8 Ever, 9 Never - LM Pairs Semi-Final

If I blindly followed the 8 ever 9 never rule, I would have never gone down 7, and would have almost certainly made the third day of the LM pairs, and wouldn't have this cool story about how my play from dummy at trick 3 was a 7 trick swing. If you pay attention to me on Facebook, you've probably already seen this.

At favorable vulnerability against Hampson and Greco, I picked up
ATx, AJxxx, QJxx, Kx.
It went P-3S to me. Pass I think is the correct call here (and I even thought so at the time) but I bid 3NT anyway. In dummy I found
xx, KTxx, Axxx, Jx.

We have a heart fit but 4H is still almost sure to go down while 3NT can make. If I pick up hearts for no losers and diamonds split with the K onside there are 9 easy tricks and even if LHO has 4 diamonds, it will become a fairly easy endplay with Hampson having to give me a club at the end. So after the S9 lead, I pondered at trick 1 for a minute or so before playing both major suit aces and then a heart to the ten. Greco took his Q and 6 spades and Hampson then ran his clubs for down 7 and -350.

Since I'm going to need the DK onside anyway to make, it is probably better to work on that suit first. I would find that the preemptor had a singleton diamond and then I would be much better positioned to get hearts right. -350 was worth 1.5 matchpoints while +400 would have been 86 on a 90 top.

Against the other top seed we played on Saturday (Bob Hamman and Justin Lall), they bid aggressively and went down a couple in a bad 4H contract and then I picked off their spade fit by overcalling with a 12 count and 4 decent spades instead of passing or doubling. That got us -430 instead of -450 and another good score but not enough to overcome all of the less than stellar things we did.

Philadelphia is a very nice city and I would like to have stayed longer but I have used enough vacation this summer and I don't think I could handle the 10 and 3 start times much longer.

DC regional

I am on the way back home from the Washington DC regional where Sean and I won 43 points or so in 14 sessions: placed overall in every event except the KO we entered with Mike Cappelletti and Loretta (lost by 2 in 2nd round).

Having the dog on the long trip was a delight, the house we rented 1 mile from the tournament was great (and cheap), the bridge was interesting, but the drive is too long.

Here is the most hilarious deal I've seen in awhile. I was west in 1st seat all vul. Our auction: P-2D-P-3NT-all pass. I hold A, KQTx, Jxxxx, xxx so I lead HK, dummy (north) has xxxx, Jxx, KQxxxx, void. Declarer cashes 7 clubs and on about the 5th one I realize I need to ditch the ace so I don't get endplayed easily. Shortly thereafter, p realizes this but has already pitched his low diamond, which would have been the diamond threat card in the dummy squeeze. Declarer's hand: QTxxx, A, void, AKQxxxx. Wows.

At Mikey's table, west opens a precision 1D, Mike finds a 1S overcall and Loretta with a 2 loser hand and Q fifth in partner's suit manages to bid 5S, which gets doubled. Trumps come in due 2 losers and we win 6. Crazy.

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