Life Masters Pairs '95 Problems

After 5 sessions, you find that partner is sound and imaginative, but prone to occasssional flights of fancy. He found this wonderful sequence. He held  Q10xxx --- J10xx Q10xx. White on red, LHO opened 1. I bid 3, asking for a stop and showing a solid suit. His RHO passed and he bid 3NT in tempo. LHO bid 4, I passed, RHO bid 4 and he bid 4NT! LHO bid 5 and I doubled, so he pulled to 6. LHO continued to 6, I passed this time and he bid 7, got doubled and went down one for a near top. 6 is cold. If they lead the wrong ace, we make 7. Nicely done, pard.

The final is on a 38 top. The dealership and vulnerability will skip around because we were E/W and because some of the problems are partner's and some are opponent's.

Round 1:
I don't recognize our opponents. The field will be surprisingly soft today; I'm not sure why. On the first board, declarer takes an all-out line and makes an overtrick in a normal 4 contract. It's not clear if the line is sensible; it risks the contract and has a somewhat lower expectancy than a safer line, but has the merit of working this time. 11 matchpoints.

On the second board, you hold  Q3 AK876 765 KQ10. You open 1, LHO overcalls 2 and partner bids 2, standard, not game forcing. RHO passes. What do you bid?

I bid 3. Partner bid 3, I bid 3 and partner closed proceedings with 4. I admit that with his hand, I would have bid more and probably reached the five-level and stopped, finding that we were off the Q and an ace. 4 is enough on the actual hands, but now there's a play problem:

	AK974 J92 9 A763
	Q3 AK876 765 KQ10

YOU	LHO	CHO	RHO
1H	2D	2S	Pass
3C	Pass	3H	Pass
3S	Pass	4H	All Pass

T1: A-9-4-6
T2: Q-2-8-5
What's your plan?

I got this one right for 27+ matchpoints and an average round. Getting it wrong is worth another 11.

Round 2:
We play Deas-Palmer. The first board is a totally flat 3NT making 4, but they inexplicably miss a cold game on the second hand, which makes five. 16+ on the first hand and 30 on the second. Only a half a board above average so far, but things are about to get better.

Round 3:
Vs. the Truscotts. They are playing relay precision (surprise). On the first board, he plays 3NT and goes down one when we defend reasonably and we get 29+. On the second one, this defensive "problem" arises. Dorothy is playing it.

	A54 J1076 1083 AJ6
		63 KQ832 K2 5432

CHO	RHO	YOU	LHO
Pass	Pass	2H	2S
Pass	3S	All Pass

T1: 9-6(?)-3-A
T2: K-2-4-3
T3: Q-K-A-2
T4: J-3-9-7
T5: 6-4-T-8
T6: 7-8-A-6
T7: 5-2-Q-9
T8: 5-9-J-Q
T9: 5-J-T-3
T10: 4-6-T-K
T11: ?

I got this right and got 26 only matchpoints for +100. It turns out that the aggressive 2 was bad, since many others reached game.

Two good scores leave us a full board over average. Not enough yet.

Round 4:
Opponents are Steve Onderwyzer and someone I don't recognize.

You hold  A5 A6 98 AKQ10876. Partner opens 1. 3 would be a spade raise and 2 is game forcing. What is your plan?

On the second board, Steve has to play this trump suit:

I got the first one right and Steve got the second one wrong. Two tops for us. (34 and 34+.) Things are looking up.

Round 5:
I don't know these guys, either. On the first board, they bid to 3 on their nine-card fit after we bid 2 on our 8-carder. No one is vulnerable, but we are booked for down 1 and they can't make 3. LTT is off by two, primarily because neither side has the high cards in their long suits. For their getting it wrong we get 31 matchpoints.

On the second hand, you (partner) hold:

 9 AKQ AQ6 965432

Favorable, dealer. What do you open and what do you plan to rebid?

We are successful on this hand for 36+. Now we are cruising. Round 6: Vs. Manfield-Woolsey. Kit is on my right. Partner opens 1 and I put him in game with:

	KQ4 2 AJ653 J1032
	A6532 A8765 K10 9

South passes and we quickly bid 1-2; 2-2; 3-4. The opening lead is the 8-x-A-9. 9 comes back. Plan the play.

Partner made this for an average score. On the next board, I held  AKJ108653 Q75 --- Q8. Partner opens a strong notrump as dealer. Your methods are 4-way transfers and "Aces Scientific" but no real discussion. Partner will probably be on the same wavelength. At this point, what's your plan?

I got a top on the board and suddenly things are looking very good. It turns out that we are leading the event now.

Round 7:
Opponents are unknowns. You hold

 Q9 9643 KJ8 K1065.

Opponents are silent and the auction begins: 1-1NT*; 2. What action do you take?

On the second board, you hold

 K765 AJ AQ104 QJ8.

