Sunday, January 25, 2015

Bridge Match 3 - Board 51

Board 51 - Dealer South - EW Vul

Opponents convention card: Majeure cinquième
Opponents playing strength: Advanced

My hand: T 8 4 9 3 J 7 6 A Q T 9 7

West opens 1 diamond in second seat, partner doubles, and East bids 1 spade. I've got something worth telling partner about so I bid 2 clubs. It gets passed back around to East who bids 2 diamonds. Which gets passed out.

Partner leads the 4 of clubs.
NORTH
4
EAST
K Q 8 7 2
J 8 7
K 9 5
6 3
SOUTH
T 8 4
9 3
J 7 6
A Q T 9 7
WestNorthEastSouth
Pass
1Pass12
PassPass2Pass
PassPass

4-3-A-2. I can play more clubs and try to run dummy out of trump but that feels wrong. I can draw trump first? Or I can hope from the bidding that partner has good hearts and wants me to return them through declarer. That sounds like a plan. 9-5-K-7. Partner cashes another heart. A-8-3-2. And then he hooks me up with a ruff. T-J-6 of diamonds-4.

Ok, it feels like declarer should have the Q of hearts still, so I want to get into partner's hand for him to pound through another heart for me to ruff. (Or at least force dummy to ruff high and maybe get a trump promotion for partner.) Clubs is really the best bet for having that happen, and I want to make sure partner takes the trick, so I lead low. 7-K-8-6. Oh well. Declarer draws two rounds of trump and then plays a spade to partner's ace. And then declarer is up. Making 2.
NORTH
A J 3
A K T 6
8 4
J 8 5 4
WEST
6 5
Q 5 4 2
A Q T 3 2
K 2
EAST
K Q 8 7 2
J 8 7
K 9 5
6 3
SOUTH
T 8 4
9 3
J 7 6
A Q T 9 7
One NS pair made 3 clubs. 1 EW pair went down 1 in 3 diamonds. 5 made 2 diamonds, and 1 made 2 diamonds up 1. So we get 6 MPs for being in the big tie in the middle. I wish Jack followed the law since he really should have raised my 2 club bid to 3 which was the winning play on this board.


Jack disagrees with my pass over 2 diamonds. He wants me to bid 3 clubs on my own. I don't think it's my position to be making that bid. There's no reason to assume his double of 1 diamond actually shows 4 clubs. It's much safer for me to bid clubs once and then let him take over if he likes clubs.

Ranking after board 51/60: 9/16 with 50%

No comments: