AL78

I'd potentially be interested, not until next year but I reckon I could benefit significantly from learning from a world class player.

This event was not a head-to-head teams but was a Swiss teams consisting of 16 teams and six eight board matches. We had two rounds, lunch, two rounds, tea break, last two rounds. The lunch I had was calorie dense which may have been to my disadvantage.

Thanks all, some good advice I will bear in mind should I be asked to substitute for a team member again. I am physically fit, I enjoy walking, use a bicycle for local transport and lift weights, one thing I suspect I suffer from is mild insomnia. It takes me a long time to get off to sleep no matter what time I go to bed, and I think that slowly builds up a sleep debt over time.

I think I would have chanced a raise to game on the South cards. Yes it will go wrong if partner has rubbish but if you don't take an action because the worst might happen you will rarely, if ever, gain anything. Give around 8HCP for opener and partner and RHO hold around 16 HCP between them, no reason partner won't hold around half of them and/or hold more than four hearts, and with a likely club shortage opposite and a diamond shortage in my hand, there should be some ruffing opportnities.

I am defending between two thirds and three quarters of hands on many sessions so I have lots of experience :lol:. You are right, I try to conserve mental energy on hands that don't need much of it and use dummy time as rest. In this recent event I couldn't do that for much of the day because partner hardly got a chance to declare, she declared seven out of 48 boards in total. A good idea to take a walk outside (this is also good if things are going badly as well, take deep breaths of fresh air) although with classic UK November weather including 12 hours of continuous rain, not overly appealing.

That is one of the problems. I think there is no way to defeat the contract so get lazy in the thinking, whereas if I'd just focused for a short time I could come up with a chance to defeat the contract. One example, we were defending 3♥, partner started off with ♦AK which held, then cashed ♣A (I discouraged with the 2) and got off lead with a spade. I hold five clubs to the jack, dummy has four clubs to the queen. Declarer plays a heart off dummy and I hold AQ. I mindlessly played second hand low and declarer put me in with my ace on the second round. It turned out partner held a stiff club ace and I could have won the first round of hearts and given her a club ruff, down one, which was a perfectly reasonable layout based on the auction. Second example, we were defending a low level contract (1♥ I think) and I hold a singleton. I know partner has length so I am thinking force declarer when possible. Unfortunately I didn't stop to re-evaluate at trick 11 and carelessly played a spade to force declarer, which had the effect of finessing partner out of her otherwise natural trump trick. Stupid boy!! Those (I think) were my two worst mistakes.

I have found one problem contributing to my poor defence recently. Today I played in a teams competition which was six 8 board rounds in a (too) warm and stuffy room. I think it was someway through the second round and on the third round I was slipping up in defence. The information was there as to how to proceed but I felt groggy and at times was not with it at the table so did careless things to let contracts through. It didn't help that through the first two rounds we defended on 12 out of 16 boards, and partner picked up such poor hands she only declared once in those 16 boards, so I am having to concentrate on the play on almost every board (on one round she failed to find a bid on the first seven consecutive boards). The question is how do I fend off fatigue (or help stop it building up in the first place) and keep alert to the point where I can play correctly according to the information available. I didn't have a poor nights sleep last night so I hadn't built up a large sleep debt and I eat breakfast.

I take your point and I used to play it as either weak or strong, but several people I partner don't play it that way. If I am not using the unusual 2NT on a hand like that, I might as well take it off the card it comes up so infrequently as it is.

Would you bid Stayman with that or would you transfer into the minor?

I would be interested to see it. I have an interest in alternatives to the standard/default ways of doing things. Just because something is well established doesn't make it best.

The beginners are taught Acol, 3 weaks twos, weak NT. [hv=pc=n&s=sahdt97652cakt876&w=s52hakt754dkqjcq4&n=st9864hq963d43c32&e=skqj73hj82da8cj95&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=p1s2c2hp3h4c4hpp5cdppp]399|300[/hv] I think this only went one down which would have been a good sac against an EW game except that despite the combined 27 HCP and a nine card heart fit, they have no game on. Quite a freaky hand.

