Interesting Stuff

The title says it all. Jim and I had a 53.7% game tonight which placed us 3rd out of 10, and we each got 0.5 Black Master Points. Moreover, on the fifth board of the night, I got a squeeze play! Yes, I have now finally accomplished my goal of successfully executing a squeeze play in a sanctioned game! I got a simple squeeze against LHO, and while it scored below average (because we didn’t bid the slam), no one got more tricks than I did. \/\/00T!

Here’s the squeeze: (spot cards are approximate)
Dummy’s hand:
S: J
H: –
D: AJ4
C: –

My hand:
S: –
H: 6
D: 7
C: 83

I was in my hand, playing 3NT. LHO had lead the King of spades, implying that she had the Queen, too (I took the King with my Ace). Hearts had been drawn, except the one remaining in my hand. The King and Queen of diamonds were also gone already. If LHO had longer diamonds than RHO, the squeeze was on. I played my last heart, and when the Queen of spades failed to fall, I pitched the Jack from Dummy. I then ran the diamonds, and the last one was good. Here’s what happened: LHO held the Queen of spades and three diamonds higher than Dummy’s 4. However, she was squeezed on the heart trick. If she discards the Queen of spades, I discard the low diamond, and Dummy’s Ace-Jack of diamonds and Jack of spades are all high. If, instead, she discards a diamond, I discard the Jack of spades, and run the diamonds. LHO only has 2 of them left after the discard, so the third one in Dummy will be good. Hot damn!

I don’t remember any of the hands in detail, though there were some interesting boards this afternoon: one hand was cold for 5H by North/South while also being cold for 5S by East/West. On another, Jim and I each had 7-card suits, and RHO had an 8-card suit! Talk about distribution! There was also a hand where Jim showed a weak hand with long clubs. Our opponents worked their way up to 5D, and I bid 6C as a sacrifice (a contract that you expect to go down, but which will give your opponents fewer points than if they had bid and made their own contract), which was doubled. However, Jim made the contract for a top board! We also managed to set both 1NT and 1C, which were quite weird (no one ever plays in 1C, and any contract at the 1 level is rare).

It was a good session, and I think a lot of it was due the squeeze play—after that hand, I remarked to Jim that I would consider today a win even if we got last place. This satisfaction let me relax for the rest of the afternoon, and got rid of my nervous jitters. The one exception was the following: Jim had 5 clubs to the Ace-Queen, four daimonds to the King-Ten, and four spades to the King-Jack. I had the singleton Ace of spades, 5 hearts to the Ace-King-Jack, four diamonds to the Ace-Jack, and 3 clubs to the Jack.

He opened 1C, I replied 1H, he bid 1S. I then bid 2D, intending it to be fourth suit forcing (showing game-going values but doubt as to which game to choose and not guaranteeing anything in diamonds), though Jim interpreted it as showing game-going values including a diamond suit. He then “raised” me to 5D. I didn’t think I had promised a diamond suit, so I had no idea what to make of this—he couldn’t be supporting a suit I didn’t claim to have, but it couldn’t be a splinter bid (a double jump in a new suit showing game-going values, 4-card support for my hearts and a singleton or void in diamonds), since he could only have done that before bidding 1S. It couldn’t be a cue-bid (showing the ace of diamonds and interest in slam), since I had the ace of diamonds. After pondering for quite a long while, I passed. I made the contract, but it was a below-average board since everyone else was making 5NT. I don’t see how either of us would want to bid notrump with our suit-oriented distribution. Any thoughts?