Bridge Match 1 - Board 39

Board 39 – Dealer South – All Vul

My hand: ♠ ♥ Q J T 9 3 ♦ A K Q 9 4 ♣ Q 9 2

And another 5-5 hand! This time I have opening points and open 1 heart. West bids 2 hearts as Michael's. Partner raises to 3 hearts. Could we have a slam here? Maybe, if partner has clubs and hearts sewn up. I can make one move with a 3 spade bid if partner will view that as control showing. Maybe he'll pass it and let me play. That will at least be funny. It's sad that I need to think that that might happen. I go for it. I bid 3 spades, West bids 4 spades and partner doubles. This double has to be for penalty, but what did he think my 3 spade bid meant? I have to hope partner has spade extras which increases the odds of setting them and decreases the odds of making slam. I pass. Partner leads the 5 of hearts.

	NORTH ♥ 5
WEST ♠ T ♥ A 7 4 2 ♦ J 7 6 5 2 ♣ T 5 4
	SOUTH ♠ ♥ Q J T 9 3 ♦ A K Q 9 4 ♣ Q 9 2

West	North	East	South
			1♥
2♥1	3♥	Pass	3♠2
4♠	Double3	All Pass
1Michael's
2Spade control for hearts
3Penalty

Huh, I wonder why dummy didn't pull to a minor. At any rate, 5-A-3-6. Declarer shifts to a club. 4-2-A-3. And another. 6-K-5-9. Partner shifts to the 8 of diamonds. 8-2-Q-9 of spades.

Declarer goes back to clubs and partner foolishly ruffs my Q. Declarer is 7-1-0-5 which means partner is 5-3-3-2. We have whatever trump tricks partner has and that's it. Turns out that number is 1, so they make 4 spades doubled.

	NORTH ♠ J 6 5 3 2 ♥ K 8 5 ♦ T 8 3 ♣ K 3
WEST ♠ A K Q 9 8 7 4 ♥ 6 ♦ ♣ A J 8 7 6		EAST ♠ T ♥ A 7 4 2 ♦ J 7 6 5 2 ♣ T 5 4
	SOUTH ♠ ♥ Q J T 9 3 ♦ A K Q 9 4 ♣ Q 9 2

Professor Jack disagrees with my 3 spade bid. He did not consider it and wonders what I had in mind. It was alerted as showing spade control for hearts so it did mean what I meant but Captain Jack doesn't think my hand was good enough for it I guess.

I tried bidding diamonds with the same result, partner doubles 4 spades. I tried just bidding 4 hearts and partner gives up.

He also disagrees with my pass. Apparently I'm not allowed to trust partner's double here and should pull to 5 hearts.

My signal on the first trick was wrong as well. Apparently I'm supposed to encourage despite the fact that partner knows the full layout of the suit. Whatever.

He further disagrees with my diamond play after my hand was irrelevant. Again, whatever. I can count the hand Jack. You're a computer. Why can't you count the hand?


On the replay my hand bids 4 hearts. West bids 4 spades again and North voluntarily doubles. South doesn't trust his partner and pulls to 5 hearts. West sacs again by bidding 5 spades. North doubles again and South sits this time. At my table where I apparently misrepresented my hand I can see pulling the double. At this one? You have to trust partner to have a real double here. Of course he doesn't have a real double so maybe it's right to pull...

The play goes essentially the same. North ruffs his partner's Q of clubs. Down 1, doubled.

Nick: -790
Jack: 200
IMPs: -14 (-20 total)