One bad, One good

With our next league match on Thursday Anna and I had another practice game at the Saturday night SBU pairs. This is a cross-IMP'd event, so is closer to the total points used in league matches. I was pretty relaxed about the game, maybe too much so.

In our first three five-board matches we finished slightly ahead, despite missing a grand slam with 14 top tricks. 6♥+1 actually got us +0.00 IMPs, as the same number of pairs got to 7♥ or 7NT as stopped in game. Then against opponents playing transfer responses I doubled a 1♥ transfer to Spades holding ♥JT9xx. Surprisingly this double was left in, as the opponents chose to play 1♥x on a 3-2 fit. They made it with an abundance of high cards, but missed an easy 3NT so that was a good one for us.

My casual attitude allowed me to let the opponents play 5♦-3, which didn't actually get us a very good score. I think I've become too used to Matchpoints, and didn't see the value in doubling. Just for good measure, I also blew a trick in defence, so maybe it could have been 5♦x-4.

That was an example of missing out on a good result. My low point was worse, turning a good result into a bad one. Our opponents bid a very poor 3NT which can only make with some extremely generous defence:

I made a simple 1♠ overcall. North asked about a Spade stopper then bid 3NT anyway, which clearly shows some sort of weak stopper of his own. I missed this inference, and when Anna lead the ♠7 assumed declrarer had ♠AK. Playing partner for the ♦A, I then found a reason to duck the Clubs not once, but twice, upon which a surprised declarer was able to scoop up 9 tricks. Conceding 3NT was worth -6.9 IMPs, beating it (by two) would be worth +4.5 IMPs.

Here's one where we did well - the very next board in fact

Anna doubled the weak 2♦ then passed my 3♣ (we don't play Lebensohl). North lead out the top two Diamonds, then switched to a Heart. I finessed and lost, then South cashed his ♠A and returned a Spade, presumably waiting to get his trump trick.

At this point I lead a Club to the Ace and dropped the singleton King. There is no room for North to have it alongside ♦AK (and presumably ♦Q too). This was the technically correct play, but I was still surprised it worked.

North could have beaten it by leading lower Diamonds (in which case I would have probably finessed the ♣K and lost), or better playing a third Diamond and South then can't be prevented from making the ♣K.

On the last board I sensed a slam and enthusiastically jumped to 5♥. This had three top losers but was allowed to make, which meant we finished just above average on +7.85 IMPs, 23rd out of 56.