Yes, but still irritating.

She would have given me that reason if she really had worked that out so it is near certain she didn't.

MPs [hv=pc=n&s=s642hjt953d976c95&w=saqjt9hadjt8c7642&n=skh4daq5432cakt83&e=s8753hkq8762dkcqj&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=1s2n(minors)3sppp&p=cacjc9c4ckcqc5c2dadkd6d8dqs8d7dts3s2sa]399|300[/hv] That was almost a bottom, one pair made 4♠ but all the rest but one were going off in 4 or 5♠. She said afterwards she felt I had the ♠K. Damned women's intuition :lol:.

I wouldn't. I don't play 2/1 so what do I do if partner responds 2♣?

I'd have opened the South hand but I don't know why the West hand is worth opening unless they are playing some opening methods I am unfamiliar with.

I'm not good enough to find that defence at trick one and I doubt I will ever get anywhere near that level. Declarer ran the jack to my ace, I returned a heart, ruffed. Clubs were played which ended up setting up a dummy entry, declarer used it to play a diamond through partner then he took the double finesse line in spades leaving partner to take her ace whenever and that was our fourth and final trick. Declarer pretty much found the perfect line on the given lay of the cards.

I didn't think anyone would bid 3♥ over 3♦ and I wouldn't, nor did partner. The full deal: [hv=pc=n&s=sak92hat82dj3cjt4&w=s65hkqj74dat7ck96&n=sj87h3dq98642cq87&e=sqt43h965dk5ca532&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p1n(12-14)p2s(inv%20or%20weak%20minor)p2n(minimum)p3dppp]399|300[/hv] I led a top of nothing ♥9 and after we took our four minor suit tricks, declarer played me for spade length and took a double finesse through my holding leaving me powerless to prevent him taking three spade tricks and making the contract. I did cover the first round but he played to the nine on the second round, and if I don't cover he runs the jack. That was a bottom for us, the full traveller: 1♥S -2 -200 2♥W = -110 2♥W -1 +50 3♦N -1 -100 3♦N = +110 (us) 2♥W = -110 We might have done better if partner had overcalled on the first round but I don't blame her for passing and even if she overcalls, NS will probably go through a Lebensohl sequence to reach 3♦ and we still get a bad result.

Thanks for all the opinions, a somewhat mixture of bidding and passing. It was my partner who held this hand and she decided to pass on the basis she felt the hand was defensive in nature and if opps stay in 1NT it has a good chance of going down. The auction proceeded as follows: [hv=pc=n&w=s65hkqj74dat7ck96&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p1n(12-14)p2s(Invitational%20or%20weak%20with%20long%20minor)p2n(Minimum)p3dpp]133|200[/hv] Are you tempted to come in now?

MPs against one of the strongest pairs in the field: [hv=pc=n&w=s65hkqj74dat7ck96&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p1n(12-14)]133|200[/hv] Do you overcall?

Rest assured I do give full explanation at the table. When adding the extra information into the hand generator I decided to be concise.

Thanks for the info, that looks logical to me. To be honest I can't remember the last time I held 5♠/4♥ opposite a 20+ balanced hand.

Don't we all, although in my case the opponents have a habit of being super-aggressive/reckless at times and getting rewarded for it (with the exception of one hand yesterday evening).

I may have been tempted to bid 2♠ with the South cards after East bids 2♣ but there is no way I am bidding anything else after that.

I would have liked to investigate slam but lack decent tools with this partner other than bidding 4♦, and where that leads is unknown, so I settled for 3NT. I got away with it because the defence have the ♣AK off the top which are both under my queen, so when my RHO led the ace followed by a small one, partner made 12 tricks. [hv=pc=n&s=sj97hqt2dt653cjt2&w=sakqhaj986daq2c76&n=st532h7543dcak853&e=s864hkdkj9874cq94&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=pp2dp2hp2np3nppp]399|300[/hv] I have heard of using 3♠ as slam interest in a minor or both minors but I am not familiar with them. I assume this method has another way of finding the best game when responder holds 5♠/4♥ which is what I use the 3♠ response to show.