In the second round of the Mini-Spingold, my team lost a very tight match to the eventual winners. Over the 56 boards, each of our 3 pairs had a couple of big oopsies and the Lewis team played just well enough to beat us on that day and went on to beat a few other good teams. Anyway, the last quarter against them was a fascinating set of boards. Sean described it as the most stressful round of bridge he played, and he didn't declare a hand until the last of the 14 boards. Let's go through the round now.
We started the final 14 boards down 98-84. On board 1, the opponents bid a lay down 6H with 20 opposite 12 hcp. On board 2, I had a 5 loser hand with semi-solid spades and got to 4SX, cold for 5. Win 6. The very next board, I picked up another 5 loser hand with 7 spades. This time, RHO opened 1NT, I overcalled 4S, and LHO refrained from doubling with a flat 7-count. Boards 4 and 5 were partscore deals in which we netted 1 imp. By now I thought we might have gotten back to basically a tie, but somehow our teammates missed the cold slam on board 1.
Board 6 was an interesting deal. Sean had a one-loser hand: -, AK, KQxx, AKQJxxx. Our auction: 1C-1S-2C-2D-5S-6D-7D-P. 1C was either a weak NT or any strong hand. 1S was natural, canapé-style. 2C was natural game forcing and denied 4+ spades. 2D showed longer diamonds than spades. 5S was unquestionably exclusion RKC. I don't know why I bid 6D, which theoretically shows 2 keycards, not counting anything in spades. My hand was 4-2-5-2 with my only high cards being the pointed aces. And Sean couldn't believe I didn't have the DA so bid 7 despite the ambiguity of 6D. Push.
Board 7 bothered me. I was declarer in 3NT after RHO had bid 1S, not raised by LHO.
Sean: -, KQJTx, AKxx, KQxx
Andre: KT8x, x, Qxxx, Axxx
LHO led the SQ, ducked to my K. If both minors split 3-2, I have 9 tricks. If not, I'll need some heart tricks. I couldn't afford to test the minors first because I needed them as an entry to the hearts later. I thought I likely had a 2nd spade stopper (or that west started with 3 spades in which case the suit will block) and it's unlikely that both minors would split so I led a heart. East won and played a low spade to my 8 and LHO's 9, then came the SJ and a spade to east's A and the 13th spade. Down 1. Yes, both minors were 3-2. Lose 12.
On board 9, my RHO David Sokolow attempted a squeeze in 5D with these cards after I, west, had preempted 2H over the 1D opening:
North: AKxx, Txxx, Qx, Txx
South: Tx, x, AKJTxx, AKxx
The defense started with 2 rounds of hearts and he played to squeeze Sean started with 4 spades and 4 clubs but there was no such squeeze rather than play for 3-3 clubs. After drawing trumps, he ducked a spade to Sean, won the club return and ran trumps, leaving and ending of S-AKx in dummy and S-x, C- xx. If Sean started with 4 of each black suit, he is squeezed as he would have to make declarer's little club good or allow dummy's little spade to take trick 13. It turns out neither play works because Sean was 6-2 in the black suits. Win 5.
The next few hands were uninteresting. Board 13, I held xx, Kxx, AQx, KTxxx and passed it out in 4th seat. Lose 3. On board 14, I did something that is usually not a good idea – I put an 8 card suit down in dummy. I raised partner's spade opening with 8xx, -, AJ9xxxxx, K9. The result (4S down 2) was duplicated at the other table.
On board 9, are you sure declarer ducked a spade? Ducking a club is way better, since you can break up any squeeze position by returning a spade. That's a pretty bad error.
ReplyDeleteDrawing trumps and ducking a CLUB will make the hand whenever Sean has at least three clubs--win the return, ruff a third heart just in case you've overcalled on five, come down to
Ax
T
-
-
x
-
T
x
If the club is good, claim. If RHO is guarding the clubs, cash the last trump for a double squeeze around spades. If he'd played it that way, he wouldn't have deserved to go down--but it would have been the same 5 IMPs.
No, I'm not sure. I knew it didnt feel quite right when i wrote this post but those are the hands I wrote down at the time. Damn KOs not having hand records. Maybe Sean remembers it better?
ReplyDeleteI do think that Patrick's line is the one he took; honestly I can't remember the line that well but that end position seems correct, and I do remember telling him that he played it quite well afterwards which I'm not sure I would have done if he'd followed Andre's fabricated line
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