Instant Matchpoint Wrap-up: Meg & Mike

I played last night with a friend and first time partner named Mike. He's one of the best players in our area, and I was glad for the opportunity to play with him. Unfortunately, a time misunderstanding brought him to the club a little late, and we had literally no time to discuss our card. This was the extent of our discussion prior to the game:
"2 over 1, right?"
"Yeah. Upside-down carding?"
"Sure."
As the game went on and we got caught up, we also agreed to play 0314, 2-way Reverse Drury, Lebensohl, and semi-forcing 1NT. That was pretty much the extent of our agreement. Fun times!
We started off with a terrible round, and just an average second round, but things started looking up from there. If you have the booklet from the game, it might be easier for you to follow along, but I'll do my best to explain everything fully here. Here are some of the more interesting hands from our night. I sat South.

Board 1: All white, North deals
AK642 AT82 KQ2 8

At our table, the auction started:
3D (P) ?

Larry Cohen says that "Over [a diamond preempt], South will immediately think of game in diamonds..." Well, I disagree. This is matchpoints, after all, and I have a good hand with the majors. Perhaps I should have six for my 3S call, but I wanted to make a positive, forcing bid. I wasn't ready to ask for aces in pursuit of a diamond slam (this was our first board and we hadn't talked about our ace-asking conventions yet anyway!), and I certainly wasn't going to settle immediately for 5D when 4S might be the better contract. Unfortunately, when pard bid 4S, I didn't know if he had 2 or 3. I should've thought of that before I bid 3S...oops. -100 wasn't a very good score.

I got a chance to redeem myself on board 5. After a miserable first round, I guess Mike decided it was time to swing.

Board 5: N/S Vul, North deals

43 T8754 954 A74

1C (P) 1H (P)
1S (P) 1N (P)
3N

Uh-oh. I didn't like bidding 1N here, but what else can I do? I would've happily passed any of pard's bids but 1S, and fully intended to pass anything he did over my 1N, which would hopefully be pass. Then to make matters worse, I get an allegedly 4th-best lead of the club 9 (which obviously can't be 4th best when dummy comes down with QJT5 in the suit. Hmm. I played the queen and lost my only entry to my hand when righty covered. Here's the full dummy:

KQT9 AQ A32 QJT5

Anyone care to guess how this one went for us?

Board 10: All red, East Deals

A96 AK2 Q962 K62

(P) 1N (2C -Natural) 2H
(P) ?

Now, we've discussed that we play Lebensohl, but no more than that. So what's 2H? Well, with McKenzie, I play that systems are on over any X or 2C bid, and I assumed that was standard, so I took the transfer. I was down 400 in our 5-card fit, but the opponents are on for 4S, so it wasn't a total loss. Not sure they would have found 4S at our table, though.

Board 11: All white, South Deals

This is actually a problem for E, so I'll give her hand:
4 AKQ863 QT93 A8

P (P) P (1H)
P (3H) P (4H)

The dummy came down with: T875 JT75 AK K95

After she made the cold 6H, collecting only 43% of the matchpoints, she moaned "This is ridiculous! I only have 15 HCP!"

That made me laugh (on the inside). She has a known 10-card fit, only four losers in her own hand, and presumably three winners in her partner's hand. If they had sense enough to put Drury, one of the most valuable conventions in bridge, on their card, then perhaps East would have been more comfortable exploring for slam without overshooting. Still, with a known 10-card fit, and huge playing strength in her own hand, East should not be afraid of the five level. Not all slams require 33 HCP, and the way to win this game is to bid your 25-point slams and your 19-point games... when it's right.

By the end of round three, we'd made it almost back up to average. We were playing seven four-board rounds.

Here was a weird one from round 4:

Board 15: N/S Vul, South Deals
K8643 53 T7 AKJT

P (1H) 2D (X)
XX* (2S) P (P)
?

Again, we've had very little discussion about our card. In my mind, XX was "I have some stuff and am interested in penalizing one of their suits." I would expect partner to double West's next bid with a good hand, or pass with a weak hand, so I can know what to count on him for defensively. I haven't necessarily shown support, but I have shown a hand that has somewhere to run. But pard alerted my XX and called it a "support redouble." I'm not really sure that such a convention could be on here -- what does partner think I've shown? Only 2 diamonds? Values and willingness to play 2DXX? Who knows, but it's not for me to figure out. My main agenda now is to ignore the possible UI. I wanted to whack 2S, but that can't be (ethically) right. If pard had taken my bid as I meant it, he denied defensive values, so pass is certainly a logical call for me to make. Therefore, that's what I did. When 2S was down one, we collected only 35%. Doubled, we would have gotten 59%. C'est la vie.

The next round was just silly. We collected almost all of the matchpoints in this round, and it would be in no way educational or enlightening for me to write up what happened. We had a four-board break from bridge.

Moving on...
Board 24: All white, West Deals

JT3 T2 T42 AQJ86

(1D) 2C (X) ?

I was very pleased with my quick and confident choice of 5C here. They shouldn't have problems bidding 4 of a major, and if I compete over that, I'm much more likely to be doubled. So, over my 5C, the auction continued:

(5H) X (5S) P
(P) P

Pard wanted to double, but just couldn't do it. Would you have doubled with my hand? If you do, you get 90%. We settled for +50 and 79%. Not too shabby. Do you agree that the ace of clubs is your clear lead here?

Board 25: E/W Vul, North Deals
(here again is where it's important to remember that we have very few established agreements)
A752 AJ76 A862 6

East-West was silent throughout:
1C - 1H
1S - 4C (hopefully pard recognizes the splinter...)
4N - 5C (0 or 3 keycards for spades)
5S - 6S (3 keycards!)

You be North:
KQ43 KT8 J AQ942 (declarer)

A752 AJ76 A862 6 (dummy)

The king of diamonds is led. What's your line?

Both Mike and I agreed that we had a good auction to a good slam. Unfortunately, we went down two when Mike's line didn't pan out.

Cohen suggests that my hand should go through a fourth-suit forcing sequence, which in hindsight may be better in that it takes up less room in the bidding and also should be easier to figure out than 4C, but Mike says he would not cuebid over 3S with his hand. Then what? Is my hand strong enough now to ask for keycards, or have I already shot my wad? I think in our particular partnership, our auction was best. Too bad the cards were unfriendly.

We had a terribly subpar final round, and finished the game with about a 53%. Surprisingly, it was good enough for first in our section, so we took home the gold point, and perhaps the award for lowest winning score ever. With more time to discuss our card and think about our strategies, I'm certain we could have done much better, but a win is a win. Maybe next year I'll have a shot at the district title. I don't think 53% will be enough this time around:)