The 'Burg - Day 4....Part 1 of 1
This is the entire synopsis of Thursday....not a bad day, but could have been better in the main-event KO...
Morning KOs - ROUND 2
And we’re off and running in the 2nd round of the morning event - we’re playing some familiar faces in the way of PC (did you read the Bermuda blog?) and his partner, the Flame. Their teammates are a couple of lovely ladies whom I have never met before. I am snaking it again. QP has to ‘kiss the Sky.’ (cue Mr. Hendrix)…
The first board out, I end up playing 3NT on this hand:
J1092
A1083
5
AKJ4
K53
742
AKQ1094
10
N - S
1C - 1D
1H - 1S!
2S - 3NT
! = 4SF
So, what do you do on the lead of the HQ (standard honor leads)? I wasn’t sure how to play this. But, I suppose LHO has five hearts. If that is the case, considering he is missing the 10, I am wondering if my RHO has a heart stack? I didn’t know what to do. I won the HA as RHO followed small. I played a diamond to my 9 which held. Now what? Looks like 6 diamonds, a heart, and 2 clubs - what is the problem?
Well, the DA fetches an encouraging spade pitch from LHO. Puke. I pitch a baby club.
I don’t know what to do! Ack. What do you do? I cashed the DK and LHO pitched a club…I pitched a spade from the dummy. This sucks. So, mentally, I place RHO with 2 hearts and 5 diamonds (that wasn’t really difficult…), and so 6 black suit cards. Who knows what they are…
A heart toward the 10 looks like it should be safe. So I do that, RHO wins the King, and plays the SQ - interesting. I cover, very cleverly, and LHO wins the Ace and plays a spade. So, now I have 2 spades, 1 heart, 3 diamonds, and 2 clubs. What do I do? I cash another spade as RHO pitches a club. So - do you have a claimer at this point? The answer is yes. What is the claim here? Interesting, and somehow it goes without asking because You don’t want to insult anyone, but you lose an IMP for your effort. Heheh - go figure.
A couple of hands later, you pick up:
109
10432
AQ42
QJ5
Your partner opens 1NT as the dealer. RHO bids 2D which is a transfer to hearts. What are your thoughts?
Snake and I play slow-shows Lebensohl. The question is, what do you like your hand? If you are wondering what the hell I am talking about, Lebensohl allows you to distinguish between having stopper and not having stoppers in what your opponents have been. It also lets you bid stayman with and without a stopper in the opponents’ suit(s). Is 10432 a stopper, or at least half-a-stopper?
There is an interesting point here. Would you overcall to show hearts with AKQJx and some other card? Probably not. You’d probably hope to beat 1NT, or better yet, beat 3NT doubled. If you believe in that logic, it follows that partner has a heart card, and therefore you DO have a heart stopper, combined.
Do you agree with that logic? It might be slightly flawed, but seems reasonable. At the same time, I don’t want to risk a disaster. So I bid 3NT, denying a heart stopper. Pard stands his ground…holding:
AQJ52
A75
107
A43
A pleasant surprise, I am sure, to find a ‘second’ heart stopper….i didn’t hear any complaints when I announced ‘a slow heart stopper’ and pard said - ten fourth? ☺. It’s nice to play with the Snake. He Da Man…
Anyway, 4 spades, 2 hearts, 1 diamond, and 2 clubs. Just in for 9 tricks. Win 13.
Moving right along…There is another hand that is terribly ugly for the opposition. You are holding:
K
KQ5
KJ94
Q10972
Pard passes, RHO opens 1S. They arrive in 4S after a 1NTF auction where RHO’s rebid was 2D. you lead HK which holds…partner flagging encouragement. Dummy was:
AQ4
J872
8765
K3
Do you have a chance at this? I think the answer is yes, obviously. You continue a heart as declarer ruffs. She now plays a spade toward dummy - the king drawing the ace. A diamond is led from the dummy, and partner plays a discouraging club….RHO wins the Ace…
Well, now you pretty much have the hand counted out - RHO is 5152. It’s possible that his black suits are 6-1…but since he has the ace, this seems unlikely as he as now lost access to the dummy. In the final analysis, declarer was 3 down when partner took the last three tricks with hearts…for some reason, declarer drew trumps and gave up a diamond.
