We also entered a Morning Compact KO in
Reston, with the same team-- UK and Mullet. This was a much smaller event, so we made it comfortably into the nine-team Bracket 1. Would this mean we finally found the tough competition we were looking for? Not on the first day, it didn't. In the first three-way, we got fairly unlucky when a good slam by Mullet went down, so we lost one of our matches--- but we won the other one 47-0. In the second set of twelve, we had another threeway, including the team we'd just lost to. We beat them 36-6, and the other team 17-11 thanks in large part to +790 at our table and +620 at the other, for win 16.
(A) Favorable, 4th
K32 764 AT2 AQT3
LHO opens 2H, pass, pass to you. Do you move?
I reopened with a double and got us to 3N just in opposite pard's Jxx AKx Kxx Jxxx.
(B) All red, 2nd
98654 KQT AQ4 QT
RHO opens 1H. You overcall 1S [do you?], LHO bids a non-forcing 2C, check, check.
I balanced with 2D, which pard competitively raised to 3 for -200. Not the best bid I've ever made.
(C) All white, 1st
KQT63 --- 86532 Q83
Your bid.
I decided to open 2S. Partner bid an Ogusty 2N, and I jumped to 4D to show a side five-card suit. Pard got justifiably excited, and I was down two in six spades opposite Axx AKTxx KT ATx. I didn't feel too bad about this, because as the cards lie, proper defense would set four spades. Sadly, the opponents got to 3N at the other table, which made with the club onside.
Semifinals:
We met up with a pretty good team. At my table were Cheech and Chong (you may remember my runin with Chong a few years back; in a Gatlinburg Bracket 2 KO, he used Hesitation Bergen to get to a game [he had a 1453 seven-count; showed a 7-9 HCP raise over partner's 1H with 3C, and raised partner's slow 3H call-- in the words of Edgar Kaplan, "your partner's tempo robbed you of the chance to be brilliant."], got bitchslapped by the Director for blatant use of UI, and had the cojones to appeal. I do sort of miss the $50 to the ACBL Education Foundation for frivolous appeals...). Cheech seems like a pretty good guy, but I certainly wouldn't keep playing with someone like that, so there's a bit of a guilt by association thing going for him.
Dealer:S
Vul:E-W
♠KQ632
♥J
♦T87643
♣Q
♠AJ5
♥K74
♦K9
♣K8432
1N (P) 2♥ (X)
2♠ (3♥) 4♣ (P)
4♠ (All Pass)
The deuce of hearts was led. I said, "Thank you partner... your dummy is making me thirsty." Chong won the ace of hearts and returned a heart. There goes my club loser... I ruffed a heart to the table and played a diamond down, low, king, ace. Cheech returned a spade, which I won in hand. Another diamond up, and Chong won to return the club queen, king, ace, ruff. Then it was as easy as a diamond ruff with the ace, draw trumps, and claim a beer.
Other than that, nothing much spectacular happened, and we won the match 30-18.
So we made it in to the finals, and guess who else made it-- team Rodwell.