Jennbridge: A Collaboration (Strip & EP) ***

Bob and I collaborated on an interesting hand at IMPs recently.  He put me in a good contract and I had to bring it home. He'll describe the bidding: On the first hand of the evening I dealt, with both vulnerable, and held:

♠ AKx
♥ void
♦ AQ87xx
♣ KJxxx

I opened 1 diamond. LHO bid 1 heart, Jenn bid 2 clubs, and RHO bid 3 hearts, preemptive. Wow, this is just getting interesting! Both sides seem to have big fits. I bid what I thought we could make: 5 clubs. Now, almost before my 5 club bid hit the table, LHO slapped a 5 heart bid on the table. This was passed back to me. What now?


From the table action, LHO surely was void in clubs and had a lot of hearts. Jenn could have doubled but didn't, so she probably didn't have much in hearts. Since we had voluntarily bid a vulnerable game, and since one of the opponents had preempted, Jenn's pass was probably forcing. Well, should I double or bid 6 clubs? I had 2 defensive tricks, but I couldn't be sure we had another. So while we probably would defeat 5 hearts, we might not. And if the cards were right for us, we might even make 6 clubs. So I decided the IMP odds favored bidding. [If neither 5 hearts or 6 clubs makes, we can be +200 or 500 vs -100 if I double. If 5 hearts makes and 6 clubs fails, we are -850 vs -100. If 6 clubs makes, we are +1370 and it hardly matters whether or not 5 hearts makes.] So I pressed on to 6 clubs. Everyone passed and a heart was led.

♠ AKx
♥ void
♦ Q87xx
♣ KJxxx

♠ xx
♥ xx
♦ A9x
♣ A10xxxx

By Jenn:  While Bob was deliberating over 5H, I was worrying that I should have doubled.  His bid of 6 clubs was a surprise.  What a nice 21 point slam!  I ruffed the heart opening lead and paused to plan the play.

I could only lose 1 diamond and, on the bidding, RHO probably had the diamond king.  My best chance for not losing more than one trick was to arrange an endplay.

I drew trumps in two rounds (LHO holding Qx), ruffed my last heart and played the ace and king of spades and ruffed a spade.  Here were the remaining cards:

♠
♥ void
♦ Q87xx
♣ J

♠
♥
♦ A9x
♣ 10xx

I had eliminated the major suits and set the stage.  I now led a low diamond from my hand and when LHO played the 6, I covered it with the 7, effectively ducking the trick to RHO.  This should do it.  If she returns a diamond I'll duck it and hope the queen wins.

Instead, endplayed, she returned a heart.  I discarded my losing diamond and ruffed on the board.  The match was off to a great start.  Plus 1370 gained us 15 IMPs as our counterparts collected 200 in 5 hearts doubled.

Bob has the last word on the play:  This play seems best as it seems to combine technical and psychological considerations as LHO, not an expert, would find it hard to duck from Kxx smoothly and would never find a duck from Kx. Possible lines are low from the queen, low from the ace or ace first. [With the actual holding of KJ on your right, any line would have succeeded.]

See you at the table!