Our teammates play 4S down 1 - declarer deliberately tapped himself again, and exited diamonds a few times - your hand played back a club, declarer played a diamond, etc…apparently the person holding your cards also misdefended a bit.
Well, we won this half by the total of 25, 46-21….second half, I get QP…There were a couple of interesting hands in this half…the first is an opening lead question. You hold:
J5
QJ4
J985
10952
N - S
--…..1D
1H…2NT
3C!...3H
3NT
You’re up! Playing perfectly, declarer will always make it, but it’s just possible to give her a huge headache in the meantime.
The other hand is a tough defense to 3C, but alas, I did not record all four hands, and so I cannot show you a pretty neat deal - darnit. Perhaps next time, I will be more diligent. So anyway, we won the second half by a boat load - 61-1. We’re in the semi finals tomorrow morning - WOO HOO! Talk to ya then!
Thu-Fri KOs, round 1
Well, starting yet another new KO. Flushed with success from the morning KO, hopefully we will carry that good luck and 85 IMP victory into the net match…that’d be the plan, anyway…
Usual lineup - Lars starts with Snake, ‘Sky with QP. Mars and I take the bench for the first half. We enter the second half of this match stuck 12. Not a big deal, really - and I don’t recall the exact details of the 12 imps, but I believe 11 of them were unlucky - a freak hand or something like that? I am not sure, but it seemed like the match was fairly even, I was told.
There are two boards that make all the difference in the second half. The first, you pickup a rock:
A8732
5
A
AQJ1084
Nice tickets, huh? You open 1C. LHO bids 1H. partner? Trots out 1S! RHO bids 2H. What is your call? Incidentally, there are a number of experts here, and without fail, each one bid exactly the same way with this hand. That means that it cant be a terribly difficult problem, right? It must be nice to know you’re always playing with an expert partner.
Finally, you have to defend a game, can you beat it? There is a key suit which, on defense, you must play correctly…so what is the right thing to do?
You have shown both majors in the bidding, and partner leads the 10 of spades. The dummy has the A4 of spades. You hold the K7532. What is your poison? The auction, if you care, was:
1D on your right, 2D by you, 3NT on your left.
These are the two boards upon which Mars and myself could have picked up a bunch of imps…on the two boards combined, we lost simply an opportunity - the first board with 5-6 in the blacks, we lost 11 IMPs. This second hand was a push. If we do NOT lose 11, OR we beat 3NT, we advance. Unlucky indeed. But, life goes on. We made up 9 IMPs…but it was not enough…So, we are going to play the swiss teams this evening. Mars is going to take the Swiss teams off, I will sit the first two matches, and play the last two.
Moving right along, Mars and I are continuing in the 2nd round of the D.H. KOs. Good luck to us! Keep posted for updates.
DH KOs, round 2
3rd board out of the box, I know I am going to have a tough set. I held:
AKQ4
863
872
QJ10
The auction went 1D-P-P to me. I balanced with 1NT, and it went all pass. Okay, no big deal. I am good….except, partner hits with:
9875
A942
10
AK87
I hear my LHO mumble something like: Do you have always have the perfect hand for takeout double? The answer to this question strikes me as odd - partner says, no, I just got lucky this time. Apparently, the auction actually was:
1D - DBL - Pass to me. Oh well. Make 1 for lose 3 imps - 4S is cold on the lie.
A few hands later, I picked up:
K42
Q
K876
K8752
The auction was interesting, you are south:
W…..N…..E…..S
--…..--…..1D…..P
1S…2H…2D…2H
(all pass)
Would you bid 2H? seemed reasonable to me. Hell, I might have done something else with a slightly better hand - like the queen doubleton of trumps, for instance.
Anyway, I thought that was cute - +200 when pard made 5 - win 4 IMPs.
There is another hand where you overbid by about a King, and give partner a tough play problem. 3NT by East after west showed a game force with both majors and the opponents were silent:
A9876……….42
KQ1093……..87
A3……………..J942
A……………….KQ753
The opening lead is a club. What are your thoughts?
