EVENT>Monday Night Invitational|SESSION>Monday Eve   |SECTION> A N-S
------------------------,------ ------------,-------- --------------------------
DATE>March 20, 2017     |CLUB NO.>185264    | 03/20/2017 22:43
---------------------,-- ------------------- -------------,---------------------
DIR> Debbie Wiest    |RATING>Club Championship (100%, 80%, 70% Open)|MOVEMENT>MITCHELL
------------,-------- ,-------------------------,--------- ---------------------
AVE>  132.0 |TOP>  11 |MP LIMITS>None/500/200   |CLUB>Mike's Games At The CBC
------------ --------- ------------------------- -------------------------------
PAIRS IN STRAT A=13/B=8/C=6                      ,---,-----------------,-------------------------,------,---------,
-------------------------------------------------|   |      Overall    |           Section       |      |Final    |
No Name                   Name                   |Flt|Rnk-A|Rnk-B|Rnk-C|Rnk-A|Rnk-B|Rnk-C| Score | Pct  |Awards   |
------------------------------------------------- --- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------- ------ ---------
 1 John Altman Sr         Robert Prosise           A   5     .     .   |   3     .     .    155.62  58.95  1.06(OA)

 2 Donald Pollack         Bernice Pollack          C   6     4     2   |   4     2     1    148.96  56.42  0.79(OA)

 3 Annette Kereiakes      Patricia Burnam          C   .     .     .   |   .     .     2    121.69  46.09  0.29(SC)

 4 David Elliott          Carla Runda              C   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    103.38  39.16

 5 Liz Lin                Elmer Hubka              A   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    102.93  38.99

 6 Pamela Kennedy         Cheryl Endres            C   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    117.41  44.47

 7 Dennis Schultz         Ralph Terbrueggen        A   .     .     .   |   5     .     .    145.22  55.01  0.26(SA)

 8 Julian Magnus, Jr      John Ramsay              C   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    115.14  43.61

 9 Joy Singerman          William Cook             B   4     3     .   |   2     1     .    160.34  60.73  1.41(OA)

10 Betty Murdock          Erin Oblinger            C   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    113.70  43.07

11 Doris Kehoe            Lilam Stanley            A   3     .     .   |   1     .     .    160.55  60.81  1.88(OA)

12 Susan Stacy Vanstone   Martin Gibler            B   .     .     .   |   .     3     .    139.10  52.69  0.32(SB)




                                          Totals                                           1584.04
EVENT>Monday Night Invitational|SESSION>Monday Eve   |SECTION> A E-W
------------------------,------ ------------,-------- --------------------------
DATE>March 20, 2017     |CLUB NO.>185264    | 03/20/2017 22:43
---------------------,-- ------------------- -------------,---------------------
DIR> Debbie Wiest    |RATING>Club Championship (100%, 80%, 70% Open)|MOVEMENT>MITCHELL
------------,-------- ,-------------------------,--------- ---------------------
AVE>  132.0 |TOP>  11 |MP LIMITS>None/500/200   |CLUB>Mike's Games At The CBC
------------ --------- ------------------------- -------------------------------
PAIRS IN STRAT A=13/B=11/C=6                     ,---,-----------------,-------------------------,------,---------,
-------------------------------------------------|   |      Overall    |           Section       |      |Final    |
No Name                   Name                   |Flt|Rnk-A|Rnk-B|Rnk-C|Rnk-A|Rnk-B|Rnk-C| Score | Pct  |Awards   |
------------------------------------------------- --- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------- ------ ---------
 1 Mike Burns             Judy Barron              C   .     6     3   |   4     4     2    140.18  53.10  0.56(OC)

 2 Joseph Kammer          Gail Zimmer              B   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    117.59  44.54

 3 Robert Roark           Sharon Koster            B   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    131.79  49.92

