Played
a few boards with Buddy tonight and then
a 3/4 set against him. We had no disasters in our 10 board mini-set (we didn't lose more than an IMP on any board) but we definitely (or definately, for my younger readers, can you believe there's
18.7 million google hits for that spelling?) had some missed opportunities.
First board could have gone better:
All White 3rd
T8 / AQ2 / AKQT752 / 2
Pard opens 2 Hearts pass to you. Your agreement is Ogust and RONF.
If pard has the Ace of Spades and King of Hearts you want to be in slam. Otherwise you probably don't. Is there a way to find out what you need to know without getting past 4 Hearts (since you will often be off 3 top tricks in the blacks)?
I didn't think so. I bid 4 Hearts. Buddy had the magic 2 cards.
It's a good hand for Feature, since if I ask he can bid 3 Spades and now I can
reasonably safely bid Keycard. A problem with 2N is that it lets Lefty in a level lower to find a potential Spade Sac (or even Spade make, for all I know.)
Buddy didn't have a typical 2 Heart opener and we were somewhat lucky to lose only 0.27 on the board.
A754 / KJ8643 / 6 / JT
The 2nd board Declarer lost his mind and I followed suit. He had a complete count on trumps and a running side suit, but if he let me in he would lose control of the hand. He let me in. I let him off the hook. Down 1 instead of Down 3. Not a costly mistake from an IMPs perspective, but not good for building momentum.
Board 3 Favorable 1st
Pard opened 1 Club in 3rd. Righty bid Michaels. I bumped it up to 3 Clubs. Pard thought 4 Clubs looked right. Righty now bid 4 Hearts. I had nothing more to say. Lefty corrected to 4 Spades. I decided that I wasn't smashing this (I've seen Buddy's 3rd seat openers before.) But now Righty bid 5 Clubs. Hmmm. I think I've heard enough. They're playing this whipped. I passed. Lefty now bid 5 Spades. Passed around to me (good, I hate doubling when the possibility of further opponent bidding exists.) I cracked it and Righty sent it back.
Our opps were a couple of guys from Scotland. A perfectly good partnership died today.
Unfortunately Buddy thought I was asking for a Heart lead and led a Heart from
95 / T2 / K963 / AK642
instead of a Club (yeah, Dummy's probably void, but let's get the tap going.)
+400 instead of +1600, but I'll take it (and still better than +300 for down 3 undoubled.)
AKQ3 / AKJ7643 / QT / -
T76 / 85 / J854 / Q953
Our opps exchanged a few kind words with each other and abruptly departed (after claiming down 1.)
New opps arrived and a few uneventful boards were followed by this one:
How to play 4 Hearts
QT4 / AQT5 / 954 / 743
KJ / 98764 / AKQJ / AJ
I got the King of Clubs lead and eventually decided that it was worth risking 5-1 Diamonds and small singleton Heart offside to defend against singleton Heart King offside.
After all that mental grinding I led the 9 of Hearts up and ... Lefty showed out.
What now?
Now it's time to change plans. Yes, the opps can beat you if they defend correctly from this point. But it's your job to make it as hard as possible for them to do so. You've got to win the Ace of Hearts and play a Spade to the King, hoping that Lefty has the Ace. Just MAYBE he doesn't cash his Club Queen (he can't know that his partner has 2 Heart tricks) and your Club loser goes away on the Spade. The one time the contract was made, it was played like that.
Instead, I threw in the towel and played the Heart Ten. Not only did that tell Lefty that his Pard had 2 trump tricks, but it let Righty in to put a Club through. Very poor technique.
On the next board, another weak 2 from Buddy and another possible slam.
All White 4th Pard opens 2 Spades
7 / QJ7 / AKQ6 / AK962
Not really a good hand for Ogust. But even if pard has no feature in Hearts, if he has 3 of them we still should be okay in 3NT unless he did this on a 4 or 5 count. And he's allowed to bid 4 Spades over 3NT if his suit will play opposite a singleton. 3NT it is.
3 Clubs was the winning bid this time. It probably gets you to 6, which makes when Clubs break favorably.
A86543 / K4 / 3 / T874
7 / QJ7 / AKQ6 / AK962
I got a Diamond lead and took 12 tricks in NT.
The next board pard had me scratching my head.
He picked up in 1st favorable:
Q875 / AKT54 / Q92 / K
He opened 1 Heart and I gave him a Bergen-style 4 card limit raise.
Does anybody else not go with this? To me it's auto.
He was right, though.
AJT6 / J762 / 63 / QJ8
Q875 / AKT54 / Q92 / K
Off 3 top tricks we're going to need the Spade finesse to work and Hearts to behave.
Hearts behaved but the Spade was off. Defense was weak and he made 4 anyway.
We had one more hand to go. What do you bid with this?
All Red 2nd. Righty opens 1 Diamond.
6 / T7 / KJ83 / KQJ972
2 Clubs looks normal. Pard bids 2 Spades (you agreed that new suits in responses to overcalls are non-forcing constructive.) Now what?
I considered 2NT, but that makes it sound like I have a better hand with scattered values and maybe something of a Spade tolerance. Rebidding 3 Clubs seems normal to me. If partner has an opening hand, he can now bid 3 Diamonds or 3 Hearts and I'll bid 3NT.
Pard floated it.
AQJ74 / AQ6 / 94 / T83
Wild horses would not stop me from getting to at least 3NT if pard made a red 2 level overcall and I have this hand. Oh well.
+130 actually won most of an IMP.
The set against Buddy and his partner was the mirror image of last night. Even though my first 'expert' partner didn't know to play the
lowest of equals when 3rd to play on defense or that
passing me in a help suit game try with 3 of that suit probably isn't a good idea, and my second 'expert' partner didn't know that
Blackwood is your friend, and my third 'expert' partner didn't pull the trigger on 3 Hearts with
AQT976 of trumps and a 15 count (okay, this one is arguably not crystal clear and a lot of timid players would also pass and take their plus.) Luckily my 4th expert partner could follow suit and me and my 4 accomplices racked up a little over 40 IMPs in 19 boards.
Buddy and his partner had a disagreement about the meaning of
this auction:Buddy opened 1 Club. I overcalled 1 Diamond. BP bid 1 Spade. MP bid 4 Diamonds.
Buddy passed. I passed. BP bid 4 Hearts. MP passed.
Buddy bid 4 Spades. I passed. BP passed. MP bid 5 Diamonds.
Buddy bid 5 Hearts.
To me, it has to show equal length in the majors (or you would have passed 4 Hearts) and better Hearts. Buddy intended it as showing Heart values in case there was more interference. Since my pard passed 4 Hearts and I've passed 4 Spades, I don't know how realistic that is.
Unfortunately, they ended up in their 5-3 Heart fit instead of their 5-4 Spade fit. That seldom costs, but this time it cost about 1630 points and 25 or so IMPs.
