Some interesting hands from the team

Warren Lazer sent me this: Playing on Vugraph in Round 7, board 5, against the French team, Warren & Pauline Gumby had a great auction to be the only pair in the Seniors to get to 4♠

PG  WL

1♣  1♠

2♣  3♠ (inv)

4♠

♥Q led to the ace and diamond came back.  Won ♦K on table and ran the ♠7 (picks up QJx or Qx or Jx with East).  Better odds than playing for exactly ace third onside.

West exited ♦ to dummy’s Q and I returned to hand with ♥K.  Cash ♦A, club finesse, ruff heart with small trump, club to ace and another club.  I was now down to just K1098 of trumps in hand with East known to hold the QJ, so now it didn’t matter how may trumps he actually held.  I could just ruff small and then endplay him by exiting with the 9.

Also from round 7.   In the Venice Cup, the girls had a lot of fun on board 11.  +480 was very common NS score, but you don’t usually score it from 2♦X making 3 overtricks.  Those Chinese women, at both tables, really need some better agreements when the auction starts multi 2♦ X.

Barbara Travis writes that this was 'Just Another Flat Board':

Match 7, Board 11

North

A

A 9 8 6 5 4

A Q J 7 6 4

void

 

Candice Ginsberg and I play a 'mini-Multi 2♦' opening bid, showing a weak 2 in a Major with 0-7 HCP (3-7 HCP when vulnerable).

South, Candice, opened 2♦ and West doubled, which showed an 'opening bid'.  As North I now sorted through my options:

2♥ is pass/correct - obviously when South bids 2♠, if I now bid 3♦ it should show both reds but - why bother?

3♥ is forcing, so over 3♠ I could bid 4♦ to show a red 2-suiter.

Redouble shows a single-suiter, so that wasn't an option.

I decided to Pass 2♦X, and await proceedings.  Pass shows that I like diamonds.  If Candice held a void in diamonds she can run to 2♠. I'd expect her to Pass whenever she held 2+ diamonds.  I figured if she ran from 2♦X then my next bid would be 4♥, to show a big red two-suited hand, and expecting her to be very short in diamonds so likely to hold at least 2 hearts.

2♦X was passed out.  

(Actually, the auction went:

2♦         Double            Pass          Pass

Pass       3♣                    "You can't do that, we are in 2♦X", as I pushed the bidding tray back to the others - to much laughter.

Then my East screen-mate tried to lead, but I had to point out that her partner was on lead.

The lead:  ♥K - and much shock as I tabled dummy.

Diamonds broke 3-3, with partner having a singleton.  Hearts broke 2-2, with partner holding 3 hearts - so 6♥ was made when bid.

2♦X made 11 tricks:  for +480.  I thought, "That will be a flat board, with 4♥ making 12 being 480".  As it happened, our opposition stopped in 2♥, so we gained 6 IMPs, amid more merriment.

The full hand was:

Open Team have some Fun

Finally our spies tell us that the Open team has got the most conservative of all people - Ben Thompson - to agree to getting a tattoo if they win the Bermuda Bowl. Reports are rife that Ben was getting a little nervous yesterday after Australia beat USA1

Posted by Kim Frazer on Wednesday, 16 August 2017 at 16:38