Sunday, September 14, 2014

Bridge Match 3 - Board 12

Board 12 - Dealer West - NS Vul

Opponents convention card: Jack
Opponents playing strength: Excellent

My hand: J T 5 3 K Q 4 K J K Q 5 2

Partner opens a weak 1NT in 2nd chair. My balanced 15 count plus his balanced 12-14 sure sounds a lot like 3NT.

East leads the A of diamonds.
NORTH
A K 8
J 7 6 5
Q 9 6 5
A 8
EAST
A
SOUTH
J T 5 3
K Q 4
K J
K Q 5 2
WestNorthEastSouth
Pass1NT1Pass3NT
PassPassPass
112-14

I have 9 easy tricks once the two red aces are knocked out and they have no way to set up any tricks beyond those 2 aces. I can get an extra trick if hearts split 3-3 or if something wonky happens with the T of diamonds. I can also get an extra spade trick for sure by losing to the Q and can get two if I finesse the Q and the 9 drops on the first 3 tricks. Where I attack first depends on what suit the enemies lead after this first trick, so let's see what happens. A-J-4-5. He plays another diamond. 8-K-2-6.

Is it risky to play on spades first? If I float the J around then I can only lose to East and he has nothing scary to return. A diamond sets up my 9 so he has to play something else and I'll still have both black suits double stopped so I can easily lose a heart afterwards. So I'll do that first. J-7-8-2. Ok, I have 10 tricks now. Time to lose a heart. K-9-5-A. East fires back a diamond so I have 11 tricks.

The game doesn't believe me so I have to play it out for a while. Making 5.
NORTH
A K 8
J 7 6 5
Q 9 6 5
A 8
WEST
Q 9 7 4
9 3
T 4 3 2
J 4 3
EAST
6 2
A T 8 2
A 8 7
T 9 7 6
SOUTH
J T 5 3
K Q 4
K J
K Q 5 2
Everyone bid 3NT. 2 tables made +2, 3 tables made +1, 3 tables were just in. This gives us a shared top board and 13 MPs.


Jack disagrees with my 3NT bid. He wants me to start with Stayman. I guess it's possible we've got the distribution to make a major game better than 3NT but I doubt it. I really think with my flat hand with lots of middling honours that no trump is the place to be.

Ranking after board 12/60: 5/16 with 58.93%

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