 4 Evelyn McCarthy        Joan Diers               C   2     2     1   |   2     2     1    161.69  61.25  2.51(OA)

 5 Cecilia Kloecker       Millard Lakes            C   .     .     .   |   .     .     .     98.63  37.36

 6 Lewis Temples          Linda Pretz              B   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    115.33  43.69

 7 Stephen Felson         Robert Brown             A   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    131.35  49.75

 8 Joanne Earls           Pam Campbell             A   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    129.35  49.00

 9 Judith Lubow           Carol Wilson             C   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    121.01  45.84

10 Sara Brown             Reggie Moskowitz         C   .     .     .   |   .     .     .    119.32  45.20

11 Reeta Brendamour       Kevin Henry              B   .     5     .   |   3     3     .    147.64  55.92  0.65(SA)

12 Peggy Jervis           Pat Lindeman             C   .     .     4   |   5     .     .    132.60  50.23  0.42(OC)

13 Sharon Kreitzer        Lynn Callif              B   1     1     .   |   1     1     .    168.72  63.91  3.35(OA)


                                          Totals                                           1715.20

Monday Night Invitational, Monday Eve, March 20, 2017

N/S lose one Spade trick, two Diamonds, and one Club, making three. West will lead the ♦ 5, and South will ruff the continuation. A Spade is next, declarer needing to set up their Spade winners before embarking on a cross-ruff. There's no reason for declarer to take a Heart finesse, since they'll need to ruff Clubs in dummy, so they'll cash the ♥ K and ♥ A. When the ♥ Q falls (along with the ♥T), there will be much rejoicing.

East, with eight tricks staring at them, bids the logical game. More often than not, this rebid shows a running minor, somewhere around 17 HCP, and a singleton in responder's suit. Oh well.

South will lead the ♠ 5, and declarer will win by force with the ♠ A. The ♣ A is next, and the bad news is immediate. Eight trick have turned into five. Crap. Declarer will probably go down two losing one Club, three Diamonds, one Heart, and one Spade. The good news is that N/S can make 3 ♠. Heh.

N/S lose one Heart trick, one Diamond, and two Spades, making three. Declarer doesn't have enough entries to setup the Clubs and pull trump. West will probably lead the ♥ A and continue Hearts.

N/S will lose two Club tricks and one Spade, making four.....or not. West will lead the ♣ K and continue Clubs at tricks two and three. Declarer will ruff the third Club, and the best line is ♥ A, ♥ J to the ♥ K, and a third Heart ruffed in hand. When Hearts behave, declarer's only other job is to get back to dummy, and the only way to get back there is to play East for ♠ Kx exactly. The ♠ A and a low Spade from each hand is next, and when East doesn't have another Club to continue, the game rolls home as South can pitch their losing Diamonds on dummy's good Hearts.

West shows an invitational hand with five Hearts, and East passes. E/W lose one Spade trick, one Heart, and two Diamond ruffs, making three. If North leads anything other than a Diamond (likely), E/W will make five. Expect a lot of +200 scores for E/W.

Should North lead a Diamond? Probably. They'll never lead away from ♣ Qxx or ♠ AJxx, so their only possible leads are a trump or a Diamond. With ♥ Ax, it's unlikely that they can lead trump enough times to curtail any ruffs in dummy, so a Diamond wins out. The correct Diamond to lead is the ♦ 4 (fourth best from an honor).

When you preempt, it's better to eat up as much room as you can. If you open 4 ♣ with the South hand, aren't you going to be tempted to bid 5 ♣ when it continues 4 ♣-4 ♠-P-P-?? Yup. West does well not to double 5 ♣ for takeout, since (1) they don't want partner to pass, (2) they have a five-card major, and (3) they want to protect their Heart holding.

N/S lose two Spade tricks, one Diamond, and a Spade ruff, down three doubled for –500. West will lead the ♦ K and continue Diamonds.

