Sunday, September 07, 2014

Bridge Match 3 - Board 11

Board 11 - Dealer South - None Vul

Opponents convention card: Jack
Opponents playing strength: Excellent

My hand: A T 7 3 2 A K T J T 9 6 3

I open 1 spade. Partner responds 2 clubs. I bid 2 diamonds and partner jumps to 4 diamonds. Both those bids were alerted which scares me a little, but my gut feeling is we have a lot of points and a big fit here. I bid 4NT. Partner bids 5 diamonds showing 0 or 3 key cards. If he's got 0 then we're in big trouble so I better assume he has 3. That gives us all of them. An awful lot has to go right for us to make 7 here... Partner would need the Q of diamonds and either a stiff spade or the K of spades. I don't know how to ask about that though. I guess I should probably just go for 6.

West leads the Q of hearts.
NORTH
K Q
9 3
A K Q 4
A Q 9 6 4
WEST
Q
SOUTH
A T 7 3 2
A K T
J T 9 6 3
WestNorthEastSouth
1
Pass2Pass21
Pass42Pass4NT3
Pass54Pass6
PassPassPass
1Forcing
2Slamtry
3Ace asking for diamonds
40 or 3 aces

Partner has the Q of diamonds and the K of spades. We have 11 top tricks and I can get 2 more by ruffing spades if diamonds split 2-2. There's also a line where if spades split 3-3 (and no one has only 2 clubs) I can just crossruff the hand for 13 tricks. 12 tricks is easy. Regardless of the way to go I should probably start by drawing a round of trump. But first the heart lead... Q-3-7-A. I draw a round of trump. J-2-4-5. And then a second, with West showing out. He pitched a heart.

Ok, if I draw the last trump I have 12 tricks. Actually, after taking 3 spades and ruffing a 4th one I get a 13th trick with my 5th spade unless they split 5-1 or worse. I should just do that. They don't split badly so I actually have 14 tricks. Huzzah!
NORTH
K Q
9 3
A K Q 4
A Q 9 6 4
WEST
9 8 6
Q J 8 5
2
J 7 5 3 2
EAST
J 5 4
7 6 4 2
8 7 5
K T 8
SOUTH
A T 7 3 2
A K T
J T 9 6 3

4 tables bid 7 diamonds and made. 4 tables bid 6 diamonds and made 7. So we only get 3 MPs.


Jack disagrees with my 4NT bid. He wants me to cuebid hearts. Ok, I can see how that would be a good idea. He then thinks I should have bid 5 hearts over 5 diamonds. Apparently that asks for the Q of trumps. Good to know! Partner then would have responded 6 clubs showing the Q of trumps and a K. That probably would have been enough info for me to risk 7. I went back and tried bidding 4 hearts over 4 diamonds and partner ends up bidding 4NT. I show him 2 keycards, he asks for kings, I show him 1 king, and he ends up bidding 6 spades. That is quite the bid! I'd assume we were massively double fit and actually venture to 7 on the strength of my undisclosed void. Turns out he only has 2 spades which is low for that bid I think, but since spades split 3-3 we'd actually have gotten a top board.

Ranking after board 11/60: 6/16 with 55.84%

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