Today I played bridge and then, um, er...
The bridge club today hosted a junior fund game, meaning that everyone pays an extra dollar to help pay my way at bridge camp this summer. To make this promotion more palatable to the old folks, the ACBL offers extra masterpoints to the winners of the game. To add insult to injury, jeffford and I took all of those, too. After we finished, I demonstrated my mastery of understatement: "Well, that was okay." We took 61.88% of the matchpoints, good enough for first in A overall and 3.5 masterpoints.
Better lucky than good
My favorite hand of the afternoon: third seat at all white I hold ♠J2 ♥KQJ7 ♦A8 ♣JT964. Jeff opens 2♦ and I raise to 3♦. LHO doubles, and RHO bids 3♥, which passes out. I lead the club jack, and dummy comes down with ♠AT9873 ♥T52 ♦J ♣KQ7. Huh. Declarer covers and Jeff wins his ace. He returns a small diamond to my ace, seemingly to ask for a ruff. I lead a small club, and the hapless declarer attempts actually to win a trick, Jeff ruffing dummy's remaining club honor and returning a trump, if I recall correctly. I think declarer ruffs a diamond and takes two spade tricks before trying to ruff a second diamond. I leap in with the jack of trumps, pause for a moment, and lead the king of trumps. At this point, somewhat oblivious, I feel really bad because Jeff shows up with a third trump, meaning that maybe we could have scored a second club ruff. With nothing else left to do, I draw another round of trump and start playing my clubs. Then I really start to feel bad, when it becomes apparent that declarer isn't choosing not to trump. We end up setting 3♥ down five, taking four hearts, a diamond, and four clubs. Somehow I psychically knew not to double, since they only go down one with psychic play in 3♠.
In the evening I actually tried playing with a partner other than Jeff, for perhaps the second time since moving to Austin. zml and I formed a team with Jeff and Jonobie for the Saturday evening team game, which occurs about every other week at some player's house. (Aside: these old people have really nice homes and make yummy treats.) We did not fare so well, losing to both other teams, 30-46 and 26-32. I had a good time, though. Hopefully I will take the opportunity to play with other partners more often.
Better lucky than good II
My favorite hand of the evening still involves a bit of luck, but was more rewarding. Sitting second seat at all white, I held ♠xx ♥AKTxxx ♦- ♣QJTxx and opened 1♥. Zach responded 2♦, and I rebid 2♥. He leaps to 3NT. Screw that, I pull to 4♣. Zach pulls to 4♦, and I, showing him who wears the daddy pants in this auction, pull back to 4♥. LHO leads a small diamond, and Zach tables: ♠QTx ♥x ♦AQJxxxx ♣A9. RHO covers my queen, and I ruff. I draw two rounds of trump, and the opponents are screwed once they both follow twice. I cross to the board with the ace of clubs and drop my losing spades on the two high diamonds. After I draw out the ace of clubs with the nine, the opponents finally start trying to force me in spades, but it's too late. I allow them to take their two high trump individually, but I have just enough trump to retain control and scrape up a 10 IMP swing.
Better lucky than good
My favorite hand of the afternoon: third seat at all white I hold ♠J2 ♥KQJ7 ♦A8 ♣JT964. Jeff opens 2♦ and I raise to 3♦. LHO doubles, and RHO bids 3♥, which passes out. I lead the club jack, and dummy comes down with ♠AT9873 ♥T52 ♦J ♣KQ7. Huh. Declarer covers and Jeff wins his ace. He returns a small diamond to my ace, seemingly to ask for a ruff. I lead a small club, and the hapless declarer attempts actually to win a trick, Jeff ruffing dummy's remaining club honor and returning a trump, if I recall correctly. I think declarer ruffs a diamond and takes two spade tricks before trying to ruff a second diamond. I leap in with the jack of trumps, pause for a moment, and lead the king of trumps. At this point, somewhat oblivious, I feel really bad because Jeff shows up with a third trump, meaning that maybe we could have scored a second club ruff. With nothing else left to do, I draw another round of trump and start playing my clubs. Then I really start to feel bad, when it becomes apparent that declarer isn't choosing not to trump. We end up setting 3♥ down five, taking four hearts, a diamond, and four clubs. Somehow I psychically knew not to double, since they only go down one with psychic play in 3♠.
In the evening I actually tried playing with a partner other than Jeff, for perhaps the second time since moving to Austin. zml and I formed a team with Jeff and Jonobie for the Saturday evening team game, which occurs about every other week at some player's house. (Aside: these old people have really nice homes and make yummy treats.) We did not fare so well, losing to both other teams, 30-46 and 26-32. I had a good time, though. Hopefully I will take the opportunity to play with other partners more often.
Better lucky than good II
My favorite hand of the evening still involves a bit of luck, but was more rewarding. Sitting second seat at all white, I held ♠xx ♥AKTxxx ♦- ♣QJTxx and opened 1♥. Zach responded 2♦, and I rebid 2♥. He leaps to 3NT. Screw that, I pull to 4♣. Zach pulls to 4♦, and I, showing him who wears the daddy pants in this auction, pull back to 4♥. LHO leads a small diamond, and Zach tables: ♠QTx ♥x ♦AQJxxxx ♣A9. RHO covers my queen, and I ruff. I draw two rounds of trump, and the opponents are screwed once they both follow twice. I cross to the board with the ace of clubs and drop my losing spades on the two high diamonds. After I draw out the ace of clubs with the nine, the opponents finally start trying to force me in spades, but it's too late. I allow them to take their two high trump individually, but I have just enough trump to retain control and scrape up a 10 IMP swing.