A bit of this and that

Some times it seems that your opponents just do well against you. One example is this hand we played against Denis and Michael Gamble. I thought they had a very good auction to get to 7S. While one other pair also bid it they did it in the “most efficient” manner with an auction of 2S – 7S.

Here was East’s hand all vulnerable. We are silent thoroughout. West’s opening 2S bid showed 10-13.

S AJ32 H A D A109653 C AK

2S 2NT asking

3C 3D singleton somewhere- then asking

3H 4NT singleton club

5C 5D

5H 7S all the controls have been shown, the SQ and HK

West held: S KQ10964 H K85 D J  C 852 making this a great grand.

And sometimes you are just not playing up to par. Last night I definitely didn’t have my A game. I think some times it is just hard to concentrate on BBO. The fact that I had the television on and was working on some book editing between bids probably didn’t help either. Still Isabelle and I have had some decent rounds in the last few days.

The last board of our set was quite interesting. Here it is. Noone vulnerable.

My hand was S K106 H 107 D K1083 C Q1074

The auction started 2NT on my right showing 6H and 4S or 5-5 in the majors weak. This went pass-pass!-double by Isabelle. East passed and I passed and West bid 3C which was obviously comic. Isabelle doubled and East bid 3H. Should I bid here or let her have a chance to double? I passed anyway and Isabelle bid 3NT. Are you a bidder or a passer? If you bid what is your poison? I passed, perhaps I should bid something – 4C maybe, 4NT?

Anyway her hand was SQ3 HA9 D AQ94 C AKJ65, The hand lies pretty well for us but only 6D makes on a heart lead. 6C will lose a heart and a spade. As it turned out we scored well just for being in 3NT making 6 on a diamond lead. Can you get to 6D?

My favourite hand from last night was this one, mainly because I hadn’t heard the auction before. Here is Isabelle’s hand:

She held S KJ10965 D AK8 C AQ62 all vulnerable. She heard me open 2D, a major weak 2 bid in second chair. What to do? Here simple solution – she bid 4S ( 4 of any major is for play).

I held S 7 H AKJ1073 D 109 C J753

She got a club lead and won the CQ and was able to get rid of all side suit losers by ruffing a diamond and discarding on the top hearts, losing only two spades. This may sound very simple but she was the ONLY one in the field to reach 4S after the normal opening bid of 2H. Well done.

What was the most clueless thing I did yesterday? Well there were a few but here is my personal candidate for the MOST clueless. I held S Kx H 54 D 10543 C J7653 at unfavourable vulnerability. West opened 1S and Isabelle doubled. East bid 3C which showed club shortness and I doubled showing clubs. Well I did have some clubs but I didn’t actually have a hand and I didn’t even want a club lead. We were soon in 5C doubled. This went for 500 into their game so it wasn’t as bad as I deserved.