24 June 2011

Bumbling through an auction

Playing with a reasonably regular partner I picked up the following 13 cards:

Q J T
-
K x x x
Q J T x x x

I'm North and I can't remember whether we play inverted minors over interference. That's not usually a problem because it almost never comes up but today is not my day. Here's how the auction started:

SouthWestNorthEast
11?

Lots of options for my bid. I could try 2 or 3 clubs but I don't know what they show and partners alert or lack thereof might land me in trouble. A heart splinter would have been a great idea but forgetting our inverted agreements wasn't the only thing wrong with my brain that day. No, I was on a different track:

SouthWestNorthEast
11X2
3Pass?

Well my inability to bid might just be a blessing here. Partner has a good hand with 4 card spades. We're playing match points so spades is a considerably better denomination than clubs. Just to prove my insanity though I'll make a slam try. Maybe I'll be able to pull to 6 after an accept from partner or maybe 6 will play ok.

Vul: Nil
Dealer: N
A 9 x x
K J
A Q
K x x x x
K x x
Q x x x x
x x x x
A
x x x
A T x x x x
J x x
x
Q J T
-
K x x x
Q J T x x x

SouthWestNorthEast
11X2
3Pass4Pass
4PassPassPass

Partner wasn't keen on slam but a diamond lead and when the K  was onside we had 12 tricks in spades. Feeling confident my match point shenanigans combined with lack of forethought had netted us a good result we moved on. Par score: 5x down 5, +480 was worth a matchpoint short of 50%. Tough school.

Here's a challenge:
K 2
7
Q 5
A K Q J T 9 8 5

what action do you take after a weak 2 opening?

2 comments:

  1. 3♥ looks normal, hopefully you do not play this as Michaels.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's the joy of bidding problems. You get to apply whatever system works best!

    ReplyDelete