Las Vegas NABC, Day 3, Life Master Pairs Semifinals

After a good night's sleep, we started out the first semifinal session in a strong section, getting to play against Bobby Wolff, Zia playing Giorgio Duboin, Zach Grossack, and Marc Jacobus among others. Sitting in our direction were also some strong pairs, including our own Steve Weinstein playing with Kevin Fay. Unlike the first day, we were ending up mostly on defense.

This was my favorite hand of the first semi-final session. In third seat, favorable, you pick up:

East

♠

J98732

♥

73

♦

K8

♣

QJ5

Your partner passes, RHO opens 1♣, and you decide to overcall 2♠. The bidding proceeds:

East

♠

J98732

♥

73

♦

K8

♣

QJ5

W

N

E

S

P

1♣

2♠

X

P

3♣

P

3NT

P

Your partner dutifully leads the ♠6 and dummy comes down.

Dummy

♠

KQ

♥

K5

♦

Q32

♣

K109876

East

♠

J98732

♥

73

♦

K8

♣

QJ5

W

N

E

S

P

1♣

2♠

X

P

3♣

P

3NT

P

Declarer wins in dummy with the ♠Q, and you encourage with the ♠9. Declarer leads a low club to hand, winning with the ♣A. Your partner contributes the ♣4 (standard signaling). Declarer plays the ♣3 to the ♣7, your partner following with the ♣2. You win the ♣J.

What’s your next move?

Dummy

♠

KQ

♥

K5

♦

Q32

♣

K109876

East

♠

J98732

♥

73

♦

K8

♣

QJ5

W

N

E

S

P

1♣

2♠

X

P

3♣

P

3NT

P

The above hand was Debbie's hand. She now figured out to switch to the ♦K, which held. She continued the ♦8 which I won with the ♦A. I then continued a low diamond, driving out the ♦Q. All four hands are shown below:

West

♠

64

♥

A10842

♦

AJ64

♣

42

Dummy

♠

KQ

♥

K5

♦

Q32

♣

K109876

East

♠

J98732

♥

73

♦

K8

♣

QJ5

South

♠

A105

♥

QJ96

♦

10975

♣

A3

D

Declarer now has 9 tricks (3 spades, 5 clubs, and 1 diamond), but he doesn't have the entries to untangle them. At this point, declarer played the ♥K, hoping that the hand with the ♥A didn't have a cashing diamond. Unfortunately for declarer, I won the ♥A and cashed the ♦J for down 1.

I am certain that I would not have found a diamond switch at that point given her holding and dummy's... great D partner! That was worth 88.5 matchpoints out of 103.

I am still having trouble telling how we're doing during a session, and am trying to break myself of the habit of needing to know. It felt like we had a so-so session, but in fact we finished with a 55.33% to move up to 47th!

In the evening session it felt like we were facing less-daunting opponents. We were back to declaring most of the time. My favorite round was against Joel Wooldridge and his partner.

On the first board, I picked up ♠87 ♥KJ108 ♦QJ874 ♣A2. I considered opening it, but decided against it. East opened the bidding 1♣ and partner doubled. The bidding continued:

East

♠

87

♥

KJ108

♦

QJ874

♣

A2

W

N

E

S

P

1♣

X

2♣

3♦

3♠

P

5♣

?

Your call?

East

♠

87

♥

KJ108

♦

QJ874

♣

A2

W

N

E

S

P

1♣

X

2♣

3♦

3♠

P

5♣

?

