Review of my failed attempt...
I was sitting East throughout, and Fred Zhang was on West.
1st round.
Board 9 EW vul, dealer N.
T93
Q753
Q2
7632
K5
Q72
AK94
JT862
K6
J743
AKQT8
J
AJ986
-
AT985
954
After 2 passes, S opened a light 1S, and Fred doubled. North took
a view and bid 3S with only 3S. I passed, of course. When it
passed to Fred, he doubled again and I had an easy 4H rebid, which
ended the auction. With only 3S and 4 trumps, North was probably
laughing. But things didn't go as he planned -- but at least he
didn't double. South led the SA. With formidable C at dummy and
possible trump stack behind AK, S did not put me into test by
underleading the D, which I certainly would get right for an
overtrick. He cashed the DA, and now I had my game. +620 and 50.5
out of 77.
Board 10, both vul, dealer E.
K52
KT943
QJ
954
Q86
AJ4
Q2
65
98764
AKT52
T87
QJ3
T973
AJ87
3
AK62
Bidding
East South West North
1N P P X(1)
2D X(2) 3D 3H
P P P
Notice North's aggressive balance with this vul, that essentially
won them the board. Double showed a single suited hand. South's
double indicated intention to compete and asked North to bid the
suit. Apparently our oppo have seen this auction before. In 3H,
defense can only get to 2S, 1D, and 1C. We've probably dodged a
(bigger) bullet by not competing to 4D or x 3H, thinking it was
our hand. Yet -140 only netted 16.5 out of 77. Well done, oppo.
If I opened 1D, S will double, and we'll be defending 3H, too.
Round 2.
Board 13. Both vul, Dealer North.
J92
KQ8652
A8
96
KQT54 A3
- AJT4
J632 QT972
KQ87 54
876
973
K4
AJT32
N E S W
P 1D P 1S
2H P(1) P 3H
P 3N P P
P
(1) deny 3 card S support.
North passed as dealer, which gave us good room to explore the 22 point game.
I opened 1D, Fred showed S, and north now came in with 2H, which is a
suspicious move. Now it became clear for my failure to make a support x that
we didn't have an 8-card S fit, and we stopped in 3N. Which, if you look at 2
hands, you would feel lucky, but if you look at 4 hands, you want to be in 4S
with the 3-3 S break and 2-2 D break. +600 only worths a 37/77. NS did well
not to compete to 3H with 9 card H fit, as if so, we had an easy 800, that
must explain why we got a below average score. Meanwhile, Fred did well not to
double 2H, otherwise we'll only collect 500.
Board 14. Love all. Dealer E.
KJ9
QJ9
986
Q873
A632 T87
8 AKT7432
T7543 2
A62 95
Q54
96
AKQJ
KJT4
The problem I, as East, faced in this hand, is how many H to open. With equal
vul, and primary H spots, 3S, it seems their 4S is not making. I chose a
disciplined 3H, South doubled and North bid 3N. Now I had another chance to
break discpline and launch to heroic action. But I passed and soon we were
writing -400. That was only 25.5/77.
Round 3. Against Joel Wooldridge/John Hurd.
Board 17. Love all, Dealer: N.
QT975
T43
K96
K3
K 8432
KQ876 52
A72 T8543
JT82 Q5
AJ6
AJ9
QJ
A9764
Bidding:
N E S W
P P 1N 2C(1)
2H(2) P 2S P
P P
(1) C and a higher suit
(2) transfer
This hand illustrated why against good opposition, DONT may not be a good
idea. Against Wooldridge's 1N, Fred's choice to bid backfired.
Against 2S, Fred led the HK. Now Wooldridge can see clearly there was no point
to finesse S at all, and in no time, the fast pair champion dropped Fred's
singleton K and wrote 200 on their column, losing only 1H and 1D. This earned
us a poor 20.5/77.
Board 18. NS vul. Dealer E.
AJ9853
-
A73
AQ63
KQ64 -
3 AKQ952
J9542 KQ6
873 JT95
T72
JT8764
T8
K2
Bidding
N E S W
1H P 1S
2S 3H x P
P P
Looking at EW hand, you would want to compete to 3H. Then the 0-6 trump
distribution doesn't really help. It's hard to predict what will happen if I
pass the 2S bid. But it's certain that if I doubled to show extra and
intending for take out, then I was calling for bigger trouble. There was
nothing I could do in this for the 0-6 break and I went a quiet -500. 30.5/77.
Not a disaster, thanks to the good field protection.
Round 4.
Board 21 NS vul, dealer N.
96
AT
QJ9842
852
K AJT53
KJ9854 72
T76 A5
T97 KJ43
Q8742
Q63
K3
AQ6
After I opened a 1S, we had an uncontested auction -- the 1st time until now
-- to 2H through forcing NT sequence and played there. Fred lost the obvious 5
tricks to score up 110. Apparently a triumph as oppo's 3D would be very hard
to defend. And the pairs who manage to defeat it one trick may not be the
pairs that doubled it. That was a really healthy 55.5/77. This hand
illustrated the importance of getting into the auction despite the vul. You'll
need to either prebalance with North's hand with shape but no strength, or you
need to balance aggressively with South's hand, with no shape at all. Either
can be very wrong, but apparently that was the overwhelming choice of the
field.
Board 22. EW vul. Dealer E.
J9
A85
K64
J9872
AQ74 532
J974 Q3
J73 AT9852
Q6 A3
KT86
KT62
Q
KT54
I opened a first seat 2D, and played there, rather surprisingly -- apparently
this round our oppo are sound bidders.
Notice if South doubled, he probably would get himself to bigger trouble as
North will bid C and we will be push to 3D. And now S might think he knew what
to lead.
In the uncontested auction, it was still a nasty leading problem for South.
And can you blame him not to find the optimum S lead? North won the H lead and
switched to a C. I won the A and knocked out the HK. Now south cashed the CK
and exited with a S. The Q won. Time to deal with trump, and from North's
failure to balance with favorable vul, I played him for long trump and took
the double hook. That was +110 and an even better 59/77.
终身大师半决赛自战评论（2）
2003-07-29
