(A) Favorable, 4th
K32 764 AT2 AQT3
LHO opens 2H, pass, pass to you. Do you move?
I reopened with a double and got us to 3N just in opposite pard's Jxx AKx Kxx Jxxx.
(B) All red, 2nd
98654 KQT AQ4 QT
RHO opens 1H. You overcall 1S [do you?], LHO bids a non-forcing 2C, check, check.
I balanced with 2D, which pard competitively raised to 3 for -200. Not the best bid I've ever made.
(C) All white, 1st
KQT63 --- 86532 Q83
Your bid.
I decided to open 2S. Partner bid an Ogusty 2N, and I jumped to 4D to show a side five-card suit. Pard got justifiably excited, and I was down two in six spades opposite Axx AKTxx KT ATx. I didn't feel too bad about this, because as the cards lie, proper defense would set four spades. Sadly, the opponents got to 3N at the other table, which made with the club onside.
Semifinals:
We met up with a pretty good team. At my table were Cheech and Chong (you may remember my runin with Chong a few years back; in a Gatlinburg Bracket 2 KO, he used Hesitation Bergen to get to a game [he had a 1453 seven-count; showed a 7-9 HCP raise over partner's 1H with 3C, and raised partner's slow 3H call-- in the words of Edgar Kaplan, "your partner's tempo robbed you of the chance to be brilliant."], got bitchslapped by the Director for blatant use of UI, and had the cojones to appeal. I do sort of miss the $50 to the ACBL Education Foundation for frivolous appeals...). Cheech seems like a pretty good guy, but I certainly wouldn't keep playing with someone like that, so there's a bit of a guilt by association thing going for him.
|
| 1N (P) 2♥ (X) 2♠ (3♥) 4♣ (P) 4♠ (All Pass) |
Other than that, nothing much spectacular happened, and we won the match 30-18.
So we made it in to the finals, and guess who else made it-- team Rodwell.
We decided we should put our best defenders against Meckwell, so the Mrs and I went up against Curtis Cheek and Reanette Froebuck. Curtis was on my left. Reanette was on my right. Rodwell was in my seat, and Meckstroth was in pard's.
We played boards 1-12. I sat West.
1: The opponents bid to a normal 3N, -430.
2: 75 AKJ2 T42 KJ95. Pard opened 1D, I bid 1H, and she rebid 1N (11-13 or a bad 14, doesn't deny four spades). Do you think this is worth a game bid? I decided that it was, but just barely. You know the opponents will be in it -- they haven't missed a 23-point 3N in decades -- and there should be some play for it. +400.
3: We accurately defended 4H for +50.
4: AKQT3 865 Q Q876. I opened 1S. Pard passed, and the opponents bid up to 5D. Pard led a high spade, and dummy was 2434 with Axx of diamonds and massive round-suit holdings. I led three rounds of spades, hoping to protect pard's Jxx of trump. It turned out not to matter-- she had J9x. +100.
5: A7653 J8 A2 AJ95. I opened 1S in fourth chair. Pard bid 2D, limit raise in spades (2C would've been natural). What's your call? I liked the multitude of bullets, so I made a minimal artificial game try with 2H. I could've made any Kokish game try starting with 2N, so this showed only very mild interest. Pard had heard enough, and leapt to 4S, just in. +420.
6: Q8432 KQJ84 87 8. Pard passed, Reanette opened 1N, I doubled to show a spade two-suiter, and Curtis shrugged this off to show a light invitation with five spades, which got raised to game. I'm not sure if double-dummy this should be set, but we certainly shouldn't have let it make five. Curtis played it really, really well... I wasn't sure that UK would be able to handle this one. -450.
7:
| 1♠ - 2♦ 2♥ - 2♠ 4♣ - 4N 5♣ - 5♦ 5♥ - 7♠ |
I opened a touch light, knowing my hand would be opened at the other table. Pard forced to game with 2D, I rebid 2H, and her 2S set trumps. I splintered with 4C. We'd agreed that actions like this are purely shape-showing and not showing extras. I decided to prove it once and for all... she asked for keycards. I showed one key, the queen of spades, and the king of hearts. That was enough for her and she put me in 7S.
What's your line of play here assuming trumps are no worse than 3-1?
I ruffed the KC lead in hand, led a spade to the ace (just in case they were 4-0 on my right), drew trumps (3-1 on my right), led a diamond to dummy, cashed another diamond, pitched my last diamond on the club ace, and claimed a beer. +2210.
8: We defended 3S when we were cold for three or four diamonds. I didn't like that much, but in the end we squeaked out a fifth trick. +50.
9: We got lazy on defense to 3C, and allowed an overberry. -130.
10: We got to 4S. Pard made a slight misplay-- with AQxx opposite KTxxx, she cashed the king first. No cost though. +650.
11: JT5 QJ KQJ73 853. The opponents bid 1D - 2C - 2N - 3N and it was my lead. Any thoughts? I decided to table the three of diamonds. My heart sank when declarer played low from Ax on the board, and sank further when partner produced the nine. Amazingly, the nine held-- pard had T9x and RHO had xxx. A diamond was returned, declarer finessed into partner's QT doubleton of clubs, and we ran diamonds. +50.
12:
| 1♦ (1♥) P (2♥) X (P) 3♦ (All Pass) |
The three of clubs was led around to my queen. It seemed that club ruffs were lurking, so I decided to play for trumps 2-2 or the queen of spades onside. I led out ace and a diamond. RHO had KQx, and LHO had AQ of spades, so I was down one. -50. Damnation.
We went to compare results. I said, "We weren't bad, but I'm not sure we have it." UK smiled and said "Then I think we have it."
On boards one through five, the same contract was played at both tables. Meckstroth overplayed board two for one imp. It was 0-1 after 5.
6: Pard and Meckstroth held -- T6 Q65432 KQ932. Mullet opened 1D in a weak notrump context, Rodwell overcalled 1H, UK bid 1S, and Meckstroth bid 1N showing clubs. This was doubled by Mullet's 17-count, pass, pass, 2C, double-- 800 for the good guys. There goes one of our soft results. Win 8.
7: In eight rounds of bidding (in which Rodwell also opened my 6430 nine-count), they got to six spades. Win 13. (Incidentally-- in 6S, Rodwell just drew trumps and took the diamond finesse. Is this the right line in six?)
8: The teemies let RM play 3D just in. Lose 2.
9. Our soft defense cost us an imp opposite UK's 3C making. Lose 1.
10. Same contract, same result. Push.
11. Ditto. Push.
12. In a highly competitive auction, Meckstroth took the push to 5D over UK's 4S. He also played ace and a diamond, but UK led ace and a spade to begin, so that was just 300 for us. Win 6.
When all was said and done, we'd won 27-4.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment