Bridge Match 1 - Board 75

Board 75 – Dealer South – No Vul

My hand: ♠ K 9 8 7 6 ♥ K 7 6 ♦ A K 7 ♣ 7 3

I open 1 spade in first chair. Partner responds 2 hearts with both opponents passing. I bid 2NT and partner goes to 3. West leads the 2 of clubs.

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

West	North	East	South
			1♠
Pass	2♥	Pass	2NT
Pass	3NT	All Pass

I have 3 diamond tricks and 2 club tricks for sure. I can easily brute force at least 3 hearts (4 unless they split 5-0) and certainly 1 spade. Clubs are 4-3 so I might even be able to get a 3rd club trick, too. Loserwise I just have the two aces and maybe 2 clubs so I should be set. I think I should duck the first club since I don't think it can hurt and it might give me time to set up my spade for trick 10 before they set up both clubs. 2-4-J-3. East shifts to a heart. 5-K-A-2. And now a diamond. 6-3-T-K.

Ok, now I'm in and I have 8 more tricks to cash. There are 10 tricks to come though, and I can easily set up a 9th for me without risk so I play a low spade. 6-2-Q-A. I'm up. Making 4.

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

Professor Jack disagrees with my 2NT bid. He doesn't want me to skip a biddable suit and wants me to bid 2 spades. My spades are pretty mediocre so I don't see any reason to bid them a second time. He then disagrees with passing 3NT. Apparently partner's response guaranteed 5 hearts so I should have gone to 4 hearts. I donno, even knowing he has 5 hearts I'm not sure NT isn't the right place to be.

Finally he disagrees with my club deck at trick one. He says it might not work out as expected. I was certain it would, though. It couldn't hurt and could help since it puts East on lead now.


On the replay my hand bids 2 spades which is alerted as forcing with fewer than 4 hearts and 10-14 points. North jumps to 3NT and my hand pulls to 4 hearts. They lose just the 2 aces for up 1.

Nick: 430
Jack: 450
IMPs: -1 (+16 total)