E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead: 
2
dickfu 7 K 8 7 5 3 Q 10 9 8 6 3 2 |
||
| SKLai K 10 9 8 4 2 10 6 5 4 9 8 3 |
![[W - E]](http://gee.aaronhaspel.com/files/2012/10/t.gif) |
hubert Q 6 5 3 A Q 4 J A K Q 6 4 |
| Maestro A J J 9 2 A K 7 2 J 10 7 5 |
| West
Pass |
North
2 |
East
Dbl |
South 1NT Pass Dbl |
At the Chronicles we welcome dialogue and dissent. Today the noted expert shotgun, perhaps unaware that this entire site is a tribute, speaks up in defense of our hero. –Ed.
To all who have read the poison pen of Evil Aaron (E.A.), it is time for someone to speak in defense of the expert and gentleman Gerard Cohen (Gee). He is kind enough to let you spec him and learn from him. Yet some of you repay him by harassing him and making fun of him. My mama once said if you don’t have anything nice to say, you should not say anything at all. Also, to quote something else, he who hath never made a bad bid or play should cast the first aspersion. These Chronicles are merely a collection of some bad boards in Gee’s illustrious career as a teacher and a player on OKBridge. And even these are mainly his partner’s fault, along with some bad luck. Even players of Gee’s stature will take a zero now and then.
What E.A. has done is to collect all these bad results, without any acknowledgement of the thousands of good results that Gerard has collected over the years, to besmirch his good name. Today, for instance, we have a disaster that E.A. would reflexively blame on Gee. Let’s subject it to some objective analysis.
Gee opens a weak notrump and his partner bids two hearts, neglecting his longest suit. When you are going to play a part score, go for your best fit: who cares if it’s a major or minor at IMPs? If North bids his diamonds first, Gee will know when the opponents reach the spade game to bid 5D, down only one. Instead North bids his hearts and then bids diamonds at the three level, showing a good hand with more hearts than diamonds. When four spades comes around to Gee, he is looking at the top of his notrump range and his partner has bid twice, promising at least 8 or 9 points. The opponents can’t possibly be making 4S and Gee doubles, as any expert would.
Fu leads his stiff club, on which Gee drops the ten. Declarer plays trump. Gee grabs the ace and leads another club away from his jack. The 9 holds, Fu is unable to ruff, and declarer claims 6. Skeptics may criticize Gee for not holding it to 5. But he needed a way to beat the hand and was looking for the extra spades that his partner showed during the auction. What’s another doubled overtrick at IMPs?
This is not to blame dickfu either, a fine player in his own right. These hands very rarely come up and are quite difficult to judge. My purpose is to make sure that everyone realizes that Gee is being wrongfully made fun of on this website and in his spec. This has to stop.
Yes indeed, another fine example of the crew captainizing itself. Having limited his hand with his opening bid, and having heard his partner scream red suit weakness (with the actual 5-6 rather than the 6-5 advertised), Gee has probed deeply into the auction and found a rare theme in the hand. Acting accordingly, he has taken control not only of the auction, but the defense as well. After the club lead it is reasonable to expect partner to hold three trumps in any fifteen card hand, so that he will ruff the club, follow Gee’s suit preference spot card to return a diamond to Gee, and receive a second club ruff, neatly beating the hand. This double-dummy defense will net a plus score any time dickfu is 3561 or 3651. It is this second level reasoning that sets Gee apart from the average expert, and as Gunner implies Gee should not be chastised for exercising his imagination, but rather canonized for his great intestinal fortitude in not only knowing when to take over as captain, but having the guts to do so in actual competition.
Shotgun’s defense of Gerard in this commentary only confirms what many of us have thought all along, that he would be a perfect and respectful partner for Gerard. Gerard deserves Shotgun and vice versa. So when will you play with him Gunnie?
When the neurosurgeon rejects the Tampa Dumpster (aka shotgun) for a lobotomy, to cure his bridge ills, because of the surgeon’s limit of 5 standard deviations, it is a sad situation. Similarly, when defined limits have been cast aside that far in bridge, there is no cure. This hand illustrates that also. One limited hand and another with non-invitational values with 10+ red cards means not too many defensive tricks, particularly in those suits. My tutoring may not cure the TD of his ills but Leah’s suggestion of a TD-Gee partnership may well be the only solution if that be the case.
I must not be comprehending the extra defensive values of AKxx of diamonds. Hold on a sec… let me read the analysis again…
I read the analysis again but I am getting stuck at this part: “Skeptics may criticize Gee for not holding it to 5. But he needed a way to beat the hand and was looking for the extra spades that his partner showed during the auction.” I don’t think criticism should wait for skeptics to come into town… I would like “pass” giving a competing partner the chance to save or what the heck? take 11 tricks on a lucky day by not showing defensive values to double 4S (which is what South has). I could even sympathize with 4NT giving a choice of saves with AKxx of diamonds and Jxx of hearts But X? Uh, oh, lemme see, I can’t find it in the list of available bids. Cheers ;)
The heck with lobotomies, captaining and the rules of the game, good old shotgun had the pizzazz and the patubies to stand up for a buddy he felt was being unjustly maligned. One other concerned friend wondered how extensive poor Shotgun’s oral surgury costs would be noting his tongue must be deeply embedded in his cheek. I say a mass collection is in order — one good deed deserves another. BRAVO, GUNSTER!!!! A shining example of how one kind act sires another.
My regular partner and I would bid this hand identically up to the point of the double. We use 2D as game forcing stayman and 2H as drop dead. Bidding diamonds later says a weak red hand and the actual distribution is at least possible. I must admit that I am not intimately familiar with the Gerard-Dickfu system but if were me doubling and expecting to take diamond trick I would hold partner blameless.
Perhaps Gee’s comments in the rehash divulged what he expects in THEIR system.
Hoping to find my handle in a google search!
Patience, Grasshopper. Google comes to all of us eventually.
Or …a googol is a lot and a googolplex is more.
Sorry, I have to disagree. The bad results falls on G. Even if responder is showing some values, which I don’t necessarily believe it does in this auction, to put it bluntly, G is not the captain. Responder knows G’s hand. He is in charge. G should pass.
Incidently, I think 2d was not available to responder in this auction because it would have been a game forcing stayman bid. So the way he bid it makes sense.