5
J 8 7 6 5 3 2
K 4
A 8 3
![[W - E]](../532/t.gif)
| 1. | E-W Vul | |
| 5 J 8 7 6 5 3 2 K 4 A 8 3
|
|
West Pass Pass All Pass | North 1 NT 3
| East 2 3
| South 2 NT Dbl |
3 x by East
I'm aggressive but this is not a first seat preempt by any stretch of the imagination. As it turned out I was unable to get into the bidding at all. LHO opened a weak NT; 2S merely showed spades (initially). RHO's 2N was a relay to clubs. One of the common errors I see at the club is when a player is short in a suit partner overcalls, the player will run to NT or a different suit merely because they don't have a fit. Am I thrilled that partner overcalled 2S? No. Should I run if RHO doubles? Definitely not. I have 2 potential tricks and 1 more spade than partner has shown in hearts and his suit is certainly better than mine. Plus, we'd be a level higher. True, on a good day he might have 2 or 3 hearts and it would work out but in the long run passing is the winning action. Here, I did not face that situation until the next round. Partner has put us back on the chopping block and introduced our 2nd shortest suit. We'd be at the same level in hearts; is it time to run now? Again, a definite no. Partner knew he was vulnerable and that I've passed twice (rare in and of itself) and yet he bid to 3D by himself. More telling, is that he did not choose to make a 2 suited bid immediately, which he might have with say 5-5 distribution. More likely he has a very distributional hand. Looking closer, you'll see I have a great hand in support. I have 2 sure tricks, plus the ability to ruff spade losers, if needed. In fact, Bill was 6151 and was able to capitalize on an opponents error to make 4! (3 was cold). A nice boost in the early going. Boards are scored against multiple sections so great and terrible boards are magnified.
| 2.
| ||
| 9 7 5 K 7 2 K 8 5 K 7 6 2
|
| |
| E-W Vul | Q J 8 3 Q J 6 4 3 Q 7 8 4 |
West Pass Pass All Pass | North 1 2 NT | East Pass Pass | South Pass 1 3 NT |
3 NT by North
| Trick 1. W | Lead 3
| 2nd 7 | 3rd 8 | 4th 10 |
The key play here is at trick 1. 3rd hand high is a common rule of thumb and is frequently correct. Defense is difficult and relyling on rules explicitly is not winning bridge. It's important to consider the hand as a whole. Here, declarer has advertised a strong hand and partner has at most 5 diamonds. Given that information, declarer has a sure diamond stopper. With Txx opposite Qx declarer would have played the Q at trick one as her only chance. Thus there is no reason to play the K at trick one; and a very good reason not to. If declarer has the ace, very possible on the bidding. There is now an entry to dummy which declarer was not entitled to. After the diamond lead, and proper play at trick 1, careful discarding held declarer to 9 tricks for a great score. On the next hand, Bill made a fine defensive play to salvage some matchpoints on a board our opponents had won in the auction. The next round, we'd face our first top level pair of the evening, a rematch from Chicago against Roy Welland - Chris Willenken. Both boards proved to be eventful.
| 3. | None Vul | |
| K J 9 6 A K Q 7 6 3 3 9 4
|
|
West Pass 4 NT 6
| North Pass Pass All Pass | East 4 6
| South 3 !Pass Pass |
6 by East
This was an amusing board. Welland is well known as a wild bidder. I was sure he had psyched, but there was nothing I could do except hope that Bill re-opened with a double. The 4S bid woke me up. I adjusted my thinking on the 3H bid to something like what he had (a crazy 3H bid rather than a pure psych). Fortunately, Bill & I had discussed this situation and 4N was RKC. 6H showed 2 keys, the trump Q, and a void. We were off one control but this was surely laydown otherwise. There was nothing to the play and we scored up 980. Everyone laughed when dummy came down; Welland made a point of calling over a kibitzer who was nearby showing him my hand and that the auction began with him opening 3H. The next hand showed one of the subtler advantages of our 2-level openers.
| 4.
| A 7 6 A 5 4 A Q 10 3 A 7 5
| |
| K Q K Q 10 7 6 2 8 6 4 10 8
|
| 10 8 4 2 J 8 9 7 5 K 6 3 2
|
| N-S Vul | J 9 5 3 9 3 K J 2 Q J 9 4 |
West 2 All Pass | North Dbl | East Pass | South 2 |
2 by South
The extra level taken up by the 2 bids can wreak havoc (on our side as well at times). Here, Willenken started with a double, 2NT with that heart holding is asking for trouble. Welland, with his lot of Qs and Js bid a normal 2S and Willenken faced a tough decision. With only 1 heart stopper, and no source of tricks, 3NT was not likely to be a success. He made what I think was a well-judged pass. The fates were on our side as 3NT is a lucky make. My entry is not quick enough to get in and run the hearts and the CK is well placed. That partner had a max and game needed some good fortune makes his pass the percentage action but we got lucky. We'd overcome our slow start and were putting together a solid session. Soon we faced the top seed, Levin - Weinstein, another Chicago rematch. The boards were not extremely compelling but luckily for us, the cards were our way and we bid and made 2 games for solid scores, thus not giving them a chance to show their skill. Then came a bidding problem:
| 5. | None Vul | |
| 8 9 Q 10 9 8 6 4 3 A K 8 2
|
|
West 3 NT | North 2 All Pass | East 2 NT | South Pass |
What should I bid over 2N? I considered two choices; 3N, the one I made, and 3S, planning to show diamonds and slam interest. It was a close decision for me; if I'd have the DJ, that would have swung me the other way. Bill had a super-max and slam was making (not cold, but unbeatable on the lie of the cards). At least we were in NT. We finished with a bang; aided by some tired opponents, our last 4 boards were huge.
