Jennbridge: Online Fun

By Bob Klein:  Bridge Base Online (BBO) is a fun place to play bridge.  I have developed a set of acquaintances who often invite me to play in team matches.  Some of them are players I can rely on to be experts; others, who claim to be experts, are of uncertain skill.  Often a good player will invite me into a game and pair me up with someone I haven't played with before.  When this happens, there are times when I have to make decisions without firm partnership agreements or confidence that my partner will know to do the right thing. 

Last night, I picked up this interesting collection in a team game with both sides vulnerable:

♠  Axxx
♥  AQJxxx
♦   Kx
♣  x

RHO dealt and opened 1 Club.  Do you double or overcall 1 Heart?  I decided to double.  There were only 5 losers, so I felt it was strong enough to bid hearts the next time if partner didn't respond in spades.  The auction proceeded pass, 1NT, pass back to me.  Now what?

The most important thing playing IMPs is to bid your vulnerable games.  Since partner has shown some values, I wanted to bid a game.  It looked to me as if this hand should be played in either 3NT or 4 Hearts.  If I had been playing with Jenn or anyone whom I could trust to be an expert, I would have bid 3 Hearts, which should be virtually forcing and giving partner a choice of games.  However, I was playing with a new partner and didn't want to risk being passed out, so I just bid 4 Hearts and hoped for the best.  Everyone passed, LHO led the jack of clubs, and I looked at:

♠  xx
♥  Kxx
♦  Jxxx
♣  KQxx

♠  Axxx
♥  AQJxxx
♦   Kx
♣  x

Not a bad catch.  Partner had nice trump support, so I had a reasonable play for the contract.  There were 3 obvious losers, one each in all of the plain suits.  I had to somehow take care of all of my low spades, and avoid a second diamond loser.  There were two possible approaches:  (1) ruff one spade low and one high, and pitch a diamond on a club winner; (2) ruff one spade, pitch one on a club winner and play a diamond toward the king, hoping RHO had the ace.  Line (1) risked promoting a trump trick for the opponents if trumps were 4-0 or if they could manage an uppercut by continuing clubs when LHO had 3 trumps and only 2 or 3 clubs.  Line (2) risked the ace of diamonds offside and had some problems managing entries to dummy. 

I covered the club.  RHO won the ace and shifted to the king of spades.  I ducked this trick as LHO encouraged.  He contined with the spade ten.  I decided to play him for the ace of diamonds and go for line (2).  I took the ace, ruffed a third round of spades low in dummy (LHO followed with the jack), pitched the last spade on a high club, played a heart to the ace and another to the king (hearts were 4-0 with LHO having all of them), then played a diamond toward the king.  RHO stepped up with the ace and played back a club.  I held my breath and ruffed low hoping that I wasn't being uppercut.  Fortunately, LHO followed, so I drew his trump and brought home the game. 

Good luck!