Wandering

Hi all

Thought of the day: A mind without purpose will wander in dark places.

I’m working on an article for the ACBL magazine, covering my experiences and thoughts on the masterpoints matter. I will (probably) publish it here too when it’s finished.

Here’s a nice deal from Quick Tricks where I partnered Bruce B. I don’t remember a lot, except that we doubled about half a dozen partscores, and all of them made. But we compensated with some sensible auctions and a couple of fine decisions so we finished 4th, scoring 55% overall.

South
T964
A96432
T52

 
After Bruce opened 1 and a 1 overcall it’s my turn. I’m very light on values, but it sure itches to make a bid with this distribution. I’m glad we agreed to play all jumps as weak, so I entered the auction with 2 (completely ignoring the suit). LHO frowns and raises to 3, Bruce announces a skip bid… 4. Some reluctant passes follow. LHO leads a top and Bruce puts down a nice hand.

North
AKJ8
K87
Q97642

South
T964
A96432
T52

 
I enter a cross ruff and to my surprise the Queen comes tumbling down too (RHO held a doubleton Queen of ). This is the position after seven ruffs and both top :

North
J8
Q9

South
T9
A9

 
The Ace of is of course my tenth trick, but I’m always hungry for an eleventh. I cash the Ace and play a , West has to follow suit and East ruffs with the Jack. East is down to just so I get to score a trick with my last trump too.

North Dealer
NS Vul
North
AKJ8
K87
Q97642
West
753
Q5
KQ73
KJ83
East
Q2
JT
AJ9864
AT5
South
T964
A96432
T52

I gave up trump control by cashing the Ace, but it generated a trick because EW communication was destroyed. Is it a scissor’s coupe? Or a coupe en passant? I don’t know exactly what flavor it is, but it definitely got served with cream and cherries.