Round 12 arrived with the quintessential Bridge World problem. Here we were, USA Blue, well ahead of the pack. USA Red, after a favorable director's ruling, was in 6th seemingly next on the chopping block. This is a situation that's seen many times in sporting competition. You might think of it as analagous to a baseball team in mid-September who is well out of the playoff race going up against a wild card contender. Why even show up for the game? Well... there's a code in baseball. It's that when you set foot on the diamond you play, and play the right way. If a last place team were to just lay down at the feet of their opponents it wouldn't be fair to their competitor(s) who may have faced the underdog earlier in the season, when they still had something to play for. This creates a skewed result.
In our situation there were several angles to consider. We might shell out points to our compatriots, allowing them to qualify for the knockout stage where if they'd played a team who couldn't afford to they might receive a less-than favorable result. Is this an unfair result or not? If we consider the code of conduct for a sportsman, Jeff Rubens has argued that the sporting person (or team) will take the action that gives them the greatest advantage over their opponents, if the rules so allow. If there are no rules against dumping to an opponent, we might be well-advised to allow USA Red to beat us soundly, knocking another good team from the top 8 and giving us a relatively soft opponent to play in the quarterfinals. So perhaps the directors would be right to disallow our match. But is the latter solution best? Sure it avoids ethical dilemmas--including those faced by our captain, Howie Weinstein, who has to decide what advice to give us--but if we were to play soundly against USA Red, then skipping our match is an undue reward to them since they would not have to play arguably the best team in the tournament, unlike their competitors. Is this problem insoluable?
In the end USA Red was spared, but was blitzed by the team they played in our place. It's now our sole responsibility to carry the torch of USA Junior bridge. Here is the last hand from our match in the penultimate round:
A note about the auction. 4NT is always blackwood for Jason. Whether this should be blackwood for clubs or hearts is unclear. I might have set hearts by bidding 4D over 3H, but for simplicity's sake maybe the last-bid suit in an ambiguous auction is best. Furthermore, maybe 4H shows a 7th heart, which would clearly make me more interested. I might have bid 4C over 2S to set trump, what would you do? I intended 6C as 'to play' since I knew the wheels had come off. However, the ch00 ch00 train could not be derailed and, taking my 6C bid as asking for the queen of that suit, Jason leapt to grand. Note S's error in doubling 7H. I would pull to 7NT almost surely anyway, since if Jason's hearts were good enough to make grand then 7NT must roll as well, and maybe even sometimes when 7H does not. But still, doubling a contract which you know to be going down that will already be a tremendous pickup in this situation is a serious lapse in judgement. Now, on to the play.
If I were on Vugraph I might have claimed at trick 1. As it was, when N showed out of hearts I was 100% to make the contract on a simple squeeze played as a double. After cashing the ace of hearts and queen of clubs, the run of the clubs will destroy either N or S (N in the pointeds, S in the majors). As my boy Clyde Love would say, "a load that would be too heavy for both defenders cannot possibly be carried by one alone."
We finished the day by coming full circle. Being more than 25VP clear of 2nd place, we were forced to play a team that was mathematically eliminated from qualifying. As it was, the directors had us play the Irish girls for a 2nd time. This time around, with nothing to lose but our perfect record, Howie put us in and I was able to wow the girls with my Irish language skills. We blitzed in the end, so now sit at 13-0 going into the knockouts tomorrow. Jason and I will be in the first set, and I feel ready.
::Insert joke about "double squeezing" some Irish girls here::
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a fun auction to hash out. Well played.
...reading comprehension FTW. Looks like you squeezed some dudes. Much less interesting imo.
ReplyDeleteStill a nice hand. Cool that you can claim at T1.
Getting exciting!
ReplyDelete