And so that was essentially it from the dinner bells - we won the match 41-17. This is a mixed blessing - it means we MUST play the next two nights - since we’re guaranteed to be in the top four.
Thu Eve Swiss
We are Mars-less this evening. First two matches I sat out, we won both of them by exactly 1 IMP. 3rd match, I step in to play with Snake. I have a few wobbly pops in me at this point, so perhaps I had five or six suits on some hands, but whatever, it’s all good….
The first board out of the box, our opponents miss a game….and our teammates, as it turns out later, collected 800 on the hand. So that was win 12. Unfortunately, that was all the imps we won…while the opponents picked up 17, 11 of them when I held:
K82
K732
862
J108
I heard my LHO open 1S. Pard bids 2H. RHO passes. I couldn’t resist bidding 3H. Pard was down 1 in four hearts - apparently we can make a game, just not that one…or perhaps our teammates misdefended, or perhaps, but FAR LESS LIKELY pard misdeclared…who knows…
We lost four imps when I bid a game holding:
Q953
7
AKJ72
987
Snake opened 1C. RHO doubled as I bid 1S. I was raised to 2S, and so I shot out a game. Alas, it does not make…we were -50. Teammates were -100 declaring their partscore…so it goes…
So, win by 1, win by 1, lose by 6. There is another match to go…and I get QP. We lose 13 IMPs on two hands - 6 on one, 7 on the other…In the first case, our teammates bid a game and went down….while our opps stopped in a part score. That sucked. On the second…our opps bid a game and teammates didn’t. Both times, teammates were in the best spot…and we lost 13 IMPs.
Then, I picked up a brickhouse..
KQ10762
AK106
A7
A
IS - 1NTF
3H - 4S
Do you move? You tell me…then I’ll tell you what I did. I will tell you this, however. We lost this match also. Dang!
This is the end of Gatlinburg, Day 4. If you’re keeping score at home:
We’re at least in the semi-finals of the morning KOs. I am proud of the accomplishment there, for sure. It’d be nice to make the finals and give ‘Sky something to smile about….to this point, it seems that he is both level headed and understanding, but I am told that is not normally the case….as many people have mentioned this…there is at least a half-truth to it, if not more.
Morning KOs - ROUND 2
And we’re off and running in the 2nd round of the morning event - we’re playing some familiar faces in the way of PC (did you read the Bermuda blog?) and his partner, the Flame. Their teammates are a couple of lovely ladies whom I have never met before. I am snaking it again. QP has to ‘kiss the Sky.’ (cue Mr. Hendrix)…
The first board out, I end up playing 3NT on this hand:
J1092
A1083
5
AKJ4
K53
742
AKQ1094
10
N - S
1C - 1D
1H - 1S!
2S - 3NT
! = 4SF
So, what do you do on the lead of the HQ (standard honor leads)? I wasn’t sure how to play this. But, I suppose LHO has five hearts. If that is the case, considering he is missing the 10, I am wondering if my RHO has a heart stack? I didn’t know what to do. I won the HA as RHO followed small. I played a diamond to my 9 which held. Now what? Looks like 6 diamonds, a heart, and 2 clubs - what is the problem?
Well, the DA fetches an encouraging spade pitch from LHO. Puke. I pitch a baby club.
I don’t know what to do! Ack. What do you do? I cashed the DK and LHO pitched a club…I pitched a spade from the dummy. This sucks. So, mentally, I place RHO with 2 hearts and 5 diamonds (that wasn’t really difficult…), and so 6 black suit cards. Who knows what they are…
A heart toward the 10 looks like it should be safe. So I do that, RHO wins the King, and plays the SQ - interesting. I cover, very cleverly, and LHO wins the Ace and plays a spade. So, now I have 2 spades, 1 heart, 3 diamonds, and 2 clubs. What do I do? I cash another spade as RHO pitches a club. So - do you have a claimer at this point? The answer is yes. What is the claim here? Interesting, and somehow it goes without asking because You don’t want to insult anyone, but you lose an IMP for your effort. Heheh - go figure.
A couple of hands later, you pick up:
109
10432
AQ42
QJ5
Your partner opens 1NT as the dealer. RHO bids 2D which is a transfer to hearts. What are your thoughts?
