Bridge Match 3 - Board 30

Board 30 - Dealer East - None Vul

Opponents convention card: Dutch Doubleton
Opponents playing strength: Good

My hand: ♠ T ♥ A 8 7 3 ♦ A J 8 ♣ T 9 5 4 2

East opens 1 diamond and my hand is not good enough to bid. West responds 1 spade, partner stays silent, and East jumps to 3 diamonds. At this point I think I want to encourage partner to get involved if he has something, so I double. The double is for naught as West bids 3NT and partner passes again.

Partner leads the 4 of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
		1♦	Pass
1♠	Pass	3♦	Double1
3NT	Pass	Pass	Pass
1Take-out

Interesting. I actually have two diamond stoppers so we might be able to set this if that was their primary source of tricks. Hearts is definitely our suit if we have one (hopefully partner has the 2 and therefore has 5 of them) so my plan is to win this one and play another. 4-5-A-2. Ok, partner only has 4. This means declarer also has 4. Well, might as well finesse the hearts if that's a thing... 8-J-Q-7 of clubs. Partner thinks for a while, decides not to return a heart, and picks diamonds as the most likely suit with an entry to my hand. Good call, partner! 7-2-J-9. Hopefully he did this because we're accomplishing something with the heart finesses. So I play another. 7-K-9-3 of diamonds. Declarer exits a heart. Except partner is out, and declarer actually has 5 of them. So he cashes another too. *sigh*

Declarer then cashes a club and plays a spade around to partner's ace. Ok, we may still have something here. If partner fires back a diamond to my ace they're down! He does! Dummy is up, but that doesn't much matter. Down one.

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

This board actually had 8 different results. Our side went down 3 in 3 hearts doubled, and their side played the rest of the boards. 4 spades down 2, making, and up 1. 3 spades up 1 and up 2. 3 diamonds making. Our own 3NT down 1 is therefore good for 12 MPs.


Jack disagrees with my double because my hand isn't strong enough. I think 2 aces and 9 cards in the unbid suits is actually plenty strong. I'm not making this double to try to find a game. I'm making it to try to find a good place to sacrifice. If West lets it sit that could be bad (someone did make 3 diamonds after all), but I suspect there are more times when the interference causes us to play in a good spot MP wise instead of a bad one. But that may just be my experience playing against old ladies with Andrew talking. Jack also gets annoyed when I signal incorrect count in clubs after I'd given up on the hand. Sorry.

Ranking after board 30/60: 4/16 with 54.76%