Misadventures In Manhattan

A very frustrating session with Agent 99 saw us barely making 50%, but with the feeling that we had made only one or two serious errors. Generally, in a 24-board session, you expect to give up two bottoms through stupidity, and get two tops from the opponents in return. That evens out, so then your final score depends on what you do with the other twenty hands. We felt like we hadn't given away more than the expected two bottoms, but in return, we got more bottoms instead of the compensating tops.

There were at least a couple of hands where we got a bad score because the opponents bid and made a game that couldn't be beaten – but most of the field wasn't getting there. And then there was this sort of thing.



This auction seems fairly ordinary and innocuous. The final contract certainly can't be beaten, and according to the computer analysis it makes ten tricks against best defence. We can make two hearts, but we can't make three, so at the vulnerability there's nowhere for us to go. Why am I whining? Because -130 scored exactly zero matchpoints, that's why. Three other pairs played in clubs, and they all took only nine tricks. Three pairs played in 1NT, which should not make, but they all did, one even made eight tricks. And the final table was allowed to make a heart contract our way. So the “par” result gets absolutely nothing.

This was obviously a tough field, though.



It's almost axiomatic that on any given slam hand, at least one pair will manage to stay in a part-score, and at least a couple more don't get past game. On this hand, everyone was in a slam. A couple of pairs bid 6NT, which would go down on a spade lead, but they both made. One of the pairs in 6D made all thirteen tricks, which is impossible. And so bidding and just making 6D, which is the par result, scored just 2 out of 7.