Buzzer Beater revisited – CNTC 1/4 final last hand

I fell asleep with thoughts of 3NT down 1 in my head and as I went for a long walk this morning, the hand still ate me up. Had I just quietly passed Keith’s 3 club bid, we would have played there making, and not given the hand much thought, and lost the match by six imps, and everyone else on the team (and me of course) would be looking to something they did that could have won the match.

But last hand goat has special status – lol.

I also realize I should give credit to Ken Scholes for his excellent shift to the diamond queen from AQ107 at trick 2.

North

J43
A76
J9
Q10432

AK2
9843
K54
AJ8

To review, I had ducked the H queen lead to East who won the stiff king and shifted to the diamond queen. Ken held 98765 K AQ107 K65.

In talking to other people, a surprising number of Easts in the same situation simply returned the nine of spades at trick 2.

Had that happened at my table, there is an excellent chance I would have made the hand.

And almost everyone else was in 2NT, not 3NT – I have not found another pair in 3NT in fact.

what happens is you play safe for 8 tricks in 2NT, and the ninth trick falls into your lap.

I guess I don’t have much more to say about the hand now. If I were a true reporter, I would probably kibitz the semi finals and rush to the PC at the breaks to breathtakngly give you all a blow by blow of the matches.

But I always intended this to be a personal diary, not a true CNTC report, so personally I must say I need a day away from bridge, and then Keith and I will turn our attention to the COPC – which of course is a matchpoint event – with totally different skillsets required, and where the luck factor can be much larger than in a team game.

Hope you all are enjoying the blog, and comments would be welcomed on any of the entries. If anyone would like to contact me directly I can be reached at rosstaylor999@hotmail.com

TTYL

Ross