Thursday A/X Swiss, second session: Virginia Beach

At halftime, we had 56 Victory Points on a 40 average.

I didn't keep as extensive a record as in the first half-- I apologize!

Match 5: We played another team of unknowns.

On the first board out, I held

(A) All white

52

3

KQJ986

AKQ3

The auction goes (2H) P (3H) to you. What's your bid?

Then I held

(B) All red

975

Q9

A7643

AQ6

In second seat, I passed. Does anyone agree with me here? My LHO opened 1S, and this got passed around to me. What should my call be?

Final score: 11-3; 14 VPs. Total: 70

In match six, we played against ACBL Hall of Famer Fred Hamilton and his sponsor. My big decision in this match came on this board:

(C) Red vs. white

53

652

AQ862

KQ2

LHO [sponsor] opened 1D, pard doubled, and RHO passed. What to

Final score: 17-1, 4 VPs. Total: 74

In match seven, things didn't get any easier... fellow HoFer, five-time Bermuda Bowl champion, and fifteen-time National champion Billy Eisenberg was at our table.

(D) All white

AJT2

KJ8653

K

64

In fourth chair, I opened 1H. Partner made a Druryish 2D bid (3+ card support, limit raise). Should I sign off in 2H or continue on?

(E) All red

42

Q7

A863

KQJ32

Here's another one of those second-seat passes that nobody will agree with. Bear with me.

In fourth seat, partner opens 1S. You bid 2C (natural!), pard rebids 2S, and you bid 2NT [do you?]. Pard now bids 3H, which gets doubled on your right. What's your call?

Final score: 24-14, 14 VPs. Total: 88

Going in to the last match, we had a chance to win. The Hamilton team was leading the event with 95 VPs, but if we had a big win and them a small one, or us a medium win and them a loss, we'd be there.

Surprisingly, in match eight, we met another team of unknowns. Still, to be in the hunt this late, they had to be strong...

(F) White vs. red

AJ63

95

75

AJT84

Partner opens 1D, and rebids 2D over your 1S. Your call.

We had a solid set, but our teammates had the best set of the week!

Final score: 36-0, 20 VPs. Final total: 108 VPs out of 160.

We rushed to the scorers' table only to find out that Hamilton had squeaked out a medium win -- and 109 VPs. Nuts! Second place in a tough event like that was very nice, but one or two more victory points wouldn't have been that tough to find...

Nicely bid hand on BBO

Meg and I get a lot of our practice at Bridge Base Online. BBO is the world's premier bridge site... but we've talked about that before.

We were in the Partnership Bidding Room, working on our new big club structure. One of the very first hands was this one:



I was South, and opened 1C (16+ unbalanced or 17+ balanced). Pard bid 2C, showing a game forcing hand with long diamonds. 2D by me asked about her diamond suit. 2NT showed exactly five diamonds with two of the top three honors. 3C asked about aces and kings outside of diamonds. 3D showed no aces and at most one king. 3H by me was a cuebid, and when she cuebid 3S I knew it was a singleton (since she'd denied holding an aces). I cuebid 4C to get a little more information, and Meg came out with a brilliant bid -- 5C! She had a great hand for her previous actions, and wanted to do something slam-positive... so she cued her 'trick source' in clubs, and I bid the slam, knowing her hand to be x xxx(x?) AKxxx Q(J?)xx(x?).

No, it's not a huge deal to reach a good slam* with 11 HCP opposite 21, but I like to think we would have had the same auction if my SK were the S3. And if the SK was the SA, my bid would've been 7D over 5C!

* Slam should make on 3-2 diamonds, 3-3 hearts, the onside ace of spades, or West cashing the ace of spades at trick one -- I think it's over 80%.

How should this be played? Here's my suggestion: Say they lead a heart or a club. Win it in the closed hand [remember-- the big hand is playing it, I bid 2D], play a diamond to the ace and a spade down. If RHO takes the ace, all is well. If he doesn't, play the king -- if it holds, draw trumps and hope for 3-3 hearts for an overtrick. If the king of spades loses to the ace, win the return in hand, ruff a spade, draw a second round of trumps, and if all follow, play to ruff all three spade losers in the dummy before drawing the last trump. If diamonds are 4-1, draw trumps and hope hearts break.

Do you have a better line of play?

Thursday A/X Swiss, first session: Virginia Beach

After surviving the first day of the Morning Compact KO, we entered the Thursday A/X Swiss. We were five-handed. I played with Geoff in the first match and Meg the other seven.

All problems IMPs.

In the first match, we played a solid local team.

To start, Geoff won us five imps when he went plus in 2C with an aggressive overcall of their 1NT. +90 at both tables was a nice pickup. Then, I held this hand:

(A) Red vs. white

642

984

J2

K8652

LHO opened a weak notrump, and Geoff doubled to show a solid opening bid or better. RHO passed. Now what? [We won two imps on the board.]

Then the opponents severely overreached to 3NT. Geoff defended very accurately to set them three, for +300 and nine imps.

(B) All white

KQ

AKJT53

AQ82

9

You open 1H, and partner bids 1S. I think 3D is fairly clear here... over that, partner bids 4NT. What would that mean in your regular partnership? What should it mean in a casual partnership with an expert, as here? What's your bid?

