Review of 03Mar25 Tournament
Hi everyone,
This is a review of hands which I believe I could have played better, or maybe are worth discussing further. You can watch the full 20-board tournament here, but I will also have links for each hand below. As always, any feedback you have is extremely valuable. I’m hoping we have have more discussions on things I’ve missed or improperly analyzed on the below hands, in addition to other hands where I may have missed something, but didn’t add below.
Thanks again for reading and your support,
Arjune
Hand #1 (2:44)
w/w, 1st seat
♠ K J T 9 7 ♥ J 9 ♦ A J 2 ♣ A J 8
I think this is a prototypical 1NT opener when playing 2/1. On this auction, partner bid 2♣ (Stayman, asking for a 4-card major), and then bid 4♦ on their next turn. This should be a splinter in spades.
There are a lot of pluses and minuses to my hand, and I think getting better at weighing which ones are more important are probably instrumental in improving at hand evaluation. My takes:
Pros:
I have a fifth spade that partner doesn’t know about
The ♦A is probably a good card. It’s possible partner has a void and a 5440 type hand, but I think it’s way more likely they have a stiff diamond. In any case, not having the ♦K or ♦Q is good for this hand.
Cons:
All of the non-club jacks in my hand are probably pretty bad. The ♠J doesn’t really do much across a 9+ card trump fit, and the ♥J isn’t doing much except maybe creating a finesse.
My hand was a minimum in terms of point count, and having 20% of the points not be really useful doesn’t help.
I think with a regular partnership, we’d play 4♥ as a Last Train type bid. Unfortunately, for Funbridge, it looks like it would show a heart control, so I need to decide whether or not to go for a slam from my side.
One thing I thought about later is what I’d do if I had a worse version of my hand - something like:
♠ K J T 9 7 ♥ T 9 ♦ A 9 2 ♣ A J 8
After 1♠, partner splinters in diamonds. Let’s assume for now 4♦ is a generic splinter (rather than a void splinter). Although my hand seems decent, I don’t think I’d really entertain slam here. There are probably some minimums that have reasonable play, but I think on balance, there are too many holes.
I continued on this hand, and we ended up in 6♠ making 6 after a non-club lead and partner having
♠ A Q 6 2 ♥ A Q T 6 2 ♦ 6 ♣ T 5 4
Partner had more than they promised, and from my side, I think it’s only really down on a club lead and ♥K offside. I think gambling and making these sorts of slams give you the variance to finish near the top in tough fields, but I’m still not sure the best way to bid this. I don’t even know if driving to slam was the right decision, even though it worked out well here.
Hand #3 (10:00)
Although it didn’t really matter to the outcome, I didn’t notice the count my partner gave on spades. I think becoming more cognizant of partner’s carding (and doing it myself when I think it can net help us) is a habit I really want to develop.
Hand #8 (21:00)
w/r 2nd seat
♠ Q 6 ♥ A 5 ♦ K T 9 8 ♣ A K 9 7 5
I open 1N, and end up declaring 2♠. In the hand we get to this spot (22:49)
♠ J 9 7
♥
♦ 6 5 4
♣ -
—
♠ -
♥ -
♦ K T 9
♣ A K 9
I lead a spade from hand The relevant missing cards are the ♠A (with RHO), the ♠5 , and all the diamond honors.
I discarded a club here, which I think is correct. RHO returned a heart, and I pitched a diamond. I think the important thing is to keep K T 9 at least in diamonds, as I can play diamonds to the T/9 twice. Even in a vaccum, this is better than putting it all on a finesse, and given how this hand was playing out, I should be more than 50% certain LHO has the ♦A.
I think I got enamored with AK, and maybe would have given myself a better shot pitching a club. That said, I might still be endplayed with this, but gives me a better shot when the clubs are 3-3.
Hand #10 (26:09)
r/r 1st seat
♠ Q 7 5 3 ♥ A Q 8 ♦ A K 6 2 ♣ 9 8
I open this 1N. It passes to RHO, who balances with 2♠, which ends the auction.
