Bridge Match 3 - Board 34

Board 34 - Dealer East - NS Vul

Opponents convention card: Standard American Yellow Card
Opponents playing strength: Advanced

My hand: ♠ A K 7 2 ♥ K Q T 8 6 ♦ J 3 ♣ 8 5

East opens 1 diamond. I decide I have a safe bid if partner chooses clubs over a takeout double because my heart suit is pretty good. West redoubles and partner bids 1 spade. This is a free bid since I get to pull from 1 diamond redoubled so I assumed it shows something interesting. And since partner is pretty much capped at 4 points from the opponents bidding I assert that has to mean good spades. Queen fifth, that sort of thing. So after East makes a cuebid of 2 spades I go to 3 spades which gets passed out.

East leads the ace of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
		1♦	Double
Redouble1	1♠	2♠2	3♠
Pass	Pass	Pass
110+ points
2Unassuming cuebid

Four spades to the 6 with decent support for every suit is not what partner should show up with here. He's happy no matter what suit I choose so he needs to stay silent here. As far as the hand is going to go it isn't terribly interesting. I'm going to lose 2 diamonds, 2 clubs, 1 heart, and at least 1 spade. I might lose more if they ruff hearts in the short spade hand. They decide to cash their high cards and take the first 5 tricks. I don't see any play other than draw 2 rounds of trump and then run hearts and hope trump splits 3-2.

It does, so I just lose one spade. Down 2.

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

The other 7 tables all played in game from the East-West side and they all made either 5 diamonds or 3NT with overtricks. So our -200 for down 2 undoubled is a top board. If they'd doubled us it would have been a bottom board though, so I'm not celebrating our aggression too much.


Jack disagrees with my double because he thinks double should be takeout and my hand isn't a takeout double. I really think it is. With my majors it's hard to get into trouble here. Even 2 hearts is fine support so partner would need to have 2 little spades and 1 heart to not have a decent major partscore. And that gives him 10 minor cards, so we'll have a fit there. Absolute worst case is he's 2-1-5-5 and we get stuck playing 3 clubs and that's still fine. And the upside of finding a major partscore is worth that risk I think. He also disagrees with my 3 spade bid. Hey, Jack, if you had your 1 spade bid the 3 spade bid is a standout winner. Qxxxx of spades and nothing else and we're probably only down 1. And down 1 when they have a game is awesome.

Ranking after board 34/60: 4/16 with 54.83%