E/W will not enjoy this hand. There's no way that declarer will guess to play South for a singleton ♦ K, but if they do, they'll take three Club tricks, three Diamond tricks, and one Heart, down one. More likely N/S will take five Spade tricks and three Hearts before E/W get going. Ouch. South should lead the ♥T.

N/S lose one Heart trick, making six. Assume a Spade lead. Declarer wins in hand with the ♠ A and plays the ♥ 3 to the ♥ A. When the ♥ Q falls, declarer should abandon trumps and lead the ♣ 5 to the ♣ J which wins. The ♥T is next, East ducking (it doesn't matter), and declarer playing low from dummy. When the ♥T holds declarer should ruff a Spade (♠ Q falling), cash the ♥ K, and finesse again against West's ♣ K. The ♣ Q and ♠T are next, declarer pitching Diamonds from dummy. East is free to ruff the Spade, but that's the only trick for the defense.

E/W lose two Spade tricks, two Hearts, one Diamond, and one Club, down one. South will lead the ♠ 4 (MUD), and North will switch to the ♦ 9 at trick two (large Diamond to show no interest in the suit). When in with the ♦ K, South will play a Club back--if declarer has ♣ Qx, their Club loser will go away on a Spade anyway.

When you raise partner's major-suit response with only three-card support, make sure you have a singleton or void somewhere in your hand. You will rarely make a RKC Blackwood bid holding a void in your hand, since you won't know which keycard or keycards partner is showing. When you're missing only one, that's not a problem.

Assume that East leads the ♣ Q (nothing is better). Declarer will cover and ruff out the ♣ A, cash the ♥ K, play a Diamond to the ♦ A, ruff a Heart low, Club ruff, and a small Heart. When East shows out, the hand is over. Declarer ruffs with the ♠ J, cashes the ♠ Q, and ruffs another Club to get back to their hand to finish pulling trump and claim.

When the opponents preempt, your jumps are strong. E/W lose one Diamond trick, one Club, and three Hearts, down one. N/S will have to defend passively to beat this contract, and a lot of pairs aren't capable of defending this well (Did they at your table?). North will lead the ♥ K and switch to a Club at trick two, South covering dummy's card. Declarer can't afford to let South win this trick, since the ♥ A and a Heart ruff would be next, so they'll win with the ♣ A and pull trump. Since it's not possible to pull trump and lead a Heart through South, declarer will have to play Hearts from their hand, and South will win both the ♥ A and ♥ J.

E/W take four Club tricks and three Spades, making one. If South leads the ♥ A at any point during the hand, E/W will make two. The best defense is ♦ A, ♦ 4 to the ♦ K, ♥T towards the ♥ A (declarer ducking), ♥ 9 to the ♥ A, ♥ 8 to the ♥ Q, ♥ K, go to the snack table.

West uses XYZ to show an invitational hand with five Hearts, and East has an easy game bid with three Hearts, 14 HCP, and two Tens. E/W lose one Spade trick, one Heart, and one Club, making four. North may lead the ♦ 8.

West is in a dilemma with their second bid. 3 ♥ looks tempting, but would it be asking for a Heart stopper for notrump, or would it be showing one? When the opponents have bid one and only one suit, it's asking, but the opponent's have bid two suits, so the waters are muddied. My suggestion would be to bid 3 ♥, look at partner, shrug, and mouth "Do you have a Heart stopper?" Do this when the director is on the phone or in the back "making boards" (looking at naughty pictures). Best of luck.

In 4 ♣, E/W lose one Diamond trick and two Spades when it's impossible to get to dummy to lead a Spade. Stupid dummy.

It's rarely right to pass opener's minor-suit rebid when you have two-card support for their major. This is one time when it's close. If North was a bit weaker, they should pass--picture ♠ 54 ♥ Q83 ♦ A32 ♣ J8652. ♠ J4 is a pretty good holding, and with 10 HCP, North wants to protect South in case they have a hand that wants to take a third bid--picture ♠ AK965 ♥ J ♦ KQ ♣ KJT97. That one is cold for 5 ♣.

