A Pair of 2 Spade Contracts

In matchpoint pairs, the humble partscore deals are as important as the games and slams.  They are often more difficult to play and defend, since both sides have a lot of high cards and, thus, options.  Here are two that I played back-to-back in last week's club game.
1.  I dealt and picked up this hand:

♠ KJ9
♥ xx
♦ AKx
♣ QJxxx

Jenn and I play a 14-16 HCP range for our 1NT openings, so I opened 1NT.  Jenn bid 2 Clubs, Stayman.  I rebid 2 Diamonds, and now she bid 2 Hearts.  This, by agreement, is "Garbage Stayman", showing a very weak hand with at least 4 cards in each major.  I am obligated to pass with 3 hearts or correct to 2 Spades if, as here, I am 3-2 in the majors.  Everyone passed.  LHO led a spade, and I looked at:

♠ xxxx
♥ KJ9xx
♦  xxx
♣ T

♠ KJ9
♥ xx
♦ AKx
♣ QJ8xx

RHO played the spade ace, and returned a spade.  I put in the jack which held.  Now what?

I thought that I would try to set up the clubs, so I played a club to the ten.  LHO won with the ace, and played a third spade to RHO's queen and my king.  I continued with my plan by playing the queen of clubs, pitching a heart, and losing to the king.  Now RHO returned a diamond.  I won and cashed the jack of clubs, pitching a diamond.  Had both followed, I would have ruffed a club with the 13th spade, then eventually try to win one heart trick for the 8th trick.  However, LHO showed out on this trick, pitching a diamond.  Now what?

I now had to try to win 2 heart tricks.  LHO had 3 spades and 2 clubs.  I had to hope he had either 2 of the missing heart honors or, if he had just one, I would make the right guess and the suit would split 3-3.  I played a heart to the jack which lost to the ace.  Good, now I was up to 7 tricks.  RHO now returned a diamond, which, as it turned out, was his last one.  I won with the king and played another heart to the 9, losing to his ten.  He now played a club for me to ruff with the 13th spade.  I cashed the heart king, perforce, and as the suit split 3-3, I scored a low heart at the end, making 2, for 8 out of 8 matchpoints.

Note that when RHO won the ace of hearts, he was effectively endplayed.  If he had played a fourth round of clubs when in with the heart ace, he would have had to play from his 9x to my 8x. If he played high, I would have ruffed in dummy, played a diamond to my hand and scored the 8.  If he played low, I would have won the 8 right away. RHO's original hand was AQx/ATx/xx/K9xxx.  So he played a diamond, giving me the time to set up a second heart winner.

2.   On the very next board, I dealt and looked at:

♠ xxxx
♥ x
♦ Kx
♣ AKJ9xx.

I opened 1 club.  Jenn bid 1 Heart, I bid 1 Spade, she raised to 2 Spades and I passed.  The opponents, who were not vulnerable, evidently weren't aware of Larry's Iron Law (see earlier article) and allowed us to play it there.  LHO led the heart jack, and I looked at:

♠ KQTx
♥ xxxx
♦ xxxx
♣ T

♠ xxxx
♥ x
♦ Kx
♣ AKJ9xx

The jack held trick 1, and another heart went to RHO's queen.  I ruffed.  What now?

Since they tapped my hand early, I couldn't take advantage of my hand's best feature, the long club suit, since if I tried to set them up, I could be tapped again before trumps were drawn.  So I had to try to scramble by getting as many ruffs as possible.  I played the AK of clubs and a third club.  LHO played the queen on the third club and they split 3-3.  I ruffed a heart and played the 9 of clubs.  I was planning to ruff high and try and get another heart ruff in hand.  LHO ruffed this and I overruffed.  I tried to ruff another heart, but LHO overruffed me.  Fortunately, LHO was now down to nothing but the ace of spades and diamonds.  He was therefore endplayed so I got the king of diamonds.  I ended up with 2 clubs, a diamond and five spade tricks to scramble home with the contract for another 8 out of 8 matchpoints. 

This time the defense could have prevailed.  If LHO doesn't ruff the fourth club, he could have exited with ace and another spade, putting me on the board, and now I would have been forced to lead a red suit.   RHO could have won another heart and played a diamond through, or if I played a diamond I'd lose my king to the ace.