I looked at their card, and they had checked "light openings." I asked Joel "How light is light... an 8-count?" He said, probably at least 10. I decided they were probably trying to steal from us. Partner doubled and I had almost opened. I had the ♣A. I cracked it and dummy came down on the lead of a low diamond:

Dummy

♠

52

♥

A742

♦

A93

♣

9864

East

♠

87

♥

KJ108

♦

QJ874

♣

A2

W

N

E

S

P

1♣

X

2♣

3♦

3♠

P

5♣

X

P

Declarer won the ♦A, and I encouraged. He now played a low club, which I ducked and partner won with her stiff ♣K. The only other trick we got was the ♣A in my hand, and they wrapped up 550. I realized that I'd probably have a lot of company, and in fact, this board was worth a 25. Not doubling would have been a very good board. Sacrificing in 5♦ would also have been better. All four hands are shown below:

West

♠

QJ103

♥

Q953

♦

K652

♣

K

Dummy

♠

52

♥

A742

♦

A93

♣

9864

East

♠

87

♥

KJ108

♦

QJ874

♣

A2

South

♠

AK964

♥

6

♦

10

♣

QJ10753

D

Joel chuckled "I guess he had a 10 count!" Debbie later acknowledged that she had an exceptionally light double. That said, she said that in general, given that they'd freely bid a game, I should think about whether I had any surprise in store for the opponents before deciding to double. Double was a normal call, but in light of this principle and the auction, I might have figured out to pass. Lesson learned!

The next hand proved to be equally interesting. I held ♠1085 ♥73 ♦J732 ♣Q654. Joel opened the bidding 2♣ in third seat, and his partner responded 2♠. The bidding continued:

West

♠

1085

♥

73

♦

J732

♣

Q654

W

N

E

S

P

2♣

P

2♠

P

3♠

P

4♣

P

4NT

P

5♠

P

5NT

P

6NT

P

7NT

P

I asked them what the bid of 6NT meant, and he explained "extras." Sadly, I would be on lead.

What would you lead?

West

♠

1085

♥

73

♦

J732

♣

Q654

W

N

E

S

P

2♣

P

2♠

P

3♠

P

4♣

P

4NT

P

5♠

P

5NT

P

6NT

P

7NT

P

I really wanted my partner to lead out of turn. I knew I needed to lead passively, but what? I rejected clubs immediately. I decided against hearts as that would finesse my partner right away should she have something in hearts. The choice was between a spade and a diamond. A spade would have been prudent given that they'd shown all the keycards, three spades, and the ♠Q. But for some reason my fuzzy thinking rejected that option and I led a diamond. Dummy came down:

West

♠

1085

♥

73

♦

J732

♣

Q654

Dummy

♠

KQ964

♥

86

♦

954

♣

AJ10

W

N

E

S

P

2♣

P

2♠

P

3♠

P

4♣

P

4N

P

5♠

P

5N

P

6N

P

7N

P

Partner played the ♦8, and Joel won the ♦A. I was relieved I hadn't blown a trick with my bad initial lead. Joel now played two rounds of spades, and then played three rounds of diamonds, everyone following. He now played three more spades, my partner contributing two clubs and a heart, in that order. I discarded my ♦J and then a high heart. He now played a heart from the board towards his hand, winning the ♥A. He played off two more rounds of hearts, with me pitching clubs, and then played a club toward the ♣A, which felled partner's ♣K, but my ♣Q took the setting trick. It was a fortuitous turn of events for us, as this could have been a really bad round otherwise. I breathed a sigh of relief. We later had a discussion about the best lead against 7NT, and I now know to lead as absolutely passively as possible and definitely never to lead from jack fourth.

All four hands are shown below:

West

♠

1085

♥

73

♦

J732

♣

Q654

Dummy

♠

KQ964

♥

86

♦

954

♣

AJ10

East

♠

J2

♥

J9542

♦

1086

♣

K87

Joel

♠

A73

♥

AKQ10

♦

AKQ

♣

932

D

Overall, I felt we had a solid session, but really nothing spectacular, and we finished with a 49.76%, our first below-50% session. We ended the day in 55th place, one above Steve & Kevin, so I get Bridge Winners bragging rights for the day. Most importantly, we made it to the finals of a 3-day pairs event, a first for me. I got another good night's sleep, and am going to try to stay in the boat for one more day!

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