Feb 9-12 -- Resort Follies Part II -- win some, lose some, learn some more

Points Summary
♠       ♥       ♦       ♣	Gold	Red	Silver	Other	Total
Earned This Time		3.31			3.31
Earned Earlier This Year	7.00	16.20	1.22	1.15	25.57
Total Earned This Year	7.00	19.51	1.22	1.15	28.88
Earned Prior to This Year	11.41	45.01	21.98	17.39	95.79
Total	18.41	64.52	23.20	18.54	124.67
Required	25.00	25.00	50.00	200.00	300.00
Still Needed	6.59	0.00	26.80	141.94	175.33

Tournament Summary

For the remainder of the tournament, I played in two Bracketed Knockouts. two Swiss Team events, and two morning pairs side games. Results were spotty -- poor, even -- although there were some victories. On the whole, the tournament results keep me on track for my goal. I scored over 10 Masterpoints, and over three Gold Masterpoints. I won more Masterpoints than 66 percent of those competing at the tournament. Still, I have much room for improvement.

Thursday Swiss

I had my "partner and teammates wanted" card in at the partnership desk the night before, but arrived there less than twenty minutes before start time. "We called your name several times, but you weren't here," said the Partnership Desk people. I was left to take from what was available, and ended up on a team in the B flight of the B/C/D Swiss where I had the fewest Masterpoints. My partner had played with me in a pairs game at a Sectional in my area, and assured the others that I could play at their level. We started off winning our first three matches, then lost the fourth by only two IMPs. At the dinner break, I thought our prospects were good. The pros had split their four matches in the A/X Swiss. After dinner we lost the next two before pulling out the last match. The team broke up, but my partner wanted to continue with me and a pickup pair for teammates in the Bracketed Knockouts the next day. "Sorry, I don't think so," I said. "I should find partners closer to my own level." We had had some bidding misunderstandings where partner was non-standard, and I didn't want any more of those.

Thursday Swiss Teams Session Summary scoring = Victory Points 7 boards per match
Match	IMPs	VPs	Total VP's
1	8 - 6	11 - 9	11
2	24 - 12	15 - 5	26
3	13 - 4	14 - 6	40
4	9 - 11	9 - 11	49
5	8 - 16	6 - 14	55
6	2 - 21	3 - 17	58
7	13 - 3	14 - 6	72

I'll show two hands of some interest. No one is vulnerable. You hold
        ♠ 10   ♥ K J 9 8 7 6 5 3 2   ♦ Q 3 2   ♣ (void)
and the auction has gone 1 ♠ 2 NT (unusual) 4 ♠ to you. What to do? I bid 5 ♦ which was doubled and set three. At the other table our teammates played in 4 ♠ making and we lost 2 IMPs on the board. Would you have bid? Would you have suppressed the nine-card heart suit?

On the other hand, again no one was vulnerable. As dealer, I held
        ♠ A J x x x x   ♥ (void)   ♦ x x x   ♣ A x x x
I decided the hand was too strong to open with a weak 2 ♠ with its outside Ace and outside void. At our table the auction went 1 ♠ Double 1 NT 2 ♥ which was the final contract, making three. Was I right to open 1 ♠? Was I right to pass when 2 ♥ came to me? I feared my partner would think I was stronger if I bid 2 ♠ and we would get too high.

At the other table the hand was opened 2 ♠ and that was the final contract, making. We lost 7 IMPs on the board.

At least the pros were happy, their team had won their last three matches and took the X title in the A/X Swiss.

Lessons Learned

• When counting on pickup partners and teammates, get to the partnership desk EARLY for the best selection.
• It's not that hard to leave a difficult pickup arrangement after the session is over.

Pairs side games

Because I needed to be at the Partnership Desk early for the Friday Bracketed Knockouts, I got up and went to the morning session. I was unable to find a team for the Compact Knockouts Friday and Saturday morning, but did find a partner for the Friday morning side pairs game. This partner played a Standard American bidding system, rather than the Two-over-one-game-forcing system (2/1) I am learning and using. I played partner's system. We got along well and had a delightful time. We finished third in our section in Flight C, not good for any Masterpoints. Because Section tops are worth Gold Masterpoints in an event of at least two sessions, we came back to play again Saturday, but did worse. I didn't even bother to check the results for Saturday.

Friday Bracketed Knockouts

Being at the Partnership Desk early did help; I found a partner who seemed reasonable and easy to get along with, and who played a 2/1 system similar to what I have been using. We found a delightful pair as teammates, and the team Masterpoint total put us in the bottom bracket (10 of 10) where I expected we would have a good chance to win. We did win our first match, but lost the second by a huge amount. We were behind by 18 IMPs at halftime, and decided to switch tables for the second half in hope of better results.

