Kickoff KO: Day Two, Cont'd

So we're in the semifinals now, and we draw a team of four women. There was absolutely nothing interesting in this match, which tends to bode well for the better team. We were up 27 at the half, so there you go.

My LHO clearly hadn't gotten the memo about the STOP card, because she could not have used it more improperly. It was annoying at the time, but one of my favorite moments was when she opened 1C and her partner bid 1S. When the bidding got back to her, she went into the tank for about a minute. Then she pulled the STOP card from her bidding box and laid it on the table...and proceeded to do nothing for another minute.

When she finally decided on 4S (I would've been especially amused had she not made a skip bid), she left the STOP card on the table until my partner asked her to remove it so we could get on with the auction. And thank goodness she was so emphatic about that STOP business, because her partner took her seriously and forgot to bid the cold slam. Win 11:) That's what you get for bad bidding behavior.

The final was, again, not so interesting. Throughout the first half, I was the one faced with most of the decisions. I didn't think any of them were real decisions (accept a game try with a bad 13? Invite game with a balanced 9 opposite a 3rd seat opening? Compete to 4 of a minor at unfavorable vulnerability?), but unfortunately, the logical actions in all these situations (no, no, and no) turned out to be wrong. Sigh. Not that it's necessarily wrong to bid the way I chose, but I know that players at this level tend to bid ridiculous games and only exercise restraint when they really shouldn't, so I was concerned that we were adding up a lot of negative swings.

At halftime, I estimated that we were taking a minus 20 card back to our partners. Little did I know, our teammates had just piled up a flawless card. Well, flawless enough. We did lose 10 on one of the boards where I opted to stop short of game, but that was our only minus score and we were up 52 to 10 after the first twelve boards.

According to our teammates, the opponents at their table were experiencing some sort of meltdown. Given that we'd all been at the bridge table for more than twelve hours by then (counting the dinner break...), we sort of hoped the others would want to withdraw. One of them did, but she got outvoted. I overheard her on the way back to our teammates' table saying "I don't want to play those guys anymore! I don't understand them!" Heh.

So we hunkered down for twelve more hands of bridge, just hoping to stay awake enough not to fall on our swords.

The set went by pretty quickly at our table, with the only interesting deal coming on the very last hand. Pard was dealer and we were unfavorable. I held: xx KQTxx xxxx Qx

The auction:
1N(15-17) (P) 2D(transfer) (3C -- after a loooong tank)

Then pard goes into the tank and I'm thinking, oy, just pass, them making 3C will be at worst a lose 6. Then, out comes 4H. Huh?

Did partner open 1N with a club void? 6 hearts? 26 points? I'm not sure where this bid came from, but when it passed out, I was just glad we weren't doubled. I don't think we're losing our lead, but it would be a shame to finish the match on a downer.

I watched the hand play out in disbelief. Pard had short(?!) hearts and a bad break to contend with, but LHO took exactly zero club tricks. Apparently that was partner's suit. I think the tank over 2D was lefty deciding whether or not to try a psych bid for the first time. Righty didn't get the joke and kept leading clubs when she got in, which my pard kept winning for ten whole tricks. I never did make sense of any of the bidding on this hand, and I didn't write anything down because I was too busy thinking what just happened?

Anyway, sorry I don't have any hands to share. The play on Tuesday was mostly boring and uninteresting, but I had a fantastic time with this team. It's good to know I can still whip up on Bracket VII players...

Both McKenzie and I finished the day with wins, and we decided to take the rest of the week off until we reunite with our Reston teammates, UK and Mullet, for the Sat-Sun KO.