Quick Notes from the Joust

Paulo Brum
Apr 26th, 2024

Here are some interesting deals from last night's Joust match between the WBS team and its first knockout opponent, RedTop (Hank Youngerman, creator of the Joust and host at the BridgeZone. Go check out his website!).

Our team had Bob Hamman playing with myself and Finn Kolesnik - Michael Xu at the other table. I will report on some hands from my viewpoint.

With everybody vulnerable, I picked up this powerhouse and wondered how to show this hand in our improvised partnership. I had decided to show it as a balanced hand. Three-suiters are hard to bid, and when you are playing for the first time with anyone, even Bob Hamman, it is best to keep it simple. At least we will know what our bids mean!

Then I noticed that I was fourth to speak, so I would probably not get a free run. Yep. After two passes, Karen Allison opened One Heart on my right. I had an easy double, and the auction continued with Four Hearts on my left, Four Spades by Hamman, pass. 

What do you think? Pass or make a move?

I decided that Bob could have bid with weak spades and that lots of those hands would be in jeopardy at the five level, so I passed. His spades were not so bad (Kxxxx), but the rest of his hand was (Kxxxx x Jxx 10xxx), so there was no slam. A pushed board but some excitement for me. 

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Bob had gained two game swings for us by outdeclaring the other team when I picked up these cards. Once again I was in fourth position, but now no one was vulnerable. After two passes, the auction started with One Diamond on my right. I passed, and it continued One Spade on my left, Pass from Bob, Two Hearts on my right. 

Not a bad start, I thought. I have nice holdings on both of the big hand's suits. Maybe they will get too high. 

Nope, they stopped in 3NT after dummy bid Three Diamonds. The whole auction (with me in East):

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Now I had to find a lead. To defeat this, we needed Bob to have a nice hand. If he had a nice hand and nice clubs, he would have bid them; but he could have had nice spades and no good bid over South's One Spade. Also, the opponents had not looked too hard for a possible 5-3 spade fit. So I reasoned and triumphantly led the Ten of spades. It was greeted by this dummy:

So much for a triumphant lead. Well, I thought, we are not going to beat this one. And indeed Karen quickly wrapped up 11 tricks. 

My first thoughts about the deal were correct; opener had AKxx in diamonds and they might get too high in that strain. So I was a little concerned about that possibility when the match ended. Six Diamonds was an excellent (and makeable) contract, while Seven would, of course, go down.

I had nothing to worry about. Finn and Michael were playing in Six Spades, making twelve tricks after a defensive slip.

First half of the match is over. Next Thursday, May 2nd, we will play the second half, at 7pm Eastern time. So if you want to kibitz, join us there.