The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
A Bridge Blog
Assigning blame since April 20, 2007

Greed Kills

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This entry was posted on 5/20/2007 9:57 PM and is filed under The Ugly.

Adam and I had enough tops to win, but too many zeroes.  This board wasn't one of them, but it felt like one at the time.

I picked up all white in 2nd:

QJ5 / KT / QJ965 / JT3

I quickly noted that I didn't have a bid unless Righty opened 1 Club, and Righty soon bid 1 Club and I happily bid 1 Diamond.

A Heart on my left, a Spade from my trusty pard, and now while I'm busy deciding whether to raise to 2 or take a view and pass Righty solves my problem and bids 4 Hearts.

This was passed around to Adam, who bid 5 Diamonds.  Righty expressed her opinion and placed a red card on the table.

I was none too happy at this development, since 4 Spades is surely a better spot, but maybe this is a good dive, or by some miracle I might make.

Lefty led a club and this dummy tracked:

K86432 / 64 / AT742 / -

QJ5 / KT / QJ965 / JT3

I ruffed and after long thought, cashed the Ace of diamonds.  Righty went into the tank (Argh!) and managed to come up with a low diamond (Phew!)  Lefty showed out, pitching a Heart.  I continued with a low diamond and Righty won her King and tapped the board in Clubs. 

At this point dummy and my hand were:

K86432 / 64 / T / -

QJ5 / KT / QJ9 / J

So I played a spade off the board and Righty won her Ace and played yet another club.

I ruffed on the board and had to decide whether to play Righty for 1-4-3-5 (in which case, I need to play a Heart off and hope the Ace is onside, getting out for down 1 if it is) or 2-4-3-4 and a horrible misdefense (in which case, I need to play a Spade to my hand, draw her last trump, and claim making 5.)

Against expert opps it wouldn't have been a problem, I'd take the conservative line in a heartbeat; but club matchpoints is so random I thought I should go for the screamer and didn't think there'd be a big difference between -100 and -300 (I thought a lot of people would be in 4 Spades our way, and that will likely make more often than not, though it's beatable double-dummy.)

Of course, Righty was 1-4-3-5 and I had turned a great result (-100 was a shared top) into an average plus (-300 was still good for 70% of the matchpoints.)

 
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