Cocktail Bridge

nedjelja, 20.02.2005.

Talk with Justin Lall

How would you like to describe yourself for blog readers in Croatia?
I am a 19 year old bridge professional. I love the game and most of my friends come from the bridge world. I am generally outgoing and a good teammate and partner. I do have a bad temper and sometimes "explode" which is not a good quality :(. I am an intense competitor and put high expectations on myself. Anything less than winning disappoints me, and sadly in bridge you usually don't win.

Your family plays bridge a lot. Tell me please about it. Do they help you?
My mom and dad are both excellent players. My dad has won multiple national championships, and been in the finals of either the Spingold or Vanderbuilt (I'm not sure which). My mom has been 2nd in the national mixed pairs and is also an excellent player. Early on I used to beg my mom to let me play at the club on a school night. She would let me 1 night a week as long as I promised to go over the hands with her after the game. This helped me enormously and I learned a lot. As I got better my father helped me out quite a bit. He taught me a lot of the more "advanced" things, mainly about deceptive play. I still discuss bridge regularly with both of them, and am lucky to have them as resources to go to.

Describe me please your fondest bridge memories?
Winning in Sydney was my best bridge memory. Standing on the podium with medals around our neck while our national anthem played was about the best feeling I could ever have. The final was against a great team and went into overtime. Hard to ask for anything more.

Tell me your impressions from Sidney. Which opponents you played against could be world experts one day?
The Polish team that we played against in the finals was extremely good. I have no doubt that all of them will be superstars eventually. Canada also had three very strong players, Gavin Wolpert, Vince Demuy, and David Grainger. All three are always contenders in US national events already, and are only getting better. The French team had some very solid players as well. The Poles definitely impressed me the most though.

How is US junior team selection made? What are your successes so far with it?
The junior team is ostensibly picked via a team trials where anyone is free to compete. However, in the most recent trials and the one before the defending medalists were automatically allowed to play as USA 1 and pick their third pair. Joe Grue, John Kranyak, Joel Wooldridge, and John Hurd picked Ari Greenberg and I as their third pair for Australia, so I never actually had to win the trials. Since we won, I was automatically selected to go to Thailand this year. I have not played very much junior bridge, but I did play the world junior pairs in Hungary and finished a disappointing but respectable 22nd. In Sydney I won the gold medal for the world junior teams. I have 7 more years as a junior and hope to have more success in the junior bridge world.

How do you see yourself in 5 and 15 years?
Who knows what the future holds, but I hope to win some ACBL nationals. I have been top 10 about half a dozen times but have not gotten a win yet. I also hope to do well in junior bridge and set a good example when I am one of the older juniors in 5 years. In 15 years I hope to be one of the top players in the world.

Tell me more about your decision to choose bridge pro career? How is it going on so far?
I knew I wanted to play professionally when I was about 15. I thought I had the talent and tempermant, and I really would hate to sit in an office all day. Bridge is what I love and I feel very fortunate that I am able to play professionally. Right now it is going well, but I need to find more sponsors (what pro doesn't?). I love what I do.

How do you prepare yourself for tournaments? Do you have a traineer/mentor? Some kind of training?
Usually I just practice with whatever partner I am going to be playing with online. Mentally I never like to feel rushed, so I get to the playing area with plenty of time to spare. I then try to psyche myself up by visualizing myself winning the event and beating my opponents. I always drink a Coke before a session, the caffine helps me stay alert. I also do a lot of bridge problems from books before I go to a major tournament to warm myself up.

Do you analyze your play during tournaments? What topics and how?
I usually go over the boards after a session (unless I am too tired) and analyze what went wrong and what went right. If there was any particularly hard decision I had to face, I ask other good players for advice. Sometimes there are very complicated hands that you don't have time to analyze fully, and I tend to go over those as deeply as I can. Whenever I see I got a bad board (lost imps or a low scoring matchpoint board) I ask myself if it was bad luck or a bad decision by my partner or myself. If I made an error, I will ask myself why and try to correct that in the future.

How do you handle stress and bad results on boards? How do you handle TD rulings you get?
I have played a lot of bridge and come to a realization. Bad boards will happen. What should not happen is your play being affected on the next board because of a bad board you had. One of my great strengths as a player is getting over bad boards. I can go -1700 and still play my best bridge on the next board because I know that's what I need to do. Just put it out of your mind. This is very important if you want to be a successful player. Try to remember everyone else will be having a few bad boards, you are not alone! As for TD rulings, I rarely call the TD. I am of the opinion that the TD is called too much and in general the players should just play. If there is a ruling, I usually agree with it. TD's know what they're doing. If it's a bad ruling, I know I can appeal so it's not a big deal.

