[kfay]

Scoring: MP

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What's the par auction here?

Guesses on the final contract at the table?

[awm]

Probably a normal start is something like:

1♣ - 4♥ - 5♦ - 5♥
6♦ - Pass - Pass

At this point it is very tempting for west to double. Of course, his correct (double dummy) action is to bid 6♥, but looking at his hand it is hard to believe that 6♦ is making and also seems fairly unlikely that 6♥ makes.

If west does bid 6♥, then north or south needs to take a sacrifice in 7♦. But this is also tough, north (with two aces) is hardly going to sacrifice over a slam and in fact will probably double. South might consider sacrificing if north doesn't double, but that also is a very dubious action.

The play in 6♦ on a club lead is also mildly interesting, as in order to make south must duck the trick. This is definitely the right (single-dummy) play, but one a lot of players would miss at the table.

[Apollo81]

Adam didn't see that West was dealer I guess.

1♣-p-1♥-4♦ is a normal start. After that I could see it going a number of ways. -4♥-7♦-7♥ is possible. I sorta like the 7♦ bid in tempo because you might make or the opps might sacrifice since they're at fav.

If it starts 1♣-p-4♥-5♦, West will bid 5♥, North might bid 7♦ as above or might bid 6 and then double 6♥.

I'd say 6♥x is certainly the lowest possible contract, I bet this will happen about half the time.

[pclayton]

West is dealer Adam.

Is there really such a thing as a 'par auction'?

I think a reasonable auction is:

1♣ - pass - 4♥ - 5♦
5♥ - 6♦ - 6♥...

From here on, it's anybody's guess, but I can see NS selling out to 6♥. North has some defense and South has quite a few losers to make 7♦ unattractive.

I suppose the 'par' play is to duck the ♣K lead in 6♦.

[kfay]

pclayton, on Apr 8 2008, 11:37 AM, said:

I think a reasonable auction is:

1♣ - pass - 4♥ - 5♦
5♥ - 6♦ - 6♥...

Ding ding ding ding ding!!!

Sitting west I redoubled (north's double). They definitely thought about moving on, though. The redouble was necessary to get a top.

[ArtK78]

kfay, on Apr 8 2008, 11:46 AM, said:

pclayton, on Apr 8 2008, 11:37 AM, said:

I think a reasonable auction is:

1♣ - pass - 4♥ - 5♦
5♥ - 6♦ - 6♥...

Ding ding ding ding ding!!!

Sitting west I redoubled (north's double). They definitely thought about moving on, though. The redouble was necessary to get a top.

Forgive me for being blunt, but the redouble is sheer lunacy.

Why not take 80%+ of the matchpoints you already have instead of risking it by giving the opponents another chance to bid 7♦?

Only if you KNOW that the opponents will sit for 6♥xx is the redouble the right call. And I do not see how you can possibly know this.

(Caveat: If you KNOW that 7♥ is cold and you are willing to bid it over 7♦, then the redouble is just fine).

[kfay]

ArtK78, on Apr 8 2008, 12:33 PM, said:

kfay, on Apr 8 2008, 11:46 AM, said:

pclayton, on Apr 8 2008, 11:37 AM, said:

I think a reasonable auction is:

1♣ - pass - 4♥ - 5♦
5♥ - 6♦ - 6♥...

Ding ding ding ding ding!!!

Sitting west I redoubled (north's double). They definitely thought about moving on, though. The redouble was necessary to get a top.

Forgive me for being blunt, but the redouble is sheer lunacy.

Why not take 80%+ of the matchpoints you already have instead of risking it by giving the opponents another chance to bid 7♦?

Only if you KNOW that the opponents will sit for 6♥xx is the redouble the right call. And I do not see how you can possibly know this.

(Caveat: If you KNOW that 7♥ is cold and you are willing to bid it over 7♦, then the redouble is just fine).

I realize all of this in hindsight but at the time it sure looked like they were taking a vulnerable sacrifice over our game and I wasn't prepared to believe that they were going to sac 7♦ vul over our slam.

I had some doubt that 6♥ was even going to make so it already looked like we were getting a 0 for not taking the + of 6♦X.

This was the last board of a tournament riddled with 0's for us so I gave it a bit of a 'what the heck.'