Sorry for playing hooky yesterday (today's Friday as I write this.) Blogging was a blast at first, but like anything else, when the novelty wears off, sometimes you need a break.
I wanted to talk about the
last board of the Cayne vs Canada match. I haven't heard Jeff's side on this board (we had a 5 second exchange before the opps showed up tonight) but I thought it was a silly auction and a lucky result. Nothing wrong with lucky results. You need some to offset the unlucky ones. But silly auctions are to be avoided.
Jeff picked up at unfavorable:
AQT / - / 873 / AQJT952
JZ opened 1 Diamond. Righty bid 2 Hearts. Jeff bid 3 Clubs. Lefty bid 3 Spades. John bid 4 Diamonds. Righty passed.
I rarely cuebid 2nd round controls, so I didn't really see the point of bidding 4 Hearts here (since I'm looking at the first round controls in Spades and Clubs, so I already know that partner won't be able to cooperate) but that was Jeff's choice. What I'm really interested in is whether pard has 6 solid Diamonds (or AK 7th will do in a pinch) and the King of Clubs. I didn't see how this auction was going to find that out. (Incidentally, they apparently don't play Gambling 3NT, so there was no negative inference available there.)
Lo and behold, Lefty doubles 4 Hearts. JZ passes, denying 1st or 2nd round control. Well now my problem is solved, isn't it? I couldn't bid Blackwood because of my Heart void. Partner just denied the Ace of Hearts.
Now I can bid Blackwood and follow with 5NT if partner shows 2 with the Queen (I think JZ almost has to have 7 Diamonds to bid like this (with likely nothing in Spades or Hearts), so even 2 without probably is sufficient.) He'll show me the King of Clubs if he has it (by bidding 6 Clubs over 5NT) and we can bid the grand.
Jeff redoubled to show 1st round control and JZ (surprisingly, given this hand and the bidding) bid 4 Spades. STILL no Blackwood. Jeff now bid 5 Clubs. JZ bid 6 Diamonds.
Now what?
I wanted to know about the AKQ of Diamonds (or the AK for sure) and the King of Clubs.
What did I find out?
Jeff guessed to pass 6 Diamonds.
Now Lefty bid 6 Hearts and JZ doubled. Well, if you weren't going to bid it on your own, how can you bid it now that partner has said 'Let's defend'?
Jeff tanked and came out with 7 Diamonds.
To be fair, Charlie Weed did virtually exactly the same thing at the other table. His LHO opened 2 Hearts (showing a weak 2 in Spades) His pard bid 3 Diamonds. Righty bid 4 Hearts and Charlie bid 6 Diamonds. This was passed around to Righty who bid 6 Hearts and Charlie passed, then pulled his partner's double to 7 Diamonds. I've heard of pass and pull sequences showing a stronger hand than bidding directly, but I don't think the inventors of that concept had this sequence in mind. Lefty now took out insurance in 7 Hearts and the defense slipped a trick.
AQT / - / 873 / AQJT952
