Judgement is everything

Visiting New York City on work, I asked B. if he would play with me again at the Manhattan Bridge Club. To my surprise, considering our  poor (by his standards) 53% game last time around, he agreed.  As he put it jokingly after our game, I with my 200 master points, am "good value".

We were East-West and having a pretty good game.  Finally, we came to the table where the strongest pair in the room (two experts whose names ocassionally grace newspaper bridge columns) were sitting North-South.  Get two good boards off these guys and we would have a good game indeed.

First board. South deals and after two passes, North opens 1D in 3rd seat. What would do you bid holding:

E

Me

♠

—

♥

AK10x

♦

J10xx

♣

A109xx

I can not double, of course, with a spade void.  Bidding clubs has two drawbacks: (1) I don't want partner to bid spades. Correcting to hearts will take us to the 3-level where I do not want to be (2) My clubs are rather anemic. So, I bid 1H. Yes, my 4-card suit.  Least of all evils. I would even welcome a heart lead if South ends up bidding spades and they play in the suit.

The bidding now went:

W

West

N

North

E

Me

S

South

—

—

—

Pass

Pass

1♦

1♥

Dbl

4♥

Pass

Pass

Dbl

Pass

4♠¹

All Pass

(1) Can you blame him?

4S stood no chance because the full deal was:

.

Board: 15

Vul: N-S

Dlr: South

N

North

♠

KQJx

♥

—

♦

AQxxx

♣

xxxx

.

W

West

♠

9xxxx

♥

Q9862

♦

K

♣

J7

Lead: ♥4

E

East

♠

—

♥

AK10x

♦

J10xx

♣

A109xx

.

S

South

♠

A10xx

♥

Jxxx

♦

xxx

♣

KQ

.

With careful play, 4H can make. I do not think I would have made it, but 4H doubled and down 1 would still have been a good board because the field was in 2S making (the auction having gone 1D-2C-X-2S-allpass).  +200 for us was a pretty good board.

The next board also required good judgement.   Partner deals and passes. Then, North bids 1H. What do you bid with this hand?

E

East

♠

K9xx

♥

Axx

♦

KJxx

♣

xx

On the one hand, you have 4 spades, 11 points and partner can bid spades on the one-level. On the other hand, you are a rather poor shape and are at the low end of the range for a takeout double. I hope you passed. I, unfortunately, didn't. I doubled for takeout and disaster proceeded to ensue. The bidding now went:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

Pass

1♥

Dbl¹

4♥

5♣²

Pass

Pass

Dbl

All Pass

(1) ill-advised

(2) oops

5C didn't have a chance and we went down 2 doubled.  -500 was terrible because even 4H doesn't make:

.

Board: 16

Vul: E-W

Dlr: West

N

North

♠

QJx

♥

Q10xxx

♦

Qx

♣

AKx

.

W

West

♠

Axxx

♥

x

♦

x

♣

QJ109872

Lead: ♥4

E

East

♠

K9xx

♥

Axx

♦

KJxx

♣

xx

.

S

South

♠

10x

♥

KJxx

♦

A10xxxx

♣

x

.

So much for getting two good boards off these guys.

We ended up with a 58% game.  It was good enough to win our direction, but only for second overall, losing to the pair we played at this table.  I wish I could take that ill-advised take-out double back!