Misfit hand. Wrong contract at both tables.

My 2 opening is not standard. I should have better trump intermediates and I should not have a void. I made this as tactical bid to impress opponents from the first hand on.

Yvon and I didn't talk about answers to weak 2 yet. We took this hand as reason to set up an answering structure. I recommend you all the book "Preempts from A to Z" from R.Anderson and S. Zenkel.

Bidding could have been: 2H - 3C(asking for singleton) - 3NT( singleton or void) pass
3NT has a chance against imperfect defense, but will surely not doubled.

Opponents at the the other table couldn't stop before 5 too. I dislike the 2 bid with void in partners suit and lacking intermediates in . Bidding should be 1C 1H 1S 2H 3C pass.

West should X the final contract seeing 3 "sure" tricks. (Rule xxx: If from 10 doubles not are won, you double not often enough)

With transparent cards 5 could be -3. Perhaps you can imagine declarer has 4027 distribution and no entry to table so play a spade instead of heart 9.

Misbidding at both tables

5 IMP

Misdefense

7-4=3 IMP

White against red I tried to disturb opponents bidding my 4-card diamond-suit. With my partners hand I had bid 1 after the X, only to show a lead director and make more noise. After that no opponent could really bid 3NT: The 1 is safe, because you have a good diamond support.

What to lead is a matter of luck. Even world-champions lead the wrong suit many times. (Therefore overcalls with good suits are so important).
But in this hand we had no real chance. Even if I had led a , opponent could win by ducking the 2 round.Only if I had played a small , he could have done the rite thing, but probably would go wrong. I led a , which seemed me the safest lead. But so declarer had 8 sure tricks and no problem developing a 9.th in spades. Well done opponents.

At the other table we could never reach 3NT from WEST. 4 is a reasonable contract, but had no chance. The only possible distribution to win is Qxx with South and you should play on it.

Very unlucky.
Opponents did the rite things.

We had no real chance, but we could have done better.

Misdefense

1 IMP

This is the hand which costed probably the whole match. I was paralysed after that.
I'm very ashamed and apologize for my bad play.
This hand was the psychological turn around of the whole match.

I had 2 chances to do the rite thing:
Play like opponent did or draw all trumps, before playing hearts.
I post this hand as #6 and #7 in puzzle of the week.

Bidding was similar at both tables. I don't like my 1NT rebid, but it seems the least of evils. 1NT should show a balanced hand. 4441 hands are a great problem to bid. Therefore some systems provide special opening bids.

Al lost 16 IMP by very bad declarer play.

16 IMP

The shock about the last hand produced a bidding misunderstanding. We had agreed to play Bergen after intervention. But Bergen occurs after our own opening and must be a jump bid. So we missed the banana 4 contract.

From the alert opponents knew, we had a misunderstanding. East doubled 3 clubs and gave us with sportmanship (as he said) the possibility to bid 3 spade but called me unfair, when I bid 4. hehehehe

Misunderstanding

6 IMP

Same contract at both tables.

Yvon made an inspired lead. The spade lead at the other table costed a trick at once.

I missed twice the opportunity to prevent the 2. overtrick. I must hold up the K of diamonds and a should not take my A of spades. (consequence of #5. I couldn't calm.)

Our declarer at the other table should cash club K before he repeated the diamond finesse. The finesse would be unnecessary when clubs were 33.

Misdefense and misplay.

1+1=2 IMP

Thomas opened correctly 1. Never, never open 1NT with 5422.
I didn't like my spade suit and I hoped they would bid 3NT and I could beat them, so I made a tactical pass instead of Cappaletti.

I made the book lead of small spade. To lead A against NT is nonsense. So we could beat him only once.

At the other table opponents donated a trick by playing a3. round of spades and allowing a ruff and sluff. Now don't touch trumps. Play on the side suit: heart, heart and heart ruff, back to hand with club K and a second heart ruffed. (If South steps in with club A and plays trump, you'll go down probably) But this is the better line.

West must overcall 1 even vulnerable. He has a good suit, 5431 distr. and 8 HCPs in the long suits. You'll never get the chance to bid, except just now.

So they outbid us in this one.The defense against 1NT was not optimal. J of spades was no good idea.

Misjudgement in the bidding

3 Imps

In this hand a made a 1NT opening bid against the system and the odds, but we neded some IMPs urgently. I was lucky to find partner with the rite cards and opponents misdefending.

After finish they complained my opening. Not fair imho. The answer should be: "Congrat opponent, well done, you fooled me."

Another hand where they outbid us. South hand must open 2. If you play flannery this hand is a price you pay to your system. But we play weak 2 yet and this is a typical hand.

I sympathize with Thomas not doubling 2. The suits are too weak. The X maybe lead into much trouble.

My defense was uninspired. Perhaps I should lead a trumps, perhaps I should take my A of clubs. But for sure my partner should play trump after winning the lead. But 140 or 170 is only 1 IMP difference.

Misjudgement in bidding

7 IMP

The East hand has only 18HCP but is a typical 2 opening. 9 Playing tricks, 4.5 QT, great 7141. You'll make 4 spades with many hands, which partner will pass in 1..
Thomas raise to 2 was very good and now East could make a try to 6, but after the hand is finished this is very easy to say. It is not easy to find the slam even after 2 opening, you nust find out singleton diamond, but West is so weak..........

After the hand you can construe a nice bidding:
2C 2D 2S 4S(support but weak hand) 5C(Cue) 5D(Cue) 6S
BUT, I'm not sure to find this on the table.
I would like to see this hand in a bidding contest.

The mistake occurred at our table. My double of 2 convinced opponent that the slam must be a good gamble, because the AQ were very well placed. After the hand he told me, that we hadn't bid the slam without my x. The x is nonsense, because I don't really know, if diamonds is the rite lead.

Lucky decision by our opponents

Bad lead directing double by Al

11 IMP

Identical bidding at both tables. I asked my ftf-parner Abbby waht to bid. He had raised me to 6. I'm sure Yvon had done the same, if we were not in such a depressive mood after this damned #6.

In another match he xx-ed 5clubs in a similar sitaution and we got 1000.

In such hands you score if you have a run (as we say in Germany)

The South hand is a 2 opening again.
Bidding should be:

We should have gained by perfect bidding

11 IMP

I have bid my hand
The old question, what to bid with 64:
Rebid the 6er or
invent the 4er first.

I'm hoping for 10 red cards with partner

I count:
My 3 QT
partners 6H+2D
2 diamond ruffs

Bad luck if partner has
xx, AKQxxx, AKQ, xx

We lost the math with 38 IMP difference.

We could have 65 IMPs more if we had played without mistakes. I didn't count the unlucky boards like 3, 8 and 13.
27 IMPs and the bad mood after #5 go on my account. I'm very sorry.

You see once more:
You win your matches not because you do many clever things, but because you avoid mistakes.

An in this match I made 40% of the mistakes :=(