winning line is spade ruff, club to the queen, spade ruff, cash the king of hearts, ruff a club, draw trumps and make twelve tricks when clubs are 4-3. I just drew a second round of trumps and could only make 11 tricks.

If you draw a second round of trumps with the king, then you do not have enough entries to ruff two spades, while if you draw a second round of trumps with the ace, you cannot afford to ruff a spade with the king as you will promote the jack for East. I think in 6H the right line is to cash the king of hearts at trick two, as you will not make six when trumps are 4-1. Now you can play a second round of trumps to the ace, and can ruff two spades in North. When trumps are 3-2 and clubs are 4-3, "Bob's your Uncle".

The origins of that expression are unclear but it is thought to come from the occasion when Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, ("Bob") appointed his nephew Arthur Balfour as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1887, which was apparently both surprising and unpopular.

In Spades by Foxymoron

The expression "in spades" seems to be derived from bridge. Vanderbilt set out the rules of the modern game in 1925. "In spades" appeared in print around then and is often used to show a lot of something. Trivia Origin tells me:

The idiom wasn’t used prior to the 1920s, so it is said to be derived from the card game Bridge, which was popular during that time. Spades were the highest ranking suit in that card game, so the more spades you had, the more likely you were to win.

One of the advantages of being the highest ranking suit is that you don't need to bid one more than the opponents. The same number will do, and this was a lesson the three Souths who bid too many spades might have followed on this hand:

Four pairs made eight tricks in spades and four made nine or more, so the defence strayed on occasion. At our table, where the auction began 1C-Pass-2C, South bid 4S which ended the auction. I would bid 2S, but have no problem with 3S. If East-West compete to 3C you can then go to 3S. Accurate defence holds declarer to eight tricks. 

It is worth noting that partner could not bid.
Gregory: Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
Holmes: To the curious incident of the 1H overcall.
Gregory: There was no 1H overcall.
Holmes: That was the curious incident.

Liz Clery and Ken Barnett had the top on the board when the defence against 4S doubled was very poor, with West leading the ace of hearts and then the ace of clubs. Now he played for East to have a singleton heart by playing another one, but when South had the singleton both diamonds went away. Anti-percentage as South is unlikely to have three hearts.

Andy Clery was the culprit, giving his sister an early Xmas present, but he did not discriminate and many of the other members received seasonal gifts during the evening. Next week is the Woodberry Christmas party and I hope that Andy will be in as generous a mood then!

The noblest art is that of making others happy― P.T. Barnum of Barnum's Circus

The Strip by Foxymoron

Americans like to have different words to us. A strip is a steak which we call sirloin. In the nineteenth century, striploin was a cut of meat in the US and now a New York Strip is famous.  Another interesting expression is The Strip, for a series of casinos in Las Vegas, the other side of the city to downtown. This seems to get its name from Sunset Strip, a stretch of the Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

In bridge, the strip (or strip squeeze in full) is a declarer technique which is usually a two-loser situation in which the opponent is stripped down to all working cards and then thrown in to be endplayed.

Nobody made 12 tricks on this hand, from the weekly game last night, and it is not clear to do so. We began 1S-(2H)-Double-(4H)-4S and everyone passed, although I think that the EW save in 5H should be tried and would force NS to go on to 5S. 

I just ran the ten of clubs at some point and had to lose two clubs. The line to make 12 tricks is pretty. Say East leads a top heart. You win in dummy and finesse the spade and draw trumps. Now you need to run all the trumps but one so that East has to come down to KJx of clubs and two red cards. Now you need to extract his exit cards so you cash the top two diamonds throwing a club from North, and ruff a heart if necessary. Now for the coup de grâce. You lead a club from North. East has to win with the jack but is then endplayed. You need to read the ending and know how many clubs East has, and playing the last trump too soon is fatal.

The phrase coup de grâce not unexpectedly comes from French, around 1690, and originally meant a merciful stroke finishing off a fatally wounded person, but in most games and sports it now just means the winning move or play.

Ruff and Sluff by Foxymoron

Pevensey Bay

The Woodberry Bridge Club held its traditional tournament at Eastbourne this weekend, and despite the wet weather, several hardy souls and one dog walked along the promenade to Pevensey. The event was splendidly organised by Shelley Shieff with the bridge being directed well by Nigel Freake and a good quiz run by Stefanie Rohan.

"Bridge is sixty percent bidding" is a quotation attributed to the great multiple world champion Benito Garozzo. Unfortunately, even good rules cannot help you reach the right contract, and on the following hand, Four Spades was quite a bit less than 60%, around 30% in fact.

I am all in favour of opening 11-counts at matchpoints, but the lack of intermediates might have deterred me on the West hand, but my partner opened 1D. North overcalled 1H and East doubled which in our methods showed four or more spades. South raised to 2H and this came back to East, who doubled again, still takeout. Now West bid 2S, and East, with a six-loser hand, raised to game in the known 3-5 fit. North led a heart and declarer played on trumps, North winning the second round. Now North exited with a club and declarer had nothing other than drawing the trump and playing a diamond to the king. An alternative and equally unsuccessful line was to duck two rounds of diamonds. Declarer could test North a little by cashing the ace and king of clubs, crossing to the ace of hearts, ruffing a club and only then playing ace and another spade. Now North has to find the winning defence of conceding a a "ruff and sluff". It is not clear where the phrase comes from but seems to have been invented by Oswald Jacoby. A ruff is a rare bird, and to sluff is to discard one's skin if a snake, but the combination of the two means a ruff and discard. When the opponents have a 4-4 fit, this is usually the right defence, as the fourth card is usually a winner anyway.