Bridge Match 1 - Board 98

Board 98 – Dealer East – NS Vul

My hand: ♠ T 8 ♥ 6 5 3 ♦ Q 8 7 6 ♣ J 9 7 3

East opens 1 club and I pass. West responds 1 diamond, partner jumps in with 1 heart, and East retreats to 1NT. I bid 2 hearts. West doubles (competitive) and East jumps to 3NT. West bids 4NT which is somehow asking for aces. East shows 1 and West bids 6 diamonds. Partner doubles for penalty and I see no reason to run with 4 trump. Partner leads the Q of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
		1♣	Pass
1♦	1♥	1NT	2♥1
Double2	Pass	3NT	Pass
4NT3	Pass	5♦4	Pass
6♦	Double5	All Pass
1Preemptive
2Competitive
3Ace Asking for No Trump
4One Ace
5Penalty

I guess partner was counting on me to have one of those for my 2 heart bid. Oh well. Q-K-3-7. Declarer draws trump. 4-6-A-6 of clubs. Interesting. Partner doubled with a void. The 6 looks low, so I'm not sure what he's doubling on. More trump from declarer. 2-2 of hearts-K-7. 5-Q-3-8 of hearts.

I know declarer started with 6 diamonds and 1 heart. So he has 6 black suit cards. Partner hasn't pitched any spades yet so I'm hoping that's our best bet for tricks. T-A-9-2. Declarer draws my last trump. 9-9 of hearts-4 of clubs-8.

Now declarer plays a spade. 3-K-4-8. Partner switches to a low club. 2-8-J-A. Declarer cashes dummy's J of spades and is up. Down 1, doubled.

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

What a stupid double. No aces and no trumps? No honour sequences in anything but the suit he's practically guaranteed to be ruffing?

Professor Jack disagrees with my overcall. Even though he believes it to be preemptive I don't have enough points. I'm just making that bid to show my 3 hearts, nothing more. Jack would have passed. He then disagrees with my spade shift when I got in with my diamond Q. He would have led a club up to dummy's Qxx after partner pitched a low one. Seems sketchy to me.


On the replay my hand passes and West cuebids 2 hearts instead of doubling my 2 hearts. The auction is then the same up to 6 diamonds which North passes instead of doubling. I guess my 'preemptive' bid was what caused the double. Declarer then almost makes it. He found the winning play in diamonds but didn't have enough board entries to finesse twice. He didn't have enough entries because he attacked spades first instead of trump. He ends up down 1.

Nick: 100
Jack: 50
IMPs: 2 (+3 total)