N/S lose one Spade trick, two Hearts, and three Clubs, down one. West will lead the ♥ Q. The proper way to play the Spades is small to the ♠ J on the first round. This protects against ♠ QTxx in the West hand.

You'll often need to wait until an auction is almost ever before you make your move. In this auction, neither West nor East knew that the hand belonged to them until North passed over 3 ♣. If West had bid 3 ♦ after East's double, East could have bid 3 ♥ to show two places to play. They know that partner doesn't have a six-card Diamond suit (i.e., they didn't double 1 NT to show a single-suited hand). They're also sure that partner doesn't have a five-card Diamond suit (i.e., they are obviously void in Clubs, so they would have bid 2 ♦ with 4450 shape).

N/S lose two Heart tricks and two Spades, down one. West will lead the ♠ K and continue with the ♠ A and the ♥ 8 (MUD).

E/W lose one Club trick, one Diamond, and two Hearts, down one. South will lead the ♦ K (asking for count) and switch to the ♥ 4 when partner shows an odd number of Diamonds.

♥ QJ is surely the equal of ♥ 432, isn't it? N/S lose one Spade trick and one Club, making five. West will lead the ♦ K or the ♠ 8 (top of nothing in a supported suit).

E/W bid well to get to the good Diamond slam. North will lead the ♣ 8 (MUD). Declarer intends to take all the tricks if the Diamonds break 3-2, so what are the pitfalls if they split 4-1? If the ♦ J or ♦T falls singleton, then declarer can take a second-round finesse for the other honor. If the singleton isn't an honor, the only way to pick up the suit would be for North to hold ♦ JTxx and for declarer to take a 2nd round finesse. That's not going to happen.

A better line is to win the Club lead in hand with the ♣ K, and immediately play a Spade to the ♠ A. If the ♠ K doesn't show up, then declarer knows they have to pitch two Spades on declarer's ♥ AK. That means there will be no Club pitches, and declarer will have to ruff two Clubs in hand. When the ♠ K does show up, declarer has to ruff only one Club. ♥ Q, ♣ A, Club ruffed with dummy's ♦ 9, ♥ AK pitching a Spade and a Club, ♦ A, and ♦ 2 to the ♦ Q. It doesn't matter that North shows out, since declarer can cash the ♦ K and give up a Diamond trick, making six.

E/W take six Diamond tricks, one Club, and one Spade, down one. North should lead the ♥ Q, and declarer should duck. If North doesn't switch to the ♣T at trick two, E/W will make three.

East doesn't quite have enough to accept the invitation. E/W lose one Heart trick, one Diamond, and one Club, making four. South will lead the ♣ K and continue Clubs at trick two.

N/S take four Spade tricks, one Heart, two Diamonds, and one Club, making two. East will lead the ♥ K and switch to Diamonds at trick two. Declarer's best chance is to duck a Diamond, but the defense will continue Diamonds, and there's no way for declarer to make use of all of dummy's tricks after trump are out. Stupid dummy.

It's an unlucky hand. N/S lose one Spade trick, two Hearts, and one Diamond, down one. West may lead the ♣ 3.

Here's what East knows after West's 5 ♦ bid and North's 5 ♠ sacrifice:
(1) Partner has no points in Spades and probably a void or a small singleton.
(2) Partner has at most one point in Hearts--♥ J.
(3) Partner has bid 5 ♦ opposite a potential void in Diamonds and a possible weak hand.
(4) Partner has at most six points in Diamonds and five points in Clubs.

Partner's worse possible hand at this point should be ♠ 2 ♥ J6 ♦ KJT9652 ♣ AJT. Since there's no way that partner would bid 5 ♦ with that pile of goo, their hand should be better. Does it need to be? Nope. 7 NT is cold opposite that hand if Diamonds are 2-1 or North has three of them.