On the road again

Our stay in Atlanta was brief, very light on bridge, and enjoyable. We bowled three games tonight (I managed to bowl an honest and sober 67 on the last game, nowhere near my record of 34) and played variously Barbu, Carcassone, Puerto Rico. Tomorrow afternoon we drive to Nashville to play in the early bird knockouts as a team of four.

The two sessions we did play here (one an NAP qualifier) had a few hands worth mentioning. Here's a judgement call for you. As Eric, none vul, you hold:

S A
H AQx
D QJ
C Q9xxxxx

And your RHO opens 1NT. You double, showing clubs or a two suiter, LHO passes partner bids 2C. It goes pass, pass, and LHO bids 2H. Partner raises to 3C, and opener passes. What do you bid? Eric reasoned that if they are leading a heart and partner has a club honor, we could easily be making 3NT, so he bid it, planning to run if they double. As it happens, I have,

Kxxx
x
K9xxx
J54

They lead a spade, and Eric won it in hand, lead a club to J, taking the 10 and being captured by the Ace. They then foolishly switched to a heart (a spade here would be better), which Eric finessed successfully and knocked out the Ace of clubs. Unfortunately, they continued hearts now, which Eric ducked hoping they would NOW lead a spade to give him the king in dummy before running the suit. But sadly, they put him in with his Ace and he had to run clubs, stranding him in his hand. If he had tried to cash the spade first, he would be trapped in dummy and go down five. So down one, which is a 20%. Of course, it could go down much more if they weren't schizo about the leads.

Here's a sample of the slam bidding Eric and I have been up to. Very scientific, as you can see.

Me Eric
2C 2D
3D tank...6D
(making, tied for a top)

or

Eric Me
2NT 3S (minor suit stayman)
4C 4D (keycard in clubs? 6-5 in diamonds? Cue?)
5C (2 with?) 6C (um, I hope this is right)
6NT (ah much better)
(making, tied for top)

on the latter one, I almost bid 3C instead, just because I wanted to hear him say "Super Muppet Stayman," with a straight face (he just taught me this bid). But Eric had warned me he wouldn't use the name if asked and I thought it prudent not to blow the slam on it...

These are the sorts of hands that have been working out well. That, and massive gifts from weird or weak fields. But we've had our share or bad luck and/or fixings too. Playing with Eric, I open 1NT, all vul, with:

S Qxx
H 109
D AKxx
C KQJx

Eric bids 2NT, a transfer to D, and righty bids 3S. I judge the age of my opponent to be greater than 60, so I bid 3NT. I mean, it probably has no legitimate line, but a) they might screw up with AKxx I have six tricks on any 2-1 diamond break b) Eric now knows I have a good supporting diamond hand, and can either run or bid pass with good stuff. And if they double, I'll run. It passes around and now righty bids 4S! What the crap? I make a forcing pass, and Eric chooses double. Honestly, it's hard to blame him. He had a 6 count with the king of hearts and the QJ of diamonds but declarer has a void and we're only taking a heart, a spade, and a club for -790, an absolute bottom. Her hand? 6-5 in spades and hearts, and she luckily finds partner with 3 small spades and AJx opposite Q109xx of hearts. Oh well, we got it back next hand.

Alex and Argenta had a great set yesterday, and a less good set today, but we all still qualified for the NAP (it doesn't take much, but hey). They're all asleep right now, and I can't remember their best stories, so I'll post them tomorrow if they still remember.

Goodnight, hope to see some of you in Nashville.