Antalya - day 1

Just before kickoff. Alon/me/Craig/Frederic

We started today with 4 matches out of a total of 7 for the first roundrobin stage. 3 qualify directly and the remaining have another go in the repecharge. We are seeded 3rd in our 8 team group and have started well, amassing 90 out of 100 VP (best in any group so far). Tomorrow we face stiffer competetition (top seeds)

Our teammates have played very well. Craig has lots of robber bridge in London under his belt and has represented South Africa many times internationally. Here is a couple of deals where he showed his mettle.

First a lead against a slam after this auction:

N/N-S

(1D) - 2H - (2S) - 3H
(4H) - pass - (6S) all pass

You have:

Kx
KTxx
Axx
Txxx

Craig first played it cool with 3H to see what was going on (prepared to go on to 5H later) and then he led a club after listening to the auction, which was the killing shot on this layout:

_____Qxx
______
_____KQTxxxx
_____AJx
Kx___________x
KTxx_________AJ9xxx
Axx__________J9x
Txxx_________Kxx
_____AJT9xxx
_____Qxx
______
_____Qxx

As we played 5S for +680 this meant +13 imp instead of -13 imp.

Then he stuck his neck out in the 'grave yard' (se previous posts) by doubling nonv vs v after:
pass - (1S) - pass - (1NT);
??

... with x/K9876/Q9xx/K9x. This collected +500 when partner held QTxx/JT/AKx/AT8x!

We never exposed ourselves to this as I opened 1D instead on AKJxx/Qxx/Jxx/Jx. Next hand overcalled 1NT and Craig's hand drove to 4H going 2 down for +12 imp.

So far so good.