BAM BAM

Only recently did I notice that the ACBL masterpoint formula awards a 10% premium for board-a-match events. Yesterday we ran a BAM at the Warner Robins club with a respectable 7 tables and it awarded 1.29 MP per player for the 100% sectionally-rated game. One should not be able to win such an obscene number of points (3.12) for 1^st out of 7 at a club. You’d have to be 1^st out of 17 in a sectonally-rated pair game or 1^st out of 9 in a sectional Swiss game to get that many points (1^st in a 9 table MP or Swiss game is worth 3.17).

There are no match awards for BAM so that takes away a little bit of the bonus that BAM gets compared to Swiss but this still ought to be a good argument for making more team games BAM. If I ever get to be in charge of a tournament schedule, there will definitely be some main events that are BAM, specifically the Sunday event will be flight A BAM and flight B Swiss, but I’ve mentioned that several times before.

There were a number of interesting deals last night. I was put to the test in the first round in this not-so-great 3C contract.

 Jxx

8xxx

xxxx

Ax

Tx

AQ9x

Qx

KJ9xx

The bidding is crucial here, although if I paid no attention to the bidding, I would have surely gone down 1 by simply taking the finesses and cashing winners. However, the fact that RHO doubled after 1C-P-1D and LHO bid 2S directly over my 1NT rebid led me down a very wrong path. Yes, I have a crappy 1NT rebid but it’s BAM and I can sometimes be a hand hog. Anyway, when 2S came back to me, I competed to 3C and got it there.

LHO led the HJ which I took with the Q. That looks a lot like a singleton. I then played a club to the ace, RHO dropped the T, then played low on the second club. This made it appear that she had a doubleton (consistent with the bidding) so I went up with the K and led another club. It seems pretty likely at this point that RHO started with something like Kxxx, KTxx, AKx, xx so taking a losing club finesse would expose myself to 2 heart ruffs plus the natural trump trick. As it turns out, QTx was on my right. She then cashed the SA, DAK, and led the DJ. So, RHO is 3-3 in the minors. Which major does she have 4 of? If I figure this out, I can still escape for -2 and win the board against a likely 2S making at the other table.

RHO could have started with Axx, KTxx, AKJ, Qxx. That gives LHO KQxxx, J, Txxx, xxx.

If RHO started with Axxx, Kxx, AKJ, Qxx, that gives LHO KQxx, Jx, Txxx, xxx.

Of course, what if RHO has no 4 card major? Axx, Kxx, AKJx, Qxx. That gives LHO KQxxx, Jx, Txx, xxx

The first one is definitely more likely so after ruffing the 3^rd round of diamonds, I prepared to endplay RHO by leading a spade, expecting LHO to win and continue spades. I could ruff that with my last trump and lead a heart to the 8. RHO would win that but have to lead a heart into my A9 tenace. I would come to 4 club tricks and 3 hearts for -2.

As it turns out, RHO had the 3^rd hand (and therefore an abnormal double), so when I led the heart toward dummy. LHO won the HT and cashed 2 spades for -4. Sure enough, the teammates were in 2S making so -2 would have been enough to win the board. FML.