I've decided to start up a matchpoint game in Jack Bridge and see how that goes. There are a few settings that can be changed when setting up a matchpoint game but I'm going to leave most of them alone. Competition difficulty is set to 4 (on a scale of 1-10) and I'm starting off in Flight D. So hopefully winning is a possibility! I'm going with 60 deals in a round, and there are 16 teams. Top 4 get promoted to Flight C, bottom 3 get demoted to Flight E.
Opponents convention card: Majeure cinquième.
Opponents playing strength: Adequate.
My hand: ♠ Q J T 9 7 ♥ A T 6 3 ♦ A 6 ♣ J 8
Partner opens 1 diamond. I respond 1 spade. The opponents say nothing at all. 2 clubs from partner. I bid 2 hearts (4th suit forcing). He bids 3 diamonds which is alerted but I don't know what that's for. I have hearts stopped and no reason to suspect we have a fit anywhere so I bid 3NT. West leads the 4 of hearts.
NORTH ♠ K 4 ♥ Q 9 ♦ Q J 8 5 2 ♣ K Q 5 3 | ||
| WEST ♥ 4 | ||
| SOUTH ♠ Q J T 9 7 ♥ A T 6 3 ♦ A 6 ♣ J 8 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♦ | Pass | 1♠ | |
| Pass | 2♣ | Pass | 2♥1 |
| Pass | 3♦2 | Pass | 3NT |
| Pass | Pass | Pass | |
| 14th Suit Forcing | |||
| 22 of fewer spades, exactly 4 clubs | |||
I have 1 heart and 1 diamond. I can easily set up 4 spades, 2 clubs, and at least 1 diamond. With the heart lead I have those double stopped and will get a second heart trick as well. I will definitely lose a spade, and a club, and a heart, and probably a diamond too. So I need to make sure I don't lose a second trick in any suit.
Hearts first, since that's what they lead. 4-Q-7-3. I definitely need to set up spades. K-A-7-5. East goes back to hearts. 8-6-J-9. West decides to just exit his hand with a spade. 6-4-3-9. I have hearts stopped two more times if West leads, so I'm happy to lose a trick to him but not so much to East. On the other hand I'm almost stranded from board now. If they hold up diamonds and clubs then I can't get over there to cash extra clubs or diamonds. I think I need to make them discard some on spades to see if I can get some information. Q-2-2 of diamonds-8. J-5 of hearts-5 of diamonds-6 of clubs. T-7 of clubs-3 of clubs-4 of clubs.
They pitched a heart. So they only have 2 hearts left between the two of them, and can't set up a heart anymore. If the last two hearts are split they have nothing to set up. If they're together whoever has them can't play them without giving me a heart. They also pitched 3 clubs and no diamonds. But I still don't know the right way to go. I feel like the safest play is to cash A of diamonds, out a diamond. This sets up a diamond and then I can cover my J of clubs to force an entry to said diamond if they force me back into my hand with a heart. And I don't really see a way to get 10 tricks unless they've misplayed and set up both my hearts. Run it! A-4-8-3. 6-9 of clubs-J-K. East returns a diamond. Hmm. I fear I've set up their diamonds. T-T of hearts-2 of clubs-Q. I play a club, East has the A. And two more diamonds. Oops.
| NORTH ♠ K 4 ♥ Q 9 ♦ Q J 8 5 2 ♣ K Q 5 3 | ||
| WEST ♠ 6 5 2 ♥ K J 5 4 2 ♦ 4 ♣ T 9 7 2 | EAST ♠ A 8 3 ♥ 8 7 ♦ K T 9 7 3 ♣ A 6 4 | |
| SOUTH ♠ Q J T 9 7 ♥ A T 6 3 ♦ A 6 ♣ J 8 |
Professor Jack disagrees with bidding 3NT. He wants me to bid 3 hearts and force to game. I don't want to play in a 4-3 heart fit and it's really hard for me to imagine his hand is exactly 0-4-5-4 which is the only setup which makes his bidding make sense while giving us a heart fit. But I guess it's possible. He also disagrees with cashing the A of diamonds and wants me to play on clubs. The play that actually makes sense since that's what they'd been pitching. Especially since it turns out East didn't have a low club left and therefore couldn't have held up on my J of clubs lead.
3NT - 2 was the worst score on the board and was worth a total of 0 MPs. 5 of the 8 pairs made a NT contract and 2 others went down a mere 1.
Ranking after board 1/60: 16/16 with 0.00%
1 comment:
Bidding 3H as suggested seems pretty odd. Either your 4th suit forcing was forcing to game...and partner has at most 3 H (otherwise they would have bid 3 H over your 2H) so why are you showing your stupid 4 hearts for a bad moiesian instead of the clear 3NT?...or if 4th suit was only forcing for 1 round, I don't see how 3H would be game forcing and not show a distributional hand with the majors that partner could pass with a horrible misfit.
As for playing on diamonds or clubs, once they pitch 3 clubs, it seems like clubs are the way to go since you can only lose 2 tricks if they started 5-2 to begin with.
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