Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Unit 139's Annual Championship

Unit 139 held its annual Holiday Party and Unit Championship a few months early this year. It was decided that since there's a Unit Sectional in December and Regional in January, that holding the holiday party in December would be too much bridge at once for some folks. Unit 139 covers a huge geographical area, covering 29 counties in Virginia. A centralish location was found in the lovely town of Buena Vista.

Twenty-four tables showed up for the two-session event plus lunch. Aside from a few snafus (like the seeded pairs skipping each other) it was a fun event for all. With the preduplicated boards and Bridgemate scoring, a great website was able to be put together for the event-- see the first session's results here and the second session's results here. Meg and I had a 61.66 and a 69.24 to run away with the event.

Here's a few problems we faced. All problems are matchpoints.

(A) Board 4, first session: All red

Q 10 6
A J 7 3
A 9 6
A 9 2

Partner passes, and RHO opens a weak 2S. Do you have enough to bid?

(B) Board 6, first session: Red vs. white

J 10 7 3
A
A J 6 5 3 2
5 3

In first chair, you open 1D (or do you prefer pass or 2D?). LHO preempts with 2H which gets passed around to you. Your bid.

(C) Board 8, first session: All white

Q J
J 10 6
A J 9 4
A K Q 4

There are two passes to you. You're playing "good 14 to 17" notrumps. What's your bid?

(D) Board 31, first session: White vs. red

9 3
K 8 5 4
8 5
Q 8 5 3 2


LHO passes, pard opens 1C, and RHO overcalls 1S. You're up.

(E) Board 8, second session: All white

A 9 8 6 3
10 4 2
K 6 5 2
9

Everyone passes to partner. She opens 1C. You respond 1S, and she rebids 1NT (good 11 to awful 14). Your call.

(F) Board 11, second session: All white

J 10 8 6 5
7
A 9 8 4 3 2
4

Partner passes, and LHO opens 2NT. This is certainly a hand with which to bid over 1NT... will you bid one level higher?

(G) Board 14, second session: All white

Don't look at the results sheet for this one just yet!

A K Q 2
K J 8 5 3
K 10 4
A

LHO passes, partner passes, and RHO opens 1C. You double, LHO bids 1H, partner passes again, and RHO bids 1S. Your call.

OK, now go check out Board 14 here... this hand was certainly a concentrated effort on the part of the opponents to give me a giant headache!

2 comments:

McKenzie said...

(A) I decided this was just barely enough for 2NT (it wouldn't be without the ten of spades). Pard had a flat 9-count and raised to 3, and I made 5!

(B) I opened 1D and reopened 2H with a double. The winning action is to pass it out-- pard's broke, 3D goes for 200, and 2H makes 3. I still think it's very right to double.

(C) This hand is a point-count trap. I opened 1NT and made only one opposite a hand with which pard certainly would have forced to game over a 2NT rebid,

(D) There are some who say that if you're strong enough to bid with this hand, you're strong enough to negative double. I agree with the first part, but not the second. I bid 2C planning to shut up thereafter. Pard went straight to 3NT and played it well for a great board.

(E) I pulled to 2S. I have no good rule for this situation... if your partnership regularly raises responder's major on three-card support, it's a clear pass, but otherwise it's a guess.

(F) I bid 3D. 6-5s should bid at these colors.

(G) I rebid 1NT and played it there, making four. It was quite a combination of events, RHO not opening his five-card major and LHO psyching a heart... maybe in twenty years I'll be able to survive an auction like this.

Noble said...

(A) pass
Double >> 2NT

(B) double
then correct 3c to 3d

(C) 1c
I'd downgrade if the h10 were small

(D) double
if pard had been in first seat I'd bid 3c

(E) pass

(F) pass
i'd bid if it were favorable

(G) double
tough call will be what to do next