Snake and I play slow-shows Lebensohl. The question is, what do you like your hand? If you are wondering what the hell I am talking about, Lebensohl allows you to distinguish between having stopper and not having stoppers in what your opponents have been. It also lets you bid stayman with and without a stopper in the opponents’ suit(s). Is 10432 a stopper, or at least half-a-stopper?
There is an interesting point here. Would you overcall to show hearts with AKQJx and some other card? Probably not. You’d probably hope to beat 1NT, or better yet, beat 3NT doubled. If you believe in that logic, it follows that partner has a heart card, and therefore you DO have a heart stopper, combined.
Do you agree with that logic? It might be slightly flawed, but seems reasonable. At the same time, I don’t want to risk a disaster. So I bid 3NT, denying a heart stopper. Pard stands his ground…holding:
AQJ52
A75
107
A43
A pleasant surprise, I am sure, to find a ‘second’ heart stopper….i didn’t hear any complaints when I announced ‘a slow heart stopper’ and pard said - ten fourth? ☺. It’s nice to play with the Snake. He Da Man…
Anyway, 4 spades, 2 hearts, 1 diamond, and 2 clubs. Just in for 9 tricks. Win 13.
Moving right along…There is another hand that is terribly ugly for the opposition. You are holding:
K
KQ5
KJ94
Q10972
Pard passes, RHO opens 1S. They arrive in 4S after a 1NTF auction where RHO’s rebid was 2D. you lead HK which holds…partner flagging encouragement. Dummy was:
AQ4
J872
8765
K3
Do you have a chance at this? I think the answer is yes, obviously. You continue a heart as declarer ruffs. She now plays a spade toward dummy - the king drawing the ace. A diamond is led from the dummy, and partner plays a discouraging club….RHO wins the Ace…
Well, now you pretty much have the hand counted out - RHO is 5152. It’s possible that his black suits are 6-1…but since he has the ace, this seems unlikely as he as now lost access to the dummy. In the final analysis, declarer was 3 down when partner took the last three tricks with hearts…for some reason, declarer drew trumps and gave up a diamond.
Our teammates play 4S down 1 - declarer deliberately tapped himself again, and exited diamonds a few times - your hand played back a club, declarer played a diamond, etc…apparently the person holding your cards also misdefended a bit.
Well, we won this half by the total of 25, 46-21….second half, I get QP…There were a couple of interesting hands in this half…the first is an opening lead question. You hold:
J5
QJ4
J985
10952
N - S
--…..1D
1H…2NT
3C!...3H
3NT
You’re up! Playing perfectly, declarer will always make it, but it’s just possible to give her a huge headache in the meantime.
The other hand is a tough defense to 3C, but alas, I did not record all four hands, and so I cannot show you a pretty neat deal - darnit. Perhaps next time, I will be more diligent. So anyway, we won the second half by a boat load - 61-1. We’re in the semi finals tomorrow morning - WOO HOO! Talk to ya then!
Thu-Fri KOs, round 1
Well, starting yet another new KO. Flushed with success from the morning KO, hopefully we will carry that good luck and 85 IMP victory into the net match…that’d be the plan, anyway…
Usual lineup - Lars starts with Snake, ‘Sky with QP. Mars and I take the bench for the first half. We enter the second half of this match stuck 12. Not a big deal, really - and I don’t recall the exact details of the 12 imps, but I believe 11 of them were unlucky - a freak hand or something like that? I am not sure, but it seemed like the match was fairly even, I was told.
There are two boards that make all the difference in the second half. The first, you pickup a rock:
A8732
5
A
AQJ1084
Nice tickets, huh? You open 1C. LHO bids 1H. partner? Trots out 1S! RHO bids 2H. What is your call? Incidentally, there are a number of experts here, and without fail, each one bid exactly the same way with this hand. That means that it cant be a terribly difficult problem, right? It must be nice to know you’re always playing with an expert partner.
Finally, you have to defend a game, can you beat it? There is a key suit which, on defense, you must play correctly…so what is the right thing to do?
You have shown both majors in the bidding, and partner leads the 10 of spades. The dummy has the A4 of spades. You hold the K7532. What is your poison? The auction, if you care, was:
1D on your right, 2D by you, 3NT on your left.
