[Cyberyeti]

Hand 1:

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1N is 12-14
4♣ is roman Gerber
5♣ is 2 aces, ♣/♥ or ♦/♠

Your lead.

Hand 2:

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S passes, W opens 1♠, N bids 2♦, take the auction from here.

We reached 6♠ having seriously considered 7. N leads the 2♥, 4th highest, lowest from 3 whether from an honour or not, plan the play, if at any point you lead the K♦ it will be covered with the A.

Hand 3:

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Dealer E, EW vul - You opt to pass, auction proceeds 1♠-P-P, pass or 2♦?

We failed to qualify for a national final by one place, these hands could have helped. Remember all problems are matchpoints.

[hrothgar]

On the first hand, I'm going passive and leading the Jack of Clubs.

I'm very worried that anything else is going to give the opponents a free finesse...

[FrancesHinden]

It's difficult to comment on the first board because I know the hand.

On the second I would play the 10 of heart from dummy. When RHO doesn't play the jack, I know the lead is from length and they are 4-2 or 3-3. It's a slightly odd lead, but you didn't give the auction.
Win the heart in hand. Ace of clubs and a ruff. Trump to dummy. Club ruff. If they break 4-3, trump to dummy, club ruff (with the queen), DK-Ace-ruff, winning club, claiming 12 tricks when spades didn't break. This is one possible line. There are others. I'm not worried about overtricks given the standard of the field.

If an honour came down on the second round of clubs from either hand I would draw trumps (assuming in 3 rounds) ending in dummy and take a ruffing club finesse/concede a club, losing to KQx on my left but making the contract. I don't think that LHO has KQxxx in clubs.

ON the last I would have opened 1D.

[655321]

Cyberyeti, on 2011-March-21, 11:21, said:

Hand 3:
Dealer E, EW vul - You opt to pass, auction proceeds 1♠-P-P, pass or 2♦?

If I have take over the bidding for the person who passed, naturally I bid 1NT now and don't consider pass or 2♦.

Cyberyeti, on 2011-March-21, 11:21, said:

We failed to qualify for a national final by one place

FrancesHinden, on 2011-March-21, 14:58, said:

I'm not worried about overtricks given the standard of the field.

This made me laugh.

[FrancesHinden]

655321, on 2011-March-21, 15:43, said:

This made me laugh.

Sorry, that didn't come out terribly well.
In Cyberyeti's heat: making 6S = 68%, making 6S+1 = 91%, going off in 6S = 8% (+/- a bit because we may be changing the matchpoints by taking a different line to his)

Also, I know the hands that the opponents have for their bidding on the first two of these and it isn't exactly what you would call world class stuff.

[Cyberyeti]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-March-21, 14:58, said:

It's difficult to comment on the first board because I know the hand.

On the second I would play the 10 of heart from dummy. When RHO doesn't play the jack, I know the lead is from length and they are 4-2 or 3-3. It's a slightly odd lead, but you didn't give the auction.
Win the heart in hand. Ace of clubs and a ruff. Trump to dummy. Club ruff. If they break 4-3, trump to dummy, club ruff (with the queen), DK-Ace-ruff, winning club, claiming 12 tricks when spades didn't break. This is one possible line. There are others. I'm not worried about overtricks given the standard of the field.

If an honour came down on the second round of clubs from either hand I would draw trumps (assuming in 3 rounds) ending in dummy and take a ruffing club finesse/concede a club, losing to KQx on my left but making the contract. I don't think that LHO has KQxxx in clubs.

ON the last I would have opened 1D.

Yes the first is difficult, you can in that case guess what I did, didn't realise they used the same hands at all venues.

On the second I did as you suggested at trick 1, no J♥, won the Q♥, K♦-A-ruff, ♥ to K, ♦ ruff, ♠AK finding 3 on my right, and I can now play for ♥3-3 and make the overtrick, but risk going off if the lead is from Jxxx, or just play A♣ and a ruff and claim 12. That was the decision I had left.

On the third, 1♦ wasn't an option, we open weakish balanced hands 1N, never one of a suit so the option was pass or a 12-14 1N. We also got unlucky, in the we met the one man in the world that plays 1♠-P-P-2♦-X for penalties, and he had a 5251 17 count, his partner found the pass with a 2515 queen and 2 jacks and this dialled 500.

The other interesting hand we actually scored well on.

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Your bid, your method is that immediate X shows clubs. It's not clear what 1N-2C-P-2M-P-P-X would be.

[FrancesHinden]

Cyberyeti, on 2011-March-21, 16:52, said:

wasn't an option, we open weakish balanced hands 1N, never one of a suit so the option was pass or a 12-14 1N. We also got unlucky, in the we met the one man in the world that plays 1♠-P-P-2♦-X for penalties, and he had a 5251 17 count, his partner found the pass with a 2515 queen and 2 jacks and this dialled 500.

OK, I'd have opened it 1NT (and that is knowing what the consequences would be, which aren't pleasant).

They don't need to be playing that double as penalties, we got 500 on the auction
1S P P 2D
P P x all pass

[Cyberyeti]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-March-22, 16:20, said:

OK, I'd have opened it 1NT (and that is knowing what the consequences would be, which aren't pleasant).

They don't need to be playing that double as penalties, we got 500 on the auction
1S P P 2D
P P x all pass

Your partner is one brave man, it's entirely possible that the (passed hand) 2♦ bidder has an 11 count and his partner has 12 (knowing he's opposite a passed hand), exchange dummy's small spade and the doubler's ace and how do you fancy this now ?

Also isn't 1Nx maybe only 200 ? not great, but better than we got, although we couldn't get that as we play a forced XX so would get in bigger trouble than that.

