Know what bids mean over interference

One weakness of a strong club system is how prone it is to interference.  I was East and held:

W

Pard

♠

xx

♥

Q109

♦

AQx

♣

KJxxx

Lead: ♥6

E

Me

♠

KQJx

♥

KJx

♦

Kx

♣

AQxx

The bidding went:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

Pass

1♣¹

2♦²

2NT³

Pass

3♣⁴

Pass

6♣

All Pass

(1) 16+, artificial

(2) weak

(3) 8-12, balanced, diamonds stopped

(4) Undiscussed territory

I meant the 3C as Stayman, but partner thought that (a) I had clubs and (b) I had extras, something like 21+ points.  He wasn't sure what 4C or 4NT would have been, so he just bid what he thought we could make.

South led a low heart.  North cashed his two aces and then, to add injury to insult, returned a heart for a ruff.  6C down 2 when the field was in 3NT making 5 was a cold bottom.

This hand illustrates once again (a) the importance of having firm understandings after interference over a strong club opening and (b) not torturing partner with undiscussed bidding sequences.

On the other hand, we got a cold top for bidding this heart game, thanks to a very informative Precision 2C opening and even more informative spade overcall:

W

Pard

♠

xxx

♥

AKxx

♦

x

♣

AQJxx

Lead: ♠4

E

Me

♠

x

♥

QJxx

♦

xxx

♣

K10xxx

The bidding went:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

—

—

Pass

2♣¹

2♠

Dbl²

Pass

4♥

All Pass

(1) 5-4 in clubs+major or 6+ clubs, 10-15 points

(2) negative double (hearts)

With the spade overcall, I was able to visualize a double fit in hearts and clubs and a singleton diamond in partner's hand to go with the singleton spade in mine.  I doubled and was happy to see partner raise to 4H with a maximum (14 points, in context) and good shape.  Even though hearts broke 4-1, partner was able to lose a spade, a diamond and a heart to make the contract.

It turns out that North had a two-suiter in diamonds and spades and nearly all the missing points. Over 2C, they had no agreement on how to show this specific two-suiter and once it came back, the five-level was too high to show diamonds. Had they been playing Leaping Michaels, 4D would have been game forcing, showing diamonds and a major, but as far as I know, no pair in the Norman club game plays it ...

Partner and I ended the evening with 70% -- a long while since I've had one of those

What are four jacks worth?

Bridge is scored in so many ways that just understanding the intricacies of the scoring is taxing for the brain. This week is "sectional tournaments at clubs" (STaC) week.  What this means is that you play in clubs as normal, but your matchpoint scores are then compared district-wide.

We came in second in our direction (1st in B and C) with a 55% game and the pair that won was well ahead, with a 65% one. In a normal game where we come in second, but well behind the leaders, I can relax about any single board that got away -- it wouldn't have made a difference.

But not in a STaC game.  The difference between a 55% game and a 58% game could be huge. And what is the hand I am beating myself up over?  It's this one, where my hand evaluation was awry:

W

Me

♠

Jx

♥

AKJx

♦

AKJxx

♣

Jx

Lead: ♦7

E

Pard

♠

AKxx

♥

10xxx

♦

xx

♣

Axx

The bidding (uncontested) went:

Me

Pard

1♣¹

1♥²

2♥³

2♠⁴

3♦⁵

3♠⁶

4NT⁷

5♥⁸

6♥

—

(1) 16+, artificial

(2) 4+ hearts, 8+ points

(3) 4+ hearts, 19+ points: Overbid??

(4) 1st or 2nd round control

(5) no club control, but diamond control

(6) still interested.

(7) rkc

(8) 2 without Q

Do you agree with my hand evaluation of 19 points in support of  hearts?  In the harsh light after-the-game, it seems a little optimistic. I do have have good hearts, and a good 5-card diamond suit, but the two doubletons are not worth much.  In fact, I have a 6-loser hand.  I needed to bid 3H, instead of 2H which would have shown 16-18 points and let partner explore slam if he wanted to.

A bottom on a board where we should have been average+ (partner found the queen of hearts) is probably worth dozens of spots in the STaC ranking.

Were they fixed?

On travel, in a new city, I decided to catch a bridge game at the local  club.  I emailed the owner of the club ahead of time asking if he could find me a partner.  "Come and you will play," he told me.

Translation: a partner is guaranteed, but not the skill level of the partner. When you email a bridge club in a new city, tell them you are visiting on business and ask them to find you a partner, you will get one of three responses:  (1) The director/owner will lean on one of their better players to show up, or will play with you themselves  (2) They will tell you to show up and match you up with whoever is available (3) You will get a reply 3 days after the date of your visit apologizing for not seeing your email on time.  The Manhattan Bridge Club, the Galway Bridge Club (and the Norman one) are in the first category. This club, apparently, was the second category. Not great, but not terrible either.