Friday Knockout Summary scoring = IMPs 24 boards per match
Match	first half	second half	match total
1	38 - 21	31 - 9	69 - 30
2	22 - 40	13 - 53	35 - 93

I had good discussions with both my teaammates and the pros on one of the hands from the second half of the second match. Remember, we were behind by 18 IMPs at halftime. My partner had misplayed a game early in the third quarter, so I mentally added a wulnerable game swing (11 IMPs) to our deficit. Vulnerable, I held

          ♠ A 9 5 2   ♥ 6   ♦ Q 9 5 4 2   ♣ J 9 2
and passed as dealer. The opponents were silent throughout the auction. Partner opened 2 ♣ and I responded 2 ♦. When Partner next bid 2 NT, I figured 22 - 24 HCP in Partner's hand, and that with my singleton Heart if we could find a fit we might be able to bid and make a slam. The complete auction:

West	East
Pass 2 ♦ 3 ♣ (1) 4 ♦ (2) 5 ♠ (3) Pass	2 ♣ 2 NT 3 ♥ 4 ♠ 6 NT (4)

1: looking for a Spade fit with Stayman
2: okay, Partner has four hearts, not interested. How about finding a diamond fit?
3: aha! We DO have a Spade fit. Is Partner strong enough to bid slam?
4: He wants a slam, I'll bid it.

6 NT was hopeless, we went down by 3 tricks and lost 14 IMPs to the other team's vulnerable game. However, we could have made 6 ♠! The hands:

W E S T		E A S T
♠  A 9 5 2 ♥  6 ♦  Q 9 5 4 2 ♣  J 9 2		♠  K Q 7 6 ♥  A 8 5 4 ♦  A 3 ♣  A K Q

In playing for a 6 ♠ contract, we could get 3 Club tricks, 1 Diamond trick, 1 Heart trick, 4 Spade tricks, and 3 Heart ruffs in the West hand, losing only the ♦ K. My Partner and teammates were impressed with my analysis, and my willingness to bid to a risky slam because we were so far behind in the match.

Later, though, the pros hit the nail on the head. "If you know you want to be in slam, just bid it!" was their advice. Once Partner bids 4 ♠ I should bid 6 ♠ on my next bid. Who cares if it goes down? We're already losing the match big. The only way to catch up is to bid and make the slam. I know that, I should just bid it. Don't get cute and give Partner a chance to go wrong. JUST BID IT.

Our team decided to play together again. First, we decided NOT to go into the playoff for places 5-8, which would yield little. We would play in the Saturday-Sunday Bracketed KO's, and plan to win. If we got knocked out Saturday, we would play as a team in the Sunday Swiss.

I discussed a second hand with the pros; I sat West, no one vulnerable. South deals:

		NORTH ♠ A 10 ♥ J 9 7 4 2 ♦ Q 5 ♣ 10 9 8 5
W E S T	♠ 9 7 5 3 ♥ K 10 3 ♦ J 9 7 6 ♣ K J		E A S T			♠ K Q J 8 2 ♥ Q 6 ♦ 3 2 ♣ 7 4 3 2
		SOUTH ♠ 6 3 ♥ A 8 5 ♦ A K 10 8 4 ♣ A Q 6

North	East	South	West
-- 1 ♥ Pass	-- Pass Pass	1 ♦ 2 ♦ Pass	Pass Pass

On my opening 3 ♠ lead, Declarer played the Ace from Dummy, and East played the Deuce. As Declarer was drawing Trumps, East discarded the K ♠. When I got in with my J ♦ I switched to the 5 ♠ to East's Q ♠. East returned the J ♠ and South ruffed with the last Trump. I followed suit with the 7 ♠. When I got in with my K ♥ I could not get to East to cash the thirteenth ♠ and lead a ♣ through declarer to make my K ♣ a winner. "How come I can see this now but couldn't find the play of the 9 ♠ on the third round at the table?" I asked. "Focus and concentration," was the answer. Experience helps too, as for the pros the discard of the 9 ♠ is obvious and automatic once all the cards in the suit can be placed. "So how do I get this focus?" I asked. "One help," one of them said, "is to pick the card you plan to play and then hesitate -- ask yourself what effect this card played now will have on the rest of the hand." A valuable tip indeed!

Saturday Bracketed Knockouts

This was the smallest Bracketed KO event of the tournament, with only four brackets. We played in Bracket 4, of course. Our first match was a Round Robin with two other teams, we split it but had enough net IMPS to be one of the two teams surviving to the quarterfinals. My highlight was in the match we won, where I held a huge hand and barged into a slam which was not bid at the other table. We lost in the quarterfinals, my bidding error on one hand us cost us the chance to take the lead at halftime. In the second half we lost a game swing on one board and our teammates went down in a slam which made against us on another board, and that was the match.

Saturday Knockout Summary scoring = IMPs 24 boards per match 12 boards per match in a round-robin match
Match	first half	second half	match total
1a	2 - 24	14 - 7	16 - 31
1b	39 - 5	14 - 16	53 - 21
2	29 - 33	22 - 32	51 - 65

We almost broke up the team after the match, but our teammates decided to play with us on Sunday in the Swiss Teams, and my partner and I agreed to continue as well.

Sunday Swiss Teams

Sunday Swiss Teams Session Summary scoring = Victory Points 7 boards per match
Match	IMPs	VPs	Total VP's
1	12 - 10	11 - 9	11
2	13 - 30	3 - 17	14
3	18 - 12	13 - 7	27
4	30 - 15	16 - 4	43
5	5 - 22	3 - 17	46
6	19 - 29	6 - 14	52
7	4 - 36	0 - 20	52