The actual hands are:

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For the benefit of people who didn't play in this event.

On the first hand, I led the J♣, dummy has AKQxx, and declarer the other 4, so 6N which is cold on a non 4-0 club break was going off until I led that.

On the second I wimped out and cashed out for 12. I haven't calculated the fractions of a matchpoint that would indicate whether we'd have qualified if I'd had the courage of my convictions and made the overtrick by playing for hearts 3-3 (we played less boards than the pair immediately above, and it would be very close).

[wank]

on b3 i'd have opened 1nt and don't consider it a problem. given that i failed to open it in the first place, to fail to bid it the second time is silly, to fail to consider it is absurd.

[OleBerg]

@Board 3:

Whether to pass or open 1NT, or an off-beat 1♦, is a close call.

Having passed, I wouldn't consider passing 1♠ a logical alternative.

The same goes for passing 2♦ in the pass-out seat; not a logical alternative. You don't double hoping partner can pass. You double to let partner choose which strain to compete in. And it is obvious you should compete. Partners pass is a fringe benefit.

[Cyberyeti]

OleBerg, on 2011-March-23, 00:28, said:

@Board 3:

Whether to pass or open 1NT, or an off-beat 1♦, is a close call.

Having passed, I wouldn't consider passing 1♠ a logical alternative.

The same goes for passing 2♦ in the pass-out seat; not a logical alternative. You don't double hoping partner can pass. You double to let partner choose which strain to compete in. And it is obvious you should compete. Partners pass is a fringe benefit.

Given the lack of interest and thus probable lack of a diamond fit from the partner of the 2♦ bidder (who almost certainly only has 5 from lack of a weak 2 or 1♦ opener which he'd do with 6, the only exception being a hand with 6 not good enough to open 1♦ containing 2 aces), I would suggest 5242 or 5(1)5(2) is a pretty likely shape for the 1♠ opener who really must have 4+ diamonds, thus you're gambling on partner having a good hand by doubling on the weak hand.

[FrancesHinden]

Cyberyeti, on 2011-March-22, 18:36, said:

Your partner is one brave man, it's entirely possible that the (passed hand) 2♦ bidder has an 11 count and his partner has 12 (knowing he's opposite a passed hand), exchange dummy's small spade and the doubler's ace and how do you fancy this now ?

My partner? I was the doubler. I agree with OleBerg, double seemed obvious and the pass was an unexpected bonus.

[Cyberyeti]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-March-23, 15:28, said:

My partner? I was the doubler. I agree with OleBerg, double seemed obvious and the pass was an unexpected bonus.

You may not have the same inferences available at our table, would you still double if partner was pretty much certain to hold at least 4 diamonds ? Even if partner is 5143, can you get into clubs ?

[FrancesHinden]

I'll play in 2S opposite a 5143. I'm not sure what you mean by 'different inferences', all I know is that LHO passed on the first round then bid 2D and RHO didn't raise. I agree it's quite likely that partner has four diamonds - so what? If partner is 5341 he'll bid 2H, maybe we'll get to defend 3D. Maybe partner has 6 spades. Maybe he has 4 clubs.

I made 3 "dodgy" protections during the 48 boards that day ("dodgy" in that they had the potential to go horribly wrong), this one generated a 100% board from a 60%, one other turned about a 30% to a 70% one and the last turned an average minus into a zero when the doubling started. Overall we came out very much ahead.

[dburn]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-March-21, 14:58, said:

It's difficult to comment on the first board because I know the hand.

I don't, but it would not surprise me to learn that a club was the only lead to give the contract. Maybe we should have been playing anti-lead-directing doubles of Gerber, so that partner would have doubled with his low singleton (or his void) and I could have avoided this blunder. Of course, this method might lead to defending four clubs redoubled on some hands where we would rather not do that...

FrancesHinden, on 2011-March-21, 14:58, said:

On the second I would play the 10 of heart from dummy. When RHO doesn't play the jack, I know the lead is from length

Christopher Columbus - what was this event? One in which RHO would play the jack from jack third, in case partner had led low against a slam from king-queen fourth?

FrancesHinden, on 2011-March-21, 14:58, said:

On the last I would have opened 1D.

Oh, I see. That kind of event.

[bluecalm]

Quote

Christopher Columbus - what was this event? One in which RHO would play the jack from jack third, in case partner had led low against a slam from king-queen fourth?

What about lead from Qxxx ? (then declarer has AKx)

[Cyberyeti]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-March-25, 16:46, said:

I'll play in 2S opposite a 5143. I'm not sure what you mean by 'different inferences', all I know is that LHO passed on the first round then bid 2D and RHO didn't raise. I agree it's quite likely that partner has four diamonds - so what? If partner is 5341 he'll bid 2H, maybe we'll get to defend 3D. Maybe partner has 6 spades. Maybe he has 4 clubs.

What I meant by the different inferences would be that it would be realtively easy to check whether opponents played a weak 2♦ with no gap between 2♦ and 1♦ openers. If so, partner is pretty much 100% for 4 diamonds. If no weak 2 is played, I think there's more to be gained by the protection, partner may only have 3 diamonds, guaranteeing you a fit. Most partners of mine would bid 2♠ with 6 (and a non minimum opener as is guaranteed here) a lot of the time, so I wouldn't really consider that possibility.

[Cyberyeti]

dburn, on 2011-March-25, 21:41, said:

Christopher Columbus - what was this event? One in which RHO would play the jack from jack third, in case partner had led low against a slam from king-queen fourth?

National pairs regional final so pretty random.

And it appears somebody who qualified didn't want to play, have just received invite to final