Posted 6:21 PM by Floyd

Bridge Geekery: Let's Reverse, Round Two
  Now in Suit-o-Vision!TM

Now it's time to blog the first session of Eureka's Saturday bridge tournament.

The first two rounds contained some strange boards, but the first interesting decision was on Board 10. All red, in fourth chair I hold T98 AJ9864 J954 -. LHO passed and partner opened 1, my void. RHO overcalled 1. I had an easy 1 bid.

  LHO fidgeted and passed. Partner rebid 1. Now RHO fidgeted -- they were inexperienced players who fidgeted a lot, so its difficult to read anything into these hesitations -- and bid 1N.

  What would you do? I thought the hand was a death trap. I didn't want to go -200 (doubled or not), or to go -100 against their +90 (1N making). So I passed.

  LHO bid 2 natural, passed around to me. I passed and went -90. RHO's hand was KQJ2 K7 QT73 Q32. (Please don't ask me to explain the 1 bid. Partner had Jxxx of clubs and QT of hearts; we make +140 in hearts.

  Later I discussed the hand with a friend of mine who is an expert player, and he said that pass was the right call, but that he would bid 2 at the table.

On board 15 I was too active. At unfavorable, third, I held AJ63 JT6543 J4 Q. Partner passed and RHO opened 1. Six-four bid more, so I overcalled 1. LHO bid 2 (presumably a diamond raise) and Sherry jacked it up to 4. RHO sawed it off and I went down one. -200 would be find against their white game, but no game makes! In five of a minor they lose a spade, a diamond and a club.

  I'm not sure if what I did was wrong. Sometimes when you are active you get in trouble; nothing works all the time. On the other hand the vulnerability is the worst, and the minor-suit junk should make me worried about a phantom sacrifice.

Our next round, boards 16-18, was our highest-scoring. The opponents appeared to be the most competent we played all day.

On board 16 Sherry missed a chance to use one of the few conventions we play. She held A6 - AK8643 KJ865 at favorable, fourth chair. LHO passed and I opened a disciplined weak 2. RHO passed. Now what?

  We play that 2N is a "feature" ask over a weak two; it asks opener to bid a side ace or king. This is exactly the information needed with this hand. If opener bids 3, bid the slam; otherwise settle for game.

  Instead we wound up in 4. My LHO led the ten of clubs.

  Let's say I want to ruff two hearts in dummy and pitch the other on the high diamond. I win the club in hand, ruff a heart low, and now what? I am short entries to hand -- I need two more to ruff a second heart and then pull trump. Also I miss my chance to pick up the club suit; playing the jack gives me a sure thing unless LHO led a singleton or doubleton ten.

  So I played the jack, which held. I pulled trumps, played K and A, and ruffed a club to make the fifth club good. (They had split 4-1). That gave me two pitches for hearts and I made six.

  This was a fine score (11 on a 15 top). Attempting to ruff hearts would not work on this hand as LHO has Txx of spades and a doubleton diamond.

Board 17 was tough. I held A6532 J3 K86 K64 first chair at all white. This is just a little less than an opening bid for me -- put the jack in any other suit and it would be fine -- so I passed. LHO opened 1 and partner overcalled 1. RHO bid a preemptive 3.

  What would you do? The normal bid is probably 3, but I chose 3N. That's an overbid, but hey, I didn't come to Eureka to pass! All passed and LHO led 7. Dummy was:

  QJ4 AQK98 952 J8.

  I played the queen and it held, the ten appearing on my right. What now? I couldn't see any way to come to nine tricks. The diamond situation was strange; I assumed RHO had raised on four, leaving LHO with 4432 shape.

  I crossed to hand with the heart jack and played a second spade up, hoping for a duck. He won and played a heart. I cashed the spade jack and ran my hearts, pitching one of each suit on the hearts.

  Something weird happened in the heart suit: They broke 3-3. This placed LHO with 4333 (unless RHO had raised on 3). Anyway, LHO pitched a spade, which looked good to me as that was his out card. Then he pitched the diamond jack. So I led a diamond, low, low, queen. Then he led a club. RHO won the ace and put a diamond back. LHO had clubs only and had to give me the last two tricks.

  Note that if LHO just keeps his three diamonds he is fine.

On board 22 I was very aggressive, but it worked out well. I was at favorable in fourth chair and held Q2 742 T9842 652. LHO opened 1 and Sherry overcalled 1. RHO raised to 2 which was passed around to Sherry. Sherry rebid her spades and RHO rebid 3.

  At this point I figured that raising was safe. I had limited my hand by passing the previous round. We were non-vul and it was important to contest the partscore. So I bid 3 and all passed. Sherry's hand was KJ9876 K3 K2 AQ4. A heart was led and Sherry's RHO won the queen. Then she shifted to ace and a trump, a clear error as it lets declarer get to dummy. Sherry took full advantage by taking the club hook, which worked, clearing trump, and exiting ace and a club. They did not give her the king of diamonds (which was under the ace anyway), but down one was worth 9.5 matchpoints.

Board 26 was the best-played hand -- but to no purpose! I held QJ832 J5 J54 J74. All were vul and I was fourth to speak. LHO passed, Sherry opened 1, RHO overcalled 1, and I bid 1. Sherry raised to 2 and that was the end of the bidding.

  LHO led 9; dummy was KT95 AK32 AT3 62. I rose ace and played the ten of spades. LHO won the ace and played a second heart, which I won. I ruffed a heart high (an important play) and played a spade to dummy's king; all followed.

  Now I ruffed a heart and exited a club. My plan was to lose two clubs, ruff the third club in dummy which would leave me with a trump in each hand, and lead a diamond away from the AT. This would endplay either opponent who had both diamond honors, and would give me chances if RHO's one honor were doubleton.

But my plan was foiled; LHO played the nine of clubs on the first round and RHO overtook with the ten. Then LHO led a club out of turn! I called the director and he told me I could require or forbid a club. I forbade a club and that was that. As it turned out I was going to make 3 on my line as RHO held both diamond honors. +140 was worth 12.5 matchpoints out of 15.