March 25th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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When I was playing on a regular basis I often was approached by people to fix up a pair or team. As I had played throughout much of the country and Canada, I generally was able to have players of roughly equal ability. Many times I fixed up a pair or team that did very well, and this often cost me finishing in a higher position. I already wrote up one such incident in Tales of the Giant Crab -7. In 1965 I had a date to play with Harlow Lewis in the open pairs in a sectional in York, Pa. Harlow was frequently on my team, but we rarely were partners. Meanwhile, on Friday evening I talked to a friend of mine, Don Smolen, about going to the tournament. The problem was he didn’t have a partner. I asked him if he would play with Diane Aiken, (who became fairly soon after this Diane Lazarus). He said Yes. I happened to know where Diane was that night and called her to arrange for her to play with Don in the event. Harlow and I had two very good sessions. Soon after the sheets had been posted Don came up to me and said, “We won.” I asked him, “Do you mean Harlow and I won? “No,” he said. “Diane and I won.” Again I had come in second to an entry that never would have played in the event if I hadn’t arranged it .
In 1974 I had a date to play in the national mixed pairs with Helen Utegaard with whom I had played twice before. We had won both regional mixed pairs in which we had played. Unexpectedly, I had an opportunity to play professionally. I asked Helen if she would mind playing with a fine player who was a friend of mine, Gerald Caravelli. She agreed to play with him instead of me. In the interim my sponsor had to pull out. I obtained a good partner, but we did not do well. However, Helen and Gerald won the event.
March 23rd, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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If you open one of a major and your partner makes a minimum raise on the two level a new suit or something like short suit game tries should be used most of the time as a game try. A bid of three of the agreed upon major with no competition should show long trumps. It is a very weak game try and may be semip[remptive. Responder should bid game only with the very top of her bid and not soft values. Example: Opener should have something like 8, KQ10864, QJ108, KQ. To accept responder should have something like J53, A74, A832, J94. Of course, in a competitive auction the original opener may not have a choice of choosing game tries.
March 18th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Many bridge players think I an from Philadelphia as I learned how to play started and being successful when I lived there. However, most of my very good friends are aware that I was born and brought up in Boston. As my mother lived there virtually her whole life until she passed away in 2007 at the age of ninety six, I often looked for an excuse to go there. In 1969 Boston had its usual Labor Day regional. I talked Don Faskow who was from Pittsburgh into going. Most importantly, probably the best of Philadelphia’s female players at the time, Helen Smith and Gloria Cohen (soon to be Rabinowitz) also agreed to go as the the final event was a mixed team. We were successful only in that as our team won the event.
I was staying in Boston for a few days after the tournament ended, but Helen and Gloria had reservations to fly back that night. I had managed to get a bridge player friend of mine from the area, Marshal Spitz, to agree to drive them to the airport so they wouldn’t miss their plane. Throughout the tournament Marshall had parked in an alley behind some apartment buildings nearby. I agreed to walk the three of them to Marshall’s car. Evidently some of the building’s residents were upset at Marshall’s having parked in their space for almost a week. When we got to his car we found it encrusted with manure.
At that point Gloria and Helen didn’t have time to find another ride or a cab. They had to keep the car’s windows open and their hands on their noses to keep out the smell throughout the almost half hour ride to the airport. Gloria now thinks it was hilarious. I doubt if she felt that way then.
March 15th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Try to have a consistent tempo. If you find that too difficult at least vary your tempo in various random situations. Don’t let your opponents easily judge what you have by your tempo or demeanor in the speed of your bidding. Suppose vul against non vul you open one heart with 5, KQJ964 KQJ9, A4, it goes two hearts by your partner and RHO bids two spades . You have an automatic four heart bid, but if you bid it as soon as you can, your opponents may judge you expect to make it and may bid four spades which they regard will be a good save that may even make. If you make your bid more slowly they may not do so hoping to set you.
In a similar, situation say you have QJ9A, AJ7543, A85, A. This has the same high card points as the previous hand. It is a worse hand for making your contract but much better for your side’s defense. If you bid up to four hearts slowly your opponents may not bid four spades the save. If you were to bid four hearts quickly and confidently, your opponents may bid four spades to save. You may not even make your contract, but surely can beat theirs Don’t act this way consistently. It is coffeehousing or may be conveying illegal information to your partner, but if you vary your speed randomly it is not.
March 11th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Long after we won our first tournament together, Mike Carson married and decided to run a duplicate game in Hollywood, Florida which is between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. In 1972 I was going to be playing in the same general area in Miami Beach’s Southeastern tournament. Mike and I played together only in the life master pairs which we won. I played professionally for the rest of the tournament, but we planned that I would stay with the Carsons for a while after the tournament was over.
Especially in the afternoon Mike’s club had trouble attracting people to play in its game. Mike asked me to play with him in the afternoon game so he would have something for those people that were there and wanted to play in the game.
I played a hand very well. Mike got excited and exclaimed, , ” On a thousand top you would get a thousand!”,
Unfortunately, there was only a total of two tables. The pair at the other table holding our opponents’ hands had gone down a lot doubled so on a one top we received a zero on a one top.
The club had a lot more people so it had lot more tables for its evening game. I had arranged to play with Maxine Kramer, a decent player with whom I had played fairly often before she had moved there from Philadelphia.
