Substitute Pairs

My partner and his friend had to cancel, so I had to play with her partner. Luckily, we're fairly well acquainted, and the substitution worked out ok. We finished 6th in the afternoon, 5th in the evening. :-/

15) 2nd, favorable
7 K54 A873 AT873

1S-X-4S-X, P-?

Pard's double is "responsive". My partner bid 5C here, and we ended in 5DX -100, against our own +100 defending 4S. I think you need more shape to bid out at the five level, particularly at matchpoints.


22) 2nd, favorable
K7642 3 A643 KJ2

3H-?

The crazy person dealt this hand made a takeout double. This deserves to end in disaster, and it did...for us. His partner bid 4C and we couldn't set it enough to make up for the string of 140's across the room.


17) 1st, none
97 97653 J9763 7

P-1C-1S-1N, P-3N-P-P, P

You lead S9 and dummy tables JT3 Q 4 AKQJ6532

T1: S9-T-K-4 |
T2: SA-8-7-3 |
T3: DQ-5-?

On opening lead a queen demands the jack or attitude (if it's from QJ). With a small stiff in dummy, and declarer ducking with eight club winners in dummy, what's going on?

I think it's obvious pard has DAKQx, so you should encourage for down three.


24) My opps played 3N on a wacky, uncontested auction:

92 KJ92 65 AQT85
AKJ Q4 AQ42 KJ97

I led a (helpful) spade from Q6543 A865 JT7 2 and declarer played two rounds of hearts, as I ducked. Now she didn't know pard's HT was dropping, and she was afraid to take the diamond finesse, so she only took 11 tricks. A matchpoint win for us.


Now for a little comic relief:

The top seed came to our table. RHO, Mark, is a funny guy and we tease each other all the time. I sat, staring at the board, as the other three players each took a hand out of a pocket and started sorting cards. Mark teased me and I called the director.

Mark: I was just kidding. I didn't mean anything.
Len: No problem. That's not why I'm calling.
Mark: ?
Len: Your partner just sorted my hand.

No lie. LHO's cards were still in the board, and he was sorting mine, and nobody else had noticed. The director said we should try to get a bridge result on the board, so we started the auction. I made an alertable call and LHO asked what it meant. I pointed out that he knew my hand...

We ended up in 2H +170, and I think it was all perfectly normal. More funny than usual, though.

Birthday Swiss

Steve got a partner for Sunday, but he only has 1100 masterpoints. In fact, they wanted to play in the Blue Ribbon pairs this month, but he doesn't have a Q. On MY team! On the bright side, he has a great sense of humor and he knows C++ so I can live with him.

Oh, he also brought back a pretty good card each round. That's important, too.

13) 2nd, both
AJTx Qx AQxxx A9

Ah, the first board of the day. And it's a good hand. Sweet.

P-1D-2C-X, P-3C-P-3H, P-3N-P-P, X-P-P-P

We had discussed that a jump to 3M here is natural and forcing. I can jump to 3H with both majors. We hadn't discussed, explicitly, that 3C would say to bid 3N with a stop, 3S with spades, and 3H otherwise, but the first board of the day seemed like a good time to spring this particular surprise. Note that I can't afford to try 3S, since pard won't bid 3N without a club stop.

Should partner have pulled 3NX to 4S holding 9xxx ATxxx x J8x? Or not doubled 2C? Sure, but that's water under the bridge. 1400 later she said "Sorry" and I said "No problem" and we started the next board.

I try really hard to be a good partner, but it's not that difficult when you hear "sorry, my fault". It's much more difficult when pard comes up with excuses or, much worse, blames you. That leads to fisticuffs...


14) 2nd board of the day
The opps bid 2N-3N, P. 3N shows 5S and 4H but opener forgot. No problem, as they made game anyway. Looks like I have a long day in store.


