Seattle – Breaking Ground

Hi all

So Geoff and I teamed up with Bill & Drew to stretch our muscles in a compact knockout a week ago on Thursday. Our teammates have the slam engine on and we easily make it to the semis. This is what happened when we’re two boards into the match.

West
North
East
South
 
 
 
11
???
 
 
 
  1. 15-17 bal, or stronger any shape

Geoff opens 1, showing a 15-17NT or a stronger hand of any shape. West now decides to consult his partner about their defence against such a opening. All of us are baffled at the question, but East is awake enough to respond that discussing this during the auction is not appropriate. West continues with the words: “So we have no agreements whatsoever?!?”. By now the director is present at the table and after hearing what happened, strongly reprimands West with the words:”You have single handedly made sure this board is almost unplayable. If you make any more noise, I’ll cancel the board and hand you a procedural penalty.”

The board was a flat 3NT, so nothing happened. But consider this, we’re playing in the 17,000 to 30,000 masterpoints bracket. Unreal!

That we didn’t win the event is mostly on my account. I failed to compete to a vulnerable 3 of a minor on a sub-minimal hand and I paid the price with a double part score swing. That was the difference and we settle for a 3rd place overall.

Here’s me having a full grasp of what’s happening at the table. I had all my antennas out.

West
North
East
South
 
1NT1
pass
pass
DBL
pass
pass
22
DBL
23
2
pass
3
pass
4
a.p.
  1. 11-14
  2. + higher suit (running scared)
  3. Genuine suit, redouble would have asked for my 2nd suit
South
54
8654
AT73
983

I knew that Geoff was short in , and dummy would put down reasonable power. So I decide to underlead my Ace, to give declarer an immediate guess. I knew I hit the jackpot when dummy came down. Full deal:

West Dealer
NS Vul
North
J2
AKQ72
Q85
754
West
AQ63
J9
KJ94
AK2
East
KT987
T3
62
QJ62
South
54
8654
AT73
983

Declarer tried the Jack but Geoff won the Queen and we quickly cashed out. Later in the play declarer would have gathered some more information, and he might as well have taken the right guess. On the lead that is so much more difficult.

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