11/23 BBO

Playing against robots, I tried to throw declarer in with the trump 4. He underplayed the trump 3 and I was toast. Would've been more spectacular if he had exactly one trump left and had preserved the 3, but he had two trumps left. Still.

Stanford 10/7

1H 1S; 2H 4H

4H, smallest diamond led (4th best)

Txxx Ax Axxx KQx
AKx QJxxxx Kxx x

I'm not sure how many times I'm going to miss this until I get it right.

bridge/horror story

Weinberg: It was a dark night and he could swear he was hearing screams in the forest outside, but as a kibitzer, he had no rights and could say nothing

BBO 6/5

3rd r/r, KQT632 J97 Q85 6

p - 1H - 1S - 2H
3H - p - 3S - p
4S

LHO leads H8, we see

9854 63 AT AQ732
KQT632 J97 Q85 6

RHO wins the Q then K, then shifts to a small trump. You put in the K, LHO following the J.

Now what?

not counting

The auction goes (1C) 3H (p) 4H; (5C) which I hit on the way out. How many clubs do you think declarer has? Approximately $TEXAS, as my friend Weinberg would say.

In the play of the hand, dummy comes down with 3 clubs, I have 2, partner showed up with 3. I still spent the entire hand thinking declarer had 6 clubs. I dunno. Lack of focus? Lack of belief in what just conspired in the auction?

BBO 5/22

We hold JT9x K987 A3 JT2, second seat r/w

The auction goes

(1C) p (1S) x
(2C) 2H (p) p
(3C) p (p) (3H)
(4C) x*
*enough already

We lead DA, we see

--------------AKQ6
--------------542
--------------9762
--------------83
JT93
K987
A3
JT2
-------------- (closed
--------------  hand)

First trick is A 2 4 5. The 4 is encouraging.

Now what? It looks like a typical cash your winners and go for the promo, but what order are you supposed to go about it?

I was lazy and continued the diamond. Partner won the K, declarer following the Q, and I think partner has a real problem now.

The full hand:
----------------AKQ6
----------------542
----------------9762
----------------83
JT93-----------------------------542
K987----------------------------AQJ6
A3-------------------------------KJT84
JT2------------------------------9
-----------------87
-----------------T3
-----------------Q5
-----------------AKQ7654

After the second round of diamonds, partner has to come back to our HK, then to the HA, and then the promotion. But then declarer has not a very good hand for his opening.

I think the fault lies with me. My thinking was that declarer might have 3 diamonds, I could ruff the 3rd round, cash HK, heart to partner's ace, and then a 4th round of diamonds. But it's really impossible to get two trump tricks out of this holding considering declarer must have 7 or 8 clubs on this auction. I was really very lazy here.

We ended up with an extra fifty instead of a 2 trick set.

Burlingame 5/6

Matchpoints, r/w, you have J9 A642 K42 KT92. 2nd seat

p p 2S p

3S p p p

Partner leads HQ, you see

KT73

9

JT96

AJ75

-----------J9

-----------A642

-----------K42

-----------KT92

(closed

  hand)

You win HA, now what?

No you didn't balance with a double, but that is neither here nor there anymore.

BBO 4/3

lol I am so bad

Opponents have the auction 2H 3NT

Partner leads the D2

-----------A65
-----------JTxxxx
-----------J76
-----------K
------------------------KJx
------------------------Qxx
------------------------KTx
------------------------Axxx

D2, small from dummy, I stick in the T, declarer wins the Q.
Now plays the HA and a club to dummy.
I win the CA and return... the SK!

Even if declarer has the SQ, my lead of the SK kills the entry to dummy's heart suit. Of course, this actually leads to an overtrick...

A65
JTxxxx
J76
K

QTx
AKx
Qxx
QJTx

Declarer can now take 3 clubs, 1 diamond, 2 hearts, and 2 spades is 8. A winning spade or heart finesse will be 9. If I had just cashed out the diamonds, declarer can only ever come to 8 tricks (because the heart suit remains blocked.) In my feeble defense, I didn't know if we led 2nd or 4th from four bad holding (even though I probably did know.)

Declarer went wrong and we got it back anyway.

2/19 Woodland Hills

Drove down to Woodland Hills for the regional with Steve.

Here's a standard play problem

Matchpoints, you declare 3S after the auction 2S 3S

QJ7 JTx KJ8x AJ9
KT9852 xx Ax Kxx

They lead HK, HQ, heart to east's ace, which I ruffed with the 8.
A spade to the J and east's ace, and she returns a spade. Spades are 1-3, east having 3.

You've lost two hearts and a spade.
-- -- KJxx AJ9
KT -- Ax Kxx

Now what?

Stanford 1/8

I still have hand records from SF Nationals. I was planning to post some of them, but I got sick of bridge.

Here's one from Stanford tonight

Our auction was
....  p
1D 1S
2C 2H
3H 3S
3N

We have J ATx QT87x AKJx. Comments on what to bid over 3S? Stiff J good for bidding 4S?

Anyway, 3NT

AQTxxx
Qxxx
J9
x

J
ATx
QT87x
AKJx

Opponents start three rounds of diamonds, LHO having Kxx and RHO having Axx.

I still have no idea how to play this hand. I'm hopeless at these, so I'll just present what I did. There was a common theme in the ending.

I immediately played the SJ, playing the Q from dummy, losing. :(  Small club came back, I stuck in the J, it held. Now I just played AK and another club. They broke 4-4, RHO was in and was forced to lead a heart away from the K. 10 tricks.

She asked if there was anything she could do to avoid that, and I mentioned off the cuff that if she unblocked the CQ earlier, her partner would be in to put a heart through and put me on a guess. It was only on the drive home that I realized I had missed the common theme: I have no guess if she unblocks. The unblock marks her with the HK.

Anyway, thoughts on how to play 3NT after 3 rounds of diamonds?