Friday, April 28, 2006

Trump promotion of a 4

Here's a nice hand for the defense.

Dealer:West
Vul:NS
Scoring:MP
J82
Q7543
K432
5
965
98
QJT5
AQ42
K743
KJT2
A7
T86
AQT
A6
986
KJ973

The bidding somehow got NS in 2

Partner lead the 9, small, small to the Ace. South played 9 (covered by the 10) to his King and my Ace. Now I returned 7 and made the trick. So I continued with K and small where declarer discarded his last and my partner ruffed with the 2.

Now Q was played and I ruffed with T, overruffed with the J. Next, declarer played 9 to partner's Q and another was ruffed with the 8 and declarer's J.

At this point, partner had A4 and declarer 73, which promoted the 4 in partner's hand! -2 was a top, obviously...

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Interference over strong 1C

Interference over a strong should cause troubles. On the following hand, my LHO convinced me to stay out of slam, whereas if she wouldn't have bid I'd be in 6 for sure!

Dealer:South
Vul:None
Scoring:MP
Axx
AQx
Q9xx
Jxx
KQJxxx
x
Kxx
xxx
xxx
JTxx
Txx
xxx
x
K9xxx
AJx
AKQx

Bidding:
1* - 2 - Dbl - pass
3 - pass - 3 - pass
4 - pass - 4 - all pass

1 showed 15+hcp any distribution, Dbl showed a semipositive hand (or GF without 5 card suit). I'd prefer a 2NT bid instead of the Dbl, but it's a matter of preference. If South has Qx, 3NT should be played there...
According to the bidding, my partner showed a mild slam invite with fit. Slam has lots of possible ways to make (Kx with East, stiff T or J with West, or 3-2), but I decided to pass since LHO showed 9-11HCP with 6+ according to my RHO.

I was very glad to see a small singleton on my left side :-)

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Lucky preempting

Lets start with some heavy preempting. A little luck always helps, but you can't argue with success. On average, I'd never bid this high!

Dealer:South
Vul:None
Scoring:MP
QJxx
xx
Jxxx
xxx
Kxx
AJTxxx
xx
Jx
Axxxx
Qxx
K
Axxx
x
Kx
AQTxxx
KQxx

Bidding went:
1* - 2 - 4NT*! - Dbl
5 - all pass

1 shows 9-14HCP, 4+, unbalanced, longer possible, no 5+M

After the 2 bid, I thought opponents had 4 laydown. Bidding low would probably not work, so I thought 'lets make it hard on opponents'. 4NT asked partner to bid his longest/best minor, but 5 probably puts more pressure.

West's pass was forcing, but East somehow didn't agree. However, with the current lie of the cards, 5x-2 is still better than 4=.