Friday, October 28, 2005

Points Schmoints - 17 and not a Strong Club ??

An interesting example for Marty Bergen's "Points Schmoints" theory came up on Board 10 of Round 13.

North
S: 976
H: 9753
D: A987
C: 32

West _________ East
S: AKJ53 _____ S: T842
H: 64 ________ H: AT2
D: 653 _______ D: T
C: A74 _______ C: QJT98

South
S: Q
H: KQJ8
D: KQJ42
C: K65

With All vulnerable and East the dealer the bidding went:
P = 1C (Precision) = 1S = P
4S = P = P = X
P = 5D = X = all pass.

The Indonesian South opened 1C Precision on one of the worst looking 17 points with short spades we have seen. A nightmare scenario ensued with the spade overcall, weak pass from partner and raise to the 4S (which is cold). South did well to pass and when his partner doubled correctly evaluated the defensive weakness of his hand and landed in 5DX for -500. Unfortunately at the other table we were not so lucky:

The bidding went:
P = 1D = 1S = X
4S = X = all pass.
After the negative double South expected more defense and was quickly chalking up -990 for a 10 imp loss. The good news was that the team was much better on the other boards and went on to beat Indonesia 22-8.

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