In the 8 board all-day tourney with the bots yesterday there were three slam hands, in the sense that we played three hands in slam.
Example 1: I opened 2
and partner responded 2NT. If I had my way this would be a flatish hand with about 8-10 hcps and no aces. But maybe I should check with what the bots think it is. 8+hcps and nothing is said about aces. Sort of flatish. So it says. Way way back Bobby Goldman recommended the bit about no aces, and I think he had a point. Here was my hand:
AKJ82
AKQTJ86
void
4
It sure would be nice to know if partner had the
A. Can I find out? Maybe, but it seems to be asking a lot for a partnership with limited agreements. There is also the spade Q to worry about. Goldman's idea was that 2NT should be flat, no suit worse than Jxx, no aces. Ok, if no suit is worse than Jxx then partner has the
Q and, with no aces, 6
is clearcut. But I am playing with the bot, not with Goldman. I guessed 6
. Oops. Partner has both the
A and the
Q, 13 tricks ready to go. Oh well.
Note: BWS says nothing about 2
- 2NT, at least nothing I could find. That's not good. [Added: Mike Lawrence seems to be opposed to the auction 2C-2NT existing. Maybe so, I am not convinced. But it should be narrowly drawn.]
http://tinyurl.com/y87wksaqExample 2: Pard opens 1
.
I am holding:
K2
A3
QT
KQ98653
2
seems right so I bid it. Partner rebids 2
. This does not promise 6 but I have Ax and I imgine playing in hearts will be fine. I decide to keep it simple so I raise to 4
. Showing a minimum, I trust.
Partner now bids 4NT. This is a little alarming because these tourneys are in "best hand" style meaning that no other hand at the table has more hcps than I do. I have 14. This does not sound good but I am a straight arrow so I show my one key card with 5
. Partner bids 6
. Partner is declarer but the way these tourneys work the software switches me with the bot so I am declarer. The opening lead is a perhaps surprising, and perhaps ominous,
T.
The hands:
K2
A3
QT
KQ98653
A765
KQT972
53
A
Good news: No diamond lead
Bad news: If the club is a stiff then my rho has Jxxx. There will be transportation issues if I first draw trump, then go to the board in spades, and then ruff a club. How do I get back?
Solution, I hope: Win the club, take two rounds of trump ending on the board, lead a small club to be ruffed in hand. I have two spade tricks, six heart tricks (I am assuming) so I only need five club tricks. If Lho has a second club. or if he has a stiff but does not have the
J, this will work. This seems best to me so I put it into action.Win the
,
K,
to A. Rho shows out on the second heart. Oops. But now a little bit is going my way. I cash the
K throwing a
and Lho follows. That does it, really I can claim now.
Q throwing another
as LHo ruffs but I win the return, draw his remaining trump, go to the board in spades and run the rest of the clubs. So I was worried that the clubs were not breaking, in fact it was the hearts that weren't, but all's well that ends well.
http://tinyurl.com/y7lobb8hExample 3 (My bad, definitely me):
A32
83
KQT7
AJT2
jdonn recommends shading the NT openings a bit for these day long tourneys, and this is only a mild shading (I do have two tens, one accompanied by a J) so I open 1NT. This is not the part where I erred, imo. Partner bid 2
, I bid 2
. Partner bid 3
. I bid 3
. That's my error. That was lazy. The right bid is 4
, hopefully disclaiming any interest in playing more than 4
. My 3
got my pard all worked up. He bid 4
, I bid 4
, he bid 4NT. If I keep my wits about me I lie and show just one key instead of two but no, I bid 5
and there then I was in a hopeless 6
.
http://tinyurl.com/y7u7kr44Three very swingy slams, two going badly. Oh well. Some other boards went better. Some good, some bad, what else is new.