(no subject)
Funny hands from the Montebello with one of the local juniors who isn't very good...
Auction goes:
1N* 2D 2H 4N** 5H 7H p
*15-17
**We discussed 4C as 1430 RKCB for hearts
I don't know what partner was doing. However, the bad news was that I held Axx A9x xx AJ98x. For some reason I saw AQxxx when I was opening. The good news, I have Axx A9x xx AJ98x. 7H=, of course.
That was the first hand of the night. On the last hand of the night, I held:
AKxx A9xx x AKJx, 3rd seat, favorable.
Partner opens 1H. Lots of options... which do you pick?
1S, 2C, 2N, 4D and 4N seem to all be viable bids here. I decided that with this partner, 4N was getting me all the information I could get.
So auction goes:
1H 4N 5C* 5D 5H** ...
* 1 Keycard
** No Q of trump.
Well, I could've bid 6H instead of 5D, so I'm not necessarily stopped from going to slam here still. So after consideration, and the fact that it was the last board, and that slam is more fun, I bid 6H. Check, check, X.
I thought about this for a while... If RHO has KQJ or KQT of hearts, 6H can't make. But 6N may still have chances on a bunch of partner's hands. Also, it is matchpoints. And its better not to let partner play hands. So I tried 6N. X on the left.
Suspicious. How can both opponents have enough to keep hitting my slam? Well, there really wasn't much harm in XXing, so I did that.
2 of spades led. Partner hits, not even kidding, with Jxxx QT87x KT Qx. Well, fortunately, although my partner is bad, my opponents are hopeless too.
JS holds the first trick. QH, KH, AH, small club pitched. 9H, small diamond pitched, heart, JH. LHO has the A of diamonds, and pitched Lavinthal to ask for a diamond switch. But, RHO was confused and treated both minor pitches as discouraging. So, holding Qxx in diamonds and xxx in clubs, he returned a club. Fortunately, that is clearly enough, since LHO obviously has the AD (assuming RHO would set a redoubled slam if he had the setting trick), so once I pulled clubs, and pulled hearts, the dummy had KD and I had AKx of spades to squeeze LHO. Unfortunately, +460 would've been just as good as +1660. Everyone else was in 4H making 4-5.