Bridge Match 3 - Board 18

Board 18 - Dealer East - NS Vul

Opponents convention card: Dutch Doubleton
Opponents playing strength: Advanced

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

I'm going to discount my stiff king and say this is a preempt. I open 2 spades in second seat. Partner responds 2 no trump which should be asking me for a feature for 3NT. I guess Kx should count and I definitely have a maximum so I bid 3 clubs. Partner finishes with 4 spades which gets passed out.

West leads the T of spades.

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

West	North	East	South
		Pass	2♠1
Pass	2NT2	Pass	3♣3
Pass	4♠	Pass	Pass
Pass
1Weak
2Relay
3Feature

Hmm. It looks like there's not a lot going on here... We're double fit with likely 14 tricks and 1 loser. Though I do have some pretty hefty communication issues if clubs don't split 3-2. Or do I? I can draw 4 rounds of trump and then play 3 rounds of clubs. If they split 4-1 I can ruff a club and then cover my heart K with the A as the entry back. So I guess I only really care if a black suit splits 5-0. But other than ruffing a diamond I'm not sure what I could even do if that happens. So I'm just going to assume it won't and take my initial line.

Spades split 4-1 and clubs split 3-2 so I take 13 tricks. Making 7.

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

Two tables played 3NT making 7. 5 of us played 4 spades making 7. And one poor sap played 6 spades and went down 1. With clubs splitting 3-2 I don't see how that happened. I also don't know why partner didn't bid slam at my table... What could my club feature be except something that likely gives us 12 tricks in the black suits? And he has the ace of hearts and a diamond stiff! Anyway, this is worth only 6 MPs.


Jack disagrees with my opening bid. He thinks I have too many points and wants me to open 1 spade, not 2 spades. I still think that K of hearts is worthless and the 2 spade bid is way more descriptive of my hand, so we're going to have to disagree here Jack.

Ranking after board 18/60: 5/16 with 54.37%