Posted 9:26 PM by Floyd

And now, some bridge-blogging. This time there will be no casualties.

On this weekend the San Mateo County unit held its sectional. San Mateo is the home unit of both Billy Miller and Steve Weinstein; in fact Weinstein's father Art ran some club games, and the sectional 99'er game is the Art Weinstein Memorial Pairs event.

San Mateo sectionals used to feature a knockout, back around 1996-1997. Due to a strange combination of circumstances, three knockouts were held but there was only one final. (In the first KO, a pair was told they could not play their strange system, and their team withdrew in protest. In the second, a massive West Coast power outage forced the cancellation of the Saturday evening games.) When the final was played, I was on the winning team. I remember that day well because David Friedman had a get-together at his house, and I attended between sessions.

Naturally I was eager to defend my title. Normally I would get a pair to play with me and Sherry, but Sherry was not sure if she could play, as her cousin Vicky was due last Friday. So I got my friends Scott (of Caroline Club fame), Brian, and Mike to play. Scott was not available Friday night, and Sherry agreed to substitute.

The first round of the knockouts was held Friday night at the bridge club in Burlingame. There were seven teams; unlike the last time I played in a sectional bracketed knockout, there was no handicap. We drew a head-to-head match. Sherry performed very well, and had this triumph in the first half:

At all vul, dealer, she held x x QJxxxx AJTxx. She passed, her LHO passed, I passed, and RHO opened 1. Sherry overcalled 1.

Her LHO doubled, showing the majors, and I raised to 2. RHO bid 2; Sherry competed with 3 and her LHO bid 3.

This was passed back to Sherry, who hesitated but bid 4. This was doubled by her RHO. I wasn't very pleased about this, but I did have a good hand -- Qxxx AT98 Axx xx -- and Sherry is not like many beginners who bid when it's their turn. A club was led and trumps were 2-2, so Sherry scored up +730.

We won the first half by 43. In the second half Sherry was solid again. She made a tough vulnerable game, then had to decide what to do with AKQx KQTx xx AQx after I opened 1. The auction started 1 - 1, 2 - 2, 2N. I confess I would have blasted to 6N; Sherry was more conservative, bidding only 4N. This was right in theory -- I had x xxx AKJxx K9xx and had quite enough to do at the four level -- but wrong in theory as everything split and the diamond queen was right.

Our teammates had two bad results, but one good one: The opponents bid to 6N on the hand I described and went down! They decided to play for hearts 3-3 with the finesse working rather than diamonds 3-3. We lost the second half 26-25. The final score was 88-46, imagine, 134 imps on 24 boards!

Saturday morning Scott and I went over our strong club system (the Caroline Club). This system has canape openings: If you open 1 of a major, you have a five card major, or a four-card major and a longer side suit. Two level openings show minimum opening strength and are major-minor two-suiters.

We arrived at the San Mateo Expo Center and started playing. Sherry was able to come as her cousin had been quiescent. We had started playing when the director arrived to chase Sherry away; she was not allowed to kibbitz as she was on the team. I can understand this rule in a real event, but dislike it in a sectional when I am playing with friends. Sherry decided that she didn't want to have nothing to do, and also that she would let everyone else play. So she became our non-playing captain.

The first half went fairly well. Our opponents were playing an 11-14 notrump, which didn't come up much; we were playing a 10-12 notrump which came up all the time, and gave the opponents fits. We had a good set and started the second half up 22-7.

The second half didn't go so favorably for us. For instance: I held Txxx KQx xx QJ9x. At all vulnerable, LHO opened 2 weak. Scott doubled, and RHO bid 3, asking opener to show a singleton. I passed and LHO bid 3, denying shortness. Scott doubled again and RHO passed. What would you do?

I bid 3 only because I was worried about my poor spades and lack of values outside hearts. I probably should have bid 4. I think Scott could have raised to 4 on AKxx — AQxxx Axxx. There were no bad breaks -- as advertised -- and we made four.

We also had a bad result when I opened 1 and Scott hoped that Txx would be sufficient support. It wasn't. We had had some reasonable results, but figured to be down a little bit as our teammates came over to compare. We gave back two-thirds of the lead but held on to win, 41-36. Before the two tables played their last boards we were losing 36-31, but each pair won five imps to give us the victory.

We went to Inya Lake for a Burmese dinner that couldn't be beat, and returned for the title game. Our opponents included the only other decent player in the event; in fact, he was on the team I beat back in 1997. If it should have been a tough match it wasn't. Everything went our way at both tables, and the opponents made lots of costly mistakes. Here is my favorite hand of the event:

At favorable, third seat, I held QT6543 653 T K82. Scott opened a 10-12 notrump, and RHO bid 2, showing hearts and a minor. I competed with 2. LHO bid 3. Scott passed, and RHO cue bid 3. LHO bid 3N and all passed.

Scott led the A and this dummy appeared:

K AKJT9 Q4 AJ753

The king was felled, I encouraged with the 3, and declarer played the 2. Scott played the 7 to my queen and declarer's 8. (Dummy pitched a heart.)

The missing spades were the J and 9. Scott would have led the 9 from a remaining holding of 97, so declarer was marked with those cards. (Anyway, why would she bid 3N on jack-third?)

I considered a club, hoping that Scott had QT9. But that would lead to only two clubs, a spade, and maybe a diamond.

So I switched to a diamond. This had potential to create a dummy lock. Scott ducked when the diamond went to dummy's queen, and won the diamond continuation. He led a heart, which declarer finessed. I assumed he had four hearts to make this play.

Declarer then led a club down. I played the king without much hope; if declarer had a stiff club as well as a stiff heart she was 4171. But she played the queen under the king and when I continued a club, pitched a diamond!

Now we had down one for sure. Declarer could have played off clubs and stuck Scott in with the fourth club, forcing a diamond or heart return. But instead she threw him in with a heart. Scott returned a club, and she cashed two clubs and played the fourth club. On this card, which was the twelfth trick, she had to work out what Scott had left. She got it wrong (even though I had showed out of diamonds) and kept her spade. Scott, who hard started with A73 of diamonds opposite a singleton 10, took two diamond tricks -- and the last trick with the 7, the beer card! (We won 14 imps when our teammates made 5. I did not owe Scott a beer; he doesn't drink.)

We beat our opponents 74-2 -- in the first half! They conceded, and we thanked each other and went home.