9) 2nd, unfavorable
AKJx J Axxx KQxx

1D-1N, 2C-2D, 2S-3D, P

1N was 6-11, but 2D was more like 6-9, and 3D was more like 6-7. No WAY do I have a strong jump shift. Pard tabled a max:

98x K9x KQTx 9xx. Not sure I would have bid 3D, but we were +130 to win eight IMPs, so what do I know.


12) 4th, favorable
Q9 ATx KQJTx Axx

We have six minutes on the clock and have to get the RESULT turned in before the buzzer. Pard and an opp have been particularly slow, so I don't have any time to spend on the hand that matters. Note that there's a 2 VP penalty for a second late report (the first is a warning) but there's NO PENALTY for dropping a board so you finish on time. Bizarre.

Pard opens 1D, may be as short as two with a strong NT, and I get to wheel out a neat-o toy. I bid 2H showing either a 16+ notrump hand or a strong jump shift in hearts. I wasn't crazy about bidding NT with Qx or Axx in the majors, but the 9 and T swayed me. Pard relayed with 2S and I bid 2N, showing this hand. Pard jumped to 4N, quantitative, and still thinking about the lose 18 on the first board, I tried 6D. Pard sat for THREE MINUTES and bid 6N. Won't have a lot of time to play this one. The opps wanted me to explain the auction, and I said that 2H could be various types of hands but once I bid 2N it was 16+, balanced. Well, that's what I would have said if they'd let me finish my explanation.

TIME PRESSURE, people! Just let me answer...


Anyway, LHO led a club and dummy tabled Ax Qxxx Axxx KQJ.

Ax Qxxx Axxx KQJ
Q9 ATx KQJTx Axx

Ten tricks seemed pretty easy (our teammates were -430) but I needed more. I won the club in hand and led a heart at trick two. Let's put LHO to the test right away. He hopped HK and returned a club. I cashed HA and RHO dropped the jack, so I claimed 12 tricks. Well, that's what I should have done. Instead I cashed out the SA and minor winners, to set up a major suit squeeze. Wasted everyone's time and got us each a late play warning, while the HJ was dropping all the time!

After the event was over, LHO asked what would have happened if he'd ducked. I said I'd have won HQ, HA, CAKQ, DAKQJT and he would have been strip squeezed. If he stiffed his SK I'd drop it. If he kept no hearts I'd run hearts. If he kept one heart I'd throw him in to lead away from SK. He asked if I'd have gotten it right at the table, so I said "No, of course not. Way over my head. :-P"


10) 1st, both
xxxx A9xxx J AKx

1H-X-2N-P, 4H-P-P-P

2N showed 3+ hearts, at least invitational. With the quicks I bid game. LHO cashed a high spade and shifted to a trump, RHO following.

x KQJxx Axxx Jxx
xxxx A9xxx J AKx

I have 5 hearts, 3 ruffs, 1 diamond, and 2 clubs, making five. Since LHO was 5=1=4=3 with CQ I could have made six on a trump squeeze if she had shifted to a dimaond. I'd ruff three diamonds, getting to dummy with trump, trump, and spade ruff, then cash two more trumps, coming to:

Hx CJxx
Sxx CAK

If LHO kept CQxx I'd ruff out the long spade. If not, I'd drop CQ.
I told her she made a nice shift, but I guess shifting to a diamond would have been a little weird.


We went to the break with a slight lead, and Steve bought lunch/dinner in honor of Alan's birthday (I shouldn't say which one).

13) 2nd, both
QJ8x ATx Ax 9xxx

1N-2C, 2S-2N, 3N-P

LHO led D8, fourth best, and dummy tabled:

T9x Q98x QT AKQx
QJ8x ATx Ax 9xxx

A note on the auction: 1N was 10-12. We agreed that pard can invite with 13 and a major, not 4-3-3-3. She had a clear invite anyway, with all the texture. I always accept with a non-minimum. So, here we are in a 24 point game, just as we expected.