I lead the ♦A, seeing dummy:
♠ K 8 2 ♥ J 4 2 ♦ J 4 ♣ Q J 5 4 3
On the first trick, partner gave me the 7 and declarer the 3. I read partner’s count as odd, and became too confident that diamonds were 3-4. I continued with the K, and partner completed their echo, while declarer dropped the Q. I didn’t even really consider that partner could have five diamonds, and ended up giving a ruff-sluff which ended up in us losing the setting trick. I simply need to be more careful and not always default to the most even-ish break on the outstanding cards, especially at low-level contracts.
Additionally, even if I was 100% partner had 3 diamonds, I’m not sure continuing diamonds would be best. In my mind, declarer doesn’t have one good discard, but they are certainly able to pitch two hearts. I think maybe a club switch is better anyways - probably at trick 2.
Hand #13 (32:05)
w/r 2nd seat
♠ 7 5 2 ♥ Q 9 2 ♦ A K 9 5 2 ♣ J 3
This passed around to partner, who opened a 20-21 2NT. I didn’t have a Puppet Stayman bid available, and ended up taking the low road to 3NT. I thought it might be a little timid though. I guess is this hand worth a more optimistic bid? And if so, what? 4NT?
Partner showed up with a 22 count (I believe the agreement on the system is 20-21, but perhaps it devalued the diamond holding). Given that the diamonds were working overtime, we made 7 (always making 6).
♠ K 8 4 3 ♥ A K 7 6 ♦ Q J ♣ A K Q
Hand #16 (37:48)
r/w 2nd seat
♠ K Q 8 7 4 ♥ A Q T 7 ♦ A 7 3 ♣ 6
I open 1♠ , partner gives me a Jacoby 2NT. I bid 3♣, showing shortness, and partner jumps to 4♠. I passed, and I think this is probably correct, as partner rates to have a bit of wastage in clubs. The only thing that gives me pause is that I’m about a trick better than promised, so if partner has the top of their signoff range, I think we might still have a slam (or force our opponents to lead right to set it).
LHO leads the ♥2, and partner tables:
♠ A 9 4 3 ♥ K 9 8 ♦ 6 4 ♣ K Q J 2
I think I might be resulting too much on this hand, as there is a pretty decent chance we get a diamond lead, but I’m still wondering if I’m worth any other bid besides pass.
Hand #18 (41:54)
r/r 3rd seat
♠ 7 2 ♥ A K T 7 3 ♦ J 9 6 2 ♣ 8 6
Partner deals and opens 1♣, I bid 1♥, partner bids 1N, and I let it go.
I think I need to bid 2♥ at IMPs. If I was a king weaker and partner opened 1NT, I would transfer and drop them in 2♥ without a thought. I think I need to extend that thought process that here as well. The trump suit is decent, and plays fine across a stiff honor, or low doubleton.
At MPs, I would have probably passed 1NT as well, but I think it’s very close. Or am I misjudging this hand completely? Is 2♥ automatic there as well?
Hand #19 (43:47)
w/r 1st seat
♠ 9 ♥ A K J 6 4 ♦ Q J 7 6 3 2 ♣ 6
I opened this hand 1♦, but I’m not sure if it’s better to open 1♥ and just keep bidding diamonds. I’m a little scared of reversing and getting too high after a likely 1♠ from partner, but maybe that’s ok? If my first threes bids are 1m-2M-3M, does it potentially imply a lower hcp hand, since I’ve shaped out?
On this hand, LHO overcalled 3♠, partner passed, and RHO bid 4♠. I think in real life, I’d bid 4NT showing two places to play, and pull partner’s 5♣ to 5♦. I think they should be able to figure out I have both red suits with at least 5/6 shape. Unfortunately, hovering over the 4NT bid, the computer has it showing 4 clubs - an agreement which I’m not familiar with. 5♣ would also be natural, so not sure that it makes sense to have two ways to show clubs, but I don’t really have much experience in these types of spots.