Jennbridge: Scrambling at IMPs

We entered the last round of the Sunday Swiss teams at the Marin sectional in third place, close behind the first and second place teams who were playing each other.  If we could score a big win and the other match was fairly close, we could win.  We kept up our part of the bargain by a near-blitz and sored up 19 victory points.  Unfortunately one of the top two teams trounced the other so we ended up in 2nd place--1 victory point away from the win.

This hand from the last match had me worried.  At unfavorable vulnerability in first seat I passed.

♠ 10
♥ AQx
♦ Qxx
♣ QJxxxx

Bob opened 1S and I responded 1NT, forcing.  He now jump shifted into 3D.  I bid 3NT which ended the auction.  The ace of clubs was led.

♠ AKxxx
♥ Kx
♦ AKxxx
♣ 10

♠ 10
♥ AQx
♦ Qxx
♣ QJxxxx

I could see immediately that 6 diamonds would be a good bet.  I lost the top 2 clubs and scored up 660.    I was relieved to learn that not only did the opponents fail to bid 6D which would have caused us to lose 12 IMPs, they got to the terrible contract of 6NT which caused us to gain 13 IMPs!

Whew.  We discussed the various ways we could have bid the diamond slam, but the singleton club is the key and it is hard to diagnose.

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Here is a fun hand from an earlier match.

♠ KJx
♥ KQ98xx
♦ 10xx
♣ x

None vul., in first seat I opened 2H and all passed.  I got the ace of diamonds lead and saw this:

♠ A10x
♥ void
♦ QJxx
♣ KQxxxx

♠ KJx
♥ KQ98xx
♦ 10xx
♣ x

Sigh. Not too promising.  The first order of business is to false-card in the diamond suit and hope for a spade shift.  Therefore I discourage in diamonds.  (If the opponents are playing upside down signals, I play a high diamond; with standard signals I would play a low one.)  I got the spade shift I was looking for as RHO played the queen and I won the king.  I next led my club to the king which won!  Good--now I'm in the position to scramble some tricks--the only thing you can do with a hand like this. 

I ruffed a club back to my hand, led a spade to the board, ruffed another club, led another spade and ruffed a third club, as LHO started with 4.  I  now have 7 tricks and am entitled to at least 1 more heart trick.  I exited with a diamond and in the end game I actually scored 2 more hearts as the heart ace was on my right.  Plus 140 was good for 5 imps as our teammates defended 2 hearts correctly and beat it.

Look for ways to score your low trumps when you're scrambling for tricks.

See you at the table!