Bridge Match 2 - Board 42

Board 42 - Dealer East - All Vul

Opponents convention card: Jack
Opponents playing strength: Intermediate

My hand: ♠ A 6 3 ♥ T 9 6 5 ♦ Q J 3 ♣ K 3 2

East opens 1 club promising at least 2 clubs. I don't have a suit to bid and I don't like my shape for a double so I pass. West also passes and partner bids 1 heart. Is a jump to 3 hearts here a limit raise or preemptive? I feel like it should be preemptive and I should cuebid clubs. I wonder if that changes with the potenitally short club? I donno. I try 2 clubs, West doubles as a competitive bid and partner jumps to 3NT. Now should I sit here? I feel like we have a good heart fit but I have nothing to ruff over here. Partner jumping to NT makes me think he's probably 5-3-3-2 so we don't have a dummy reversal in hearts either. So I pass.

East leads the A of diamonds.

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

West	North	East	South
		1♣1	Pass
Pass	1♥	Pass	2♣2
Double3	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass
12+ clubs
2Constructive raise
3Competitive double

I have 2 diamonds, 2 spades, and probably 3 hearts. I get a club at some point unless all of West's points are the A of clubs. I need hearts to split well in order to get a 4th trick there since I don't get another trick anywhere else. A-Q-9-4. East shifts to a club. 5-3-J-7. West returns a club. 4-8-A-2. East decides to not pound out my last club and goes back to diamonds. 5-J-6-T.

I need to play hearts for one loser. I only have one more entry to dummy, too. I feel like I should float the T around then next time I'm in I'll probably play for the 2-2 drop? In that case shouldn't I finesse the Q first? I feel like the guy who opened is really favoured to have the K though... I'll have to look this one up afterwards to see what the 'right' play with no bidding would be. I lead the T. T-2 of spades...

Oh dear. East has KJ83. Well, there's no way to play this suit for one loser! I play low and East wins the J. East returns a club. I don't know what I can do. I can cash out for down 3. They actually can't take more than that even if I put East in and he started with 5 clubs. So I just give up another heart. Then I realize my math is bad because I'm playing during downtime of the Canada-Finland hockey game. Fortunately clubs split 4-4 so I'm still only down 3. Actually, I'm down 2... Because I was only in 3NT, not 4NT... Wow, my math sure was terrible!

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

3NT down 2 or down 3 would have been the same result: a near bottom. We only beat the pair that went down 3 in 4 hearts doubled. 3 pairs went down 1 in 3 hearts, 1 made 1NT, and 2 EW pairs played in diamond partscores. I don't like partner's jump to 3NT here since his hand plus my minimum is in a terrible way there. 2NT feels a lot better. I pull to 3 hearts and we play that for likely 5MPs instead of 2.


Captain Jack disagrees with my 2 clubs bid and wonders what I had in mind. Oddly enough when I click on the description of what he thinks my bid means it says 9+ points, 3+ hearts. I have 10 points and 4 hearts! This seems like what I have! He also disagrees with my play at the end when I don't cash out for down 2 after East gives me a low heart trick. I blame hockey for that one, Jack. My bad.

Ranking after board 42/60: 2/16 with 55.95%