We were in a nine-team bracket, which meant that the first day would be all three-way matches. Basically, in a three-way match (or "round-robin" or "ring") you play half of a standard-length match against two other teams. If you beat both other teams, you continue to the next round. If you lose to both, you're out. If you beat one team, but the team to which you lost won both of its matches, you're in. And if each team wins one match and loses one, the team with the lowest IMP total gets dropped. Basically, the strategy for a three-way match is the same as a heads-up match: win more IMPs than you lose!
So to start out, we played two six-board matches.
(A) Red vs. white
 6 |
 AJT73 |
 KT5 |
 AKQ2 |
You open 1H. Pard bids a forcing 1NT. You rebid 2C [or would you bid 3C?] and pard jumps to 3NT. This should show something like 12-14 or 13-15 or something like that... what's your call?
(B) All white
| AQJ854 |
| A4 |
| 5 |
| KQ83 |
Partner opens a weak [good 11 to 14] 1NT. How do you plan on handling this hand?
(C) All white
| AK942 |
| 4 |
| QT853 |
| 93 |
Partner opens 1C, you bid 1S, and he rebids 2H. What next?
(D) All red
| KJT32 |
| none |
| T2 |
| QT9843 |
Partner opens 1S. LHO bids 2H. It's your decision.
We only won two of our four matches, but we survived easily.
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4 comments:
(A) I decided that we'd be safe in 4NT no matter what, and since I'd limited my hand by not jumping on the last round, pard wouldn't take me for any more than this. [We got to a good six hearts... unlucky that two aces were offside.]
(B) One of my basic bridge tenets is that a four-loser hand opposite an opening bid is worth a slam try [unless it proves to be a giant misfit]. This is a good four-loser hand, and we're guaranteed an eight-card spade fit or longer. My plan was to transfer to spades and splinter with 4D, letting pard sign off with something like KQxx of diamonds but push to slam with Axxx or xxxx.
(C) In a brand-new partnership, I had no idea of what the right bid is. I jumped to 3NT. 2S, 2NT, or 3D could all be right in my different partnerships... I think 3D is probably theoretically, if not practically, best.
(D) Geoff held this hand. He bid 3C over 2H, and from there the auction got wacky:
1S (2H) 3C (3D);
P (4D) 4S (5H);
X (P) 5S (6H);
P! (P) 6S (7D);
X (P) P (7H);
X (P) P (P).
So even though I doubled 5H, I passed 6H... I doubled the first time to show heart losers, but once Geoff didn't seem troubled by that, I wanted to invite slam. The opponents took a good save in 7H... a good save against 4S, that is. We got only the AK of diamonds for +500. The 2H bidder had the cashing AK of clubs... my hand:
AQxxx Jx AKx Jxx
Dummy in 7HX held:
none AT87xx QJxxx xx
(A) 4d, bidding out my pattern. If pard persists with 4NT or signs off in 5m then I'll give up.
(B) Transfer to spades and bid clubs. Could be a cold grand if pard has Kx xxxx Axx AJxx or similar.
(C) Since I haven't had time to discuss a card I would just bid 3NT. I'd prefer to bid a forcing 2s, or else, a forcing 3c.
(D) 4s, hopefully they will double this, but if they don't (and pard doesn't hit 5h) then I will bid 5 over 5.
a. pass (ok, I'm stodgy)
b. Transfer to 2S bid 3C and cooperate if partner moves ahead, but otherwise play 4S
c. 2S (I trust partner to know not to pass) -- This keeps it low and shows my 5th spade, I can always bid notrump later.
d. 4S (ok, I'm stodgy)
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