Results not commensurate

Sometimes in duplicate bridge some of the hands where you displayed a bit of skill matchpoint poorly and some of the hands where you stumbled matchpoint well.

In Monday’s club game, my partnership’s weak notrump base resulted in our missing a 4-4 spade fit and instead playing a 1NT contract.

West ♠ AKJ4 ♥ 8654 ♦ A96 ♣ 97

East ♠ T752 ♥ T7 ♦ Q83 ♣ KQJ3

North led the ♥Q against my 1NT contract.  South followed suit with the ♥9.  North next switched to the ♦J, covered by the Q and K and won by my ♦A.  I led a club to dummy’s honors and South won the ♣A.  South cashed the ♥J; that was surprising, given that North had led the ♥Q.  South then led back a diamond.  I played small from my hand and North pitched a heart, as dummy won the ♦8.  Now that was really surprising!  What to make out of all of this?  Seems as though North might have chosen to have led the ♥Q from AKQ32; that doesn’t seem consistent with their lead agreements on the convention card, but perhaps she was thinking that her partner would unblock the jack just as if she were leading Q from KQT9?  Not sure about any of that, especially because if that were her plan, she should be glad her partner did not unblock the jack because had she, my eight would soon be established as the master heart!

At any rate, expecting that hearts were 5-2 and diamonds were known to be 1-6, I went about playing two high clubs to discover more about the hand.  Each defender followed suit and it was time to take stock.  I had won two diamonds and two clubs.  North seems to be either 3=5=1=4 or 4=5=1=3.  The former is way more likely, since a spade could have been safely discarded from a four card suit, even if she held the queen.  So … I led a spade to my ace for my fifth trick and threw North in with a heart, South discarding a diamond as expected.  North cashed one more heart and the thirteener club and then led a spade into my KJ.

Dealer: 12-W Vul: NS	North ♠ Q98 ♥ AKQ32 ♦ J ♣ 6542
West ♠ AKJ4 ♥ 8654 ♦ A96 ♣ 97		East ♠ T752 ♥ T7 ♦ Q83 ♣ KQJ3
	South ♠ 63 ♥ J9 ♦ KT7542 ♣ AT8

+90, however, was only 3.5 mps out of 11, because declarers in spades scored better.  Still, that is better than being -50.

On another board, I held as dealer a hand that can cause midgame conversions to a big club system: ♠KJ942  ♥AQ53  ♦A  ♣AK6.  A 21 HCP three suiter.  My style on such hands is to open at the one level and then pray that someone else makes a call to avoid being passed out (or, maybe, to open 2NT).  I opened 1♠ and partner responded 1NT, forcing.  Good, got by the first round and I know to make a game forcing jump shift to 3♥ this round.  With the opponents continuing to be silent, partner now bid 3♠.  Our agreements are that the 3♠ bid over 3♥ jump shift shows the same type of hand that would bid 2♠ over a 2♥ rebid by my hand: that is, two cards in spades and something under invitational values.  We don’t play constructive raises and so partner, if he has as many as three spades, should have a limit raise and he would then rebid 4♠ in this sequence and not 3♠.

Seems like I am pretty much backed into bidding 3NT at this point and I fully expect partner to pass that call.  Surprisingly, however, partner now bids 4♥.  What does he have?

My best guess is that the “agreements” I articulated are not shared.  Maybe partner really does have a three card limit raise and tried to save bidding spade by bidding only 3♠ at his last turn and then control bidding the ♥K next.  I chose to control bid 5♣.  Partner now bid 5♠ and I, still not sure what is going on, closed the bidding with a 6♠ call.  North led the ♠3.

Dealer: 24-W Vul: None	North ♠ T63 ♥ T ♦ KJT983 ♣ 753
West ♠ KJ942 ♥ AQ53 ♦ A ♣ AK6		East ♠ Q8 ♥ J96 ♦ 762 ♣ QJ982
	South ♠ A75 ♥ K8742 ♦ Q54 ♣ T4

Hmm, I guess partner and I did have a partnership agreement about the meaning of his 3♠ call.  Why did he remove 3NT?  Yes, I can see that diamonds are a big problem in 3NT and that 4♠ is a much better contract (6♣ anyone?), but how can partner know that my minor suit holdings are as they are: if you reverse my clubs and diamonds, 3NT is the preferred contract.

Turning to the task at hand, 6♠ is not such a bad contract.  When spades behaved and the ♥K proved to be onside, we were scoring up +980, all 11 mps, and I am issuing an apology to the nice ladies who had just been fixed.  (Only later did I realize that a heart lead, followed by a heart return by South when in with the ♠A, could have set 6♠.)