Bridge Match 3 - Board 14

Board 14 - Dealer East - None Vul

Opponents convention card: Bridge World Standard 2001
Opponents playing strength: Advanced

My hand: ♠ J 8 3 2 ♥ A Q 5 4 ♦ ♣ A Q J 8 4

I open 1 club in second seat. Partner responds 1 heart, Walsh. I only have 14 points but I have a void so I think this is worth an invitational 3 hearts bid. Partner passes it out.

East leads the 5 of spades.

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

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1♣
Pass	1♥1	Pass	3♥
Pass	Pass	Pass
1Walsh

I have 2 spade losers, a club loser, and an extra diamond trick that won't help anything. I also have some number of heart losers, probably 2. Something needs to go away, hopefully one of the round kings is onside I guess. Let's see when I get in to play cards... 5-2-K-4. A-Q-6-3. 7-T-9-8. Well, spades split 3-3 so I have an extra useless trick with the 13th spade too. I need to get trump drawn. 2-7-Q-J. The J is a little worrying... What do I do if hearts split 4-1? Lose 2 hearts I guess and there's nothing to do about it. So I might as well find out. A-7 of diamonds-3-8. Well, I have no entry to board to finesse a club or anything unless I want to ruff my high spade. I should either cash the spade and hope he ruffs or just throw him in with a trump.

I don't have any real reason to hold onto my own trump, do I? I guess he can draw all my trump and throw me on board with a diamond. Then if the club finesse loses they can cash a bunch of diamonds. That seems bad. I'm better off hoping my spade gets ruffed I think. It doesn't as East pitches a diamond and West pitches the 9 of clubs. That's a little scary. Pretty sure my club finesse isn't going to win.

Do I want to cash out for down 1? I just need to give up a club right now and then I can win 2 more clubs regardless of their leads back. Or I can assert West is false carding? What are other people likely to be playing? 2 or 3 hearts most likely. Going down at all is bad if a bunch of people stop in 2 hearts. Eh, I want to make so I'm going to pretend. I fire around a heart and West pitches a lower club this time. East draws the rest of the trump and West pitches another low club. East leads a low diamond to West's Q. If I take this I lose 2 more diamonds. I'm pretty sure East had no clubs to start so West is currently sitting on Kx of clubs and 2 diamonds. Yeah, I'm boned. Unless they botch the communication I either cash my A of clubs and give up 3 tricks or I let them take all diamond tricks to end. Boo. I win this and play a club to my A. They're up. Down 3.

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

Lots of different results on this board. 2 hearts made, 3 hearts went down 1, 4 hearts went down 3, and their side went down 2 in 2 clubs and made 5 diamonds. All told we got 5 MPs. If I'd just given up the club I'd have picked up 3 extra MPs. I knew I should have done that...


Captain Jack disagrees with my 3 heart bid because my hand is too strong for an invite. He wants me to splinter with 4 diamonds! He also disagrees with my trump play at the end and wants me to give up a club trick. Good call, Jack.

Ranking after board 14/60: 4/16 with 57.14%