This hand illustrates the importance of using defensive count signals.  LHO didn't have a complete count on the clubs, so he didn't know, when I played a fourth round of clubs, if his partner had to follow suit or not.  He was afraid that if he didn't ruff, I would discard from dummy and win the trick.  If his partner gave him honest count in clubs, he would have known that partner could have ruffed the 9 of clubs so that he wouldn't have to. 

Of course, if the opponents are alert, (and following the law heretofore mentioned) they won't let us play at the two level at all--after all, we only have 16 points between us!

Good luck!

A Bidders' Game

Here are a couple of hands from a matchpoint game yesterday where bidding paid off .

1.
♠ K9xx
♥ J9x
♦ A10x
♣ Axx

I opened 1C. Partner, Bob, bid 1H, I bid 1S and he jumped to 4S.  A diamond was led:

♠ J10xx
♥ KQ10x
♦ QJxx
♣ Q

♠ K9xx
♥ J9x
♦ A10x
♣ Axx

RHO played low on the diamond without hesitation and I studied the hand.  I decided to start by leading a club to the ace and ruffing a club.  Next  I ran the spade jack and it held!  Hmmm...what's going on here?  I can't continue spades as RHO could win the ace and return a spade leaving me with a club loser.

I'm pretty sure that LHO has the diamond king and am unsure how the spades are divided.  I decide to play on hearts to see what happens.  LHO wins the heart jack with the ace and returns a club.  I ruff with the spade 10 (an unblock in case I need it) and these cards are left:

♠ x
♥ KQ10
♦ Jxx
♣

♠ K9x
♥ 9x
♦ A10
♣

When I lead a spade, RHO rises with the ace and LHO shows out.  She returns a diamond and now it is my turn to rise with the ace.  Clearly I now need to play on hearts and hope something good happens.  I hope to at least be able to coup RHO's remaining trumps with my K9 over her Qx.  All follow to two rounds of hearts and when I lead the 13th heart RHO errs by discarding, enabling my to pitch my losing diamond.  I now score my last two trumps. 

450 was a top, while 420 was a tie for top.  Most pairs that bid game went down and some stopped in part scores making 2 or 3. 

2.
None vul., LHO opened 1NT which was passed around to me:

♠ xxx
♥ K87xx
♦ KQ
♣ Kxx

Not much of a hand, but it is usually right to try to get in these auctions.  Accordingly, I bid 2D, a transfer to hearts.  (With such a bad suit, I was happy to let partner play the hand...:-)  2H ended the auction.  He got a club lead and had, as expected, some values:

♠ 109x
♥ QJxx
♦  xxx
♣ QJx

It was lucky to find him with good hearts.  He lost 3 spades as well as a trick in each of the other suits for down one.  Minus 50 was a top as the other pairs were going minus at least 90 and some as much as 150.
The matchpoints belong to the bidders!

See you at the table!

Balancing with Balanced Hands

I have observed that many partnerships do not have well-defined agreements covering how to handle balanced hands when LHO opens one of a suit and it goes pass, pass to you.  Have you discussed how to show balanced hands of any strength?  Have you discussed the meaning of the following bids with your favorite partner?

1NT
2NT
Double, then 1NT
Double, then 2NT

Jenn and I had, fortunately, had a detailed discussion about this recently when I was dealt

♠  KQx
♥  A9xx
♦  AKx
♣  Axx

LHO opened 1 Diamond, which was passed around to me.  We had agreed to cover all of the ranges as follows:

1NT = 10-14 HCP
Double then 1NT = 15-17
Double then 2NT = 18-19
2NT = 20-21.

Since I had 20 HCP, I duly bid 2NT.  Jenn bid 3 Clubs, Stayman.  I rebid 3 Hearts, she bid 3NT and I passed. 

LHO led the king of clubs, and I looked at

♠  T987
♥  KTx 
♦  QTxx
♣  xx

♠  KQx
♥  A9xx
♦  AKx
♣  Axx

How would you play it?

I decided that LHO had to have 4 diamonds, since with only 3 of each minor and a club suit headed by the KQ, he surely would have opened 1 Club.  So, with a marked diamond finesse (if the jack didn't fall on my right) I had 8 tricks: one spade, 2 hearts, 4 diamonds and one club.  The ninth could come from a second spade, if the jack was on my right, or a third heart if the suit split 3-3 or the queen or jack was doubleton.  There was also the possiblity of an endplay against LHO since had to have most of the outstanding honors. 

