Friday, August 31, 2007

Aggressive action

Round of 16 of Spingold we looked horns with Glubok-Ozdil and Coren-Rosenbloom, who the previous round beat 4th seeded O'Rourke (Jacobus, Bocchi-Duboin, Greco-Hampson). We were ahead by 22 going into the last quarter.

This last set Freddan and I played G-O and on the first board they bid good slam cutting the lead to 11. We were 'solid' at both tables the rest of the way going 74-0 on the remaining boards.

Here's a bidding decision from halfway in the set. I had:

2
JT2
AQ954
9643

All vul and Melih started on my right with 1S. Brian bid 1NT, partner doubled and RHO bid 4S in tempo. What's your call? Is this a problem?

I guess pass would be the mainstream choice, some lunatic might try 5D. I made an aggressive penalty double without trumps because this is a situation where partner wouldn't act on marginal values unless defensive tricks ('grave-yard'). This collected +500 and 7 imps (same contract undoubled at other table) on this layout.

_____86
_____K875
_____J72
_____K875
2___________95
JT2__________AQ95
AQ954_______T83
9643________AQJT
_____AKQJT743
_____63
_____K6
_____2

Swap the red kings and 4S makes but I still feel in retrospect that this was clear odds-on double.

Auction analysis often provides the key to going the right way in marginal situations.

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