Santa Clara Firecracker Sectional 7/4

4th day of the sectional, and I've sorta been teaching my partner a bit here and there. On the first day, she made a takeout double of 1D and I penalty passed it. We could've gotten it for something like 500 or 800, but she was too scared to lead from Kx of trump. In between sessions, I gave her a bit of an explanation of why it's often right to lead trump vs doubled partials.

So today, this hand took place:



I was too chicken to lead a trump. I knew it as soon as dummy hit. (Actually I knew it as I was making my opening lead, but why trust yourself?) Partner won the ace, looked straight at me, and put a trump on the table. A diamond off dummy to her ace, another trump return, a club off dummy, and then she flew the club ace, put me in with a spade, whereupon I played the third round of trumps. Thanks partner!

We were playing in the lowest bracket, so we did a lot of doubling. We collected a lot of 300s and 500s vs air.

There was another hand where I was in 5D with

Axx xx J954 xxxx
opp
x KJT9 AKQT873 K

The auction went 1D - 3D - (x) - 5D
A spade was led, I tried a club, ace popping on my right. Another spade, ruffed big. Trump to the jack (all following), final spade ruffed, righty dropping the queen.

So I felt like righty had KQ of spades, AQ of clubs (he played the ace really smoothly), and I just have to guess hearts. I figured he was more likely to have the HA instead of the HQ because of his 3 level takeout double. Wrong again, lose 5. The other table was in 4D.

Santa Clara Firecracker Sectional 7/2

There was a hand I declared spectacularly badly and lost the vul game. But I don't wanna think about that anymore.

Here's a pretty funny one:



I opened 2H on the south hand. West passed, partner bid 2N Ogust (we play new suit nonforcing, perhaps for this reason! Not that she knew I had a 5 bagger), and we quit in 3H. I was allowed to make it when lefty led a club and then shifted to a diamond. Righty got in, played a heart, and now I lose 2 clubs, 2 diamonds.

At the other table, my seat passed, west bid 3C, north 3S, east 3N, which is unbeatable thanks to the heart blockage :)

Santa Clara Firecracker sectional

Poor neglected blog.

Had some interesting hands today in the KO/swiss (knocked out in one round).



The auction and play are as listed. At trick 2, I flew ace and led another spade.

Here's a declarer play problem.



6D by north, lead is the CQ.

Santa Clara Regional 9/7

r/w imps you have x AT98xx Jxxx Ax, partner deals.

1D - (3S) - 4H - (4S)
5H - (p) - p - (5S)
p - (p) - ?

If you don't bid 4H, what would you have done?

Santa Clara Regional 9/2

Played two session pairs with Steph, came in 2nd in our section for the first session. Over both sessions, we came in 13/46, which was enough to earn second in B, I think. It was a fun day.


You have AKQxx QJx xxx Ax. I'm going to force you to open 1N with this.

1N - p - 2D - x
2H - p - 3N - p
4H

---------J
---------AK9xx
---------Jxx
---------Jxxx
xxxx--------------xxx
Txxxx----------------
xx----------------AKQTx
xx----------------KQxxx
---------AKQxx
---------QJx
---------xxx
---------Ax

Defense starts with the first three diamonds, lefty pitching a club. Righty shifts to the CK, and I won the ace. I played the HQ, getting the bad news, unblocked the SJ, HA, HJ, and just ran my spades, pitching 3 clubs away. I breathed a sigh of relief when lefty had to follow to four rounds of spades.

If lefty pitches a spade instead of a club, then I have to pick up all the trumps and just overtake the SJ. Could you find this play at the table?

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's one where Steph did something funny and then defended great.

A little backstory is required. I opened 3S on KJTxxx --- xxx Kxxx first seat w/w. She raised to four on a stiff, and then later asked why I bid 3S with only six. (The opponents managed not to leave us in 4Sx holding a combined 6 trumps.) I responded, "6-4, bid one more!" Well, later on this hand comes along.

AKQx xx x JTxxxx and she opens 1S in second!

You have xxxx Qxx xxxx x and the auction proceeds

p - 1S - x - 3S
4H

Steph leads a big spade, and we have

--------xx
--------Kxx
--------AKQx
--------AKxx
AKQx-------------xxxx
xx---------------Qxx
x----------------xxxx
JTxxxx-----------x
--------xxx
--------AJTxx
--------Jxxx
--------Qx

Steph wins the spade and shifts to a club. Declarer has a combined 28 HCP, leaving 12 for Steph, so he plays the HA and runs the HJ to my Q. Instantly a spade goes back, and Steph delivers the club ruff, to the dismay of both declarer and dummy.

He looked at her and said "You bid 1S with that?" And she replied, "6-4, bid one more!"