From: sgm@sgfb.ssd.ray.com (Steve Myerson)
Subject: Problems from Portland - results and summary
Organization: Raytheon Company
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 15:15:57 GMT

Thanks for the responses to my questions.
I've seen 5 articles and received 2 other responses via email.

In article <1992Nov16.230024.2100@rayssd.ssd.ray.com> I wrote:

* These hands are from the Flight B Open Pairs in Portland, Maine (Nov 14).
* 
* Get any two correct and you win the event.

These problems were obviously our bad boards.
We didn't get any right, and finished 5th. :-(

Each of the following mistakes cost us 6-9 MP,
and since we finished 10 MP out of first,
any two correct would have been enough to win the event.


* 1. None vul. East dealer. You are West: AJ9542, T, Q7, AT32
* 
* West   North   East   South
*                pass   pass
* 1S-1   1N-2    pass   2D       1. 11-15 HCP, at least 4 spades
* pass   2H      (all pass)      2. 15-17
* 
* After West passed, South announced that there had been
* a failure to alert, and that 2D was a transfer to 2H.
* The director then permitted West to take back his final
* pass if he wished.  What do you do?

Correct answer: PASS.
net.experts: 2 passes (both said they would have opened 2S and avoided
                       this problem altogether),
             4 reopen (and another vote for opening 2S)
             1 request an adjusted score due to infraction

I reopened with a double, although afterwards I decided that 2S would
have been better, especially since we were playing 4 card majors.
Now that I've had a chance to look at it,
I agree with the people who suggested that this hand be opened 2S.

The mistake was reopening. My RHO had T3, Q6542, K85, QJ9
and LHO had K86, AK87, A32, K76. RHO should have transferred and
invited in NT, but got confused because "you forgot to alert, partner".

Over my partner's 3D bid, my RHO showed some values with a 3H bid,
and my LHO, with a maxi and great trumps, bid 4H.
All the scores were NS +420 or +170, so reopening turned our
tie for top into a tie for bottom.

Had I known that 2D was a transfer, I would have bid 2S.
But when it seemed that RHO had run from 1N to 2D,
I wondered what had happened to the AKQJ of hearts
since there seemed to be a shortage of both points
and hearts in the deck.

Is this a case where I should have known to ask my LHO
about the meaning of the 2D bid? There's no place on
the convention card for this sort of thing.

* 2. Both vul. South dealer. You are East: T74, KJ52, K7, Q975
* 
* West   North   East   South
*                       1D-1     1. Shows at least 4
* dbl    1S      dbl-2  1N       2. Responsive, 6-9 HCP
* pass   5D      ?

Correct answer: PASS.
net.experts: 5 pass
             2 double

My partner doubled. Declarer can always make 7D,
due to 2 finesses working, but only 2 pairs bid 6D.
This declarer managed to take 12 tricks, losing a heart trick.
West (me) had a distributional take-out double: KJ2, QT98, 2, AT843.

North had AQxxx, xx, QJxxxx, void and South was xx, Axx, ATxx, KJxx.
With spades splitting 3-3 and both the spade and diamond kings onside,
13 tricks were easy. NS scores were +1390, +800, +640, +630 and +600,
(the last two scores presumably as a result of playing in NT),
so had this declarer managed only 12 tricks (playing 5D undoubled),
our -620 would have been a very good score.
In fact, our -950 beat only those defending 6D (striped tail ape double?).


* 3. NS vul. West dealer. You are West: Q863, J63, 632, AQ6
* 
* West   North   East   South
* pass   1C      2N-1   3H       1. 6-12 HCP, at least 4 spades and 4 diamonds
* 3S     4H      pass   pass        with at least 9 cards total in the 2 suits
* ?

Correct answers: DOUBLE (best) or PASS.
net.experts: 6 pass (2 suggested that they might double)
             1 double

I bid 4S, which got doubled and went down 2
(yes, I followed up my bad bid with bad declarer play,
throwing away what few remaining matchpoints we could have gotten).

My partner has a spade and diamond trick,
and my RHO turns up with the king of clubs, so 4H also goes down.
Double would have tied for top, but +100 would have tied for next-to-top.

* 4. Both vul. South dealer. You are North: QJ95, T97, AKT762, void
* 
* West   North   East   South
*                       1S-1     1. 11-15 HCP, at least 4 spades
* pass   2C-2    2H     pass-*   2. artificial, forcing to game
* 3H     ?                          opener may not pass short of game
*                                   2C bidder may pass short of game on misfit
* 
* * - To help with the bidding system:
* 
*   double - would be for penalties
*   2S - would show 5
*   2N - would show a heart stopper
*   3m - better than minimum opening plus a suit
* 
* so the pass says only 4 spades, no heart suit or decent stopper,
* not a distributional hand, and on the low end of the HCP range (11-13).
* In other words, your basic garbage balanced opener with 4 spades.

Correct answer: DOUBLE (best) or 3S (forcing) or 4S (to play)
net.experts: 1 double
             6 either forcing pass, 3S (forcing) or 4S (to play)

My partner bid 3S (yes, forcing), agreeing spades and demanding me to cuebid.
(The way we play it, if one partner starts a cue-bidding sequence,
the other is obligated to also cue, up to the level of game,
even without extra values).

Partner decided slam was a good bet if I had a singleton heart
(then I would have been exactly 4-1-4-4).
Some net.experts also mentioned this.

I showed the ace of clubs, partner bid 4D and I signed off in 4S.
Partner then bid 5D and I signed off in 5S. Down 1.

The look on my partner's face as I won the *third* round of hearts
with the queen was priceless.
The look on his face as I lost a spade finesse to the king was dismay.

The 2H bidder had bid on AKxx of hearts,
for "lead-directing purposes since we were going to game".
His partner raised to 3H on Jxx.
3Hx goes down 4 on perfect defense, 3 otherwise.

Double would have been a top, but +620 in 4S would have been OK, too.

* 5. NS vul. East dealer. You are South: 9, J4, AK7654, JT94
* 
* West   North   East   South
*                pass   ?
* 
* Do you preempt or not?

Correct answer: 3D.
net.experts: 4 pass
             2 2D
             1 3D

The bidding as it happened:
West   North   East   South
               pass   pass
1N     pass    2C     2D
2S     pass    2N     pass
3S     pass    pass   pass

I decided not to open, due to a) the decent 4-card club suit
and b) East had passed.

If I open 3D (I can't open 2D since our 2D doesn't show diamonds),
the opponents thought that they would probably have bid to 4S.
3S made 3 and can never make 4.

On *this hand* I should have preempted (playing result merchant)
but I'm still not sure if there's a definitive answer on whether
or not to preempt in a similar type of situation
(vul vs not, second seat, side 4-card suit).

Steve Myerson (sgm@sgfb.ssd.ray.com)
Xref: sparky rec.games.bridge:6555 ucb.general:73