Meck, Me & Meager HCP’s

Hi Folks!

Looking for a Louisville warm-up hand?  Here’s one that you might try.  Or it also should be SUITable if you want to stay nice and warm at home.  But first —

Have you heard about the recently announced online “Partnership Desk” program that is a mutual “undertaking” between the ACBL and the associated funereally adept federal govts of its members?

You may be familiar with the incredibly accurate govt estimates of many measurements that are stated as ranges.  An example is each politician’s gross loot.  Sometimes, it is expressed in exponential ranges (say in $’s) such as <10⁴,10⁴-10⁵,10⁵-10⁶,10⁶-10⁷, >10⁷, etc.  Well, I guess such types of data certainly are more than good enough for govt or ACBL work.

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Like zillions of other web functions, the new whiz-bang procedure matches people or facsimiles thereof called bridge addicts.  I’m interested in hand-shaking progress so I filled out the form.  I supplied the requested “accomplishments” and “style” ranges as follows:

World Championships: <10¹

Master Points: 10⁵-10⁶

Bidding Exuberance: >10^infinity+1

Amazingly, a few matches were close enough for the afore-mentioned govt/ACBL work.  One involved someone whose Bidding Exuberance range was “only” 10^infinity-10^infinity+1.  (Of course, some novice analysts believe that these ranges should NOT be ultra high for both pards.  Obviously, they have no concept of POWER BIDDING.)  Other than that our ranges matched perfectly!!!  This one was a guy named Meck.  Actually, he had a much longer name, but my brain is so cluttered w/ preempts, overbids, psyches, etc., that I didn’t have room for the rest of the letters.

Any statistics expert who is worth his weight in masterpoints can verify that all of this is a slam-dunk, and a grand one at that!  Naturally, or artificially, we were both eager to try out this system.  It happens that a friend of his named Rod something or other was also a great match.  I heard them say something about “Spare the Rod, and …”  Anyway, he played at the other table in a FL Regl Swiss T4.  At the end of another grueling iron player bridge-a-thon, this hand popped into existence:

   

North (Meck) ♠  A 7 5 4 3 ♥  — ♦  A K 7 5 2 ♣  8 6 3

South (Al) ♠  K Q J 6 2 ♥  A 10 9 8 3 ♦  10 3 ♣  5

  

NS Vul. S dealer. IMPs (Big surprise!)

 

My recollection of the spots may be spotty, but once again, they are close enough for ACBL work.  Naturally, neither of you has the spade T, 9, or 8.

 

 

The bidding spun upward at the expected rate:

South	West	North	East
1 ♠	4 ♣	5 ♠	Pass
6 ♠	Float

 

Strange game — this thing called bridge.  Some peculiar players don’t think 10 HCP is enough to open, even with other great alibis such as in this collection.  However, before the first round of bidding was over, I knew that Meck apparently mainly cared how spectacular my club(s) were.  There was a good chance that my HA would be great for discarding on my pard’s diamonds and/or spades.

Not only that, w/ merely 2 diamonds, I probably could set up his suit even if he was being exuberant again (e.g., no DQ, no super length, etc).

BTW, I could also see that apparently Meck only wants me to have Kxxxx (maybe w/ a Q and/or J for laughable duplication, maybe on rare occasions semi-so, if an 18-wheeler were needed to roll this thing home) in a suit & out elsewhere to open.  This guy really must be a great player!  So w/ probably 3-6 working points, naturally I bid slam, expecting (hoping?) that it would be gin.

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The play:

[For what it’s worth: It appeared that our opps might have been Flt. B or C players.  I didn’t remember having played against them.  Probably I’ve played in enough non-Northern FL Regl events (even disregarding bracketed KO’s) to meet up w/ a lot of the rather frequent players – quite a few times in many cases.]

T. 1&2: W played CAK w/ E playing the 2 and then the 7.

Assume that they play standard defense w/o a way to ask for count at high levels.

What is your plan?

Oh yeah, one other thing before you start.  Reportedly, Meck swings a mean golf club, or actually a whole bunch that are in his bag of tricks.  He doesn’t seem to have those weapons at the table, but they might be in his car or hotel.  It seems advisable to make this thing by the book, or by hook, or by crook, or by even a menacing look.  Otherwise, you’ll be lucky to be playing even in “club” games.

What’s your plan, w/ some detail for eventualities, please?

Go to it!

 

Al the Plumber