Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The End of the Grinding


After winning the first pair event, we had no luck the next four days, so Paul and I finally made the switch over to IMPs for Saturday and Sunday.

We entered (and quickly exited) the Compact Knockout. We had much better luck in the evening Swiss, however.
Isn't it amazing how much better your luck is when you're playing well?

All problems IMPs. Check out the Comments section at the end of the post to see what we did and what others would do. Also, feel free to leave a Comment yourself!
(A) White vs. red

AJ7 QT85 9432 J3

You pass in first chair. LHO opens 1D, partner makes a weak jump overcall of 2S, and RHO passes. Your call.

(B) Red vs. white


AJT KT753 Q4 AT3

LHO opens 1S, and RHO bids a forcing 1NT. Do you bid?

(C) White vs. red

A98763 T7 843 Q9

LHO passes, partner opens 1H, and RHO overcalls 2C. You put in a 2S bid [natural and non-forcing, by partnership agreement]. Partner now cuebids 3C. What's your bid?

(D) All red

76 Q9852 none AKQJ64

In third chair, you open 1C (do you?) and LHO overcalls 4S, which gets passed around to you. What's your action?

(E) All white

KJ97432 Q7 K9 65

RHO, in first chair, opens 1H. You're up.

(F) Red vs. white

KJ62 AJ92 KJ96 4

Partner opens 2C. Happily, you have a bid for this hand – 2NT shows three suits headed by the ace or king. Pard rebids 3NT, and it's up to you.

(G) All red

Here's a nice one for you:

AKQ73 Q842 AKQ7 none

You open 2C (anyone for 1S?), pard bids an artificial game-forcing 2D, you rebid 2S, and pard comes out with 3D! What to do with this pleasant turn of events?

5 comments:

McKenzie said...

(A) I passed, and passed LHO's reopening of 3D. My counterpart at the other table raised to 3S. Both 3D and 3S were -100, so my conservatism netted 5 imps.

(B) I bid 2H. This would be a bad bid even if RHO didn't hold AQJ9x of hearts. Oops.

(C) I rebid 3S, hoping this would be the “I have a minimum” action. Pard disagreed, thinking I had extra length or suit quality, and raised to 4S on a stiff jack. This was not a success.

(D) I did open 1C. I know a lot of folks that would open 1H, but I can't stomach not opening my longest and best suit on a hand like this. Over LHO's 4S, I rebid 4NT, showing either long hearts or diamonds to go with my long clubs, Pard chose clubs, and 5C was just in opposite his x KTx AKxxx 9xxx,

(E) I overcalled 1S, and my counterpart overcalled 3S. I think 1S is right. My LHO and my teammate had severe differences in opinion on this hand-- they held xx Kxx xx AKJxxx. My LHO bid all of 2H (!) over 1S. Harvey, my teammate, bid 4C over 3S. They got to a slam and lost to the HQ in my hand. C'est la vie.

(F) I didn't think seven could be found with any precision, so I just bid 6NT over 3NT. This was doubled by my RHO. I thought about sending it back, but wimped out. -500. Don't ask.

(G) The auction so far: 2C – 2D – 2S – 3D. I temporized with 3H, and partner raised to 4H! I bumped to 6H, and went off one when trumps were 4-1 offside. 6D would have been a maker, of course.

warren said...

Not a very experienced player, but:

A) Pass
B) Pass
C) 3S. In among my thought process was "What would show a minimum?" Something has to.
D) Pass. I hadn't even considered 4NT, but if it's 2 places it's a nice bid.
E) 3S. If you play 1S as 8-16 HCP, then I can see the argument for 1S.
F) 6NT.
G) 4D. Show support, hopefully we'll hear 4H next I guess.

Noble said...

(A) 3s, no reason to overrule the law here.

(B) Pass, not enough playing strength or suit quality.

(C) 3h if not forcing, 3s otherwise.

(D) 5c

(E) 3s, which will go for a number sometimes, but will win 5-6 imps much more often.

(F) 5n. It's still a 13 count opposite a 2c opening, so I must bid a slam. This is "pick a slam"

(G) 4d, to see if partner can cuebid. Over 5d, I'll cuebid 6c to show spade and club controls. If pard has the hA, he now bids a grand.

Anonymous said...

regarding 'A' and the 'law' I have my own law which is the 'dont hang partner' law. It supersedes anything relating to total tricks or some other fantasy... :)

anyway, my point is, when I pass, thereby limiting my hand, partner has carte blanche to bid my cards for me. I would not dream of raising to 3S with this hand...we *might* be at the 'LoTT" level already - I dont know that for sure.

Conservative schmervative. How often does 3S fetch a random shot at a game that makes? Give them some rope and hopefully they'll hang. are you CERTAIN your RHO doesnt have a penalty pass of 2S?

B - pass. C - fine. D - 4NT. F - down in 6NT huh? that's UNLUCKY! That would be like rewinding after a weak-jump-overcall at IMPs and going for 1600 - I mean - who DOES THAT? 8-). For the record, I think we're still net-plus for our redoubles.

Noble said...

FWIW I am pretty conservative on jump overcalls and would almost overcall 2s on (E). That probably makes my answer on (A) more understandable.