Sunday, January 26, 2014

Bridge Match 2 - Board 39

Board 39 - Dealer South - All Vul

Opponents convention card: Majeure cinquième
Opponents playing strength: Fair

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

This seems like a pretty solid weak NT opener. Partner bids 2NT which is an invite to 3. My maximum with decent intermediates is definitely in for 3NT!

West leads the 7 of hearts.
NORTH
T 5 2
A T 3
A 8 6 5 3
K 7
WEST
7
SOUTH
K Q 8 6
K 6 4 2
K J 9
Q T
WestNorthEastSouth
1NT
Pass2NT1Pass3NT
PassPassPass
1Invitational

Well, this should be interesting. I have 2 hearts and 2 diamonds off the top. I can set up a spade, and a club. That's only 6 tricks. I can get anywhere from 0-3 more diamond tricks too, but 2 seems most likely. So I probably need a 3rd spade trick. And I need all this to happen before they realize how many clubs they have between them. I could also try to score the T of hearts. West should have 3 cards above the 7 for his lead and the only such cards are QJ98. So inserting the T is reasonably likely to work. On the other hand if I duck and East inserts the Q or J then I can win with the K and then finesse West later. East can actually foil this by playing low from Q5. And he knows it, too, since he can make the same deduction? Except for all he knows his partner has the K, not me, and I could get to score my J if he ducks. I think the key is I want to lead diamonds from board so I want to win this with the T so I'm going to try that. 7-T-Q-K.

I can no longer reasonably lead diamonds from dummy. So I guess I should start from the top in hand and see what happens. K-7-3-4. J-Q-A-2. Oh well. I give up a diamond. 5-3 of spades-9-T. Guess finessing wasn't going to work out well anyway. West shifts to a club. 6-K-A-T. Another club. J-Q-3-7. They have a lot of clubs set up when they get back in. I can cash out for down 2 or I can pound out a spade and hope they can't take 4 club tricks along with that spade. But the only upside is if they can only take 2 clubs with the spade? That requires the suit to be blocked or to have split 7-2 with the A in the other hand. That seems less likely than that they can cash 4 clubs so I just take my tricks and go home. Down 2.
NORTH
T 5 2
A T 3
A 8 6 5 3
K 7
WEST
J 7 4
J 8 7
Q T 7
8 6 4 3
EAST
A 9 3
Q 9 5
4 2
A J 9 5 2
SOUTH
K Q 8 6
K 6 4 2
K J 9
Q T
This is a terrible result for our team. We only beat the pair that went down 3 in 3NT. We lost to the 2 pairs that went down 1 in 3NT, and the 2 pairs that managed to make 3NT, and the pair that made 3 diamonds, and the pair that went all the way to 6NT but only went down 1. I guess they cashed their aces and went home? Who knew overbidding could be so lucrative!


Professor Jack doesn't like when I played the 3rd diamond. He wants me to lead a spade instead. It feels like that's leaving 2 tricks on board in the hopes of setting up 2 in hand? But I guess it could set up 3 in hand if East has Axx, which he did, and hops with the A? And if he doesn't hop with the A then I get a spade trick and can then establish the diamonds. Ok, seems better. Clubs actually were close to being blocked, too, and could have easily been misplayed by the opponents. Huh.

Ranking after board 39/60: 2/16 with 55.13%

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