phoney

Writing from my phone today, because my laptop screen isn't working. Be concise, Jon!

Yesterday was an adventure, on many levels. After an up and down first session, the weird guy who was chatting us up on Monday turned out to actually be a local pro named Ken Eichenbaum. He gave us some rambling but ultimately helpful bidding advice, took us to the bar where the owner and some other players were chatting about the hands, and offered to give us his bidding notes. And it turns out he really did write some stuff, including a bridge musical called "The Wizard of Odds." The whole 3 hour intercession was spent listening to his insane bridge stories, which eventually turned to this awful client of his, and how he got suspended from bridge for 6 months while playing with her. That was actually the best story, because the person in charge of his appeal turned out to be stealing money from the ACBL treasury, and he got it revoked (so to speak).

Anyhow, he kibitzed us for the evening session, which really ought to be called something else since every game at the Columbus Bridge Center is 26 boards or more (the morning was 30!) and takes nearly four hours. While he watched, we played sloppily but we bid (and Lovey excellently played) a couple of good slams that the field didn't often find. The most interesting hand of the day was this 2NT opener: I hold

S A32
H AKQ8
D Q32
C AQ8

Lovey bids 3C, Puppet stayman, and right has the nerve to double. A sensible person might answer normally and be pleased lefty will now lead into his tenace for a top anyway, but no - I'm out for blood. I redouble, which we have no agreement on but I mean for business, and Lovey passes, which I hope means he has some clubs. It floats around and the doubler leads a club. Lovey has:

KQ87
643
94
T943

How would you play it? Would you bid it our way? In this hand spades are 3-3 so if you play low at trick one, which holds, you only lose two clubs and two diamonds. Lovey played Q then A in real life.

Out of room on phone, peace!