Somebody has lost their mind

Above: The Tour Desk in the lobby of the Sheraton Centre Toronto is a popular place.

In the second qualifying session of the Life Master Pairs, you hold:
♠A 10 7 6 4 ♥K Q 7 5 ♦10 4 ♣A 7.

You open 1♠, pass and partner bids 1NT. Your right-hand opponent overcalls 2♦ and you rebid 2♥. Your left-hand opponent raises to 3♦ and it's passed out there.

You lead the ♣A (I prefer the ♥K) and you see dummy:

                  ♠ K J 8 5 2
                  ♥ J 6 3
                  ♦ Q J 8 3
                  ♣ Q
♠ A 10 7 6 4                    
♥ K Q 7 5                       
♦ 10 4                          
♣ A 7

Partner plays the ♠9 on your lead, then realizes you led a club, not a spade, and corrects to a low club. The ♠9 is a penalty card and when the director comes, she tells declarer (me) his options and he asks for a spade lead. You play the ♠A, partner plays the ♠9 and declarer the ♠Q. Partner or declarer is out of spades. Who?

If declarer started with ♠Q 3, he intentionally opened himself up to a ruff. If partner had the ♠9 3, she should have played the 3 the second time (she was already known to hold the 9) to clear things up for you. Someone has done something irrational.

Declarer decided to trust his partner, always an adventure, and continued with a low spade. I put in the ♠8 and discarded a heart.

Here are all four hands (rotated):

                  ♠ K J 8 5 2
                  ♥ J 6 3
                  ♦ Q J 8 3
                  ♣ Q
♠ A 10 7 6 4                      ♠ 9 3
♥ K Q 7 5                         ♥ A 4 2
♦ 10 4                            ♦ 7 2
♣ A 7                             ♣ K J 10 6 5 4
                  ♠ Q
                  ♥ 10 9 8
                  ♦ A K 9 6 5
                  ♣ 9 8 3 2

I made four for plus 130 and 22 matchpoints on a 25 top.

What do you think of the 2♦ overcall? I used not to make two-level overcalls on bad hands. In this case, partner will often be on lead. You've got to help partner, bid that good suit.

Deep finesse says the opponents can make 5♣, and, in fact, can make 5♥. Your 2♦ bid and North's raise blew them out of the water.

Updates: Our team won the Bracket 1 Knockout. In the final match we were down 9 IMPs at the half, but rallied to win a squeeker by 7. You can read the results in the Daily Bulletin if you click here.

I've had nice visits with two bloggers: Linda Lee of Toronto and Masterpoint Press and Michael Yuen of Vancouver BC. I'm still looking for Glen Ashton, another blogger who lives in a Ottawa suburb and Ray Lee.

I plan to take today off and do tourist things. The have a step-on/step-off bus tour of the city that has an add-on of a harbour boat trip to the islands. On the islands, I plan to rent a bike and get some exercise. It was raining earlier (boo), but has cleared up, so the day's plans look like a go. Have camera, will travel.

Photo by MOJO and taken with my P&S.