Sunday, July 07, 2013

Bridge Match 2 - Board 8

Board 8 – Dealer West – None Vul

Opponents convention card: Dutch Acol
Opponents playing strength: Intermediate

My hand:  A 8 4  J 8 6 5 4 3    A T 5 4

West opens 1 club. Partner, of course, preempts 3 diamonds. Good luck with that, Jack. East and I pass, West reopens with a double. The claim from the hover explanation is that West has 4 hearts, 4 spades, and 4 or 5 clubs. Which means East should have 5 or 6 diamonds. Which means he should sit for 3 diamonds doubled. He doesn't, and pulls to 3 spades. I pass, West goes to 3NT. East is uninterested in 3NT and goes to 4 spades. I doubt they're making this, but I also really can't double. Can I? I bet we take my 2 aces, a heart ruff, and a diamond ruff. I'm a wimp and pass as does everyone else. I lead the 5 of hearts.




WEST
K Q 3
A Q T 7
A J
Q 8 7 3



SOUTH
♠ A 8 4
J 8 6 5 4 3

 A T 5 4


West North East South
1 3 Pass Pass
Double Pass 3 Pass
3NT Pass 4 All Pass

5-7-K-2. So West didn't have the 22-26 points the tooltip told me he should have for his 3NT bid. He also doesn't have the 4 spades promised by both of his bids. And partner somehow has a heart trick! He doesn't return a heart though, hopefully meaning he scored stiff king. He also doesn't give me my diamond ruff. Instead he returns a club. 6-9-A-3. I give him his ruff. 8-T-6 of spades-9. Now partner shifts to a diamond. K-7-?. East is out of hearts too, so I probably can't give partner another ruff. Should I be trying to establish his diamond Q by pitching here? I'm going to say no. I ruff. Dummy also has two high hearts, so I might as well force the ruff-overruff to get rid of one of them. 3-Q-9 of spades-J of spades. Declarer now draws trump. 2-A-3-T. That should mean partner is out of spades. Dummy is looking pretty good in everything except clubs. Maybe if partner has the K of clubs he can give me another ruff? I play a club. 4-7-2-K.

Declarer draws trump and dummy is up. Down 2.


NORTH
T 9 6
 K
 K Q 9 8 4 3 2
6 2

WEST
K Q 3
A Q T 7
A J
Q 8 7 3

EAST
J 7 5 2
9 2
T 7 6 5
K J 9

SOUTH
A 8 4
J 8 6 5 4 3

 A T 5 4



Captain Jack disagrees with returning a low heart at trick 3 when I won the A of clubs. He wants me to return a club. I really wonder why. I mean, I can give partner a club ruff by doing so, but I lose the heart ruff I gave him. Actually, I guess I can probably give him one of each. Turns out I can. And in doing so, I get a second diamond ruff myself. So we can set them 4.

I am a little confused by the results. 3 pairs were only in 3 spades, but they all went down 3. Someone was in 2 spades and were down 1. My side made 2 diamonds at one table. Both 2NT and 3NT were made just in. All told this gives us 8 of 14 MPs on the hand.

Ranking after board 8/60: 7/16 with 53.57%.

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