Recap Of 3/17/2014 28 Board Imp Individual

Where to begin…we played 28 boards today and I lost IMPs on 16 of them!  Some were unlucky, some were teammates, some were me.  I don’t have the time to post them all (BIG difference when BBO is my data source, since it is so easy to have accurate cards, bidding and play available).

There were just 4 double digit swings.  Here is the first one.

Your basic slam missing the trump Q.  I wasn’t embarrassed about the auction.  I had 2nd round control of all suits and when partner showed 3 aces, we were there.  12 tricks are easy if I can find trump 2-2 or, with the weak 2♦ bid, perhaps finesse and find trumps 3-1 with the ♥Q in the slot.  With ♥Q10x offside (with the weak 2 bidder), the slam was quickly down 1.  The other table had an auction that included an invitational 5♥ bid, but there was confusion about what was being asked by that bid and, had they understood, they too would have bid the slam.  Since the max was 11 tricks on the hand, lose 11 IMPs.

This had interesting issues in the bidding and play.  I have reserved Michaels for 5-5 hands and didn’t consider bidding 2♦.   Over the 1♦ opening bid, I considered pass, a VERY light double and 1♥.  I settled on 1♥.  We missed our 4-4 spade fit, arriving in 3♥ and I lazily led a trump to the ♥Q, resulting in losing a 2nd trump trick and making only 9 tricks, +140.  If I bothered crossing to dummy to lead trumps up, the singleton ♥A would catch air and 10 tricks would have been there.  But, by not being in game, my laziness cost nothing.  Should I have carried on to game?  Should partner have insisted on game?  Beats me, but if I’m in game, I sure better play it better.

Dan decided this was a Michaels hand and partner (Ed) quickly arrived at the spade game.  After cashing the high diamond and seeing the singleton in dummy and the ♦2 from partner…Jack cashed the ♥A and then shifted to a club (thinking a heart ruff was coming after partner’s club entry).  Signaling (udca assumed) when dummy has a singleton is a very tough area of bridge.  Small can mean shift to a low suit, small can mean I have stuff here so shift to trump to cut down ruffs, small can mean I have stuff here so continue the initial suit led and tap dummy.  I have had the discussion with some partners that middle cards mean continue and small or big mean shift high or low.  That assumes an assortment of cards to choose from as well as the ability to read which card was chosen.  When the ♣J won trick 3, the defense was over.  Declarer has much more work to do on a passive defense, but as long as a small heart is first led towards the length and the ♥A catches air, most problems are solved.  Declarer might still has to find the ♠Q, but there is only 1 way to finesse (not counting the backwards finesse).  Also, both club losers can go on the hearts.  I think declarer didn’t bother with the spade finesse and made +620, lose 10 IMPs.

Most players consider a 5 card suit = to 1 point when counting points for NT.  So, 14 HCP plus a 5 card suit =15-17 1NT.  Mike Schneider opened 1NT and after the transfer, Ed invited with 2NT which ended the auction.  Lots of tricks available double dummy (singleton ♦K coming down for entries to hearts, entries for spade finesses, lots of tricks).  Mike didn’t know about the ♦K and only found 7 tricks after the club lead, down 1.  Dan (Teammate south at the other table) opened 1♦ and after the 2♣ overcall, eventually found himself in 3♦X, going -500 and losing 9 IMPs.

I hate to call this hand a ‘comedy’ of errors, because losing 12 IMPs wasn’t that funny.  First the bidding – 5♣ would have been a cheap save, but I HATE to take a phantom save at IMPs and I thought there were chances that we could set 4♠.  There are a couple of guesses available to bring home 10 tricks in 4♠ (♥A doubleton offside, duck twice; or finesse in spades to pick up the spade suit).  Jack (teammate and declarer at the other table) didn’t get those right and ended -1.  Ed didn’t get those  plays right either, and he made 10 tricks!  I tried to blame partner for giving wrong count in diamonds, but the fault is mine.  Play began with a club to ♣A, ♠A, ♠K, diamond to the ♦10, ♦A.  Partner  played high/low showing 3 diamonds, which would give Ed 4 diamonds, and partner showed 6 clubs, giving Ed 2.  Now Ed erred by playing a heart to the ♥K and ♥A.  If pard plays back a heart after winning the ♥A, life is good.  But, instead, a top club was led and ruffed in dummy.  Now declarer played a top diamond which I incredibly failed to ruff (and cash my 2 hearts for the setting tricks).  If Ed was indeed 5=2=4=2, he is cold, since we only have 1 heart to cash after I get my high trump, so it would make no difference what I do.  But, if Ed has the actual 5=3=3=2, I must ruff the ♦K now and cash 2 hearts.  Once I erred by not ruffing, Ed now pitched a heart on the last good diamond from dummy and only lost his 1 remaining heart for 10 tricks.

Like I said, partner’s count in the diamond suit was an illusion which didn’t matter on the hand.  When Ed gave me the chance to beat it, I failed to grab it.  With the 4th diamond in dummy, he  was thinking he didn’t want to run diamonds, ending up in dummy to lead hearts away from the ♥K, so prior to cashing all diamonds, he led a heart up to the ♥K himself, allowing us the chance to defeat the contract.  Had he just continued to play diamonds, when I ruff, he can still play me later for the ♥A, or better, just duck whatever heart I play.  If I lead the ♥Q he can duck and as long as I hold ♥AQJ or ♥QJ, the defense has no recourse due to the power of ♥10xx.  Our -620 paired with teammate’s -100 to lose 12 IMPs.

Finally, a hand where my side had a pickup.  I’m not exactly proud of my ‘weak jump overcall’ in 2nd seat, red vs. white.  But, it has the merit of being effective and got us to the 4♠ contract, vulnerable, which making and was not reached at the other table.  However, Mike (North) made the effective decision to save in 5♥.  Since our teammates were only in 4♥, if they could get the same 10 tricks that we allowed, we could score 11 IMPs.  Teammates did get 10 tricks, probably the same way we allowed 10 tricks at our table.  Opening lead ♠Q ducked all around.  I figured I would not be on lead many more times and I shifted to a club, ducked to partner’s ♣K.  Fearing a cashing spade would go away on the club suit after declarer drew trumps, partner tried the ♠A instead of knocking out the ♦A to score a 2nd undertrick.  When the ♠A was ruffed, declarer could draw trump and later pitch his losing diamond on the long club.  A diamond must be played at trick 3 to get a trick in each suit for the defense.  

Since our teammates made +420 in 4♥, our inability to collect 300 vs. 5♥X only cost 1 IMP.

Here, both tables arrived in 4♠, but we decided to defend and the other table took the save at 5♥ .  Since we had crammed the auction and since I had overcalled a 4 card suit, I had hopes that the heart suit was 5-4-2-2 around the table and pard would contribute a trick to beat 4♠.  Phantom saves are VERY costly at IMPs, and it looked to me like I had much more defense than offense.  But here it was quite profitable to save in hearts at the 5 level. Since 5♥X only paid out 300 points vs. 620 for the vulnerable game, my side lost 8 IMPs.

On the scoreboard a sad day of losses (and many more smaller losses that I didn’t bother to document!).  Bad luck?  Bad bridge?  Actually I think it was some of both.