Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Team trials assign the blame -- my assignment

From last Tuesday:

Had this auction in a KO match. How would you assign the blame, if any?

Unfavorable

8 4 3

K 10 8 5 2
A Q 10 6 4


K J 5
A 3
A Q 7
K J 7 5 2


West North East South


1Dbl
34N56♣
PassPass6Pass
Pass7♣DblAll Pass



In practice I think the hands were a bit different than what's shown here. North definitely had a heart void, and we were definitely missing ♠A, but the rest is fairly roughly reconstructed. But, I think the analysis below applies equally to the hands shown above as to the actual hands we held.

I held the South hand. In retrospect, it's simply not possible for North to have the ♠A on this auction (in addition to the necessary minor suit honors). That would leave East with about a 9 count for his opener, and West with a 0 count. Not to mention North would have quite a lot for 4N.

While we hadn't discussed it, North made the excellent point that this sort of auction should be asking for a heart void. That's the only really plausible undiscovered feature that could make grand biddable. Also, the odds of making grand do not have to be that high for it to be a worthwhile bid since the downside isn't a small slam but rather a moderate penalty against 6X. Conceivably we could be off an Ace and still make it. Not to mention they might bid 7 themselves.

So, while I think North could have fielded it, mostly I think this was my fault.

East, a former world champion, said he doubled not really knowing if he was beating it, but didn't want his partner to sacrifice since he held ♠A. At the other table, our teamates did bid 7 over 7 so we would up with a big loss.

1 comment:

  1. I still think a hand that wants to be in a grand opposite the given North hand will have made a try over 5H.

    Perhaps the pass now without the try earlier needs extra length in addition to or instead of the heart void?

    Axx
    A/x
    AQxx
    KJxxx

    would make grand opposite 2056/2065 but not opposite 3055/2155? or is that too nitpicky?

    ReplyDelete