Hand 3 Table 1

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...b|p|mb|p|mb|p|

I guess West or South can open here. But both are pretty ugly. Qx sucks in wests hand.

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...Q|pc|HK|pc|C9|

But I am a little more creative. While playing precision I tend to open lighter than when playing 2/1, and sometimes it can really cost like here. I should ruff the club high, but atak made it up later to me by not taking his Qh when he had the chance.

Wolves:8
Village:0

Hand 4 Table 1
http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...SJ|pc|C8|mc|6|

Siegmund elects not to open 2H. Which leads to a standard 1NT-(2S)-AP. But far from a standard hand to play. Wyman doesn't worry much about drawing trumps, which lets JLall find a nice trump uppercut for down 2.

Table 2

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...T|pc|CA|pc|C6|

Atak does open this 2H which leads to a normal 2NT-AP. 2 spades, 2 hearts, and 3 diamonds should be the limit, but dwetzel returns the Qs at trick 4 allowing for 3 spade tricks.

Wolves:9
Villagers:0

Hand 5 Table 1

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...K|pc|SJ|pc|H9|

I don't understand bidding after 2H. X described the hand perfectly, with no real extra strength to be found. But I guess with JLall declaring you can upgrade your hand . Then of course JLall accepts the invite. Absolutely masterful declaring with a beautiful troup coup at the end.

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...DQ|pc|HJ|mc|9|

I felt I had described my hand after 2H and stopped. I think on defense if me and Myrmidon work immediately to attack trumps, DWetzel will have a real hard time making. But with the defense as played, 3D was no real sweat.

Wolves:21
Villagers:0

Hand 6 Table 1

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...9|pc|S8|pc|SQ|

The 2S bid is reserved more for a more unbalanced hand. A standard rebid of 2NT will stop JLall cold in his tracks, and land in the better spot.

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...S6|pc|H6|mc|8|

1c=16+ and 1H=19+.

With no real intermediate cards, and a perfectly square hand, and not being vulnerable, I need to downgrade my hand here. This is an ugly ugly 19 HCP and I should just bid 1NT showing 16-18. Once I bid 1H though I am doomed to the bad game as well.

Wolves:21
Villagers:0

Hand 7 Table 1

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...DK|pc|HJ|mc|8|

Nothing really to this hand as far as I can tell.

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...T|pc|DA|pc|C6|

1NT was forcing even as a passed hand. So I bid it this way to discourage him from going further. Though maybe this is pointless in precision. 2S closes more room, he is limited, though I suppose he could have a lot of distribution and still want to try for game.

Wolves:21
Villagers:0

I actually typed in that Justin should add 3 points to the hand when he plays and deduct 3 when I play. That was one of the additions

Hand 8 Table 1
http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...K|pc|SQ|pc|SJ|

Reasonable auction. I might try 2H by west, by pass is probably with those awful doubletons. Wyman started off with the right idea to attack spades first. But after Seigmund switched to a heart, JLall found his entry he needed to the board to run diamonds. +2

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...D6|pc|DK|mc|6|

By running spades, and never allowing an entry to the board, there was nothing Myrmidon could do to avoid going down 1. Nice defense.

Wolves:26
Villagers:0

Hand 9 Table 1
http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...5|pc|CK|mc|12|

Normal auction. An incredibly tough slam to bid playing 2/1

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...J|pc|S5|mc|12|

I was real close to bidding it though playing precision, but I wussed out because of a bidding confusion. 3c asked for club control. I thought a response of 4c would show AK, or AQ. Maybe it should. It would of been incredibly useful in this instance, and I likely would of gone for it. Especially since we were down so many IMPS. But if myr had Axx in clubs, slam looks to be awful, especially since I know we are missing the Kh.

Wolves:26
Villagers:0

Hand 10 Table 1

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...Q|pc|SK|mc|10|

I think South owes North a raise here. The hand has a lot of support. Also it helps keep West from coming back into the auction, and there might possibly be a gamer there...

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...7|pc|C5|mc|10|

...and this time I think north owes south a raise here. That North hand is about a good of a majors hand as you ever get after a 1nt opener. If 3h is down a bit, they likely missed 3NT or 5m.

Wolves:26
Villagers:0

Hand 11 Table 1

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...K|pc|ST|pc|SA|

A transportation nightmare. Wyman got the club guess right, but then needed to hold off cashing the Jc to kep transportation alive. By not keeping the Jc around transportation was a nightmare after FCBL holded off on the Ah.

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...K|pc|DQ|pc|S5|

Similar line. Except FCBL shows me up on defense because I foolishly take the Ah immediately, allowing it to make easily

Wolves:36
Villagers:0

Hand 12 Table 1

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...C5|pc|CQ|mc|9|

Ugly 2c call at this vulnerability. Lead makes it pretty easy. But a reasonable lead.

