Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Partner doesn't have it

I went looking for perfecto bids and went past our last positive score.  At matchpoints, of course, this is a disastrous and we could not recover from three zeros.

Holding:
N
Me
♠
xxx
♥
AKxxx
♦
Kxx
♣
Qx

I opened 1H and this was the auction:
W
West
N
Me
E
East
S
South
—
1♥
Pass
1♠
Pass
1NT
2♣
Pass
Pass
Dbl
Pass
2♦
All Pass
That reopening double put partner in an uncomfortable position. His hand was 4-1-4-4 with 8 points i.e. he held neither 2 hearts nor 5 spades and his clubs were 9 high, so he didn't think he could pass 2C.  1NT and defending 2C were our last positive scores. Given that the auction looks like a misfit, I ought to have passed.

Here was another poor decision. I held:
N
North
♠
87
♥
K10875
♦
Qxx
♣
KQ10

I passed and the auction was:
W
West
N
Me
E
East
S
South
—
Pass
2♥
2♠
Pass
2NT
Pass
3♣
Pass
3NT
All Pass

Partner had bid 2S essentially to play since I had passed originally. Unfortunately, I didn't get the memo.  I was so sure that his hand was strong that I drove to game opposite the 16 or so points I imagined him having.

The third zero of the night came about on this deal.  I held:
N
North
♠
Axx
♥
9xxxx
♦
x
♣
Axxx

The auction was:
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
South
—
—
1NT1
2♥2
Pass
4♥
All Pass
(1) 15-17
(2) Natural, with extra shape
4H went down 1. The rest of the field was in 3S their way, going down 1.

As the bridge maxim goes "if you expect partner to have a card for your bid, he doesn't have it."  The thing  common to all my bids was expecting partner to have something -- shape in the first, points in the second and tenaces in the third -- that he didn't have.  There were hints in each of the deals that pointed me to this, if I had bothered to look. In the first hand, partner passed over 2C, denying the ability to bid 2H or 2S. In the second, I had passed the first time, so partner is telling me something by retreating from 2NT.  In the third hand, I need too many nice things to happen to make 4H and I do have two defensive tricks.  So, 3H is probably enough.


Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. LakFebruary 12, 2013 at 4:54 PM

    I posted the last hand on Bridge Winners as a poll (https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/bidding-problem-779/) and it appears that most people would bid 4H with my hand ... oh, well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 12, 2013 at 11:15 PM

    On the first hand, I think you have a clue you did not mention to induce you to pass out 2C. That clue is East's bidding. Why did he not overcall 2C on the first round? If East is an excellent bidder, the reason could be that he has strong hearts to go along with his clubs. More likely, the reason is that he attends the club game to declare and not to defend. Either way, looks like passing out 2C is best.

    On the second hand, your 2NT call seems reasonable to me. 3NT, not so much so, for the reasons you suggest in the post mortem.

    On the third hand, that you submitted to Bridge Winners, I can't imagine not bidding on: five trumps, two side suit first round controls, second round control in the third side suit. You have a rock! I am guessing your partner had a red two-suiter, maybe with not so good diamond intermediates? And with a minor suit defensive cross ruff perhaps? Unlucky; bridge is a tough game.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LakFebruary 12, 2013 at 11:44 PM

      We lost A!H, K!S, Q!S and A!D. Partner had 3-5-4-1 (KQJxx in hearts and KQJx in diamonds). They led a trump, and switched to a spade. So, we got no discards on partner's diamond honors. They had just the right cards to defeat the game contract, and unfortunately I had no field protection. For some reason, no one else was bidding 4H.

      Delete
    2. UnknownFebruary 17, 2013 at 12:06 AM

      Lak, that is the worst kind of luck: opponents who defend well. Can't win if you run across too much of that!

      Delete
  3. Memphis MOJOFebruary 14, 2013 at 2:24 PM

    You don't need a poll to validate an easy 4H bid on the last deal.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)