Analysis of the MP Exclusive Tournament #2 of Milan Macura

The second “weekly exclusive tournaments” are over. We know the winners and you can watch and read the bridge hands analysis.
If you have not played these tournaments yet, you can find them under “Get started/Practice > Exclusive tournaments” and search for Milan Macura.
Both the IMP and MP tournaments start on Saturday and end on Thursday when I am making the videos.

BRIDGE HANDS ANALYSIS FROM THE EXCLUSIVE TOURNAMENT OF MILAN MACURA (MP) NUMBER 2

The participation highly increased, from 249 to 465 players.

This time, there was only one player who scored over 80% and it was AproX from the Czech Republic with 80.36%.

Another two players managed to get over 75% – Linda from Australia with 75.85% and Mariejo from France with 75.54%.

Here is the top 10 leaderboard

Bridge hands analysis: top 10 leaderboard — Top 10 leaderboard

I did much better than last week and scored 62.25% to take 62^nd place.

I played very solid with only one score below 50% when I only invited to game with this hand after 1♠ opening:

Bridge hands analysis: my hand — My hand

Partner (Argine) had a minimum hand so it did not accept, but having 5224 distribution, the contract was laid down. 130 players reached the game and scored 84.55%.

Board number 2 was the most interesting for me.

You are holding kinda boring hand:

Your left-hand opponent opens 1♥ after two passes and your partner overcalled 2♦. Right-hand opponent doubles for takeout.

Would you make an action as South in unfavorable and if so, what is your reasoning?

You have a 4-card fit and an Ace. ♠Q is a potential winner and if partner does not have ♣Q, your doubleton club covers a loser too.

So, from my perspective, the hand is on average covering 2 losers.

If partner has a minimum hand, which is 7 losers for an overcall on 2^nd level, you are going one down from 3♦.

If partner has a little extra, you are making the contract for +110 and with a maximum hand (5 losers), you can even make 10 tricks.

The weakness of this hand is a 3-card heart suit.

East‘s double indicates four spades, most likely two hearts, and seven cards in minors, the typical shape is 4234.

If HCP split about 50-50, E-W pair should be able to make a contract of 2M, for at least -110 score, so we have to push to 3m, especially in MP.

Going down one is only -100 in VUL and that is a big difference in MP.

If you pass first, you will give West a chance to further describe his hand and E-W will find their best contract easily. So, the decision to bid 3♦ has to be made now. Once you bid 3♦, West bids 3♠ and partner jumps to 5♦ which will get doubled by East.

The lead is ♥6 and once you put your cards on the table, you declare a relatively easy contract for -1 and -200.

Some players made a mistake and went -2 when they did not draw trumps before ruffing the third club and got overruffed.

Notice that you have all top diamonds, so you can afford to ruff with the ♦8 or ♦9 to prevent the overruff.

Here is the full hand

E-W can make 4M if you do not defend properly so for -200, you score over 66%.

The top score is defending 4♠ by leading the ♦A, discarding the ♦3 to show the club preference.

Partner plays the ♣10 and when you take the Ace, you switch to a heart to potentially indicate shortness in North hand.

Declarer now has to guess the ♠Q. Since you did not bid and partner overcalled, Argine finesses the other way and once you score the ♠Q, you can still cash the ♣K for -1 and 95% score.