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!