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...CK|pc|CT|mc|8|

A suicidal 3c, but couldnt help myself. Had to try something to get an imp.

Wolves:36
Villagers:1

A fun team match, even if it was a blow out. I would do it again anytime.

Trying to do writeups while playing bridge with Atak FCBL and Sieg was a bit of a challenge, and certainly hurt my ability on both (as I miss a cold grand slam). So I am sure there is some things I am missing, or not going into enough detail on. So feel free to critique my writeups all you want.

Writeups were awesome. Team match was fun.

Playing with Justin was legendary.

Not embarrassing myself was the best part.

wow I'm so sorry I missed that, teams.

Great writeups, chuck. I'd be a little tougher on the defense (including mine) than you were, but I guess this isn't Bridge World (though even Bridge World is pretty easy on mistakes, when they're made by clients).

I managed not to play awfully during the match, which rather distinguishes it from the rest of my play this evening, as I miss-see three auctions...

NV vs vul, SAYC bidding

AT6
973
A76
AQ92

(P)-1C
1D-(1S)-1NT
2H-3D
5D-???

5H, 6D, or pass?

Presumably 1D-then-2H is still a GF reverse even after the 1S overcall and 1NT rebid. If so, this is a clear pass (and expect to go down a modest percentage of the time): if partner believed slam was possible opposite my hand his 3rd bid would have been 4D (or 3H or something else forward-going.)

Partner's actual hand could have been bid quite a few different ways.

If I don't cash the CJ, I can never win the clubs in dummy; you would just need to knock out my spades, and I'd have no transportation. This hand should actually go -1 from the getgo.

However, the defense erred by pitching a spade each -- FCBL at trick 4 and JLall at trick 6. After spade-spade-king-queen, spade-jack-spade-??, I chose to duck in dummy to try to endplay someone into leading to the good dummy. Instead, diamonds broke reasonably, and I didn't make use of defense's spade pitches (d'oh). I should instead overtake the SJ, cash my clubs for 8 tricks, and lead toward my DK for 9.

I think partner has 6 diamonds, 4 hearts, and a game force here. If not, I'd fully expect a 3S call. In fact, I really don't understand this auction; how can partner be game-forcing and shapely enough to bid like this, but have no interest in slam. Hmmm. I'm real close -- real close -- to bidding 6D here. What's not to love about 3 aces AND the top of your range? I guess you're not ruffing hearts in hand, but really?

I have no idea, but maybe he has 7 or 8 diamonds and invented a bid. Or maybe he has QJxx hearts. I'm passing and having a conversation with partner later about fast arrival if 6 rolls.

5H out of the question. If he had 5 hearts, he would have bid 3H over 3D to pattern out. We're already in a game force.

Looking fwd to the spoiler!

After reading the hand, I'll put a plug in for minorwood. Since you're in a GF auction and have both bid diamonds, 4D should be rkc for diamonds. You'll show 3 keys, and he'll probably bid the slam. You could have the DQ or 4 diamonds, though I guess both are unlikely.

Partner doesn't want to RKC at all yet (we're just playing straight SAYC as defined by the Learn to Play Bridge programs), so that can't happen now.

I was wondering about a straight Blackwood bid by him, but the problem is that 5H=2 aces would be too high. Of course this is why lower bids are so useful in the minors .

I still prefer my version of key-card asks, wherein the ask would be 4H here... but the problem was earlier, when partner should have bid 3H instead of 5D.

As bid, partner had plenty of opportunities to look for slam and didn't. The aces are nice, but the hearts are bad. Pass.


(My version of ace-asking has the advantage of always being trivial to remember. Ace ask is:

• The next bid above four of the agreed suit, unless that suit was the first-bid suit of either partner, in which case
• It's the next step above that,, unless that was the first-bid suit of either partner, in which case...
• it's the next step above that.

So here, hearts was not the first suit bid by either player, so 4H asks for keys in diamonds after diamonds are agreed. You may think you want 4H to be natural here, but it's not necessary because 3H is forcing.)

This is one of the rare cases where what he needs for slam really is aces, so it's tricky. He should bid 3H at his second rebid (forcing), and then you will probably bid 4H to avoid ambiguity, though you have extras so you may consider 4NT yourself.

Wow, team games now? Fantastic.

I think when I'm off work over xmas I'm going to stay up late so I can play bridge with all you nightowls.

Actually in the 3N hand, taking the heart ace was no problem. The problem was the spade pitch at T4 from both souths. After that, both contracts are cold; I just forgot to make mine.

Do you use bridgify? If not, it is a free double-dummy analyzer found at http://www.bridgify.net/

It's fun to analyze cardplay with that.