Thursday, September 11, 2008

Wednesday club game

I played bridge yesterday for the first time in three weeks. What a drought! I haven't had one that long in years. 

I played at the Charlottesville bridge club with my friend Pete. We had a very matchpointy game-- lots of doubling and partscore battles. The hands were lots of fun. We ended up with a touch over 63%, half a board out of first place.

All hands matchpoints, of course. What happened at the table will appear in the Comments section.

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(A) White vs. red


Partner passes, you open 2C, partner bids a "waiting" 2D,and you bid 2S. (Do you prefer 3S?) Partner now comes out of the bushes with 6S! Your call.

(B) White vs. red

AQ3 JT83 QJT K74

The opponents silent again - pard opens 1H, you pull out good old Jacoby 2NT, and pard rebids 4D [presumably a second suit]. You're up.

(C) All white

8 AT9 K853 KQ853

You open 1D (do you prefer 1C?) and lefty doubles. Pard redoubles, and righty bids 1S. What do your bids mean here? What's your call?

(D) Red vs. white

5 -- J987643 QJ532

You're first to speak. Do you?

(E) All white

AKQ2 T7643 54 96

RHO opens 1C. What's your call?

(F) White vs. red

AKQ84 AQ9532 Q J

Righty opens 1NT. You're playing Brozel - 2C = C+H, 2D = D+H, 2H = H+S, 2S = S+C or S+D, X = one long suit, 2N = C+D, higher bids undiscussed. What's your call?

(G) White vs. red

AKT92 4 AQ5 KJT2

You open 1S, and partner gives you a forcing notrump. What say you?

(H) White vs. red

KT5 T7 AJ986 J76

Pard passes in first seat. Righty opens 3H, you pass, and lefty lifts to 4H, all pass. It's your lead.


McKenzie said...

(A) I guessed to bump it up to 7S. I figured that I would have bid the same way if my ace of hearts was the deuce of hearts... pard came down with A97654 Qxxx xx x. I won the heart lead, played the three of spades to the four, and claimed. +1510, 11.5/12 matchpoints.

(B) I bid 4H over 4D. I didn't like only having 4 HCP in quackery in partner's suits. Partner passed, and didn't have much trouble wrapping up 480 on his -- AKQxx K9xxx Axx. 3/12 matchpoints.

(C) Rebids in redouble auctions are tough. There isn't a whole lot of general agreement here. I like to play that with a weak unbalanced hand, you bid immediately, and with a strong unbalanced hand, you pass at your first turn then bid out your distribution later. This was a borderline hand, so I decided to pull to 2C immediately. LHO bid 2S, and pard put us in 3NT. He played it very well-- making 5, 460 for 11.5/12 matchpoints.

(D) I pull the opening four of a minor bid out once a year or so, but it seemed that this was the hand for it. Absolutely no interest in 3NT, lots of playing strength, no defense, very few high cards. Pard asked for keycards, got a little perturbed when I showed none, and I played 5D opposite pard's Kxxxxx Kxx AK AT. LHO led the club nine. I hopped up with the ace, dropping the king on my right, then split the trumps 2-2 -- losing a spade and a club, making 5, 600 for 9.5/12 matchpoints.

(E) I overcalled 1S. I think it's close between a Michaels bid and a 1S overcall, but we'd agreed that Michaels was either weak or strong, and this certainly wasn't either. I'd never overcall 1H or pass. LHO made a limit raise of 3C with AQJTxx of clubs and a side ace, which got passed out, cold for 3NT - but only 7/12 matchpoints.

(F) Ick. I really, really didn't want to bid a non-forcing 2H, but I did it anyway... I guess the chances that this would get passed out are slim. We had a competitive auction when the opponents found their 6-5 diamond fit, but we clawed up to 5S. +450, 9/12 matchpoints.

(G) I decided to go all out and force to game with 3C. We got to 6C, which needs only the diamond finesse or a minor defensive slip. We got neither. -50, 1/12 matchpoints.

(H) I think a small spade is right, and it worked at the table. Declarer could have cashed out for down one, but tried a finesse for his contract - +200 and 11.5/12 matchpoints.

Meg said...

(A) 7S. Fast arrivals tend to be signoffs, sure, but if partner damn sure better have the ace of spades for this bid, and certainly he's got some other cards somewhere -- whatever they are, they're working, so this has got to be right. But I'm asking partner after the hand never to bid that way again.

(B) 4H. I didn't like forcing on these cards anyway; I was signing off over anything.

