Playing rubber bridge with my family this past weekend, the following hand came up:
AKQJ
AKQJ7
K6
AK
If you're curious, 6 hearts made. The ace of diamond was led. I had the Txx of hearts, and the QJxx of clubs (not that THAT mattered).
For those who have run out of toes, that's a 30HCP count. I *think* that's the highest I've ever seen.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Catching Up
I've been remiss is blogging my lessons learned of late, so here are a few that stand out:
1. On the lead of the Jack of Clubs, I pondered how to avoid counting the ten of clubs as a loser in a spades contract, holding the following:
Dummy: AQx
Hand: Tx
I had to have several people tell me it was a trivial problem before I spotted that it was, in fact, a trivial problem. Lesson: Pay attention to the lead!
2. I forget the hand, but with a really nice 12 or 13 point hand partner opened and RHO doubled. I didn't have immediate support, and wondered how to force. For some reason, redouble never occurred to me.
3. On the subject of not even occurring to me, 2 people have pointed out that a HSGT goes great with this hand:
J765
AT986
v
K842
after
1D P 1H 1S
2H P ?
Partner had AQJ of clubs. Two cards were well placed, and after I bid a meek 3H we made 3H+3. I couldn't figure out how to find 4, but 3 clubs makes total sense.
4. Another "2 people pointed out". Holding
K963
KJT74
4
AK4
P P 2D ?
I doubled, but 2H is probably clearly better.
5. Here's one of those "passive" hands I was talking about.
AKJT96
J2
AJ8
J6
P P 1C 1S
X P 2H ?
I passed, and it got passed out. Sheesh!
6. Last but not least. I apologize for being vague, but I don't have the hand in front of me. I played a contract where LHO had overcalled at the 2 level. Late in the hand, I needed to find one of two missing queens. LHO had shown up wtih 9 points so far, so I figured I had pretty good odds playing LHO for the queen in question. It turned out that RHO had all the remaining points, and LHO had overcalled at the 2 level with only 9.
Whether or not my judgement was correct (and there may have been other errors on the hand), I think that having that good a count late in the play and making decisions based on the count is a very positive sign.
It's been a while since I was over 50% in an ACBL game, but that all changes today!!!
1. On the lead of the Jack of Clubs, I pondered how to avoid counting the ten of clubs as a loser in a spades contract, holding the following:
Dummy: AQx
Hand: Tx
I had to have several people tell me it was a trivial problem before I spotted that it was, in fact, a trivial problem. Lesson: Pay attention to the lead!
2. I forget the hand, but with a really nice 12 or 13 point hand partner opened and RHO doubled. I didn't have immediate support, and wondered how to force. For some reason, redouble never occurred to me.
3. On the subject of not even occurring to me, 2 people have pointed out that a HSGT goes great with this hand:
J765
AT986
v
K842
after
1D P 1H 1S
2H P ?
Partner had AQJ of clubs. Two cards were well placed, and after I bid a meek 3H we made 3H+3. I couldn't figure out how to find 4, but 3 clubs makes total sense.
4. Another "2 people pointed out". Holding
K963
KJT74
4
AK4
P P 2D ?
I doubled, but 2H is probably clearly better.
5. Here's one of those "passive" hands I was talking about.
AKJT96
J2
AJ8
J6
P P 1C 1S
X P 2H ?
I passed, and it got passed out. Sheesh!
6. Last but not least. I apologize for being vague, but I don't have the hand in front of me. I played a contract where LHO had overcalled at the 2 level. Late in the hand, I needed to find one of two missing queens. LHO had shown up wtih 9 points so far, so I figured I had pretty good odds playing LHO for the queen in question. It turned out that RHO had all the remaining points, and LHO had overcalled at the 2 level with only 9.
Whether or not my judgement was correct (and there may have been other errors on the hand), I think that having that good a count late in the play and making decisions based on the count is a very positive sign.
It's been a while since I was over 50% in an ACBL game, but that all changes today!!!
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