Misadventures In Manhattan

I've been managing to get a few sets in with Agent 99, and our performance has been fairly steady. That's an indicator to me that we are getting back in practice. There really is an awful lot of truth in what Sartaj Hans was going on about the other year: it really isn't your methods that make the difference, it's delivery – performing consistently at (or near) your best. But he never did come up with any great insight as to how to improve your delivery, and the only way I know is to keep playing regularly, at least two or three times a week, so that you can make the effort of playing a routine.

I'm not sure about the bidding on this one. It was the right final contract, but we got there the old-fashioned way.



My 2C response wasn't game-forcing, so jumping to 3NT showed extras. With the powerful club suit and the heart fit, I was feeling slammish, but I wasn't sure how to proceed. Since East didn't open a weak two, I didn't take his 2D overcall very seriously. I decided that the only way South could have extras was with good honors in spades and diamonds, so it should be safe to just raise to slam. Then there was the choice between 6H and 6NT, but that was relatively easy. Only four pairs out of twelve bid 6, and two of them chose 6H.

This one involved some judgement calls at an uncomfortably high level.



I'm not sure I approve of Agent 99's double of 4S. Since West couldn't speak over 1C, East has a fairly free hand to bid 4S on a stronger hand than usual, and to risk bidding 4S at unfavorable colors, “usual” is pretty strong to begin with. But it's matchpoints, and I guess South has enough that she has to make sure that the contract does get doubled. Then there's my hand. With the 6-4 distribution, it looks like there's attacking strength, but not necessarily defence. At the vulnerability, if South is better than minimum, we may be making quite a lot of tricks in either hearts or clubs, while not making much of a dent in 4S. I agonized quite a bit over this call, but in the end pulled the double to 5C. (I might have tried 4NT as “two places to play”, but I wasn't sure Agent 99 would take it that way.) Then West found a double from somewhere. I suppose he was thinking AS, spade ruff, with the AC to follow. When the smoke cleared, we had found the right path. East would have been down only 1 in 4S doubled, while 4H and 5C were both making. Most pairs weren't reaching game, though, and the final double elevated us above the others that did.

This one was a real fluke.



I had a diamond mixed in with my hearts, so I thought I had a six-card suit. Since we aren't playing weak twos, that makes the North hand an opening 1H. If I pass initially, I don't think either of us will keep going over 4S, and that's only going down one.

We witnessed an amazing act of self-immolation the other evening.



That is not a misprint. South had misdefended fairly outrageously on the hand before. North managed to avoid any loud outbursts, but expressed his internal anguish on the next hand by opening that beautiful 25-count with 4S. Thirteen tricks are available in three denominations, but spades isn't one of them. I've seen a few such bids, but I don't recall seeing such a good hand being treated so badly before. (We didn't even get a top for it – one N-S pair managed to go down in something.)