The hand below came up in the round of 16 in the USBC. All tema play the same hands so this was played 8 times with a variety of results. In many ways it's an everyday hand, so I thought people might like to imagine how it might go when playing in IAC with their favorite partner.
I imagine E and S pass, but how about W? Some bid 1S, some not. Some waited and came in artificially after N bid 1NT followed by two passes. This had the effect of making E the declarer in 2S. At some tables there were 3 passes, a bid of 1NT, and 3 more passes.
At one table W bid a third seat 1S, N bid 1NT, and E, apparently thinking his partner actually had something, doubled 1NT and then led a spade. N won, dropped the singleton K of hearts, went to the board and finessed the spade to establish 8 tricks in 1NTX. But he then got greedy and took the D finesse so he ended up with only 7 tricks. Still a good result of course .
There were various comments on the vugraph show at the various tables. It's amusing that NS have a heart fit and EW have a club fit, but it was never played in either hearts or clubs. I don't think EW would do well in clubs. NS might do ok in hearts, as long as they stay out of 4. At the table I watched they broke even: 1NT +90 for NS at one table, 2S off 1, +100 for NS at the other. Yes, NS can take the first 7 tricks against 2S, but they didn't.
At another table, N played 1NT, E led a diamond at trick 1, N was (for the moment) grateful to be on the board, and ran a heart losing to the stiff K.
There have been many great hands, of course. It was interesting here to see the variety of approaches on the same hand.
| E deals, EW vul | |
| | AKT
AT92
AJ43
74 | |
QJ862
8643
2
AQ5
| |
75
K
KT865
KT862
|
|
943
QJ75
Q97
J63
| |
