Considering this was only their Relaxed Game the standard was good, and Anna and I started with a few poor scores when the opponents bid and made games against us. On one I felt bad as I'd overcalled with ♥QJTxxx and Anna then dutifully led my suit; whereas if I'd kept quiet we would would have beaten the contract.
| Anna | Danny | ||
| W | N | E | S |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | 1♣ | 2♥ | 3NT |
| - | - | - | |
In my defence South bid her 3NT very quickly which could suggest a double stop in Hearts, indicating it might be worth trying another suit. But I don't want partner to stop leading my suit so perhaps it's better I don't overcall at all.
After a cup of tea and a KitKat we got a run of good results, mostly through competing in the auction and defending well. But we were far from perfect, and were lucky with several boards. Once Anna miscounted her points and that kept us out of a game that didn't make.
This was my favourite board:
| Anna | Danny | ||
| W | N | E | S |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | ||
| - | 1♦ | - | - |
| x | - | 2♣ | - |
| - | - |
It's a long auction to 2♣. Everyone passed to North who opened his balanced 17 count with 1♦. I considered a bad 2♣ overcall but restrained myself (this time the suit is good, but the hand too weak). Rather than letting 1♦ be passed out Anna found a double. She's only got two Hearts, but it's still a good bid. North passed and now I had an easy 2♣ bid. This went back to North who reluctantly passed.
In 2♣ South led his partner's Diamonds and they took the first three tricks. North can see he also has two Aces coming, so just needs one more to beat the contract. He mad the fine play of a fourth Diamond, hoping to promote a trump trick for the defence.
I could have tried a low Club (hoping North had the Ten) but ruffed with the Jack. You can see that even though the King-Jack of Spades are onside if I play Spades myself my spot cards are not quite good enough and East would win the third round with the 8. So I tried something else.
I eliminated Hearts and drew trumps, hoping North would have to lead a Spade himself or give me a ruff and discard. This worked nicely and at he end I was left with a simple Spade finesse for the contract (which by that point I knew was going to work, as North had already shown 17 points by then).
Making 2♣ was a good score, losing only to the East-West pair who got +100 for defeating 2NT. Most tables reached the best contract of 2♥ North-South making about nine tricks.
Overall we finished on 73%.
I think you have an off-by-one error in the auction on the 2C board.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think N should always have a safe exit card, unless they duck the first round of both rounded suits. Your alternative is maybe to play for the legitimate chance of pinning the S8 (say N is 2443 with 8x in spades), but you made it, so I guess you made the right choice at the table.
I've updated the 2C auction.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think North could have defeated me by making a safe exit. Once Hearts were eliminated I played Clubs from dummy and North won his Ace. He can now exit with his other trump, but in fact gave me a ruff-and-discard in Hearts, so that's how I made it.
I thought I'd been clever (and he had singleton Ace of trumps) but it was a defensive error. Though at least I made it a bit harder for him by getting rid of the Hearts.