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.
No comments:
Post a Comment