Rule of 11 said it didn't matter which diamond I played, but just in case he'd led from DK98 I put in the queen. It might have been smarter to win DT to discourage a continuation in case RHO got in, but it turns out this was even better.

At trick two I led a heart from dummy and RHO impressed me with his learning. He flew second hand high with the HK, to clear diamonds before I knocked out his partner's entry. Very nice. As it happens, that let me make an overtrick, but I still paid him the compliment. At the other table they played 3N the other direction and the diamond lead set the contract two tricks. Later, LHO asked if the 10-12 always rightsides the contract and I told him about putting the AKxxxxxxx or AKQxxxxx on lead. Ugh.


29) 2nd, both
AQTx Q8xx xx Kxx

1N-2D, 2H-3D, 3H-4C, (X)-XX-4D, 6H-P

I was pleased RHO doubled 4C, since I hadn't known what to bid otherwise. Pard had, of course, x AJT9x AKJxxxx -. We won two IMPs when our counterparts were in 6D, but we could easily have won 17 IMPs when 6H makes and 6D goes down, roughly 25% of the time. Oh well.

30) 1st, none
Axx Ax KJxx Kxxx

1C-P-1H-2S, P-P-X-P, ?

1C can be a weak NT, 13 to a medium 15. What now? I tried 3N and went down. 5D is cold. Pard overbid, a bit, with xx Kxxx AQxxx Qx or something like that, but I didn't find 5D. They got to 5D at the other table, though.


We won the event and Alan had a happy birthday. Still no blue ribbon Q, though.

Winning a club game

Wow. The best thing happened: a north-south bump on the last round, so we could leave early! And this morning I woke up to find we'd scored 70%!

We only had six tops out of 24, but nothing below a 25% board (though we left quite a few matchpoints on the table). Here are a few deals:

5) 3rd, unfavorable
AKTx K7 AJxxx Tx

P-1N, 2C-2S, 4S-P

QJxx AJ9xx K Jxx
AKTx K7 AJxxx Tx

LHO led H8 and my nine held (they lead 3rd and low). I cashed SQ, SA, HK, DK, and led HA. RHO ruffed and I overruffed, so now I could count 4S in my hand, 2D, 3H, and two diamond ruffs for 11 tricks. I had to preserve entries to enjoy the long heart, and I had to leave a trump out (he ruffed a winner but I got two ruffs in return). Neat hand.


20) 4th, both
Kx Kxxx Qxxxx Qx

P-1D-P-1H, P-1S-P-1N, P-P-2C-2D, P-P-3C-?

1D may be as few as two, but promised a sound hand. 1S showed shape. So, pard was 4=1=4=4 or had at least five diamonds.

At matchpoints, opposite a sound opening, it seemed clear to double 3C. If pard had six diamonds she'd pull, with 4=3=5=1 she'd use her judgement, and with 4=2=5=2 3CX rated to fare poorly. I could only dream about 4=1=4=4.

Dummy tabled some values, along with honor FOURTH of trump. We nipped it a trick, routinely, and scored a top. RHO quoted The Law and LHO started laughing, pointing out that they hadn't scored a single matchpoint, and question the authority of the law. Good times.


22) 2nd, favorable
KQJxx Tx Kxx xxx

P-P-P-1C, 1H-1S-P-2N, P-3H-X-3S, P-3N-P-P, P

Notes on the auction:

a) 1S promised 4+ spades.
b) absent competition, 3H would have been a transfer. In comp it was undiscussed, but intended and interpreted as a cue bid / checkback.
c) I meant 3N as a choice of games, but pard was confused and passed.

As usual when I play 3N instead of 4M, it makes the same number of tricks if a key finesse is off, one fewer if the finesse is on. Of course it was on, so we got a 3/8. Playing 4S would have gotten us 6/8.


All in all, it was fun to win, but I really liked going home early. And the brownie bites they put out at the beginning of round six. I stared at them during all three boards, then RAN over to grab the last one.