Opponents convention card: Standard American Yellow Card
Opponents playing strength: Advanced
My hand: ♠ 7 4 2 ♥ A 6 ♦ T 5 4 3 ♣ A Q J 5
I open a weak 1NT in 3rd seat. Partner bids 2 hearts (to play) and East bids 2 spades. It looks like that's going to get passed out, but then partner bids 2NT. I'm not really sure what that means, but if we don't get doubled I think I'm happy with it. We don't get doubled. Hurray!
West leads the 8 of spades.
| NORTH ♠ Q J 3 ♥ K Q 7 5 4 ♦ J 8 6 ♣ 9 3 | ||
| WEST ♠ 8 | ||
| SOUTH ♠ 7 4 2 ♥ A 6 ♦ T 5 4 3 ♣ A Q J 5 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | Pass | 1NT | |
| Pass | 2♥ | 2♠ | Pass |
| Pass | 2NT | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
Partner's spade stopped for his 2NT bid was QJx. That might not even be a stopper! (If I play low here, East could win the T. If I split my honours East can win, find another entry to West's hand, and finesse away my other honour.) Even if it is, I have 3 heart tricks and 1 club trick. I might be able to get extra club tricks if East has the K (or if I just lose a trick) and I can conceivably get a diamond trick and 2 extra heart tricks. So if everything goes my way I might be able to get 8 tricks. On the other hand they have 5 tricks right off the top so losing to the club K is actually going to set me.
Oh well, not much to do now. I'm going to split my spade honours and cross my fingers. East wins the first spade and fires back the T of clubs. Well, I've already acknowledged that I'm going down if West has the K of clubs. I can't conceive of how the cards could be aligned now such that he doesn't have it. So the question is if I want to go down now or later. I suspect they can only take 9 tricks off the top here, and I can only cash 4 tricks if I hop with the ace. Unless hearts split 3-3, in which case I can actually hold the contract to down 3. Down 3 is only -150... That might be good for some MPs? Well, actually, probably not. It'll only beat tables where the opponents make game. So I think I need to hope they screw up here. I cover with the J.
Spades actually split 4-3-3-3 (wow, what a 2 spade bid by East) and I need to pick what I want to pitch. My 9 of clubs is actually set up, but I need to keep a low club in hand to get to it. And I need to keep Ax of hearts to get back. Which means pitching my diamond 'stopper' of Txxx. Well, actually, after they take 3 diamonds there will only be 5 tricks left. I don't need the club because that would be trick 6. Except East actually returns a club, not a diamond! Hearts don't break so I just get my 5 tricks. Down 3.
| NORTH ♠ Q J 3 ♥ K Q 7 5 4 ♦ J 8 6 ♣ 9 3 | ||
| WEST ♠ 9 8 6 ♥ T 9 ♦ A K 9 ♣ K 8 7 4 2 | EAST ♠ A K T 5 ♥ J 8 3 2 ♦ Q 7 2 ♣ T 6 | |
| SOUTH ♠ 7 4 2 ♥ A 6 ♦ T 5 4 3 ♣ A Q J 5 |
Jack disagrees with my opening bid. He wants me to pass. Bah. Things broke pretty terribly for us here. I feel like on many layouts we get a positive result from my opening here. I think part of the problem is Jack is always focused on us getting to a constructive contract while a lot of my focus is interfering with the opponents and keeping them from finding their constructive contract. Weak no trump is a preemptive thing. After I bid it we should be scrambling to find a safe place to play, not trying to find a game by bidding silly things like 2NT off of a 9 count with QJx as a stopper.
Ranking after board 33/60: 5/16 with 53.46%
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