We got to 6D and lost two imps to the slightly inferior 6NT at the other table.

Next, I held

(C) White vs. red

QJ

A2

AKQT86

AT2

What's your bid first to speak? I started with 2C. Partner bid an artificial 2H, showing no aces and exactly one king (could have any number of queens or jacks). RHO came in with 2S. What's your bid here?

We lost 11 imps on that one.

We then had a competitive auction in which we bid 5D (slated to be off one) over their 4H (also down one), but they took the push to 5H. We popped that for 500 and win 9. On the last board of the match, I held 65 T94 K5 AJT985 in third chair, all white. It went pass, pass to me, and I decided to push a little and open 3C. This got passed around to RHO who balanced with 3D, down one for a push.

Final score: 25-13 for 15 VPs.

Match two pitted us against one of DC's top pairs, Diane Walker and Kenton Schoen. The first board out, I held

(D) White vs. red

AT52

KJ2

74

AKT5

I opened a strong (14+ to 17) 1NT. Meg transferred to hearts and rebid an invitational 2NT. What's your call?

We lost 5 imps there.

On the next board, the opponents bid 1NT - 3NT, making six, while our teammates found the slam. Win 11. Next was a push in an easy 4S. Then we sold out to 3S, making 3, when we could make 4D... lose 7. (Notice that a "measly" partscore swing almost erased that "massive" slam swing. Accurate partscore bidding is very underrated at teams.) Next, we gave up two imps on a partscore hand, then won six on a double-partscore swing. Finally,

(E) White vs. red

J6

J63

A962

AQ85

LHO opened 1H, pard overcalled 1S, and RHO passed. What's your bid?

We won 4 imps on that board.

Final score: 21-14 for 13 VPs. Total: 28.

I didn't know my opponents for match three.

We lost six imps on the first board, when Meg misguessed a game they weren't in at the other table. She made up for it (and then some) on the next board, when she stole two tricks in a red 4S for win 13. We got back to even on the next board when we didn't bid a white game - lose 7. Next, we got to a horrific 3NT and when down three, -150. Amazingly, this was a pickup-- the opponents got to 4S on a 5-2 fit. This was only down two, but our teammates were astute enough to pop it for +300. Win 4. On the next board, we were in a bad 1NT, down two... but our other-table-mates saved us, going down three in the same contract. Win two. Next I bid a very pushy 4H and went -200... for a push! The last board:

(F) White vs. red

3

AKJ4

954

AK742

I was in third chair and saw two passes to me. What's your plan with this hand?

This board was a push.

Final score: 19-13, for 13 VPs. Total: 41.

In the fourth match, we played another couple I hadn't met before. There were no terribly interesting hands this match. We were tied until the last board when I held Q9 KQ76 T8 T7653 at favorable vulnerability. Pard passed and RHO opened 1D. I stuck in an awful 1H bid. LHO tremored for a short while and passed. Pard bid 1S. RHO passed after a little thought as well. I passed, and LHO... passed! Meg played it very well to go +80 for what I thought was a 5 or 6 imp pickup. Little did I know -- our teammates bid and made 3NT for win 13!

Final score: 21-8 for 15 VPs. Total: 56.

Virginia Beach Morning Compact KO: Day One

I played the Thurs - Fri Morning Compact Knockout with one of Richmond's top players, Geoff Mallette. We had about three minutes to come up with a card before the game. We quickly cobbled together a fairly functional 2/1 card with weak notrumps.

We were in a nine-team bracket, which meant that the first day would be all three-way matches. Basically, in a three-way match (or "round-robin" or "ring") you play half of a standard-length match against two other teams. If you beat both other teams, you continue to the next round. If you lose to both, you're out. If you beat one team, but the team to which you lost won both of its matches, you're in. And if each team wins one match and loses one, the team with the lowest IMP total gets dropped. Basically, the strategy for a three-way match is the same as a heads-up match: win more IMPs than you lose!

So to start out, we played two six-board matches.

(A) Red vs. white

6

AJT73

KT5

AKQ2

You open 1H. Pard bids a forcing 1NT. You rebid 2C [or would you bid 3C?] and pard jumps to 3NT. This should show something like 12-14 or 13-15 or something like that... what's your call?

(B) All white

AQJ854

A4

5

KQ83

Partner opens a weak [good 11 to 14] 1NT. How do you plan on handling this hand?

(C) All white

AK942

4

QT853

93

Partner opens 1C, you bid 1S, and he rebids 2H. What next?

(D) All red

KJT32

none

T2

QT9843

Partner opens 1S. LHO bids 2H. It's your decision.

We only won two of our four matches, but we survived easily.

Followup

In yesterday's post, I posed two questions.

In question one, I asked if Qx AKTx Txxx Qxx should be Stayman or not, and a spade stopper or not, in the auction 1NT (2S - spades and a minor). I decided to call it Stayman with a stopper. Partner held five hearts and wrapped up the game. The opponents got to 3NT at the other table, which should have gone down but did not.

In question two, the opening lead problem, in which my LHO had overcalled a Landy (both majors) two clubs, partner forced to game, and RHO bid up to 5C on his eight-bagger, I led a high spade.

Apparently, none of our correspondents, just like none of the players at the table, realized that I led out of turn! Their 8-0 fit was supposed to be played from the void side...