Matchpoints, everyone white, dealer on your right passes, you hold:
AJ7653
QJ
Q
9652
I have never been a fan of "The hand is too strong for 2
and too weak for 1
so I pass". I will open 1
or 2
.
I chose 2
. That stiff Q doesn't seem to be worth much and I am not so fond of QJ tight either.
Anyway, I chose 2
Lho comes in with 3
, partner raises me to 3
, Rho bid 4
and now? I pass and so does everyone else.
This all seems reasonable enough.
We could have set it 3, but our defense allowed declarer the possibility of down 2 but it ended up down 3. So great, +150 beats +140 if by any chance 3
makes.
So I thought. Now for all hands. Declarer is placed S, my hand is E.
K2
T863
AJ9
T873
984
AJ7653
A754
QJ
832
Q
AQ4
9652
QT
K92
KT7654
KJ
Partner led a spade, of course. Declarer went up with the K, I tool the A. Who has the Q? Unfortunately, we were playing that we lead second highest from spots so the lead was the
8. Partner would lead thus the 8 from 984, which he had, and from Q98, which he didn't have. So I continued a spade. Declarer now has six
tricks and a
and can but didn't develop a trick from the
-
layout.
What I needed to do to guarantee a 3 trick set was to shift to a
at T2. The plan would be to take two
and two
, ending in parnter's hand, and then a third
allows me to sore my
Q.
But no matter, since 4
is on ice. The
are 2-2, the
finesse works, the !c finesse works, and thanks to the trump split I can ruff a
in dummy if needed.
Feel free to draw any conclusion you wish. I think I still open 2
the next time I get this hand. If I open 1
we would not get to 4
, that would be too optimistic, but partner would hit 4
.
As to leads, I think that once partner raises spades he should be allowed to lead the 9 rather than the 8. That would have clearly been the top of nothing. Maybe 8 from 984 is right in an unbid suit, I can see arguments for and against, but once he supports, I think the 9 is better, reserving the 8 for a lead from Q98.