My Fast Arrival Nightmare
Oct. 15th, 2007 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenv1I've written more than one whiny email to Eric Kokish begging for sympathy because I can't find a decent partner who's not wedded to fast arrival. All the gold/diamond/emerald life masters I've gotten dates with are IN LOVE with burning bidding space to tell partner...nothing very interesting. Ok, whatever. For the most part, I don't sweat it because those auctions aren't terribly frequent. I've started a new partnership with a pretty good player (Grand LM!). Good enough, in fact, to win a sectional swiss with me. Even though we played...it. No big deal, right? It never comes up. Anyway, going into the final round, playing for the event, we faced these two deals:
16) 3rd, unfavorable
ATxx AKx Axxx xx
1S-2N, 3H-3S, 4C-4N, 5S-5N, 6D-6S, P
Pard dealt, opened 1S, and the opps were silent. I prefer 3C as the forcing raise, since it's useful to have a forcing, natural 2N, but when I have the raise 2N Jacoby works fine. Pard bid 3H, showing at most one heart. Ugh. It would be great to know whether he had extras, but standard Jacoby doesn't cover that. In my regular partnerships, even when I play standard Jacoby, I can punt with 3S here, and pard can either make a cooperative noise with 3N non-serious, or he can make a serious control-bid, showing extra values, at the four level. We didn't have that agreement. Instead, we played fast arrival. Did that apply here? If so, what did 3S and 4S mean? Where do you draw the line? How good a hand can I have to make a fast arrival 3S instead of making a control bid? I just don't get the point...
Anyway, here I thought that 15 HCP in the form of 4 quick tricks had to be good enough to try 3S (stronger than 4S?) leaving room to discover pard's putative club control below game. He bid 4C (extras? Minimum? No interest in slam at all, but felt he had to show club control because I was unlimited?) and now what? A red control bid might get him to sign off, afraid I couldn't control the other. I still wasn't sure I'd show extras, so, just in case he had, I certainly couldn't sign off in 4S. I got to do what everyone always does, successfully, against me: Blackwood with a doubleton. I found we had all the key cards, and the trump queen. I got to bid 5N specific king and found our tenth trick. Yipee. I'd promised all the keys, so I could sign off and let him bid grand if he felt like it. He didn't, and he made exactly six.
A few boards later:
21) 2nd, favorable
KQT9x xxxx Qx Ax
1S-2D, 2H-2S, 2N-3D, 4S-P
If the last auction made me uncomfortable, this one was EXCRUCIATING! I'd have preferred to open a 10-12 notrump, but I felt that 1S, willing to pass 1N semi-forcing, might win a partscore battle. Pard forced to game with a natural 2D. 2H on four to the deuce was pretty gross, and pard showed spade support with 2S. Great. Is that SUPER FAST ARRIVAL, showing a 25 count, since it is stronger than 3S, and 3S is stronger than 4S? Even if we had to play this method, it would be much more useful with some (any) discussion.
On the other hand, what am I supposed to do? Would 3S by ME be fast arrival? I'd LITERALLY vomit if I bid 4S with this hand (how could partner ever play me for this hand?). 2N wasn't appealing, but what's left? Over his 3D I was in, essentially, the same position. I swallowed my pride and jumped to 4S, hopeful he'd pass and be right. And he did. +450.
We need to talk.
16) 3rd, unfavorable
ATxx AKx Axxx xx
1S-2N, 3H-3S, 4C-4N, 5S-5N, 6D-6S, P
Pard dealt, opened 1S, and the opps were silent. I prefer 3C as the forcing raise, since it's useful to have a forcing, natural 2N, but when I have the raise 2N Jacoby works fine. Pard bid 3H, showing at most one heart. Ugh. It would be great to know whether he had extras, but standard Jacoby doesn't cover that. In my regular partnerships, even when I play standard Jacoby, I can punt with 3S here, and pard can either make a cooperative noise with 3N non-serious, or he can make a serious control-bid, showing extra values, at the four level. We didn't have that agreement. Instead, we played fast arrival. Did that apply here? If so, what did 3S and 4S mean? Where do you draw the line? How good a hand can I have to make a fast arrival 3S instead of making a control bid? I just don't get the point...
Anyway, here I thought that 15 HCP in the form of 4 quick tricks had to be good enough to try 3S (stronger than 4S?) leaving room to discover pard's putative club control below game. He bid 4C (extras? Minimum? No interest in slam at all, but felt he had to show club control because I was unlimited?) and now what? A red control bid might get him to sign off, afraid I couldn't control the other. I still wasn't sure I'd show extras, so, just in case he had, I certainly couldn't sign off in 4S. I got to do what everyone always does, successfully, against me: Blackwood with a doubleton. I found we had all the key cards, and the trump queen. I got to bid 5N specific king and found our tenth trick. Yipee. I'd promised all the keys, so I could sign off and let him bid grand if he felt like it. He didn't, and he made exactly six.
A few boards later:
21) 2nd, favorable
KQT9x xxxx Qx Ax
1S-2D, 2H-2S, 2N-3D, 4S-P
If the last auction made me uncomfortable, this one was EXCRUCIATING! I'd have preferred to open a 10-12 notrump, but I felt that 1S, willing to pass 1N semi-forcing, might win a partscore battle. Pard forced to game with a natural 2D. 2H on four to the deuce was pretty gross, and pard showed spade support with 2S. Great. Is that SUPER FAST ARRIVAL, showing a 25 count, since it is stronger than 3S, and 3S is stronger than 4S? Even if we had to play this method, it would be much more useful with some (any) discussion.
On the other hand, what am I supposed to do? Would 3S by ME be fast arrival? I'd LITERALLY vomit if I bid 4S with this hand (how could partner ever play me for this hand?). 2N wasn't appealing, but what's left? Over his 3D I was in, essentially, the same position. I swallowed my pride and jumped to 4S, hopeful he'd pass and be right. And he did. +450.
We need to talk.