Pickup partners are always a crapshoot. The one I got was pleasant and likeable, but he didn't hold any bones about playing the game well.  Indeed, the only reason he was at the bridge spot was because his girlfriend was taking a class and he was going to have to wait for her anyway.  He underled his aces, didn't lead the suits I bid, ruffed my winners, miscounted trumps, bid 2C over my 1D opening with a 2-card club suit, cashed his stoppers in the opponents' suit in NT contracts, gave up a spade trick holding AKx in hand and Q singleton in dummy ... you get the idea.  I mentally shrugged my shoulders and just smiled. After all, he was doing me a favor by playing.

The nicest hand of the evening was one where the bidding went:

Pard

Me

1♣

1♠

2♣

3♠

3NT

6NT

—

—

The cards that we held are not all that interesting. Everyone was in 6NT on the hand (I had 20 points and 6 semi-solid spades) and everyone got the same lead.  The reason the hand was nice was I don't think partner had ever played a small slam before. So, imagine his surprise when he played out the hand laboriously and found that he had taken all 13 tricks (the lead was a free finesse).  By that time, his girlfriend's class had finished and she was kibbitzing. He looked back at her with manifest pride -- it felt really, really good and nearly made up for everything else.

Still, some clubs just have a mean vibe running through them and the XYZ club has it in spades. Obviously, my partner was known to not be a strong player, and so, the opponents wanted to get 3 good boards off us.  We got smirks, eye rolls and snorts.

The worst behavior exhibited by an opponent was after I bid 4H on this board and made the contract. East remarked "boy, if that is not a fix, I don't know what is"  Really, you can wait until we leave the table before bitching about being "fixed".

And moreover, is this really a fix?  Judge for yourself whether or not I have the necessary inferences to bid 4H and play it to make this. Where is the fix?  I was South (hand rotated):

.

Board: 16

Vul: N-S

Dlr: North

N

Pard

♠

x

♥

A10xx

♦

AJ109xx

♣

Ax

.

W

West

♠

Jxxx

♥

xx

♦

—

♣

KQxx xxx

Lead: ♣K

E

Fixed?

♠

Axx

♥

KJx

♦

Kxxx

♣

Jxx

.

S

Me

♠

KQ10xx

♥

Q9xx

♦

Qxx

♣

x

.

The bidding went:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

Me

—

1♦

Pass

1♠

3♣¹

3♦

4♣

4♥

All Pass

(1) weak

After East's pass and West's preempt, I know partner has a huge hand. I was willing to play in 5-2 spades or 4-3 hearts (it's matchpoints after all), and if doubled, I could remove to 5D.  Instead, dummy came down with the best of all worlds: 4 hearts.

I got the lead of the king of clubs.  So, West was marked with the queen also and probably not much else.  Consequently, I took the Ace of clubs, ruffed a club, led a heart to the ace and a small heart from dummy. East went up with the King and played the Jack of hearts. I won with the queen and took the losing diamond finesse to East. He could take his Ace of spades and I had the rest.

That was when we were told that we had "fixed" them. Very annoying and not the way that weaker players (my partner) or visitors (me) ought to be welcomed. It is just a game after all.  Ugly.

P.S. We ended up with a 52% game for 0.31 masterpoints. I will take scratching as a moral victory.

Stretches sometimes work

Imagine that you are playing the final of a 3-session kiddies bracket knockout (average masterpoints: 500) at a sectional tournament. After 12 boards, you go to compare with your team-mates and find that you are down 53 imps. What is your strategy now?

We were the team that was up by 53 imps at the half. The opponents apparently decided to stretch to bid every game and slam in sight. Most of these games and slams didn't make and so we ended up winning huge.

After 24 boards, this was the only board that we lost imps on.

W

Pard

♠

Ax

♥

KQxx

♦

Kxx

♣

Kxx

Lead: ♠8 

E

Me

♠

J10x

♥

Jx

♦

AQxxx

♣

Axx

At our table, the auction went:

W

Pard

N

North

E

Me

S

South

1♦¹

1♠

2♦²

Pass

3♦³

All Pass

(1) 2+ diamonds, 13-15 if balanced, 10-15 if unbalanced

(2) 8-12 points, 5+ diamonds, non-forcing

(3) 14-15 points, 3+ diamonds

We play 10-12 NT in first seat, so with a 15 point balanced hand, partner opens 1D and then rebids 1NT or 3H.  Over the overcall, we play negative free bids, so I decided to bid 2D, non-forcing (I need 13+ points to force game).  Partner felt that NT would play better from my side if I had the Queen of spades.  After his 3D bid,  I couldn't see 11 tricks in diamonds and my 3-card spade suit didn't look appealing.  So, I passed.

I got the expected spade lead, took the ace and immediately led a heart to my Jack and another heart to the king.  They got their heart ace and spade king, but that was all, since I was able to ruff a spade in dummy, pull trumps and discard a club on the queen of hearts. 11 tricks are there after all and there is no defense to beat it.

At the other table, where the opponents were stretching, the bidding went:

W

West

N

Teammate

E

East

S

South

1NT¹

2♠²

3♦³

Pass

5♦⁴

—

—

—

(1) 15-17

(2) natural

(3) 5+ diamonds, no spade stopper (Lebensohl, fast denies)

(4) stretch? or logical?

Were we just unlucky on this board or is this a game that should have been bid?