To increase attendance Mike’ club offered a cash award for a pair having a 70% game. Mike asked us to forego the bonus. We agreed. It had been a wise move on Mike’s part as we easily topped 70%.
March 9th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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If your partner has opened a strong notrump and it is doubled showing presumably a balanced hand with more than fifteen points, it is incumbent upon you to run because you are able to easily judge which side has the balance of power. You may have four triple three with less than three points so your side is almost certainly going down. I have always found it it best for the responder’s redouble to be reserved as showing a desire to run. After all, the opener may have a five card or rarely even a six bagger.
If pass usually indicates the responder thinks the opener has at least a decent chance of making the bid. the opener with a maximum for the first bid, knowing their side has at least half the points, may double if the opponents run.
This is different if opener bids a suit. Then a redouble shows strength and generally asks the opener to either pass or double any suit the opponents may run to. Though it generally applied to contracts at higher levels, the Aces had a rule that we didn’t redouble our freely bid final contracts even though we should. The reasoning was that we felt we were better than the other team. Why give the opponents a psychological edge if some fluke occurred? If we didn’t have a huge a disaster we felt we would win.
You should work out a defense to a double that doesn’t show a good balanced hand such as Brozel. You should also be aware that your opponents are playing this.
March 6th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Until gambling became legalized in Atlantic City in the seventies very it had very few visitors from about Labor Day until after Memorial Day. Because of that the hotels were very inexpensive at that time. As the city was part of the Philadelphia unit, the Philadelphia Whist Association which later changed its name to the Philadelphia Contract Bridge League would often have one of its sectionals there in the early Spring or late Fall even though they didn’t draw many players.
In April, 1963 I won my first tournament by coming in first in a seven table mens pair there with Mike Carson. We still were still in college at the University of Pennsylvania. I had just turned twenty one. Mike was a little older.
We saw that we had won when the directors posted the results. We also noticed they had misspelled Mike’s last name. Being inexperienced, Mike was worried that because of this he wouldn’t receive the one and a half masterpoints he had won. I told him to tell the director. That was the famous Al Sobel who was chief national director as well as the author of Thirty Days, a column which appeared in the Bulletin monthly.
Mike went up to tell Al of the mistake. Al waved him away without listening. Mike waited for a while to approach again, but the same thing happened. Mike was determined.
As Al was ready to leave for the afternoon Mike went up to him saying, “I won the mens pair…”
Al interrupted him saying, “Won the mens pair? I thought you were one of my pick up boys.” (We call them caddies now.)
March 2nd, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Be aware of the advantage of having a long trump suit. Always reassess your hand when you know you have a fit. For example, assume the bidding goes one spade by you, two spades by partner, and four spades by you. Suppose you get an average dummy of KJ3, 9862, 10976, K8. You might have AQ109753, 3, KQJ8, Q or you might have AQJ76, K3, A74, A76.
With the first hand you will make your contract unless the opponents get a diamond ruff.With the second you probably won’t unless the heart ace is onside even though declarer has eighteen high hgh card points as opposed to the fourteen of the first hand.
It is easy to conprehend if you realize each of your long trumps will probably be equivalent to aces if you play the contract in that suit. If you have length in your partner’s suit there is a good chance your partner will be able to ruff a suit in a suit you have shortness gaining one or more extra tricks. If that doesn’t eventuate your length helps to obviate bad breaks in the suit or may help partner execute a strip and endplay.
The old Goren books told you to add points for length for a supported suit and told you to add more points for an outside singleton or void if you and your parner had found a fit so this idea is hardly original to me.
February 25th, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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Some time in the mid-sixties Bob Goldman, Mike Carson, Bill Landow and I played in a board a match team club team championship. I had played with all the other members of the team, and Billy and Mike had played as a pair often, but when the four of us lined up as a team our best arrangement seemed to have my playing with Mike and our pairing up Bobby and Billy.
On the first hand Mike opened one no trump. It went double. I bid two clubs which was running with a bad hand and clubs in in this sequence. My LHO passed. Instead of passing as he should have, Mike bid two diamonds. Which was promptly doubled. I bid three clubs which was also doubled so that became the contract. Luckily, I managed made it. After the hand was finished I asked Mike why he hadn’t passed two clubs since it hadn’t been doubled. Mike said, “because it wasn’t game.” It turned out Bobby and Billy had a mixup on the hand and had and went down redoubled. The only way for us to win the board was to bid and make a game as which we had somehow managed to do.
February 22nd, 2009 ~ Mark Blumenthal ~
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When it has been passed to you in the third or fourth seat your weak two bids may vary from what you would open in first or second seat because if you have eleven points or fewer it is very unlikely your side has a game. You should think defensively. You normally would pass a hand like SAQ1087, H54, DKJ96, C85, but in anything but unfavorable vulnerability you should open two spades to disrupt the opponent’s constructive bidding. If you have S76, HKQ753, DAJ5, C853 in fourth seat, the balance of points may rest with your side, but it is uncertain. Your hand is good enough to not want the hand passed out, but too bad for you to desire to allow the opponents to easily be able to exchange information at the two level.
Also, you don’t want your partner to think you have the values of a hand you would always open on the one level in first or second seat so you don’t want to bid again if partner would respond. By opening this hand two hearts you are, in effect, balancing in case it is your hand, but ensuring the opponents have to start at a higher level if you were wrong. If you are very cautious you should refrain from opening two hearts on this hand only if you are vulnerable.
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