System wins and losses

My tournament in Gatlinburg started out badly for me. In the first six boards of our KO match Friday afternoon, I managed to go down in 3 makable games - not double dummy makable but legitimately makable. We won that match and the next one by huge margins and it's hard to find a clear error on my part after that but we only won 6th in the bam and 1 out of 2 in a compact KO.

Anyway, Friday night I picked up ♠AQ8xx ♥9 ♦KQxxx ♣xx in first seat both vul. I opened a canape 1♦. Sean bid 1♥, rho bid 1♠, Sean dutifully reopened with a double. LHO made an SOS XX with his 1-4-4-4 1-count, which was left in. We dropped a trick and only beat it 1 but still felt good about +400. We just didn't think it would be a win 18. Our teammates defended 4♠X and collected 1400. System win.

In the bam at favorable vulnerability I held ♠AK9x ♥x ♦K ♣KQJxxxx and opened a canape 1♠, which was passed out. The good news was that the opponents had missed their 9 card spade fit. The bad news was that they couldn't make game and we could make 5♣. Sean's hand: ♠ ♥QTxxxx ♦xxx ♣ATxx. System loss.
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Canape System Win

This hand, from the Under 21 US junior trials today, shows a system win for canape. Granted, this hand is a bit lighter than I would open but the point is still there. After a 1H opening by north (John Marriott, in this case), east cannot bid NT like he would over a normal 1D opening so the choices are X and 2C, and I think he chose correctly. Then west, with 9 points and 4 card support, could make a limit raise, but given the wide range of the 2C bid and the insinuating double from south, I do not disagree with the simple raise.  Anyway, 3NT was reached fairly easily at the other table after a 14-16 1NT opening, and I think it would be equally reachable after 1D opening and 1NT overcall.