President’s Day Regional (part 2)

Hi all

Okay, I’ll just start with confessing that we didn’t win our bracket in the KO Teams. Whole day long Greg and I played solid, compensating for our teammates soft results and more. But the last match we just didn’t have any room to score. I opted for a superior 3NT while I knew there was a 5-3 fit present, and the other table copied our result. The match was decided when we didn’t bid a non-vulnerable 3NT on these combined cards:

North
Q5
75
KQT843
KQ8

South
AJ74
AJ83
J62
75

Ace of onside, 2-2 and both honours onside. Right! A couple of overtrick imps flew back and forth, so the finals we lost with a 7 imp margin. Oh well, better luck next time.

There was one other interesting relay sequence in the penultimate match.

South
AQ9764
K643
A
AK

West
North
East
South
 
11
pass
1NT2
pass
3NT3
pass
44
pass
45
pass
46
pass
4NT7
pass
… 6
a.p.
 
 
 

1. Catch all bid
2. GF relay
3. 11-13 balanced, 2-3-5-3
4. Aces?
5. 1 (or 4)
6. Kings?
7. 0 (or 3)

After 4NT I knew Greg was holding a fistful of Queens and Jacks. Bidding 6 was undisciplined, I need the trump Jack to show in dummy and a place to park my loser. What eventually pushed me to bidding 6 was that I estimated the other table would be in slam too.

North Dealer
All Vul
North
J8
AQ9
QT975
Q82
West
KT532
8
J643
JT7
East
JT752
K82
96543
South
AQ9764
K643
A
AK

Well, trump Jack did shine in dummy, but when I cashed trump Ace I quickly discovered this slam wouldn’t come home. But my estimate was right, the deal was a push.