Sunday, December 28, 2014

Bridge Match 3 - Board 42

Board 42 - Dealer East - All Vul

Opponents convention card: Jack
Opponents playing strength: Advanced

My hand: A K 8 2 J 9 6 5 Q J T 9 4

I open 1 club in second seat. Partner responds 1 heart, Walsh. So if he has 4+ diamonds he also has a good hand. Hmm. I think 1NT here is probably a strong NT since we're playing weak NT? Man, that sure makes Walsh a bad convention to run... And I'm stuck for a bid here. Rebid clubs? I think I need to just bid 1NT and then if it gets treated as strong I'll need to fiddle with the card. Partner then jumps to 3 spades. So his hand should be really, really good? Why wouldn't he bid 2 spades? What use is eating up all the bidding room? I don't know. I don't know what he wants me to bid. So I try 3NT. He bids 4NT. I think this should be qualitative (and therefore I should pass) but I bet he thinks it's Blackwood. We haven't set a trump suit though. It would have to be clubs I would think? Anyway, I have 1 ace and we're playing 1430 so I can just bid 5 clubs. Maybe he'll pass. Nope. He jumps to 6NT. This should be interesting...

W can hardly contain himself as he leads the A of clubs.
NORTH
J T 8 7
A K Q J 5
A 2
6 5
WEST
A
SOUTH
A K
8 2
J 9 6 5
Q J T 9 4
WestNorthEastSouth
Pass1
Pass11Pass1NT
Pass32Pass3NT
Pass4NT3Pass54
Pass6NTPassPass
Pass
1Walsh
2Strong second suit
3Ace asking for hearts
41 or 4 aces

There's not a whole lot to say here... I have 7 tricks. I probably have an 8th in hearts. And that's pretty much it. Unless they cash the K of clubs too, in which case I get 3 more clubs. I could actually get out of this with down 1 if they guarantee setting me!

They try to do so, but the second club trick goes 2-6-3-9. Hmm. Why aren't they setting me? And if they aren't cashing out why are they setting up my tricks? I don't see a way to sneak 12 tricks. Even if the Q of spades drops I only get to 11. (1 club, 1 diamond, 5 hearts, 4 spades)

So I force them to win their club. West takes it and leads a heart. I take 2 hearts to check if they split 5-1. They don't, so I am up. Down one.
NORTH
J T 8 7
A K Q J 5
A 2
6 5
WEST
Q 9 4 2
9 3
Q 7 4
A K 8 2
EAST
6 5 3
T 7 6 4
K T 8 3
7 3
SOUTH
A K
8 2
J 9 6 5
Q J T 9 4
Unfortunately 6 of the tables played sane numbers of NT (2NT making, 3NT making 4 times, 3NT up 2). One pair tried for 4 hearts and went down one. So we get 1 MP.


Jack disagrees with my 1NT bid. Shocking, I know. He wants me to bid 2 clubs. Now, let's think about this... I didn't open a weak 1NT here because I had a 2-2-4-5 distribution. Most of the other hands where I'd want to rebid a weaker 1NT after Walsh are covered by just opening it in the first place. I was thinking of lying and opening 1NT anyway. Ok... I think the system is fine. I just screwed up here. I should have bid 2 clubs. We easily get to 3NT where I proceed to make 5 which would have been 13MPs instead of 1. Sorry Jack.

Ranking after board 42/60: 9/16 with 50.51%

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