Nov '99

A lucky misunderstanding!

With the variety of bridge players and systems at OKB, it is not unusual to see partners having misunderstandings. Most of the time they are costly. Here is a case where the misunderstanding yielded a MP score of 95% !! Sweet...

Board rotated 180^o


MP-42       atila       Dlr: West
Board 330   S A53       Vul: Both
            H AJT
anon1       D Q764      anon2
S JT9862    C 754       S KQ74
H KQ75                  H 9863
D T3        heartace    D AJ52
C 3         S           C J
            H 42
            D K98
            C AKQT9862

West     North    East     South
anon1    atila    anon2    heartace

Pass     Pass     Pass     1C       
1S       Dbl      2C*      2S       
Pass     3NT      4S       4NT      
Pass     5H       Pass     5S       
Pass     6C       Pass     Pass     
Pass                                

Opening lead: SJ    Result: Made 6
Score: 1370         Points:  95.35

 1  East   SJ,  3,  4, C2
 2  North  CA,  3,  4,  J
 3  North  CK, S8, C5, D2
 4  North  C6, S2, C7, S7
 5  South  D4,  A,  8,  3
 6  West   D5

North must have taken the 2

bid to ask for a stopper, as he bid 3NT. 4NT is ostensibly to play then, as this is a higher MP score than a paltry 5

bid.

However, North misunderstands, and responds aces. South, desperately trying to avoid playing in a slam bids 5 asking North to bid 5NT. North, however, takes this expert bid as "choose the final contract, pard," and bids 6!!

In the play, South advertises his spade void and his club length before putting East to the test with a diamond play off dummy. East probably thought that declarer's hand is something like:

-
Q42
K9
AKQ109862 He understandably rushes in with the A, for fear of them making 13 tricks. Remember, the A is available for a diamond pitch, and the heart finesse is on, if this were the situation.

Sweet success, and just another hand to print out and grovel over...

Yes, the

K lead was called for here.

A crucial decision

North and South are Les Amoils and Neville Eber, and they are practising on OKB as they were due to participate in the Bermuda Regional playoffs a week later (in Sri Lanka). They represent South Africa.
Through accurate card reading they beat this 3NT contract.


IMP-34      amoils      Dlr: North
Board 805   S A732      Vul: N-S
            H AT763
aric        D 86        vered
S 985       C T6        S Q6
H KJ8                   H Q4
D K54       eebs        D AT97
C AKQ7      S KJT4      C J9832
            H 952
            D QJ32
            C 54

West     North    East     South
aric     amoils   vered    eebs

         Pass     Pass     Pass     
1NT      Pass     3NT      Pass     
Pass     Pass                       

Opening lead: H6    Result: Down 1
Score: 50           Points:   6.83

 1  North  H6,  Q,  2,  8
 2  East   C2,  5,  A,  6
 3  West   CK,  T,  3,  4
 4  West   CQ, S3, C8, H5
 5  West   C7, S2, CJ, D2
 6  East   C9, H9, D4, H3
 7  East   H4,  ?

A heart was led, and the

Q holds. Eber gives count on this. Declarer immediate takes 5 club tricks.

Partner discards 3, 2, and the 3 on the clubs. This tells Eber that partner has the A, and that partner has led from a 5-bagger.

After the run of the clubs, declarer plays a heart off table.

At this stage Eber held

KJ104
-
QJ3
- What would you discard?

Declarer opened 1NT. If he has
985, AK8, 854, AKQ7 or
985, AJ8, K54, AKQ7,
he has 9 tricks.

To beat 3NT, and this is IMPs, partner needs to have the A!! Eber discards this baby diamond, and 3NT goes down with the heart ace and four spade tricks. Well done, guys!

How good are your 2-level Overcalls?

Playing first time with a strange partner, this was the second hand:

Board rotated 180^o
MP-46 anon1 Dlr: East Board 88 S K54 Vul: None H QJT9 if D A elsid S 72 C T8765 S AT863 H 872 H AK54 D QT765 anon2 D 32 C K92 S QJ9 C A4 H 63 D KJ984 C QJ3 West North East South if anon1 elsid anon2 1S 2D Pass Pass Dbl Pass Pass Pass Opening lead: S7 Result: Down 4 Score: -800 Points: 9.33
The Play:

1 East S7, 4, A, 9 2 West C4, Q, K, 5 3 East C9, 6, A, J 4 West S3, J, 2, 5 5 North D4, 5, A, 2 6 South CT, D3, C3, C2 7 West ST, Q, D6, SK 8 East H8, 9, K, 3 9 West S8, D9, DT, HT 10 East H7, Q, A, 6 11 West S6, D8, DQ, HJ 12 East H2, C7, H4, DJ 13 North DK, 7, C8, H5
Experience is acquired through hands such as this.......

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A lucky misunderstanding!

A crucial decision

How good are your 2-level Overcalls?

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