Watched 300 tonight.  I was hoping for something almost as good as Gladiator.  What I got was a steaming pile of crap.  I think the movie got its name from the number of people who saw it who didn't ask for their money back when it was over.  (I'm also a little cranky because I ran out of time on the Pavlicek quiz and basically guessed on the last hand.  Just have to hope for the best.)

Consequently no new hands.  Here's the hand my partner and I should have stopped in a partscore playing in the team match with Jeff and JZ against the ladies.

3rd seat at unfavorable.

AT / 94 / AQ92 / AK986

 

2 passes to you.

Take away the Queen of Diamonds and I'd open 1NT, but no need to distort here since you can shape out naturally and also convey your strength.  Minimum reverse, but still a reverse.  (If it were AK432 it becomes a close decision.)

You bid 1 Club, pard bids 1 Spade, you bid 2 Diamonds, pard bids 3 Diamonds.

Now what?

I'm torn between 3 Hearts (I'd like a partial stopper for that bid) and 3 Spades (I'm short a spade for that bid.)  This hand doesn't scream 5 of a minor to me, so I'd rather not blow by 3NT just yet, but I clearly can't bid it myself.  4 Spades on the 5-2 might well be the best spot and we're probably not going to get there if I don't bid Spades now.  Maybe I'm nuts but I bid 3 Spades (hey, if I'm really lucky we might play in the mini-Moyse.)

Partner bids 4 Diamonds.  Back to you.

Yes, partner's a passed hand, but 3 Diamonds sounded game forcing to me.  4 Diamonds is probably either a really good hand (for a passed hand) or a really bad hand.  Lucky me, I get to guess which.

I bid 5 Diamonds after not too much thought.

Q752 / J73 / JT84 / Q7

AT / 94 / AQ92 / AK986

After 3 rounds of Hearts, ruffing the 3rd round with the 9, I crossed in Clubs and took the Diamond hook.  It lost.  Clubs were 3-3 and I was down 1.

The main reason we messed up this hand is our complete lack of agreements over reverses.  As they say, it's better to have bad agreements than no agreements.  To me, the 3 Diamond bid was misguided in that I need a truly MONSTROUS hand to make 5 Diamonds in the 4-4 fit opposite this piece of cheese.  I'd have bid 2NT.  If partner passes, great.  If partner raises to 3, let's hope for the best.  If partner treats it as Ingberman and bids 3 Clubs (or if he bids 3 Clubs at all) now I can bid 3 Diamonds.  Much better description, in my opinion. 

Like I mentioned yesterday, the girls were in 3NT.  Surprisingly (at least, to me) they duplicated the auction up to and including the 3 Diamond call.  Sylvia bid 3 Hearts instead of 3 Spades and they ended up in 3NT (Jxx looks okay opposite a likely partial stopper.)

Jeff and JZ took the first 5 Heart tricks and a Spade and a Diamond later (Sylvia has 7 top tricks, but doesn't know that Clubs were 3-3 all along.)  So we won 3 IMPs on the board (not a bad result, considering we won the 12 board match by a grand total of 2.)