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.

1/24 Pleasanton Sectional

Wow, what a frustrating day. We played in the second lowest bracket and mostly got our clock cleaned. Ted and I just sat there and watched them do it to us. They would get to untouchable partscores or games (sometimes crazily), and the best we could hope for was a push. Of course, I did some unspeakably bad things (I always make at least one goof that I'm sure convinces people that I don't know how to play bridge at all.) It always seems to be against people who know me too.

I want to feel good about myself right now, so I'll post this. I ran a squeeze here after the defense did something crazy.



Yes, the opponents were mostly like this. I'm so ashamed.

Here's a genuine problem I had. You hold QJT98 xxx AKTx x. Partner opens 1C, you bid 1S, partner splinters 4D. Now what?

The hands are:
A76x AQxx x AKxx
QJT98 xxx AKTx x

We missed a pretty good slam here. I didn't like AKTx of diamonds, but it's better than AKx. It's on one of two finesses, and the 76 of trump in dummy is monumental in helping to ruff two diamonds.

Looking at it again though, if Ted had AQJx of clubs (and let's say not 76 of trump), things can get ugly. Now I need 2 of 3 finesses to come off, and I need to not get overruffed as I try to get rid of my diamonds. What would you do over 4D?

I have some hands from earlier in the week to write up; I'll do it soon.

San Jose sectional 4/4

Oh I totally forgot to mention this one defensive hand.

LHO opens 3D, RHO bids 3N. You're on lead with J75 J65 xxxx KJx.

Anyway I chose to lead the CK lol. Dummy was xx x KQJxxxx Axx or something like that. A merrimac coup at trick 1 if declarer has Qx of clubs and not the DA! Anyway we got 1 trick here for -690 and 0 matchpoints.

I can't remember the complete layout, but it takes a heart lead to hold them to 9, and a spade lead may give them 10 or 11.

San Jose sectional 4/5

Played 108 boards this weekend; two session pairs on Saturday, teams on Sunday. Did about average in the pairs game, but unfortunately my hand records are somewhere not here.

I screwed up two games in the Swiss, but it doesn't seem to have mattered. We played in the BCD, and we just came up against weak opponents throughout.

Here's one I screwed up the auction and the play, a double whammy.

Partner opens 1N unfavorable
1N - (2S) - 2N* - 3S
p - (p) - 5C - (x)

I had K QTx Q9x KJTxxx. I wasn't thinking when I bid lebensohl, I just wanted to show a spade stopper and play 3NT. Of course 3C is a better bid.

I get a small spade lead, and I see

Ax
xxx
AJ8x
AQxx

K
QTx
Q9x
KJTxxx

I won the K, played CK and CA, SA pitching a heart. Then I just exited a heart. Turns out righty had HAK all along, oh well. Third heart ruffed in my hand, and at this point, I should make it. I can't remember how trumps were divided anymore, but lefty is most likely to have the diamond length, so I should play her for KTxx. Anyway I did, but I played off two more rounds of trumps, killing entry to hand before doing this. Not so great.

I underled an ace in some auction and partner had doubleton. There were some glances when I won the second round and delivered a ruff for down 1...

Against the last pair, we had a system win. Righty opened 1NT and I had AKxxx of hearts and QTxx of clubs (don't remember my other two suits, sorry). I doubled, showing a major and a minor, and they did Stayman/3NT. I led a fourth best heart, partner had QTxx. At the other table, opponents showed their hearts, and teammates scrambled to the 4-3 spade game, making 6.

Another hand, I opened J AJT8x KQ9xx xx and partner gave a 3 card limit raise. I felt aggressive the whole day, and I just accepted the invite. They led a trump, saving me from guessing the heart position. Partner had Q98 K9x Jxx Axxx, diamonds are 3-2. Teammates played 3S-1.

So the day went (in VPs): 9, 12, 20, 37, 57, 76, 96.

We won the whole thing, but screwing up two cold games is pretty annoying.

So this concludes my first week of bridge since a 4 month hiatus. It's exhausting!