(C) I do open 1D, planning on a club rebid. Double at my next opportunity would presumably be penalty, given pard's redouble. I think I have a clear 2C call. I still want to be in the auction, but what else is there to say? The major suit distribution is definitely going to be lopsided, and with both opponents in the auction, playing a bad split doesn't look like it'll be pretty. I want to find a minor suit fit or push the opps into penalty territory.

(D) 1N and hope pard wants to transfer to hearts:)

(E) 2C. I have exactly the right strength for this bid (given our agreements); my spades are good enough to make up for the lack of a fifth one, and I don't want to encourage a heart lead by simply overcalling hearts.

(F) Meh. 2H. Hope it doesn't get passed around.

(G) Sigh. 3C. I smell a bad hand with hearts across the table, but if he bids 3H I'll take my chances in 3N and probably go down as much as anyone else in the club.

(H) Small spade.

Noble Shore said...

(A) Pass -- this field may even miss a small slam. When you face a situation like this where partner cannot possibly have his bid (meaning there's no hand where that is the correct bid) then knowing partner's tendencies is really the key to making these sorts of decisions.

(B) 4h -- this is a very instructive hand. When you (partner here) make the bid directly under 4 of the partnership's major fit, you should not have too much extra. The reason for this is that partner has to either sign off or bid past 4-major; he can't make any other bid as a 'counter-slam-try' I like my diamonds, but one of my black cards is wasted for sure. I would make a counter slam try if available, but I am certainly not going to bid past 4h when my hand is basically a minimum.

(C) I am not 100% sure what standard is here -- ill followup later when i am sure how to show a weak hand with clubs (which is obv right)

(D) 3d -- if partner bids 3NT then I will pull to 4c

(E) Pass -- but this is the kind of hand where i would commonly go on tilt, especially in a club game. If it's at all reasonable to bid next round, count me in.

(F) 4h -- the practical bid. I would never be playing these methods anyway; I always use a forcing bid (e.g. 2c, 2d) for the majors hand.

(G) 2NT -- this is supposed to show 18-19 balanced; hopefully partner can take a joke

(H) s5

Noble Shore said...

Many people that open 1d on hands like (C) tend to stop after playing their first 4-2 fit after 1d-1M-2c-2d

RoboJenny said...

A) Trying to go through hands that I would've bid 6S on with partner's hand, I can't really come up with anything that I can't make 7 on. Though I think it's possible I'll need to rely on ruffing, so 7S.

B) 4H. I've stated my hand and have nothing more, nor did the 4D improve it enough.

C) I prefer opening 1C here. I play x here as t/o with a lot of partners, and that's what I'm doing here I think....

D) Definitely pass. for me. If the colors were diff, the only bids I'd consider would be psychs. I won't ever preempt with this hand unless I have a convention 2NT minors preempt.

E) 1H. I can see a 1S overcall, but somehow I'm more likely to do that in a later seat than an earlier one. I don't think I have a good justification for this.

F) 4H. =)

G) 3C

H) C6

Hm. I seem to differ than a lot of ppl. I seem to always fail at lead problems too.

*sigh* I want to play instant matchpoints today. Charlie said he'd play with me, but only if I went up to pgh cuz he has to teach. I was trying to convince him to meet in the middle and play in Cumberland. Looking like I can't make it up to pgh tonight...

Noble Shore said...

Is there somewhere in the DC area that does the instant matchpoint game? I know the WBL unit game chooses not to.

Noble Shore said...

The reason I don't like the club lead here is that this is commonly an auction where they can take a few fast discards if you don't cash/promote your tricks. However a club is a totally fine lead if the auction had gone 1h-3h(limit)-4h or something.

RoboJenny said...

Oops I know this is way late, but to answer Noble:

Last year Laurel held it. This year only some place in Arlington is hosted it, and I think it's one of the invite only clubs (though I'm not sure). The closest place was Baltimore for an open game, I think.

I had offered to play with Charlie in Cumberland, since it would be a/b a 2 hour drive for each of us and therefore more fair. =) He had to teach though yesterday.

I think when I first moved back to the area, Candy also held it at her Reston club (which I used to go to every week and play with John Plunkett, the WV guy who used to play on Bill Holt's teams in Pgh) but I didn't see it on the list this year.

Noble Shore said...

To follow up on (C), standard is that if partner could pass then the bid shows a good hand, and if partner can't pass then the direct bid shows a poor hand. Therefore an immediate 2c is right.

What if RHO had bid 2s? Is partner still forced to bid something? I think the answer is no, so if I'm right about that then a direct bid in that auction would show a better hand.