I held up ace of clubs until the third round, and pitched a spade from dummy.  RHO played the jack on the third round, suggesting that the clubs were 5-3 with length on my right.  I took the AK of diamonds, and finessed the ten which held.  RHO pitched a spade on the ten of diamonds.  Now I had a choice of plays.  I could play the AK of hearts hoping for an honor to drop then, if not, another heart hoping for 3-3.  I could finesse hoping RHO had the jack of spades.  I could play the queen of diamonds, pitching a heart, then play a spade to the queen hoping to endplay LHO. 

If the heart suit is considered in isolation, the best percentage play is three rounds of hearts.  However, I couldn't do this because I couldn't afford to lose a heart to RHO, who held 2 good clubs.  So I decided to cash the diamond and pitch a heart, then play spades.  RHO pitched another spade on the diamond queen.  Now I played a spade to my queen, on which RHO discarded a club, and LHO ducked.  Now I knew that LHO's hand was

♠  AJxx
♥  ??
♦  Jxxx
♣  KQx

He opened the bidding, so I decided he had to have the heart queen and/or jack.  So I played a heart to the king and another heart, planning to duck this into him for a forced spade return. As it happened, RHO covered with the jack, I played the king dropping LHO's queen and my nine of hearts was the ninth trick.  I could also have ducked the heart to LHO and scored the spade king as I originally intended on an endplay. Cute hand!

Good luck!

All's Well That Ends Well

I liked this hand which came up today in a team game.  Both vul., RHO passed and I opened 1 club.

♠ K8xx
♥ K
♦ xxx
♣ AQ109x

My partner, Bob bid 1H and I bid 1S.  He now bid 4D, which I took as a splinter bid in support of spades.  My hand isn't great, but with no wasted values in diamonds I decided to cooperate with a cue bid of 4H.  He signed off in 4S and a club was led.

♠ Q10xx
♥ QJxxx
♦ Q
♣ KJx

♠ K8xx
♥ K
♦ xxx
♣ AQ109x

I've been in worse games.  I won the club on the board and led a heart to my singleton K which held.  This helped.  I now led a diamond and LHO won the K and returned another club, looking like he started with a doubleton.  I won the club in hand and led a spade to the queen which held. Next came the HQ which was covered and ruffed.  I ruffed a diamond and  pitched my last diamond on the HJ, all following.  It was now decision time with these cards remaining:

♠ 10x
♥ xx
♦
♣ J

♠ K8
♥
♦
♣ AQ9

I had lost one trick and it was a good bet that the spades were breaking 3-2 with the ace on my left.  If I led a spade and LHO had both the ace and the jack he would draw trumps and run diamonds.  After some consideration I decided to lead a club.  If LHO ruffed, maybe it would be with an honor.  No luck.  He ruffed with the 9.  But wait a minute--he is endplayed!  He in fact returned a heart which I ruffed.  The spade king lost to the ace but pinned the jack and the board was good--a good trump along with the 13th heart.

If he had returned a diamond, I would have ruffed on the board, pitching a club from hand.  A trump play would have caused the remaining honors to fall, as above, leaving a good club and a trump in my hand.  This cute ending netted us 12 imps.

Partner was interested in what I and our teammates thought of his 4 diamond bid.  I thought it was fine--vulnerable at imps is no time to be delicate.  Our teammates, a bit more conservative, thought a bid of 3 spades would have sufficed.  I would have had to pass and we would have only collected 6 or 7 imps.

My advice is to work on your declarer play so that your partner can bid games with impunity!

See you at the table!

Six-five, Come Alive! (4)

When it rains, it pours!  I seem to have been dealt a lot of these lately.  Here is yet another 6-5 beauty from a recent pairs game.  Unlike the others, we got this one wrong.  There are some interesting bidding issues involved. 

I picked up, in third seat with neither side vulnerable:

♠  Axxxxx
♥  AKQTx
♦   xx
♣  void

 Jenn,  my partner, dealt and opened 2 Diamonds, a weak-two bid.  RHO doubled.  How would you handle this? 

This problem exposed an area where we did not have a firm agreement.  We do have an agreement that a new suit is forcing after a weak-two, but did not have an agreement whether or not this applied after a takeout double.  Game was possible in any of three suits.  I wanted to get both my suits in.  I could have shown a good hand with a redouble, then bidding later.  However, the opponents had to have a big club fit, so if I redoubled, by the time it came back to me again it could have been at any level.  So I bid 2 Spades even though Jenn might not think it was forcing.  I didn't think this would end the auction, since I expected someone to bid clubs.  LHO duly bid 3 Clubs, which was passed back to me.  Now what?
   