| 6.
| K 8 7 4 9 5 J 10 8 2 Q 10 5
| |
| A 3 2 A Q A Q 9 7 4 A 7 3
|
| 10 6 5 K 10 8 7 2 K 5 3 J 9
|
| N-S Vul | Q J 9 J 6 4 3 6 K 8 6 4 2 |
West 2 NT 3
| North Pass Pass Pass | East Pass 3 3 NT | South Pass Pass All Pass |
3 NT by West
| Trick 1. N 2. W 3. W 4. W | Lead J A Q 4
| 2nd 3 5 9 2! | 3rd 6 2 7 5 | 4th Q 3 4 6 |
Our 2N range is 21-22 but I chose that in 4th seat for several reasons. It is likely to give away less information to the opponents and that hand is well worth more than 20 with 4 aces and a good 5 card suit. I was able to conceal the diamond suit in the auction and was blessed with a diamond lead. There is something to be said for ducking the first trick; the opponents will likely continue the suit, and they are likely to split 4-1 anyway. One top expert made just such a play and his opponent did continue diamonds. This led to an interesting play in the heart suit; a common combination. He cashed the AQ, and upon seeing the 9, overtook in dummy, guaranteeing 4 tricks in the suit. At IMPs, this is undoubtedly the correct way to play the suit, at MPs I have my doubts (anyone for the H9 from 9xx in the North hand?). Having dodged a black suit lead, I did not want to take any chances and played straight up. If hearts came in, great, if not I could still revert to diamonds for 9 tricks. I saw the heart 9, and considered overtaking, but stuck to my plan. Then a funny thing happened when I led a low diamond. LHO flinched and played low! That allowed me to win the 5, and gave me the entire diamond suit PLUS an extra entry to dummy to establish hearts. It was a little surprising to see 460 be a tie for top. Then came this exciting hand:
| 7. | E-W Vul | |
| K 10 6 3 Q J 4 2 J 10 9 7 9
|
| J 4 — A K Q 6 4 3 A K Q 5 4 |
West 1 4 4 5
| North Pass Pass Pass Pass | East 1 2 4 5 6
| South Pass Pass Pass Pass All Pass |
6 by East
Those that plan against Bill and I often know that our 1D is "almost always a weak NT". This hand is one of the exceptions. The 2D bid tells me he has a big distributional hand with diamonds (didn't have to be this huge). 4C was a splinter, by agreement promising a side trick somewhere (or more). 4D gave me the opportunity to show where my card was, Bill was delighted to hear it was in spades. Just in case I had both the A and K; Bill tried 5C. When I could manage no more, he signed off in the small slam.. From my side, slam is cold, but it's tough to engineer that (2C-2D anyone? :>). We did not get a spade lead (no X of 4S) so Bill was not tested. 12 tricks duly came home for a nice 1370. Our last round was almost as good, though not all of our doing:
| 8. | E-W Vul | |
| 9 8 5 J 10 6 A Q 10 2 K 7 5
|
|
West Pass All Pass | North 1 2
| East Pass Pass | South 1 2 |
2 by South
On opening lead, I pondered my choices, not liking any of them in particular. My rounded suit holdings were ominous, the suits were splitting, slow or onside honors, and trumps were splitting. I decided any tricks we had coming may need to be quick and tabled the DA. Imagine my shock when that was the only trick we got --- and it would have gone away had I not cashed! As it seemed, it was an incredibly luck hand for the opponents but they should have reached at least game. Both players had underbid and they were left with an ignominious 230. The last board, the opponents failed to find a tough switch and Bill took the maximum in 3N. Our score with 2 rounds to go was actually under 50%. We had a director adjustment (not the appeal) coming which would help our score (an opponent took blatant use of unauthorized information from a hesitation) some and a good last 2 rounds. We had to go upstairs for our appeal though without knowing our final score. As it turned out, we took a huge jump to 58% and entered the 2nd day in a remarkable 10th place. That gave us a huge carryover and a big edge towards qualifying for day 3.