You deal and open a strong notrump. Pass, pass, 2 showing hearts and a minor. You double for takeout and everyone passes. What's your opening lead?

We got each of these wrong. Disaster strikes. 5+ and 0. Our momentum is broken.

Round 8:
We skip two little old ladies and play Grant Baze and a bad client. You hold:

 KJ7 72 J72 A9853.

Both white, Grant deals and opens 3. Partner doubles and the client bids 4. What's your plan?

On the second board, you hold:

 107 AKJ8642 A4 A6

YOU	LHO	CHO	RHO(Grant)
1H	Pass	2H	2S
3C	Pass	4C	Pass
?

We get them both "wrong" and get a 10 and a 20. More missed opportunities. We are fading.

Round 9:
Andy Robson is on my right; Hordis is on my left. First board, you hold  J2 KQ632 K43 K64.

RHO	YOU	LHO	CHO
1C	1H	1S	2H
2S	?

On the second board, you hold  A10 7 QJ10743 AK104.

YOU	LHO	CHO	RHO
1D	1S	Dbl	2C
2D	Pass	2H	2S
?

Not too many matchpoints are at stake here; averages are pretty much all that's available.

We are probably out of contention for the event now, but we still have a good shot at the top ten. Fortunately, I've never seen any of our remaining opponents before; they look pretty soft.

Round 10:
On the first board, the opponents get to a trivial 6NT and have to play A1043 vs. K9865 for four tricks to make. Declarer safety plays it and blows a trick to a 2-2 split. He gets the 7 he deserves, since this is matchpoints, not IMPs. It's been awhile since he have had a good result.

On the second board, you hold:  J98752 42 3 A943. RHO opens a strong notrump and you bid 2, spades and a minor, at unfavorable. LHO bids 3NT and it's your lead.

Chip Martel wanders by and asks how we are doing. I say, "up and down, but mostly up" and show him our scorecard. It seems as if we are doing ok at this point; Chip kibitzes the next hand.

Round 11:
You hold  QJ8 AQ54 54 QJ63. Your agreement about opening bids is "most 12s, some 10s." I open 1 and partner bids 2 strong. Now what?

I get it wrong in a sense and right in a sense. My instinct told me to do the right thing, but I rejected it. Too bad. 11.

Second board I deal and open 2 on  Q98542 96 KQ8 97 at both white. They reach a normal 4 and need to play K10 vs. J7 for a trick. Partner did not lead the suit, so declarer ought to get it right, but he played me for the Ace and we get a near top: 35+. We are maybe recovering a little. Good lead, pard.

Round 12:
I pick up  Q975 K63 K73 A42 in 2nd chair. My hand is sorted, so when RHO passes, it's obvious that this hand was passed out at the previous table. With four spades, I probably want to open it given the unauthorized information, but our style is "most 12s" and this cannot possibly qualify. I pass and so does everyone else. Partner has a 3244 11-count, so if I open, we shall probably get too high. If I opened 1, however, he'll bid 1NT and I can pass for a great score. If I open 1, he'll bid 1 and for us to go plus, I have to pass. Yeah, right. Without unauthorized information, neither option would cross my mind. Shrug. Cheating is too hard.

The pass out is worth 15+.

On the next board, they have a big double fit and stop in 3. Partner shifts to the 9 at trick two from 932 and declarer thinks he's about to suffer an overruff, which promotes a trump trick for my 10932. Unfortunately, declarer then plays hearts (AJ962 vs. Q953) for no losers, picking up partner's K104, to return us to average. Many are in game, so we get a 14 for -140. Rats.

Last round:
We are in 10th place now and first is out of reach, Levin-Wolfson blowing away the field. Two good results can get us up to second, since the pack is very tightly bunched at this point.

I pick up in 2nd with both white  Q AK1054 AKQJ8 J7. This is a clear 1 opener, but I make a very dubious action and open 2. LHO overcalls 2 and partner doubles. We agreed (wow!) that this shows something in spades, but no other aces or kings. What action do you take?

On the second board, we have a major defensive problem. (favorable vul.)

	A874 QJ85 2 AJ87
		J952 A103 KQ874 Q

CHO	LHO	YOU	RHO
Pass	1C	Dbl	Rdbl
1H	Dbl	Pass	3NT
All Pass

Partner leads the 7. Declarer plays the 5 from dummy. Plan the defense.

We got everything wrong in this round for a zero and a 4. That dropped us to 19th. Getting both hands right gets us up to 8th. Too bad. It was still a pretty good showing, all things considered. Partner did many very good things. Still, 19th in the LMs with a random partner is a pretty good result for each of us; this turns out to have been partner's first national event ever.

If you get all the decisions right in this set, you can end up winning the event. Miss a few and you might be second. Choke as badly as we did and you might not stay in the top 20. Good luck!