The obvious choices were 3 Hearts and 4 Hearts.  While I had a really good hand, I knew 2 things:  RHO probably was 4-4 in the majors, so those suits were unlikely to split well for us.  Also, Jenn couldn't act over 3 Clubs.  So I took the low road and bid only 3 Hearts.  Jenn corrected to 3 Spades.  I expected her to be 2-2 in the majors, and I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to get to her hand.  For example, she might have held xx/xx/QJTxxx/KJx.  So I passed. 

LHO led a heart, and I looked at 

♠ Jx
♥ xx
♦ AKTxxx
♣ xxx

♠ Axxxxx
♥ AKQTx
♦  xx
♣ void

 As soon as I saw her hand, I was sorry I didn't bid 4 Hearts, or raise her 3 Spades to 4 Spades, since not only did her AK of diamonds cover both my losers there, but the heart lead resolved any problems in that suit and I had entries to dummy to lead spades through RHO.  We ended up making 5, since RHO's spades were KQT2, so he scored only 2 spade tricks.  (I went to dummy's ace of diamonds and pushed the Jack through him.  He had to cover, I won the ace, and kept leading spades so he didn't score his deuce.)

Our lack of agreement as to the nature of my 2 Spade bid was partly responsible for this poor result.  Jenn didn't expect me to have a really good hand, so she didn't think she could bid 3 Diamonds freely over 3 Clubs to show a good suit.  If she had, I would have bid 4 Hearts and we would have reached 4 Spades.

I welcome any comments on what agreements any of you have to cover situations like this. 

Good luck!

 

Six-five, Come Alive! (3)

I was dealt another 6-5 beauty in yesterday's pair game.  In third seat, with neither side vulnerable, I picked up:

♠ void
♥ AKxxx
♦ AQxxxx
♣ xx

Partner and RHO passed.  My plan was to start with 1 Diamond, then reverse into hearts.  While the hand had just 13 HCP, it had only 4 losers so surely was strong enough for a reverse.  LHO passed, and partner surprised me by bidding 1 Heart!  Now the hand became huge, so I immediately thought of a possible slam, even though partner was a passed hand.  RHO overcalled 1 Spade.  What now?

If I had been playing with Jenn, I would have had two tools in my arsenal to use here.  A jump to 4 Diamonds would show a strong heart raise with a 6-card or longer diamond suit with at least two of the top three honors.  Alternatively, I could jump to 3 Spades showing a strong heart raise and short spades.  I wasn't sure that this partner would have understood 4 Diamonds.  Even if he had, I think that 3 Spades is the superior call, since what I really needed to know was whether or not partner had a club control.  3 Spades left room for him to show it, so that is what I bid. 

LHO doubled.  Now partner, bless him, bid 4 Clubs, just what I wanted to hear!  RHO passed.  I could have dithered with a 4 Diamond cue bid, but I was concerned that LHO, who had doubled 3 Spades, would bid again, and since I thought that 6 Hearts would have a good play, I just bid it.  They led a spade, and partner looked at:

♠ void
♥ AKxxx
♦ AQxxxx
♣ xx

♠  xx
♥ QJxxx
♦  xx
♣ AQJT

6 Hearts was an excellent contract.  How would you play it?

It may make a difference whether you are playing matchpoints or IMPs.  Playing matchpoints, you have to consider how likely it is that others will be in this contract.  There is a safety play available that gives you about a 90%  play for the contract, but it gives up the possibility of making an overtrick.  At IMPs it is clear that you take the safety play.  Should you take it here in a pairs game?  Do you see it?

There are two possible lines of play: 

(1) draw trumps, taking 3 rounds if necessary, and take a diamond finesse.  If it wins, cash the ace.  If diamonds split 3-2, ruff out the diamonds, ruff the last spade, and pitch all your clubs, making an overtrick.  If diamonds split 4-1, you will not be able to get enough club pitches after ruffing out diamonds, so take 2 club finesses and if that suit comes in, you make an overtrick.  If not, you make 6.  If the diamond finesse loses and a club comes back, you have to guess whether to play for 3-2 diamonds (play the ace and go for 3 club pitches on good diamonds) or take the club finesse.  If you guess wrong, you go down. 

