Ecuador versus the stars

Last night Colin and I played in a 12 board tournament set up by Eqqus and the bridge was quite a lot of fun.  Our team the stars did lose 37-36.  It would have been a lot better but Colin and I lost 13 imps on a bidding misunderstanding. 

The match started out when we gave up a couple of overtricks against 3NT when I failed to find the right switch at trick 2.   Colin overcalled quite a weak heart suit with a weak hand which made it harder for us.  Do you like his overcall all not vulnerable?  He held S void H A8764 D 8743 C QJ103 and he overcalled a third chair 1D with 1H.  We do like to overcall at the 1 level when we can to get into the auction but with a bad hand and a bad suit this overcall is questionable especially because it doesn’t take any bidding space from the opponents.

See if you can find the killing lead on board 2.  I held S 643 H AJ5 D AQ9 C KJ74.  North South vulnerable.

Colin	MCobos	Linda	Jfvc
		1D	pass
pass	1H	pass	1NT
pass	3C	pass	3H
pass	4H	all pass

The only lead that beats it is the H5.  Did you get that?  Here are the North South hands

S KQ5

H KQ653

D void

C AQ952

S A1082

H 84

D K85432

C 10

At the other table our partners were inexplicably in 4S which has no play.  We were now down 14 imps.  The next board we defeated 2C a trick when our opponents misguessed and we defended very well to pick up 5 imps.  We won 5 imps on the Board 5 when we we pushed the opponents to a minus and the score was now 15-10.

Nothing much happened until board 7 when Colin and I had a misunderstanding.  I take responsibility but the issue is how should you play this sequence.  Help from big clubbers would be nice here.  Colin held S A H AK975 D KJ762 C Q5.  He opened 1C and North bid 1S.  I bid 2C natural and game forcing and Jfvc bid 3S preemptive and putting it to Colin.  What are your methods here?  Colin doubled which I thought showed no clear bid, do what you think and I passed on S 102 H QJ8 D 853 C AJ942.  Okay, that was pretty bad and I guess I should bid 4C.  We have now decided that doubles by opener in this position are strongly for takeout.  But we are looking for advice.

After this disaster (they made it) we were down 28-11 but we came back on the very next board with a game swing.

Here is my hand.  Do you agree with my bidding?

Colin opened 1NT 10-12 and Mcobos overcalled 2H.  I held S KQ62 H K4 D J862 C A43.  I wasn’t sure what to do.  My heart stopper was a bit weak but notrump might be the right spot still.  Spades look promising if Colin had four.  I also wasn’t sure I wanted to force to game.  Anyway I decided to bid 2NT (lebensohl) and then bid 3H which would be stayman with a heart stopper.  Colin bid 3C forced and North ruined my plan by bidding 3H.  What now?  Well by this time I decided I didn’t want to play notrump so I decided to take a chance on spades.  I bid 3S which in this auction is invitation.  With a full heart stopper Colin can still bid 3NT but he will think I have 5 spades.  Do you hate this bid?  Anyway Colin bid 4S and there we were.  Here is the hand.

Colin

S A43

H 98

D A1043

C KJ85

Linda

S KQ52

H K4

D J862

C A43

The open lead was the HJ and Mcobos continued the H10 as I won the HK.  I have a lot of work to do and I can’t draw trump before I do it.  I started with a club to the CJ which held and the lead a diamond off the dummy which fetched the D9 DJ and DQ.  My thought here was that Mcobos figured to be short in diamonds and if the diamond honours were split he was likely to have the diamond doubleton.   Jfvc won the DQ.  I think this is the place for a falsecard with the DKQ don’t you?  I was pretty sure now that Jfvc had both diamond honours since if Mcobos held the DK9 he wouldn’t have ducked but he would have ducked the DQ9.  Jfvc returned a trump but in any case the hand is now cold as long as you finesse diamonds.  I drew three rounds of trump (which broke 4-2) and then finessed diamonds playing winners until the opponents took their final trick, the long trump.

Here is the whole hand

	Colin
	S A43
	H 98
	D A1043
	C KJ85
Jfvc		Mcobos
S J8		S 10976
H J7		H AQ106532
D KQ75		D 9
C Q10972	Linda	C 6
	S KQ52
	H K4
	D J862
	C A43

I like an original 3H bid by Mcobos.  If he does that I have to place the contract and I can’t get any help from Colin.  At equal vulnerability I probably would have doubled.  It goes down two tricks which isn’t bad at all.  At the other table on a completely different auction our opponents wandered into 3NT after a heart overcall which had could not be made on the expected heart lead.

On Board 9 our partner’s got into a bit of a trouble and we were now down 37-21 or 16 imps with 3 more boards.  But they weren’t quiet ones. 

On board 10 Colin overcalled a four card heart suit and we arrived in 4H on our 5-4 on a hand which was passed out at the other table.  This made on a misdefence.  We arrived at the last board down 4 imps.  Colin made a great bid on this hand.

We were not vulnerable against vulnerable and Colin sitting West passed in first chair.  North Mcobos opened 1D and I passed.  South Jfvc, bid 2.  Colin held:

S KJ1052 H A742 D 3 C J87.

He doubled and Mcobos redoubled.  I bid 2S which showed that was the suit I wanted to play.  Jfvc held: S 8 H K109 D KQ85 C A10543.  He is soon to play a significant role in our drama.  What would you do on his hand?  It seems reasonable enough to pass and now Colin found a great bid.  He bid 3S.  North passed, I passed and now Jfvc was left with a decision.  He could hardly bid 3NT or double spades.  So he is going to play in five of a minor.  Should he play clubs or diamonds?  It seemed likely that Mcobos had some club support but he was looking at great diamond support so he decided to bid 5D.   I like 4D to let partner pick between the two suits.

Now to my hand.  I held S Q763 H Q5 D 107642 C K6.  I thought Colin was at least 5-5 in the majors for his bidding.  He would have opened any hand with 10 or 11 high card points with that shape so he didn’t have as much as that.  He might have something like S AJXXX H AXXXX D — C xx.  If I double will they run to 6C?  Will we beat 6C?  Okay so I am a wimp.  All of those who think I should double raise their hands!  Colin you don’t get to vote. 

As it was we got 400 when we defended quite well and declarer didn’t place all the cards perfectly.  The hand is cold for 2 down if declarer plays for a bad diamond break and places the high card better.  So perhaps if I do double we will only get 500.If they run to 6C they are likely to go 1 down. 

Here is the whole hand

	Mcombos
	S A94
	H J863
	D AJ9
Colin	C Q92	Linda
S KJ1052		S Q763
H A742		H Q5
D 3		D 107652
C J87	Jfvc	C K6
	S 8
	H K109
	D KQ85
	C A10543

 

At the other table the auction was much quieter and the opponents arrived in 3NT. Eqqus holding Colin’s hand had doubled but there were no further bids from our side.  The hand is actually cold for 1 down if you play on hearts with such lovely spots.  I figure to have 2 hearts and if I have the heart queen (as I do) you can make 4 diamonds, a club, 3 hearts and a spade but the defence will take 4 spades and a heart first.  However out partner didn’t play it that way and ended up 3 down.  If he could have held it to 2 down or if I double and get my 500 we win the match as it is we lost by 1.

I know this wasn’t perfect bridge but it was fun and raised some interesting points.