Bridge Match 1 - Board 108

Board 108 – Dealer West – NS Vul

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

The astute among you will note I've skipped a hand. I was showing the software to a friend on the weekend and he played a hand to see what it was like and I'll end up confused with vulnerabilities if I try to go back. And this hand is awesome and I don't want to waste it. That too. The hand he played was a push anyway.

It's three passes to me. I open 2 clubs. Partner bids 2 diamonds which is waiting which I still don't understand. I bid 3 diamonds. Partner jumps to 4 hearts. So clearly he has something somewhere. If I big Blackwood he's going to think it's for hearts. I can ask him for the Q of hearts and that will let me know how many kings he has. (Unless he is off A and Q of hearts.) If he has two I want to play in 7 diamonds. What if he has 1? Then he'll have bid 6 diamonds and I can pass. The only danger is he pulls 7 diamonds to 7 hearts but I don't think that will happen.

He bids 5 clubs, showing 1 or 4 keycards. (Clearly 1, the K of hearts. Now if he has any entry at all I can pitch my spade loser. So if he has the K of diamonds I make 7. I bid 5 diamonds to ask for the Q of trump. He bids 5 hearts denying it and saying nothing about kings. I bid 5 NT. He bids 6 hearts, showing 2 kings so 7 is cold. I bid 7 diamonds and he passes.

It turns out my bids didn't mean what I thought they did, so I hope I'm not screwed. Oh well!

And the reason my bids didn't mean what I thought they did is I didn't reset the convention card after Aidan played so I'm using SAYC. Not sure how to handle this. All his bids showed were some hearts and no aces. Nothing about kings at all. I'm going to replay with my actual card before I see the layout and hope I get to 7 diamonds anyway.

The auction ends up the same up to 4NT. He shows 0 or 3 keycards. I ask for the Q of trump with 5 spades and he bids 6 diamonds showing 1. I now know he doesn't have the K of hearts and has only one other king. So I have 12 tricks and my only chance at 13 is he has a black queen and I have a working finesse for a missing king. That doesn't seem likely so I pass 6 diamonds. That was my plan earlier when I was going to ask for the Q of hearts, so I don't feel too bad about passing here. I don't feel like I gained anything from the bad auction.

I pass. East leads the J of clubs.

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

West	North	East	South
Pass	Pass	Pass	2♣1
Pass	2♦2	Pass	3♦3
Pass	4♥	Pass	4NT4
Pass	5♦5	Pass	5♠6
Pass	6♦7	All Pass
1Strong
2Waiting
3Forcing
4Ace Asking for Hearts
50 or 3 Aces
6Queen Ask
7Queen of Trumps and 1 King

Well, as long as diamonds aren't 5-0 I have 12 tricks. If they're 4-1 with a stiff K I have 13. The lead isn't ruffed. Diamonds are 3-2. So I make 6.

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

Professor Jack disagrees with my slam try. He wouldn't bid 5 spades, he would have just bid 6 diamonds. See, I think if he shows 2 kings you're cold for 7 so it's really worth asking.


The auction is pretty similar at the other table. South asking for aces, North says 0 or 4, South bids 6 diamonds. I wonder why he bothered asking a question he knew the answer to when he could have just big 6 diamonds if he wasn't willing to investigate further for 2 kings for 7. At any rate, they are also cold for 6.

Nick: 1370
Jack: 1370
IMPs: 0 (-1 total)

Bridge Match 1 - Board 104

Board 104 – Dealer West – No Vul

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

Partner opens 1 spade in second chair. I don't like doing it, but Jack thinks Jacoby 2NT only shows 3 spades so I go with that. He bids 3 hearts, showing a stiff or void. So the opponents have a huge heart fit. That means we should have one too, or be double fit, so making a slam move seems ok. I bid 4 diamonds, hopefully showing the A. Partner bids 4 hearts, presumably showing stiff A or a void. I might as well bid Blackwood and see what's up. He bids 5 diamonds, showing 3 keycards. So we have all the aces. I think 5 hearts will ask him for the trump queen, so I bid that. He bids 5NT, showing the trump queen but no kings. We have at least 5 spade tricks, 1 heart, at least 3 clubs, and 1 diamond. I have a feeling we have an unavoidable diamond loser though, and hopefully the two extra tricks come from the long club and an extra spade in partner's hand. I bid 6 spades which gets passed out.

East leads the 6 of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
Pass	1♠	Pass	2NT1
Pass	3♥2	Pass	4♦3
Pass	4♥4	Pass	4NT5
Pass	5♦6	Pass	5♥7
Pass	5NT8	Pass	6♠
Pass	Pass	Pass
1Jacoby 2NT
2Singleton or Void
3Control in Diamonds for Spades
4Control in Clubs for Spades
5Ace Asking for Spades
60 or 3 Aces
7Queen Ask
8Queen of Spades, 0 Kings

So it turns out partner has a hidden 5 card suit which I fill in completely as a source of tricks. So we have 5 spades, 5 clubs, and 2 red aces. I can't see a way to possibly make a 13th trick unless the K of diamonds and the KQ of hearts are all in the same hand and I set up a squeeze.

I end up misplaying trumps (I thought I had 9 until I stopped and counted) and had to ruff a heart to hand to draw the last trump, so even that play disappeared. Making 6.

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

Professor Jack disagrees with my diamond cuebid. He wants me to just bid 4 spades. He then doesn't want me to ask for aces and again wants me to bid just 4 spades. Finally, and bizarrely, he doesn't like bidding 5 hearts to ask about the Q of trump. His reasoning is this is the wrong time to try for slam. Instead I should just bid 6 hearts. If partner had shown the K of diamonds I would have tried for 7, so I think asking was worthwhile.


The auction is very different at the other table but they end up in 6 spades anyway. They get a different lead and have no chance at a 13th trick so they're just in as well.

Nick: 980
Jack: 980
IMPs: 0 (+17 total)