Misadventures In Manhattan

A set with Agent 99 produced some interesting deals. At the second table, we sat down to this one.



North's raise seems feeble to me. I'm bidding 5C anyway, so I suppose it doesn't matter. But failing to take the save was expensive – 5H should go 3 down, but in practice was often escaping for -2, while 99 wrapped up 5C with little effort.

Then came this little number.



Most people seem to have been a bit perplexed by the East hand. I admit, I was not exactly confident about opening 1S. But then we had a “routine” auction to game, and South decided to lead the AD even though I had bid the suit. That gave me the tempo to establish the diamonds and finish with all 13 tricks and almost all the matchpoints.

Our 2D replacement for 2NT made it's first appearance, and scored a top.



Making 9 tricks in diamonds earned the only plus score for E-W. Everybody else opened 2NT and couldn't find a making contract. Winner!

We also had a run-in with a pair playing something non-standard.
1C! – Pass – 1D – 1H; 1NT
1C was alerted as 13+, any distribution. I asked what 1NT showed, and was told “no agreement”. Frankly I don't believe it. And this was the third board we played against this pair, and they hadn't mentioned at any point that any of their bids were non-standard. And their convention card was pretty much uninformative. I didn't make a big stink about it, but I really think they were over the edge of unethical behavior. I think any time this pair shows up in the future and I'm there, they better be ready for some hard questions.

I've persuaded Agent 99 to play Rubensohl, and another session saw that crop up for the first time.



Not a good result, but not the fault of lebensohl, transfer or otherwise. With clubs agreed (bid first at 2NT and supported with 4C), we play Redwood. Agent 99 could have bid 4D and carried on to 6C: after all, all she really needs to know at that point is how many key cards I have, in order to choose between 5, 6 and 7.

Anyway, the next MIM post may feature the return of Elwood. I look forward to it.