What is your day routine during long and hard bridge tournaments (like San Antonio / Sidney with US team)
Tournament life is sort of surreal. Generally in USA the session times are 1:00 PM and 7:00 PM. So I will generally get up at noon (lol), shower, and go to the playing area. I'll play, eat in between sessions while going over hands with friends/peers. I may take a short nap in my room if there is time, then go play again. Once the session is over, as a 19 year old and a night owl I like to have fun at nights. Often there are poker or barbu games going, or sometimes if we're in an exciting city we'll go out. I generally get to bed at about 3 AM!! But remember, I get to wake up at noon :) I am always exhausted at the end of a tournament though.

Your experiences with bidding systems - Any tip for improving players? How do you tailor your system?
My tip about bidding systems for improving players is don't worry about them! Develop good judgement and sound natural bidding and work on your card play. Esoteric conventions do not matter very much in the long run. I do very well with most partners with natural methods, and think they're fine. I do play a strong club with my dad, and think it's a better system if you're willing to work on it. With casual partners though, keep it simple.

Will you come to play European tournaments? Would you like to come to Pula festival in september ?
It is expensive for me to go to Europe without a sponsor, and few sponsors go over there from here. I may go to Verona this year. I love Europe and try to go as often as possible.

Do you have a bridge story to share?
When I was 11 years old I had just learned DONT. I was told in MP it's very important to get your major in, so when I picked up 4 hearts and 9 clubs and RHO opened 1N, I bid 2C DONT! (clubs and a higher ranking suit). LHO Xed me for penalty, and partner bid 2D asking what my second suit was. Now...I thought if they Xed 2C they would surely X 3 so I just rebid 3C instead of showing my hearts. LHO Xed. It was passed around to me, and I thought I was making so I XXed! Everyone passed and I made 5. In the post mortem my LHO accused my partner of giving a wrong explanation and I said "What are you talking about, I had a 4 card heart suit!" lol.

20.02.2005. u 09:00 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

nedjelja, 13.02.2005.

Mali fit 2

Jedan bord iz Cassandre u četvrtak koji me i naveo na ovu temu. Našli smo najbolji kontrakt u 4-3 fitu. Moram pohvaliti partnera za dobru procjenu!

West	North	East	South
-	-	-	pass
pass	1	pass	1
pass	pass	2	pass
pass	2	pass	pass
pass

West nije dopustio da igramo na prvom nivou te je malo pogurao sa četiri herca. Došla je nezgodna ataka pik:

A Q 3

7 5 3

A Q 5 4

6 4 3

10 8 6

Q J 6

K 10 9 6

J 10 8

K 9 4

A 10 8 6

J 7 3 2

A 5

J 7 5 2

K 9 2

K Q 9 7 2

Propustio sam pik do kralja i uzeo pik povrat na stolu. Igrao sam tref do kralja i napravio karo impas koji je držao. As pik je izvukao protivničke adute nakon čega je slijedio As karo i tref za Westovog asa. Karo povrat sam porezao i trefovi su visoki za +140. Sreća da svi impasi leže!

13.02.2005. u 12:51 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

subota, 12.02.2005.

Mali fit

Na paru često najbolji rezultat može donijeti igranje u 4-3 fitu, tzv. Moysianu. Ako se uspije nešto porezati evo prednosti nad salom koja igra kontrakt u bezadutu. Tajna je ostati dovoljno nisko, partner i ja smo probali zadnji put igrati slem. Istina u 3-1 fitu pa to nije tema ovog teksta.

West	North	East	South
-	-	1	pass
1	X	2	2
pass	3	pass	pass
pass

A 7 6 3

Q 8

A 3

A J 5 3 2

9 8 4

K 10 7 5 4 2

7 5

Q 4

Q 10 5

K Q J 10 9 6

9 7 6

K J 2

J 9 6 3

8 4 2

K 10 8

Atak karo uzmete odmah asem da slučajno East ne da Westu porez. East markira sa kraljem karo! Impas pik drži i kad igrate kralja pik oba protivnika prate. Odigrate asa pik i obojica imaju pik 3-3 dakle devet štihova je doma. East je otvorio, ima očito KQJ u karonu. Ako su figure herc razlomljene (As kod jednog i kralj kod drugog) sa damom pik kod Easta dama tref je vjerojatno kod Westa. Napravite impas tref i povučete trefove za deset štihova i rezultat malo iznad prosjeka!

Istom linijom igre imate i deset štihova u bezadutu ali taj kontrakt je teško pronaći. Istina karte leže jako loše za EW par - kontra na bilo koji njihov kontrakt je isplativija. To je top rezultat na bordu.

12.02.2005. u 22:38 • 0 Komentara • Print • #