Thursday, December 10, 2009

No Cigar

Well I'm back from another enjoyable trip to nationals...the most exciting moments and ulitimately my biggest regrets came from my team's one day in the main event, the Reisinger Teams. It is scored by point-a-board--in other words, you score one point for beating your opponents' score on a hand, a half for tying and 0 for scoring worse. We played 26 boards in the afternoon and evening and ended up dead average with 26/52. Unfortunately we came on the wrong side of the tiebreaker format and were sent to the showers...2 of 7 teams with our score advanced. This is my favorite event of the year, and it would have been a great experience to advance to the 2nd day, but I guess there is always the next bridge tournament. Here are a few hands from the 2nd session for you to ponder. You hold the same South cards that I had.

Bd 9:
AK9x
Axx
xxx
KQx
The auction starts with two passes to you--you open 1NT, partner staymans and bids 3 spades over you 2 spade reply. Do you go?

Bd 14:
none vul
Kxx
AKQx
Axx
Kxx
You open 1 Club in 2nd seat. LHO overcalls 1 Diamond, partner raises to 3 Clubs (weak) and RHO bids 3 Diamonds. You?

Bd 20
Both Vul
xxx
AKQJxxx
x
xx
RHO opens 1 Diamond in 3rd seat. How many hearts do you bid?

Bd 22
E-W Vul
Qx
QT
QJxx
QT9xx
LHO opens 1 Spade in 3rd seat. Partner overcalls 2 Clubs and RHO bids 4 Clubs (splinter). You double (do you?), LHO passes, partner bids 5 Clubs, RHO bids 5 Hearts, you pass, LHO bids 5 Spades, partner passes and RHO takes 2 minutes to pass. Do you sacrifice?

Bd 24
AKxx
KJx
x
9xxxx
RHO opens 1NT, LHO transfers with 2 Diamonds. RHO bids 2 Hearts, LHO 3 Clubs and RHO 3NT. What do you lead?

8 comments:

Jonathan Weinstein said...

9: very close...I would go but wouldn't argue the point.

14: I bid 3nt. no guarantees but I think I have to try it. I assume KQxxx is possible from partner. Pass is a reasonable 2nd choice.

20: 1H. Yes, 3 or 4 could work. 3H is my 2nd choice.

22: No bid. Sure 6C could hit the bullseye, but my shape isn't *that* great. It looks like trumps break well, maybe they guessed wrong to pass 5S

24: I'll try a top spade; we might need to cash out before they make 6 or 7.

Becker said...

your clubs are only kxx on bd 14 so 3nt doesn't look odds-on at all esp with partner jump raising at favorable. it's your diamonds that are axx.

Nigel Kearney said...

9. Pass (close)
14. Depends on partner's style but without more info I'll bid 3H and pass 4C.
20. 4H always
22. I would have bid 5C earlier but am not going any higher
24. High spade

Jonathan Weinstein said...

Ok, sorry about 14 -- I agree partner should have bid 2c if as good as AQxxx, so 3NT is out. I guess the issue is whether to break the law and bid 4C? Or possibly make a card-showing X? Your honor location does look pure...and partner could have a 6th club...but on the downside he might not even have a stiff diamond. I don't think the odds are there for bidding. I think X is scary too, and maybe unnecessary; if partner is 3-3-1-6 he can infer you are strong and compete to 4C himself.

Memphis MOJO said...

9. pass, not close
14. pass, but dbl 2nd choice. anything else gets a 0 in my book
20. 3H
22. pass, you made them guess, now live with it
24, high spade (king in my methods)

Cassandra said...

9: Pass. I take off 1 HCP for 4-3-3-3. If I did bid, it would be 3NT.

14: DBL, action. It depends a lot on your standards for 3cl, whether 3cl denies 4 hearts etc.

20: 4he, probably a transfer to 4sp.

22: Pass. We may already have won the board because they're too high or not high enough. Not close in my opinion.

24: 3cl was NAT? People make strange invitations in that situation. I'd be tempted to lead a club. It may be too much of an IMPs lead though.

Soren

Unknown said...

RE board 9: Drew is quick to take blame here, on a hand where most (all?) would bid 4S, not 3, with the other (my) hand: xxxx / KJ9 / Ax / Jxxx. I’d certainly bid 4 at IMPs or on another day at any scoring. In fact, the game depends on 3-2 spades and either the heart finesse or 3-3 clubs. A simulation revealed that opposite my hand, 4S is about 41% when the NTer has 15 and about 50% when he has 16.

The Pretender said...

9: 4S. This is BAM right? This needs to be discussed. Every time I play BAM, rock solid invites. Just because I'm 4333 doesn't mean partner is. To me it's very clear because I expect to have discussed BAM invite style with partner.

14: 4C. Three ways to win. 4C is good. 4C pushes opps to something bad. 4C prevents LHO from bidding 3S.

20: 3H is normal.

22: Pass. We've already made them guess. If partner wanted me to guess, he could have bid 4NT instead of 5C.

24: Top spade. Might need to cash out. Might run spades. I feel like declarer has 6 diamonds on this auction.