A Coup For You

In Denver I had the pleasure of playing with Bernie Miller, now a Floridian and a teammate in some major events over the last few years. Because of Lew Finkel’s commitments and young Bill Wickham’s age, Bernie and I decided to play together in the Senior KO. With a few emails, a little bidding practice, and a couple of online sessions we were ready to go. I wish we could say that it was one of those Bulletin stories where the first-time partnership wins, but we did come pretty close. Bernie is a great partner who works hard on every hand and almost always finds a good answer. Here is an intersting hand where he had the helm.

K 9 2
A 7 6 2
3
K 10 5 4 3

A Q 6
K Q 5 3
A Q 4 2
A Q

Board 8 Dealer E, Neither (reversed for convenience)

2	2 waiting
2NT	3 puppet stayman
3 1+ major  (DBL)	3 shows hearts
4	4NT
5 1 or 4 KC	5 queen ask
6 got it	7 Play well!

As North, I did not know about the heart jack, so I was risking a 4-1 split for starters. I was using Mr. Chang’s double of 3 to help me place partner’s cards. He had denied the diamond king with the jump to slam, and I thought he probably didn’t have the queen either. Without these diamond honors, he almost had to have the rounded jacks for his 2NT rebid. Wrong again!

So Bernie got to play a grand that probably would not be reached at the other table. Can you match his play and the 11-IMP pickup?

Opening lead: C8.

Update on Saturday, December 31, 2005 at 05:03PM by Jeff Miller
Sorry for omitting the opening lead in the first post. I’ll get better at this. Check out Bernie’s coment for the correct line of play. The player who doubled and made the opening lead held the following hand:

J 8 5 3
J 8 4
K J 8 6 5
8

The double may have encouraged us to bid the grand, in a sense, but it laid a trap for Bernie.

After an unlucky loss on the first board of the 4th quarater, you suspect that you are down about 40 IMP’s as you pick up the following hand, vul vs. not:

98, JT432, KJ103, A2.

Your RHO opens 1 and it is up to you. Would you bid?

Let us suppose that you pass. Your LHO now responds 1 and partner bids 3. Your screenmate passes again, and you have your second bidding decision of the hand. Your partner obviously has a good hand at these colors. Do you have enough to raise? Are you influenced by the likely state of the match? If so, which way should you lean?

The scene was the final quarter of the Semi-final match of the Senior KO in Denver. We trailed by 25, having lost our substantial first-quarter lead in the second set and making no headway in the 3rd quarter. The quarter started with a big decision by our opponents. With N dealer and none vul and South held the following:

A4
AKQ62
K82
AJ5

He heard partner open 2D Multi, and inquired with 2NT. Partner rebid 3H, showing a maximum hand with spades. South now placed the contract in 6S. I do not know their style or agreements, but someone had it wrong in this long-standing partnership, since North tabled this hand:

KQ10953
J
A3
8762

Our teammates, Gene Freed and Jim Murphy, bid well to 7S which seems to be about 75%. Alas, the spades were 4-1 with no stiff J, so we suspected that we had lost another 14, instead of winning 11.

It was a painful start to the final segment, and put extra pressure on the remaining decisions.