Bridge of AngST

Sadly, this is my second and last day in Veldhoven but it has been interesting thus far. I’m currently in he vugraph theatre watching Italy vs China in the Quarter-finals now. Hoping to get an autogepah later!

http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/48130-world-team-championships-prediction-thread/

It’s that time of the year again.

Following the good work of Paul and Gerben in previous years, here is this year’s edition. (I’ve not seen anyone else starting the thread for this year’s if there is, apologies!)

Information about teams, draws can be found at http://www.ecatsbrid…nds/default.asp

As per the previous years:

BERMUDA BOWL
4 losing quarter-finalists (3 points each)
2 losing semifinalists (6 points each)
Runner-up (12 points)
The winner (24 points)

VENICE CUP
4 losing quarter-finalists (3 points each)
2 losing semifinalists (6 points each)
Runner-up (12 points)
The winner (24 points)

SENIORS BOWL
4 losing quarter-finalists (2 points each)
2 losing semifinalists (4 points each)
Runner-up (8 points)
The winner (16 points)

for a maximum of 160 points.

Entry Deadline: 2359 UTC, Friday 30 September 2011

Each entry should contain 8 teams for each of the three competitions, namely the four losing quarter-finalists, two losing semifinalists, runner up and winners. You can only have a single entry, but you may change your choice at any time before the entry deadline.

Each team will score the minimum of your placing for them and their final position, for example:
if you pick a team as a losing quarter-finalist but they win the competition, then you get the points for a losing quarter-finalist
if you pick a team as the winner but they lose in the final, then you get the points for the runner-up.

Entries will be accepted in this thread, through PM or comments on my blog. ‘Anonymous’ entries will be rejected. All accepted entries will published on Google Docs.

First Prize wins…er…bragging rights for the next 2 years

Good luck!

Tao Li splits from coach Barry Prime
Background: Tao Li (or Li Tao written the western way) is Singapore’s top national female swimmer. This is the second time that she has changed her coach in a year, leading to speculation to reasons why. The above is an interview of both her and her outgoing coach.

Some food for thought: The coach felt that she’s talented, but not disciplined enough, whereas she felt the programme as not challenging enough. There might be some parallels here worth looking at!

1. Very bad defending – possible the worst in a year or so.
2. Not so good moments in bidding as well.
3. Surprisingly slightly better than usual declarer play.
4. Directing a Friday evening session and a Saturday morning session, then playing in a 4-man team for the rest of the weekend is a pretty bad idea.
5. That aside, other than the last round, we didn’t get trashed badly in any of the 8 board matches at all, despite facing some of the stronger teams in the field.

It’s the Pesta Sukan weekend again!

I’ll be directing this evening’s Open Pairs and tomorrow morning’s Mixed Pairs, and thereafter playing in the Teams event. Last I heard there are 25 entries for the Teams including at least 3 overseas entries, which is something of a record.

Hoping for a smooth weekend. There should be vugraph on BBO for the semi-finals and finals of the teams event.

Without the hard work of everyone in the team/society, we would not have been able to:
- Have such a successful Inter-University Bridge Festival, although a huge thanks goes out to Darren as well!
- Reach the semis of the Portland Bowl
- Win the League Handicap Cup
- Retain First Division Status for the A Team, B team getting promoted back to Third Division

The sad thing is always having to say goodbye to people everyone as they graduate. So to Shanaal, thanks for the past 3 years!

Came across this article on the NY Times. The part about hitting a wall in improvement is very interesting – it should apply to bridge as well!

This got me thinking a bit: Perhaps all the post-mortem curry sessions after league matches/CPL have some effect! Well, I have certainly noticed Shanaal and Ankush (especially) improving so this can’t be all bad.

Maybe people should have supper more often on Monday/Friday nights in Bishan. Problem is, people are always rushing off to take the MRT!

I lied. I didn’t land in 6NT. Teammates at the other table and opps at my table did though!

K9x
xx
Axx
KQ9xx

AQTx
AQxx
KQJ
Ax

You get a lead of a diamond 8 after an auction which defenders are silent. LHO discards on the second round of clubs.

How do you play? Does the discard by LHO affect your play?

—————————————————

We (the A team) won the Portland Bowl match against Manchester A two weeks ago by 100-69 over 32 boards.

Also, last weekend was the Inter-University Bridge Festival, which thankfully went smoothly without any hiccups. Having said that, I wouldn’t have been able to organise it without the help of Darren!

Result are at (again, Darren did the hard part!)

Good bridging year for me it seems.

England U-25 Pairs: 3rd out of 14
London Easter Swiss Teams: 6th out of 79 (These two constituted one of the best weekends of bridge!)
Singapore U-26 Teams: 2nd out of 9

Felt some improvement after a rather inconsistent 2009. Better consistency and had more playing practice.

Currently reading Victor Mollo’s A case for the defence. Great read so far!

Happy New Year to everyone and all the best for the year ahead!

How would you play 6 Clubs with:
AQTxx
KJ
Kx
Qxxx

opposite

xx
xx
AQJx
AKJTx

on a lead of a low spade?

We had a tortured auction to 6 Clubs during which spades were supposedly cuebid by dummy and no one mentioned anything in hearts. I thus chose to play for clubs 2-2 by pitching 2 hearts on the diamonds…clubs broke 3-1. Should have just played for the lead to be from Kxxx! As it turns out, heart AQ was also onside.

This hand was expensive and cost 21 IMPs in the match when the other table was in 3NT making 12.