Palm Beach Gardens - Part 2

Palm Beach was somewhat small for the morning sessions, and in fact 3 of the 5 morning sessions were cancelled. I played every session I could, in addition to playing some on BBO throughout the week. We won 1 Knockout and made it to the Semi-Finals of two others, then on Saturday, played a Bracketed Swiss Teams, where we played top bracket in the B flight. We had won our first 3 rounds by 13, 29 and 23 IMPs, and were playing the top team in the bracket, when this hand came up:

♠ KQJT9x ♥ J ♦ ♣ JT98xx

Much to my surprise, RHO opened 2C! We were Vul. and they were not, so this hand became quite a problem for me. I was kind of glad I was given 10 seconds to think after RHO's skip bid, but I really wanted more time. After some thought, I decided that 4S rated to put the Maximum amount of pressure on the 2C opener, who probably had tons of red cards. It also didn't look like it was going to go down more than 1 or 2, and at IMPs this is another major deciding factor. Over 4S, LHO doubled showing a negative hand, and everyone passed (also much to my surprise). I hate to sound easily startled, but it really shocked me when I saw both hands:

♠ 876 ♥ xxx ♦ KTxxx ♣ Ax

♠ KQJT9x ♥ J ♦ ♣ JT98xx

I received the King of Club lead, and unfortunately RHO ruffed, so I finished -1, which appeared to be an decent score, since the full deal was:

(Important Spot Cards Noted)

	♠ 876 ♥ xxx ♦ KT7xx ♣ Ax
♠ xx ♥ xxx ♦ 8xx ♣ KQxxx		♠ Ax ♥ AKQT98 ♦ AQJ9x ♣
	♠ KQJT9x ♥ J ♦ ♣ JT98xx

This layout is actually quite interesting, since East has absolutely no entry to West's hand. West's 8 of Diamonds holds the key to the hand... The solution to make 4H is to play the Ace of Diamonds and Queen of diamonds, then play a Diamond to the eight, now you only lose 2D and 1S, whereas if you do not lead up to the eight, North's seven becomes promoted... Sadly, our teammate was not watching the spots, and promoted the 7 of Diamonds for North at the other table, for a 6 IMP loss, however this is a perfect example of why even the littlest of cards are important! We lost this round by 3 IMPs, as a result of this board, however we went on to win the event handily after blitzing all the remaining matches. I finished the tournament 19th in Overall Masterpoint winners... With 52.95 points. My partner was Steve Wallis for the week, and we had a blast experimenting with precision stuff!

Palm Beach Gardens - Part 1

Sorry for not updating the blog for a while, I have been very busy. I was in Palm Beach Gardens at the regional tournament there for the past week, there weren't too many really wild hands, but one from the Monday Night session was quite memorable! The 2nd board of the entire tournament, playing with a very good partner, who however is playing precision for only his 2nd time, so we were going to have to work through that a little bit. I pick up my hand, in 2nd seat all vulnerable I hold:

♠ AKQ9xx ♥ Q ♦ AQ ♣ AKQJ

So I of course open 1C, and partner makes the expected 1D response showing 0-7 HCP. Now I ran through a lot of options in my hand, but finally decided to bid 1430 for Diamonds, since all I really cared about was the King of Diamonds and the Ace of Hearts. It was a brilliant plan I thought... Partner denied any keycards, and undeterred I bid 6S and earned myself this beautiful dummy:

♠ x ♥ JTxxx ♦ Jxxx ♣ xxx

♠ AKQ9xx ♥ Q ♦ AQ ♣ AKQJ

I was kinda stuck, after all, I had no entries to dummy, and received a club lead. Luckily trumps split 3-3, but even then, there was only one hope... A squeeze creating an endplay. As long as the King of Diamonds is in the hand with the ace of hearts, and I read the cards correctly, I can make. So I ran off 5 spades, and all my clubs, making sure to preserve 3 hearts and diamond in dummy. On these LHO followed to all of the clubs, and pitched 2 small diamonds. RHO followed to 2 clubs, and pitched 2 hearts and 2 diamonds, leaving this ending:

	♠ ♥ JTx ♦ J ♣
♠ ♥ Kxx ♦ x ♣		♠ ♥ Ax ♦ Kx ♣
	♠ x ♥ Q ♦ AQ ♣

On my last Spade, LHO can pitch a Heart or a Diamond, but RHO is in trouble. If he pitches a Diamond, I drop his now stiff king. If he pitches a small Heart, I exit with my Heart, and he's endplayed into allowing a Diamond finesse. If he pitches his Ace of Hearts, then I exit my Heart, and LHO is endplayed into either leading a Heart into dummy's good Jack, or leading into my AQ of Diamonds... Either way I have 12 tricks. As it was, RHO was not too imaginative, and pitched a small heart. Now I exited the heart, and took the diamond finesse to make 6, the full deal:

	♠ x ♥ JTxxx ♦ Jxxx ♣ xxx
♠ Jxx ♥ Kxx ♦ Txx ♣ Txxx		♠ Txx ♥ Axxx ♦ Kxxx ♣ xx
	♠ AKQxxx ♥ Q ♦ AQ ♣ AKQJ

This was a complete top, worth all the matchpoints, and lots of bragging rights too! I'll have more from Palm Beach shortly.

A Wild One

Yesterday I played 2 sessions at the club with Steve Wallis. We met an hour or so before the game to discuss the system we were going to be playing... Precision. We finished our discussion, and began playing, and had a 65% game. We then went to the St. Petersberg bridge club for the owner's 60th birthday... We began playing that night against the owner and his wife, and they bid 2 slams the first two boards, and we set both. Then they began cuebidding on the 3rd board, and stopped in 5, which made 6 on a finesse. Our first 8 boards seemed to be all tops, and then we got this board:

	♠ J7 ♥ AKQT8732 ♦ AT4 ♣
♠ AKQ86532 ♥ 94 ♦ Q62 ♣		♠ T9 ♥ J5 ♦ J98753 ♣ J96
	♠ 4 ♥ 6 ♦ K ♣ AKQT875432

What would you open the south hand?

I was West... and of course didn't double. Defending 6C Undoubled give us a 4 on a 6 top. It's been a while since I've seen a 10 card suit.

West	North	East	South
			5♣
5♠	X	p	6♣
p	p	p

Things went downhill after this board. I found myself in a tough position two boards later, and made a very bad bid:

♠ 9 ♥ QT74 ♦ J963 ♣ AQ82

Partner opened a 13-15 1NT and RHO bid 2S. I couldn't double. I couldn't tank then pass. I had to do something. I didn't want to commit to game, or 3NT. I finally figured something out. If I bid 3C, then maybe, just maybe partner would realize that I was in such a bind and bid 3 of a red suit, which I could pass. Sadly partner foiled my plan by bidding 3NT with his 2443 hand. We can only make 3 of either red suit, but without negative doubles, it's nearly impossible to find.
I couldn't do anything right it seemed... I was on lead 14 times last night. I led the right card twice, and gave up an overtrick/the contract at least 5 times. Despite all that we still managed a 50% game that evening.