Friday, September 4, 2009

Fighting for every IMP

Recalling another humorous hand from years ago.

Another partner of mine was known for the exotic. He would play 24 boards solid, but the two that he tanked were usually story hands. No one could tank a hand with more style. An example was a hand where his decision at trick 2, although reasonable, yielded a net result of only taking two tricks, despite having started with three Aces and an eight-card fit, with no voids out there. A friend of mine and I, presented with the same problem, both zagged at trick 2 and ended up with 10 tricks.

Another deal was rich. A non-obvious slam bidding problem.

Favorable, I was dealt v-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxx. A powerhouse. Partner opened 1D, promising an unbalanced hand, and RHO overcalled 1S. Favorable, I peeked at the CC to my right and noticed "Rosenkranz XX" indicated. People often play Rosenkranz XX but have no idea what they are doing. So, figuring that a XX was likely, and wanting to be frisky, I doubled, negative. A tad light, but it will get better.

Sure enough, XX hit the table. Partner now made a 2C call. This was really getting interesting. When RHO passed, I was convinced that the opponents had a 9-fit in spades, which gave partner precisely 4-0-5-4 shape. There are a lot of tricks if partner has 4-0-5-4 shape. White on Red, time to get creative again. The obvious option is a 2S cue. Might as well show my powerhouse.

When partner resolved to bid only 3D with his xxxx-v-AKxxx-AKxx, RHO doubled. I erred by not redoubling, as the double was a striped-tail ape.

When the minors split 2-2, 13 tricks are usually available.

In practice, however, partner panicked, afraid that he would lose a bunch of tricks on a cross-ruff. That fear induced a line to actually enable a cross-ruff. So, he managed -1, for -100. Only five tricks dropped. Comparison revealed +140 for 3S, so we gained 1 IMP for the effort.

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