I'm wide awake and full of energy now that it's down to 7 hours before I have to be up again, so I might as well write a little. Earlier tonight, I was so tired tonight that I almost canceled on Bob for the ST@C game in Macon but I went anyway. I was seriously nodding off at some points during the game tonight. By the end, Bob and I had a 73.8% game with no score worse than 2.5 on a 6 top. The field was clearly very unbalanced. Out of 15 pairs, there were more scores in the 30's (3) and 60's (3) than in the 50's (1). First in C was 38.74% for .70MP. Strange.
Red vs. white, I picked up:
T86
Txx
Q9x
Kxxx
Two passes to me and I open 1S. The auction continues: X - 2D(1) - P - 2S - all pass
(1) reverse drury (limit raise w/4)
Before dummy comes down, LHO says something to the effect of you're not getting another top against us (after 2 tops in the round already). I remark that I'm pretty sure this will be pretty much a top for us. I was serious, she was totally kidding. Dummy hits:
KJ7x
K9xx
Kxxx
x
I struggled a bit and wound up down 1 for 5 out of 6. Someone was only +80 their way.
Here's an interesting play problem: 4S by south, uncontested auction
AQ
AJTxx
x
QJT9x
KT8xx
Qx
Axx
8x
What's your best chance to make on the DQ lead? It may actually be a better defensive problem, though. I dunno.
It looks right to win the first diamond and run the QH. If it loses we are basically dead, but even if it wins I'm not all that enthused. If hearts are 3-3 with the K onside (yeah right), then I pitch a club on the third one, play AQ of trumps, and pitch a diamond or a club on the fourth heart (unless East ruffs with the jack, of course). Losing two minor-suit tricks and a trump.
ReplyDeleteIf East pitches on the third heart (perhaps viewing his Jxxx of trumps as a natural trump trick), you can pitch a club, play AQ of trumps, ruff the fourth heart, and exit in the minors, hoping to score your KT of trumps at the end.
If East ruffs the third heart (low), it looks pretty grim. The best I can do is overruff, diamond ruff, heart ruff, diamond ruff--and now we are left with KT8 or KTx of trumps in hand and need all three of them to score. The defenders might go wrong...
Wait wait--I figured out why this hand was giving me so many issues. The South hand has only twelve cards! So the above analysis doesn't make too much sense. Presumably South has an extra minor-suit loser, maybe a fourth diamond?
ReplyDeleteThere's a 6th spade ;)
ReplyDelete