Minimal Conventions

Questions and talk about interesting deals and situations.
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rod
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Minimal Conventions

Post by rod »

My partner Doug is a strong player but doesn't like to use many conventions. I do see the wisdom in that.

In yesterday's club game I picked up this on board 27:

♠ A109
Q9
KQJ42
♣ 986

Our opponents were Phil the club's president and his adorable wife Bambi.

Doug opened the bidding with 1 and I'm immediately confronted by our lack of gadgets. 2 would be a simple raise. 3 is a limit raise. 1NT and 2NT are both nonforcing. Any new suit bid would be absurd.

With a mundane balanced 12 HCP I might bid 2NT, but in my experience that's too timid with a good 5-card suit as a source of tricks.

So I'm endplayed into calling 3NT. Phil led the 4 and Doug tabled this:

♠ Q543
AK62
A63
♣ J5

Fortunately our less-than-scientific auction had the advantage of not drawing attention to the wide-open club suit.

Winning with the Queen in hand I see nine tricks and a need to not give up the lead before taking them. Time to run the diamonds.

Phil held a singleton diamond so had to make four pitches while retaining heart length. He chose a club, a heart and two spades. I cashed two more rounds of hearts ending in dummy and was down to A109 of spades and a couple of clubs in my hand, with Q5 of spades and a heart and two clubs in dummy. I tried the ♠Q and was pleased to see it draw the King, Ace and Jack and two unexpected overtricks for a top score.
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