Tuesday 29 December 2015

Monday 28 December

Playing E/W with Adrianne in an aggregate tournament we didn't make any obvious mistakes and managed to come first.

This was despite missing a game that 6 out of 12 managed to bid.
I opened East 1S, David overcalled 2H and Adrianne bid 2S (we play normal Acol raises even after an overcall --- it is a 10 loser anyway). This was passed round to David who decided to compete further with 3C. Adrianne bid 3S and all passed.
It didn't really occur to me to bid 4S, Adrianne reckons to have point in diamonds which are of no use, however note that even if her hearts are xx we are still good for 4S.
I got a club lead and thought that's good, David reckons to have singleton AS and other David singleton club, I'm just making 9, unfortunately there was no club ruff and the game was stiff.
Should I have bid 4S? Why did Adrianne bid 3S? Has she got a singleton in one of David's suits?  Do I make 4S opposite:
Jxxx   Qxx   KJxxx  x  ?  Well no.  How about :
Axxx  xxx KQxxx  x   ?  Again, no. though AD instead of KQ, yes I can.  Still think it's difficult not to imagine wasted diamond points in Adrianne's hand.


This time we missed a slam which 2 pairs bid and one stopped in 5S.  Didn't occur to me to go higher.
Our opponents didn't come in and our bidding went 1C - 1S - 2S - 4S.
QS dropped, easy 12 tricks.  Should I have tried something over Adrianne's 2S? Well 3D would be a long suit trial bid, Adrianne would bid 4S but really I would be none the wiser because she bids 4S with a) a solid 14 points, b) a singleton diamond or c) reasonable opener and diamond honour.  We have no way of finding singleton heart and that all our points are in our suits.  Could Adrianne have bid 3S instead of 2S with singleton heart? I think 12 points and none in spades is a bit light for that. No, we'll never find 6S, anyway, if we had, there would have been Qxx in the South hand.






I am sure everyone at some point has suffered something like this.
Green against red partner open 1S, RHO overcalls 2H.  This is passed round to partner who with their void in hearts doubles and you with KQJx of hearts leave in. As you chalk up -670 you vow never to double a part score into game just because you expect it to be one down.
Repeat, you VOW, NEVER to do that again, I know because I've made that vow often.
Adrianne opened the West hand 2S (6?-10 points), Victor overcalled 3H, I doubled. Well I expect to make 4 tricks, Adrianne must have a spade trick, down one?!?
I led KC and couldn't believe dummy, has Adrianne just KQJ of spades and singleton heart?  If she has three clubs I am in big trouble. I could switch to Ace and another diamond, Victor will cash AK of hearts and lead up his second club but I can duck ensuring two spades for Adrianne, we can still get this off, I hope.
Adrianne plays 6C and Victor the 8.  If that is genuine ---- I follow with AC and 4C from Adrianne.  Xmas has come, I play 2C for Adrianne to ruff, she obediently returns a diamond to my Ace and I play a 4th club. Adrianne has the magical 9H, Xmas and my birthday in one.  I now have two heart tricks and with a spade to come that is 3 off, +500 from panic to joy in two minutes. Remember now, NEVER at teams/aggregate double expecting one off.  You'll never catch me doing that, I've been caught out before.

1 comment:

Russell Frame said...

The missed slam raises an interesting situation. While your system is clearly based on long suit trial bids, perhaps a short suit trial bid (3H) might have done the trick. I believe that it is possible to combine short and long suit trial bids but this would involve giving up on a natural 2NT bid after a major suit fit is identified. Instead, this bid would replace the type of trial bid not preferred (short or long), followed by a 3C asking bid for the suit concerned but this is only recommended for very experienced partnerships!