Oddments

The odd and interesting moments in my games seem to happen most often when I’m playing with Elwood, these days. Here are a few samples (nothing very deep).

Nobody vulnerable, the bidding goes
Pass Pass 1H   Pass
2H   3S   3NT  Pass
Pass Dble Pass Pass
Pass
Sitting in fourth seat, I couldn’t imagine what sort of hand Elwood could have that would pass in second seat and then come to life so violently. Did he find a couple of spades mixed in with his clubs? But I had a couple of spades and AJTxxx of clubs, maybe another Q or something somewhere, so there was nothing to do except sit for it and lead a spade. Declarer wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even he managed nine tricks without any real trouble, and Elwood said I was really thin for my double. “You doubled, not me” I said. “No, your takeout double” he said, and the light dawned, at least a little bit. Pass is bright green, and the Double card is bright red, and Elwood is not color-blind. But somehow he hallucinated a takeout double on the first round, and the illusion persisted through the auction, even though I’m pretty neat about how I put my bids out on the table and there were two or three pregnant pauses as almost everyone (three out of four people, anyway) wondered what was going on with these unusual bids. We still have no explanation.

The other week, the Welland team visited the MBC for an evening pairs game (change of pace?). Christal Henner and Uday Ivatury sat N-S, and for the second of our two boards against them, I picked up as dealer:

  ♠ K
  ♥ 9 5
  ♦ 7 6 5 
  ♣ A K Q 10 5 3 2

Both sides were vulnerable. I decided that against that pair, a very sound 3♣ pre-empt was in order. Passed out and down one, slightly above average since several pairs reached game in a major their way (both make). But I wonder how I would have bid the hand against a pair of palookas?

In case you were wondering, Andrew Stark and Franco Baseggio sat E-W, and won quite convincingly with a 72% score. Elwood and I were their nearest competition, second on 65%.

We continue to have a love-hate relationship with the weak no-trump. Both of us like the bid, but the bid seems to hate us: we continually run into penalty situations with it when we play together, although we don’t when we play with other people. But we’re fighting back:

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

N    E    S    W
     1NT  Pass Pass
Dble Pass Pass Pass

Elwood could have run to 2♣, but actually that would have been worse. As it was, South led the ♠7 to North’s ♠K, and the ♠3 came back to the ♠A. With three spade tricks visible and two hearts coming, I decided I needed a club and a diamond. So tricks three and four were a club – 4, 3, K, 2 – and a diamond – 2, 4, 6, 9. The full hand:

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

The reason why I’m reporting the hand is that (while I had no idea of it at the time) the two defenders have become completely disconnected by those two tricks. North could still have defeated me by switching to hearts, but she persisted with another spade, and that was seven tricks for me. It’s a classic case, really: the N-S assets would be much easier to handle if they were split more evenly. North is too good.

How about a hand where you push to slam with just two small trumps?

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

N    E    S    W
     1♦   Pass 2♣
Pass 2♦   Pass 2♠
Pass 2NT  Pass 3♠
Pass 4♣   Pass 4NT
Pass 6♣   All pass

The 2♣ response is forcing to game, so the 4♣ bid is Minorwood 1430, and 4NT showed two keycards plus the ♣Q. I was very nervous bidding the slam, though. I liked my controls, and didn’t think it could be right to settle for 3NT. But in clubs the ♥K might be vulnerable, and in no-trumps I might not have enough tricks. In the end, I decided that clubs would probably be safer (a spade ruff might be vital), so 6♣ was the bid.

In fact spades were 3-3 with the Q onside, and clubs broke 3-2, so twelve tricks were easy in three denominations. But we were actually the only pair to bid any slam.