Playing in the Toronto Regional with Macho Man

It has been many years since I played in the Toronto Regional.  Isabelle and Jeff Smith stayed over at our house and Colin and I played a couple of events with Isabelle and Sondra.  Jeff had a pretty good Regional finishing first in the Open Pairs with Ross Taylor (a new partner) and winning several rounds of the major knockout event.    Our team had a decent finish in the Compact KO. 

Jeff and Isabelle Smith at the MPP Office

One of our opponents teased Colin about all the testosterone when he made a series of bids which appeared to be pretty aggressive.  Here is one from the session (no hand records so all spot cards are approximate):

Colin

♠ —

♥ AK6

◊ AQ743

♣ Q8542

 

I opened 4◊ Namyats showing 8-9 tricks with spades as trump.  The suit does not need to be solid.  In our methods Colin can make several different slam tries.  He has available an asking bid in trump (which considering his holding might be making him nervous), an asking bid in clubs or he can show a slam try with hearts and diamonds controlled and no club control.   He can also use keycard.  Let’s say he starts with the trump asking bid:  The auction would go this way:

Linda	Colin
4◊	4♥ (relay)
4♠	4NT (trump ask)
5♥* no losers opposite void	?

 

And he is too high for a club asking bid.  I like Colin’s choice of 5◊, the more cooperative bid of showing me cards in diamonds and hearts and slam interest.  This was my hand and I was able to bid the slam for a good pickup.

Linda

♠ AKQJ10954

♥ 43

◊ 82

♣ 7

 

On a heart lead I had the small extra chance of dropping the doubleton AK of clubs or maybe getting RHO to rise on length to the ace and ruffing out LHO’s king and/or some kind of squeeze if I can deduce it from the discards.  There was a squeeze but it only made me feel better because the ◊K popped in the onside hand when I led towards dummy’s diamonds in the endgame.  Still really just 50% but it was the best kind of slam, the kind that makes.

Macho Man also got to a grand but maybe it was more Macho Woman, you decide.  I don’t have Colin’s exact hand but it was something like this.  (Colin email me with the right hand when you see this).

Colin

♠ AKQJ5

♥ 4

◊ AQ

♣ J10543

 

Linda	Colin
1♥	1♠
2♥	3♣
3♥	4♣
4♠	4NT
5♥	5NT
6♥	7♠

 

Here was my hand and you can decide who was naughty.

Lee

♠ 107

♥ AK10972

◊ 5432

♣ A6

A club lead would have doomed the contract.  Even six looks to be a small challenge on a club lead.  But as Colin said he was unlikely to get a club lead, the suit he had bid twice and indeed a trump hit the table.  Colin was able to win in hand and with hearts 3-3 the hand was easy.  Macho macho macho man.

I would have made the auction a lot easier if I had bid 3♠ over 3♥ and I suppose I might not have shown the king of hearts.  Was I the macho woman?