Day 2: Tuesday

We are now in the finals! If we win this evening, I will have enough gold to be a life master!  But I am getting ahead of myself; first, this morning.

Doug and I played in a compact knock-out (meaning it’s shorter than a regular knock-out) with Cristi and Barb.  We won the first round, but alas, our opponents proved to be too much for us and we were knocked out during the second round.  Kathy and Susan are winning in their compact knock-out, which continues tomorrow morning.  Don’t tell anyone, but I’m kind of glad I get to relax tomorrow morning (but I still wish we had won).

The afternoon went better.  We played against the nicest, funniest people.  It also helped that I got a lot of good cards, and for the first time this tournament I was often the declarer.  As any of my regular partners can tell you, I am better at playing the hand than at defense.  Here’s an example of how the bidding went for one hand, and how it would have been different in a pairs game.

I opened 2 clubs and waited for my partner to bid 2 diamonds (waiting).  What should my rebid be?  I was loathe to bid 2 NT since I had a singleton spade; it would have to be clubs.  I had 5 really nice ones.  To my surprise, Doug bid 2 spades.  I knew this meant he had a spade suit and enough points to think about slam.  Obviously we couldn’t play it in spades, so we were probably headed for no trump.  I decided to show him my clubs, and then imagined his response and my rebid.  I ran several scenarios through my head, but he came up with a bid I hadn’t planned for:  6 clubs.  I passed, played the hand and easily made 7. 

At our partners’ table, the opponents were in a risky 6 NT contract, which they made only because 3 necessary finesses worked.  So yes, their score was higher than ours and they got 2 whole imps, hardly worth the possibility of going down.  Later Doug said that in a pairs game he would have gone slower and explored for no trump, but not in a team game.  The best contract is the safest contract.

I’m learning a lot about team game strategies and am very appreciative of my smart, experienced team members.