(2) draw one round of trumps ending in your hand.  If trumps are 2-1, leave the last trump out and lead a diamond.  Play the ace unless LHO shows out and ruffs.  Draw the last trump, again winning in your hand, and play a diamond towards dummy.  If LHO wins, you can set up the diamonds for 3 club pitches, making six.  If LHO follows and RHO wins, and plays a club, you don't have to finesse, as diamonds are breaking 3-2.  Go up with the ace, set up the diamonds and take 3 club pitches, again making six (unless RHO had a stiff king of diamonds, in which case you make seven).  If LHO shows out on the second diamond, and RHO wins and returns a club, take the club finesse.  If it wins, you make six.  If not, then nothing you do could have succeeded.   

We made six and got a top board.  I later found out that other pairs had more interference.  At some tables, my RHO opened 2 Spades.  I have a tool to handle this.  A bid of 4 of a minor after a weak 2 in a major shows a big 2-suiter with that minor and the other major, so I could have bid 4 Diamonds.  (Some people refer to this as Leaping Michaels.)  LHO, holding 5 spades, would almost certainly have competed with 4 Spades.  Partner looks to be good enough to bid 5 Hearts over this, after which I would have had to guess whether or not to go on to six.  In any event, nobody else got there, so it would have been best to play as safely as possible to make it.   

Good luck!

Six-five, Come Alive! (2)

This is the second in what is likely to be several articles about one of my favorite themes.

At Wednesday's team game, I was dealt, vulnerable vs not, in second seat:

♠ ATxx
♥ QTx
♦  Kxx
♣ KQx

RHO opened 2 Diamonds, weak.  This is a good hand, but not good enough to compete, so I passed.  Now the auction took a strange turn.  LHO bid 2 Spades, forcing.  Jenn, my partner, bid 2NT and RHO doubled! Are we playing with a 60-point deck, or is something unusual going on?

To put this in context, Jenn and I have an agreement known as the Sandwich NT.  When you are in fourth seat, LHO and RHO both bid and partner passes, you are in what is known as the "sandwich" position.  (Imagine both opponents being two slices of bread with you in the middle.)  Our agreement went as far as this:  when both opponents bid at the 1-level and you are in the sandwich position, a bid of 1NT is a takeout for the other 2 suits.  Since a double is also a takeout, the 1NT bid is either weaker or more distributional. 

We had not discussed whether this applies at the 2-level, or after one of the opponents had made a weak 2 bid.  So I wasn't sure what was going on, but suspected that Jenn had a distributional 2-suiter.  Anyway, since 2NT was doubled, I didn't feel the need to bid.  With my good hand, I was happy to suggest a good hand by passing.  Now LHO removed the double by bidding 3 Diamonds.  Jenn doubled, and RHO passed.  Now what?

I was now certain that Jenn's 2NT wasn't natural, given that I had Kxx of diamonds, LHO supported them and Jenn doubled 3 Diamonds.  So it must have been a takeout with hearts and clubs.  But since I had spades and diamonds stopped and a good hand, I tried 3NT.  Jenn removed this to 4 Clubs.  Now I was sure that she was very distributional, probably with at least 5 hearts and 6 clubs, and light in high cards.  Since I had QTx of hearts, I decided that since we were at the 4-level, I might as well try for a vulnerable game, so I bid 4 Hearts and everyone passed.

Now a strange thing happened.  This was such an unusual auction that RHO, thinking it was his lead, led the Queen of Diamonds out of turn!  With Kxx, I didn't like this lead, but I would be happy to have LHO lead diamonds, so, since this was one of my options, I asked for it.  LHO duly led the ace, and I looked at: 

♠  x
♥ AKxxx
♦  x
♣ JTxxxx

♠ ATxx
♥ QTx
♦  Kxx
♣ KQx

Readers of this blog know by now that Jenn is no shrinking violet when it comes to bidding!  She clearly took a risk coming into a forcing auction, but usually good things happen when you are 6-5, so in she came!  However, she never intended to play in 3NT with this distributional hand, so she wisely retreated.

After the ace of diamonds lead, 4 Hearts made with an overtrick (hearts were 3-2).

At the other table, RHO, with QJTxx of diamonds, passed, my hand opened 1 Club, and somehow our opponents wandered into 6 Clubs (Jenn's counterpart really came alive with 6-5 when his partner opened the bidding in his 6-card suit!) so we picked up 13 IMPs.

Good luck!