These are the two boards upon which Mars and myself could have picked up a bunch of imps…on the two boards combined, we lost simply an opportunity - the first board with 5-6 in the blacks, we lost 11 IMPs. This second hand was a push. If we do NOT lose 11, OR we beat 3NT, we advance. Unlucky indeed. But, life goes on. We made up 9 IMPs…but it was not enough…So, we are going to play the swiss teams this evening. Mars is going to take the Swiss teams off, I will sit the first two matches, and play the last two.
Moving right along, Mars and I are continuing in the 2nd round of the D.H. KOs. Good luck to us! Keep posted for updates.
DH KOs, round 2
3rd board out of the box, I know I am going to have a tough set. I held:
AKQ4
863
872
QJ10
The auction went 1D-P-P to me. I balanced with 1NT, and it went all pass. Okay, no big deal. I am good….except, partner hits with:
9875
A942
10
AK87
I hear my LHO mumble something like: Do you have always have the perfect hand for takeout double? The answer to this question strikes me as odd - partner says, no, I just got lucky this time. Apparently, the auction actually was:
1D - DBL - Pass to me. Oh well. Make 1 for lose 3 imps - 4S is cold on the lie.
A few hands later, I picked up:
K42
Q
K876
K8752
The auction was interesting, you are south:
W…..N…..E…..S
--…..--…..1D…..P
1S…2H…2D…2H
(all pass)
Would you bid 2H? seemed reasonable to me. Hell, I might have done something else with a slightly better hand - like the queen doubleton of trumps, for instance.
Anyway, I thought that was cute - +200 when pard made 5 - win 4 IMPs.
There is another hand where you overbid by about a King, and give partner a tough play problem. 3NT by East after west showed a game force with both majors and the opponents were silent:
A9876……….42
KQ1093……..87
A3……………..J942
A……………….KQ753
The opening lead is a club. What are your thoughts?
And so that was essentially it from the dinner bells - we won the match 41-17. This is a mixed blessing - it means we MUST play the next two nights - since we’re guaranteed to be in the top four.
Thu Eve Swiss
We are Mars-less this evening. First two matches I sat out, we won both of them by exactly 1 IMP. 3rd match, I step in to play with Snake. I have a few wobbly pops in me at this point, so perhaps I had five or six suits on some hands, but whatever, it’s all good….
The first board out of the box, our opponents miss a game….and our teammates, as it turns out later, collected 800 on the hand. So that was win 12. Unfortunately, that was all the imps we won…while the opponents picked up 17, 11 of them when I held:
K82
K732
862
J108
I heard my LHO open 1S. Pard bids 2H. RHO passes. I couldn’t resist bidding 3H. Pard was down 1 in four hearts - apparently we can make a game, just not that one…or perhaps our teammates misdefended, or perhaps, but FAR LESS LIKELY pard misdeclared…who knows…
We lost four imps when I bid a game holding:
Q953
7
AKJ72
987
Snake opened 1C. RHO doubled as I bid 1S. I was raised to 2S, and so I shot out a game. Alas, it does not make…we were -50. Teammates were -100 declaring their partscore…so it goes…
So, win by 1, win by 1, lose by 6. There is another match to go…and I get QP. We lose 13 IMPs on two hands - 6 on one, 7 on the other…In the first case, our teammates bid a game and went down….while our opps stopped in a part score. That sucked. On the second…our opps bid a game and teammates didn’t. Both times, teammates were in the best spot…and we lost 13 IMPs.
Then, I picked up a brickhouse..
KQ10762
AK106
A7
A
IS - 1NTF
3H - 4S
Do you move? You tell me…then I’ll tell you what I did. I will tell you this, however. We lost this match also. Dang!
This is the end of Gatlinburg, Day 4. If you’re keeping score at home:
We’re at least in the semi-finals of the morning KOs. I am proud of the accomplishment there, for sure. It’d be nice to make the finals and give ‘Sky something to smile about….to this point, it seems that he is both level headed and understanding, but I am told that is not normally the case….as many people have mentioned this…there is at least a half-truth to it, if not more.