Sunday, April 27, 2008

High Level Disaster

I just got home from 4 days playing with jason at the regional in Lake Geneva. In the final of the Friday Saturday knockout we got the chance to test our skills against one of the world's best pairs, Cezary Balicki and Adam Zmudzimski of Poland. On this swing hand, the last one of the first set, we were playing against their sponsor and Garey Hayden.
EW Game:
--------Axxx
--------x
--------Jxx
--------Axxxx
xx--------------KJx
AQJxxxxxx----Kxx
x---------------Axx
x---------------Jxx
--------QTx
--------void
--------KQTxxx
--------KQxx
I opened the south hand 1 diamond, which was limited and could have been any balanced 13-16 hand. Hayden overcalled 4 Hearts, Jason doubled (cards), the sponsor passed and I removed to 4NT. Jason bid 5 Clubs and the sponsor took 5 Hearts. Now what? At the table I passed (forcing?) and Jason whacked it. Hayden eventually played to the king of spades for +850. Only Ace of diamonds, diamond ruff beats 6 Clubs...the contract at the other table was 5 Clubs making 6 on the same auction minus the 5 Heart bid.

I have talked to a number of players and have heard differing opinions on who should have done what. Was I to blame for not bidding over 5 Hearts with my void? Or ought North to bid again? Or was it all just bad luck?

Anyway, we lost the match but Jason and I gained some good experience playing against the Poles in the second half. We were hoping to get one more shot at them in the Swiss today but things never came together for us and we wallowed below average (they won it going away). There were some other interesting deals--I'll get a few more up in the next couple of days. On the bright side we only bid 1 slam missing 2 cashing aces this tournament. Improvement!

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