Regional recovery

The Virginia Beach Regional is over. You can find the results from the tournament here. 

Here's two quickies for you to chew on while I try to recover:

First, a poll:

You hold:

Q3

AKT2

T753

Q53

At teams, vulnerable against not, pard opens a "good 14 to 17" 1NT. RHO bids 2S promising five spades and at least four cards in a minor. Your five options are:

(A) Negative double

(B) 3NT denying a spade stopper

(C) 3NT showing a spade stopper

(D) Stayman denying a spade stopper

(E) Stayman showing a spade stopper

What's your decision?

Next, a lead problem:

You hold:

AK64

AT52

K53

74

You're playing teams, vulnerable against not. You open 1NT, "good 11 to 14". LHO bids a Landy 2C, showing both majors. Partner jumps to 3NT.  RHO pulls to 4C -- lefty thinks that this asks for the better major. So LHO bids 4H, which is doubled by partner. RHO looks a little annoyed and bids 5C. You double, and everyone passes. What's your lead?

Tuesday Open Pairs

We played the Open Pairs on Tuesday afternoon at the Virginia Beach Regional. (We skipped the evening session for celebratory reasons.) Here's a few problems we faced:

(A) All white

KQ2

Q3

J865

K952

There are two passes to you. You open 1D (do you?), LHO passes, partner bids 1S, and RHO doubles. A redouble would be support. It's your call.

(B) All red

QJ96

A52

KJT762

LHO opens 1C, pard overcalls 1S, and RHO doubles. You're up. (You do have a fit-showing jump of 3D available if you want it.)

(C) Red vs. white

AT92

A

AQJ

AKT74

You're first to speak. What's your bidding plan?

(D) All red

K4

T874

Q7

AT876

Partner's first up. Here's the auction:

--- P (1C) P;
(1S) X (2S) ?

What's your call?

Virginia Beach Regional: Tuesday

We arrived too late Monday evening to play, so we relaxed and hung out at the beach for a while. We played The Fabulous Side Game Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon we bought an entry for TFSG again (we were planning a non-bridge-related celebration for the evening), but the directors needed us to fill a hole in the Open Pairs -- so we had stronger competition than we were originally planning.

That's a good thing, by the way. As I was telling my friend Karen yesterday, meeting tougher competition is the only way to get better. We certainly needed the practice!

Here's a few interesting hands from TFSG. All problems are matchpoints. Please read the Comments section at the end of the post to see what we did and what others would have done, and feel free to leave some comments of your own!

(A) Red vs. white

97 62 A5 KJT8752

Partner opens a strong (good 14-17) 1NT. RHO passes, you jump to 3NT, and LHO jumps in with 4D! This is passed around to you. What's your call?

(B) All red

9852 KJ84 AJ9 A2

You open 1D. Pard bids 1H, and after you raise to 2H, partner makes a short-suit game try of 3D. Is this the right hand for game?

(C) White vs. red

T 86543 QT8 JT32

Pard opens 1S in first chair. This is passed around to LHO, who overcalls 1NT. Pard doubles this, and RHO passes. (C1) Do you pull? If not, what kind of hand would you have to pull this double? (C2) Say you pass. LHO will redouble, and RHO will pull to 2C. Your call.

(D) Red vs. white

T8 AJ K2 AKQ9854

You open 1C. LHO jumps up with 3H, pard bids 3S, and RHO bids 4H. What's your call?

(E) White vs. red

A93 AJ3 AQ976 Q9

RHO opens 1C. (E1) What's your call? (E2) I'm forcing a double in E1. LHO passes, pard bids 1H, and RHO passes. Your bid.

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!

Rebidding after 1D - 2C

I've seen a lot of people bid one of a major over their partner's 1D opening on hands like this:

J642
KQ2
7
AQJT9

Sometimes this is because they were repeatedly drilled early in their bridge careers "always bid a major first", but I've also noticed that some folks will shy away from a 2C call because the auction 1D - 2C always seems to go wrong for them.

Let me say this (hopefully) once and for all:

On game-forcing hands, always start with your longest suit.


Do I need to repeat that?

Always, always, always bid your longest suit first when responding to partner if you're going to force to game. Millions of good slams have been missed when people respond with their Jxxx suit rather than their AQJTx suit. Let's stop this epidemic right now!

If you're one of those folks who hate the auction 1D - 2C, I have a nice toy for you. Eric Kokish came up with this great rebid structure (passed along to me by my old fishing buddy Greg).

In the uncontested auction 1D - 2C:

• 2D = any unbalanced hand with 5+ diamonds, may have a 4-card major
• 2H = 4=4=4=1 (singleton club)
• 2S = good club raise (no 4-card major)
  
• 2NT = 12-14 balanced
• 3C = bad club raise (no 4-card major)
  
• 3D = six or more good diamonds, 16+ HCP
• 3H = splinter raise of clubs
• 3S = splinter raise of clubs
• 3NT = 18-19 balanced

If responder has a four-card major, he can bid it over opener's 2D, 2H or 2NT rebids. If partner doesn't rebid those things, you know he doesn't have one!

The real joy in this response structure is opener's having two ways to raise clubs. You'll find out at the three level whether slam is a possibility, and have lots of room to explore.

Regional Time Again

This week we're playing at the Virginia Beach Regional. Please stop by and say hi!