Interesting hand of the day IV

The more I play, the more I feel that bridge is like poker and acting. Interestingly, both of these interesting hands of the day were played with the directors (i.e. the pros). I am seated in the West for these two hands:

#19: the bidding goes like this - S: 2S, W: X(too strong for overcall for such a two suiter), N: XX (to show strength), E: P ( would appreciate if he shows me his diamonds by bidding 3D since I have no spade losers), S: P, W: 6H!

My reasoning was: Since I have only 3 visible losers (2 D and 1 C) and since S opened with weak 2S, I am banging on the chance that partner has something for this poker session. Oh well, turned out that partner has a nice shape for me when the King S was led! Only had a loser diamond! =D





















#17 - This hand deserves a long write up as it was one of the most memorial hand played by me up till now.

Bidding goes: N:P, E:P, S: 1H, W: 3NT!

My reasoning was with a reasonable solid diamonds and one H stopper, I have 8 possible winners. So this gambling 3NT ( there is indeed such a convention!) was kinda gambling that:

1. Partner has some external values
2. A heart was led by N. My King H would be safe from N's heart lead.

When North (Wenyuan) asked my partner what is 3NT, he could not answer as we did not have prior discussion on what is a 3NT overcall like.

So N decides to X my 3NT bid, and my partner came in with 4S! As a passed hand, I would have expect him to pass the 3NT, but by coming in with 4S, this is a horror as my gambling attempt fails badly. I have insufficient S supports and therefore have to reveal my D suit by correcting his 4S to 5D. The gambling element was essentially no more. :(

Was doubled by S and the the 7 of C was led by N. N made an excellent lead of a doubleton club as he is aware that

1. my 3NT is gambling. With his singleton diamond holdings, it is not tough to deduce that I have all the diamonds.
2. Spade is not a safe lead as it was bidded by my partner (why did he choose to reveal his own suit?!)
3. Heart lead achieves no purpose as my 3NT bid already revealed 1 H stopper, ideally.
   

When dummy (E) laid down his hand, I could see 3 visible losers: 2 C and 1 H losers. With the Ace and King of C missing, I knew that my only potential chance to make the contract is by a dodgy act - played a low from dummy, South showing out with the Ace and me immediately dropping the Queen of clubs.

The catch to make the game is immediate, smoothly and lastly, confidently. Why? If you hesitate too long, South would know that you are trying to fool him. By playing it in the above 3 mentioned manners, I managed to convince South that I hold a singleton Queen and the cashing of the King of C is not safe anymore as I can ruff that!

The satisfaction actually comes when you managed to get a pro to start thinking for 5 minutes, visibly frustrated and unsure of what to do next. You are essentially trying to fool the pros (and thankfully got them fooled) His thinking might be: what could be the 7 of C lead be? Could it be a doubleton or top of nothing (3 carder passive lead)?

So after much torment, he cashed his A of hearts and passively returned a small D, helping to set my 5DX contract. I will pull two rounds of trumps, go into dummy's solid S suit and discard my loser C on the Queen of S. Had he carried on with the King of C, I would be one off.

Lots of action and thinking going through in a split second. I had a wonderful day of poker and acting in bridge though. ;)

P.S: Wish my job hunting was as 1/10 as successful man. Zzzz