I haven’t been posting because I’ve been a bit busy, one way and another. But today’s laundry day, so I might as well put something up between visits to the basement.

It’s STAC week again, and I’m trying to gather in the 11 or so silver points I need for Life Master. So far I’ve not had too much success, but there have been some wild hands and even wilder opposition. A session with Agent 99 started slowly but accelerated when one pair of opponents perpetrated this horror show.

Love all, dlr S

          ♠ A Q 9 7
          ♥ K 9 8 3
          ♦ 8 7 5
          ♣ A 3
♠ 8 6 5 4 3 2         ♠ -
♥ 4         [ ]       ♥ 10 7 2
♦ A 10 6 2            ♦ J 9 4 3
♣ K 9                 ♣ Q 10 8 5 4 2
          ♠ K J 10
          ♥ A Q J 6 5
          ♦ K Q
          ♣ J 7 6

S    W    N    E
1♥   pass 1♠   pass
2NT  pass 6♥   dble
All pass

I don’t know exactly how N-S should bid in their methods, but I’m confident that both of them overbid in practice. I don’t think the South hand is too strong to open 1NT 15-17, and North was in too much of a hurry. If she had gone slower, maybe South could have talked her out of it. Agent 99 started with the ♦A, so only 2 down, but that was a top.

That was the last board against them, so we moved to a new table and this was the next board.

Game all, dlr W

          ♠ Q 5
          ♥ 9 5 4
          ♦ A Q 10 7 4 2
          ♣ 6 4
♠ J 9 8                ♠ K 10 6
♥ A K Q 2   [ ]        ♥ 8 7 3
♦ J 9 6                ♦ 8 3
♣ J 8 3                ♣ A Q 10 7 5
          ♠ A 7 4 3 2
          ♥ J 10 6
          ♦ K 5
          ♣ K 9 2

W    N    E    S
1NT  pass pass 2♠
pass pass 3♣   pass
pass 3♠   dble All pass

The above auction isn’t the whole story, not even close to it. South actually overcalled 1♠, and when this was pointed out to be insufficient, corrected to 2♠. I asked North what they were playing over opponent’s no-trumps, and she said Cappelletti, so I called the director, but before the director arrived, South commented that they played Capp over strong no-trumps but hadn’t discussed weak ones.

That makes a bit of a mess. You can’t just make an insufficient bid minimally sufficient without penalty if the result would be conventional, and a Capp 2♠ would show spades plus a minor suit. And North now has the somewhat unauthorized information that South only intended 2♠ as natural. On the other hand, the point about not having discussed weak no-trumps specifically is valid: the director could decide that without a specific agreement to play Capp on their card, making the bid sufficient to a natural 2♠ could be allowed without penalty. Rather than get into a big hypothetical argument, I suggested to the director that we let things go and see how it all turned out. He agreed, adding a specific warning to North that she should bid as if all she had seen or heard was the 1NT and the 2♠.

I pictured a somewhat more robust suit in the South hand, for which my ♠K-10 seemed to be well-placed (as far as South was concerned). On the other hand, I didn’t want to sell out, so I bid 3♣. At that point, South has just pushed us from a hopeless contract to our best spot. North wasn’t finished, though. Holding diamonds and hearing me bid clubs, she decided that there was enough evidence that South was single-suited in spades. True enough, but why she raised spades without mentioning diamonds I don’t know. I did know that I couldn’t let them play undoubled, however.

Now, throughout all this, Agent 99 is sitting looking at a hand full of jacks and figuring that whatever the opponents bid, they are probably making overtricks. But she kept a good poker face, and while I can’t remember the exact sequence of play, she did lead the 13th heart at some point for me to uppercut with the ♠10 and get 3 down for 800.

Was justice done? I think so. I know South didn’t want to sell out to 1NT, but that overcall was pretty disgusting, really.