District Masterful play

Ted and I have had a good run in the SBU Tuesday tournaments, finishing 1st, 2nd and 7th. I have therefore accumulated a few masterpoints, and am now up to 25, which promotes me to District Master (the fourth lowest rank). If I get to 50 points I will become a Master.

My play last Tuesday was not especially masterful, but we were reasonably solid. The highlights were beating a few opposition contracts by three or four tricks (just enough non-vulnerable to get a good score), the lowlight deal 23 of 24 below:

I swithered between opening 1NT and upgrading the hand. I finally decided to open 1NT then realised that I'd bid 1♦. Oh well. The auction quickly escalated. After a 2♣ overcall Ted bid 2♥. To me this shows 10+, to him 6+, and we've never really resolved this. When South piled in with 4♣ I felt fairly confident bidding 4♥. North then went slightly overbaord with 5♣ (it goes three off) but it worked brilliantly as Ted was forced into 5♥, a reasonable gamble with his Club void and (presumed) double fit in Diamonds.

5♥ is not a comfortable contract. Even if you have only one trumps loser it hinges on the Diamond finesse, and when that fails it's one off. Double dummy you can make it by winning the King of Diamonds, ruffing out the ♠Q then endplaying South, but that is a bit far fetched. 5♥-1 was a disappointing score when most of the field were in 2♥.

Opening 1NT would have worked a lot better this time.

SBU Pairs

Ted and I had another good result in the SBU Tuesday pairs, finishing 2nd with 63%. This was despite starting with two very bad boards and having a dip in the middle. Unusually, I was actually ready ten minutes before the start and had time to settle and get a cup of tea, which surely helped.

Afterwards I didn't have any particular regrets, and on looking through the hands I still haven't found anything I think I would have done differently.

Here I made a somewhat heavy 1NT overcall, as I have 18 points and not the usual 15-17. But I think that's OK, especially vulernable, and with a not particularly good 18 points. I have likely 5 tricks, but with not much potential to develop more unless partner has something. The idea of doubling then playing 2NT opposite nothing was too much of a worry.

Of course, as it happened Ted had a decent 7 points, so naturally passed my 1NT overcall but would have gone on if I'd doubled. So we have 25 points and a double Club stop but have missed 3NT. This was a risk I was prepared to take.

In 1NT I got a Spade lead. This gives me enough time to set up dummy's Diamonds. In fact, East needs to duck the first Diamond to hold me to ten tricks, which isn't likely to happen. 1NT+3 was therefore worth 71%, beating pretty much everyone who stayed out of game.

Big hand

Ted and I played together the other night. We are largely on the same wavelength, albeit with roughly one mix-up every ten hands or so. Actually maybe that's quite high.

On this one we got it right:

After South opens 1♣ it gets passed around to me. I have a nice 18 point hand so start with a double. Ted isn't quite strong enough to do any more so just bids 1♥. At this point despite having such a good hand I have to be disciplined and only raise to 2♥. This feels a bit strange, as normally if partner responded 1♥ I'd raise to game. But here his 1♥ shows 0-8, so I am only worth a simple raise to 2♥.

Ted recognised that I must have a big hand to be raising opposite potentially nothing, and bid an immediate 4♥. A club was lead.

Despite trumps being 4-1, and the Club finesse being offisde, it's easy to make game. South is known to have all of the points, so eventually is going to have to lead you round a Diamond, or break open Spades.

At the other table they stalled in 2♥ after the same start to the auction.