Eastward Ho

Isabelle and I are off today to Montreal to play in the CNTC district qualifier with Jeff and David.  Both of us are looking forward to it but I have to confess to some slight jitters.  The big boogie man is remembering all the little quirks of the system and we both have been busy reviewing our notes over the past few days.   It’s amazing how many little errors we found.

Anyway, there should be some interesting CNTC stories to tell on Monday.  We had a very good practice with coach Mark watching on BBO yesterday.  Mark is in Toronto visiting us and he always has some good stories.  More of those another time.  Here is one hand where Jeff Smith got us.  Tell me if you like his bid or not.

You are not vulnerable against vulnerable and partner opens 2H which shows 10-14 with 6 hearts.  Your hand is S 5 H 86 D A76432 C A763

What is your bid? 

Jeff bid 4H and caught me with S AJ873 H QJ942 D J C K4.  Do you fancy taking a punt at a 4S bid vulnerable.  I am going to need to find partner with a lot of spades to deal with my hearts and even then they are going to get overruffed.  What about Isabelle?  She held SQ9642 H void D K8 C QJ10985.  Its tough to bid on her hand too. 

As you can see we can make 4S and beating 4H was not much recompense. 

Whoever said that any auction that takes 6+ levels of bidding is bound to end badly was right on this hand from a practice earlier in the week.  You can assess blame but I think the interesting thing on the hand is how can you tell?  Here are the two hands

One of Us A

S KJ64

H A

D A543

C AQ43

 

One of Us B

S A7

H KQ10643

D Q87

C 97

Here is my running commentary on the auction.  Notice I am protecting both guilty partners – because these things take two to really go bad.

A                                  B

1D                                1H

2S                                 3H

3NT                              4D

4H                                4S

4NT                              5C

6D                                P

A 1D, the system bid with 4-4 in the minors we open 1D

B 1H can’t find fault here

C  2S Jump shift? singleton in partner’s suit, lousy spots, 18 HCP – not so good – but 18 HCP

D 3H GF – more hearts, (2NT would have shown a weak hand) – seems reasonable but more to come

E 3NT – no fit, time to bail, hope I can get to partner’s hand

F – 4D – I have so much extra 11 points opposite a jump shift, may partner thinks I might have a mere 8.  Partner probably has 5D after all she must be flat to bid 3NT now ( she probably bid 2S before because she forgot she could bid 2NT.)  Well maybe she was 5-4-2-2 with a suit oriented hand and wanted to bring diamonds into the picture – yes that must be it

G- 4H – this is a perfect bid, both a cue bid and maybe we can play here, anything is better than diamonds

H- 4S – great partner cue bid, I need to show partner my spade A

G- She must have 4D and 6H (wonder why she didn’t bid 3D – those hearts must be solid, maybe) and lots of points too.  Blackwood is going to tell me all I need to know.

H-5C – 1 or 4 – Got this bid right

I – 6D Well we are off the diamond king, hope she has the DQ and DJ.  I better play this one in a diamond slam – not sure why.

J- Pass- cool I knew it was right to bid 4D

Forgive me Isabelle for the commentary.  I truly am not trying to assess blame – I just think it is interesting how this went off the rails.

Okay, readers, what went wrong and how should we bid these hands.  Despite this hand we have been having some pretty good practices.  Let’s try out some nice tough competition.