Another From Terra Linda

Here is another hand I held at last week's game with Dave at Terra Linda that is an intersting bidding problem. With none vulnerable, I picked this up in fourth seat:

♠  AKJ3
♥  AQ6
♦   87543
♣  A

Dave passed, and RHO opened 1 Heart.  How should I plan the auction?

There is no good action.  I could overcall 1NT, but this hand seems suit-oriented, and could play much better in spades than no-trump when partner would be too weak to use Stayman, say with xxxx/xx/Qx/Jxxxx.  I could overcall 1 Spade, but that seems like an underbid and is mis-descriptive.  I could double, but I didn't have a good follow-up plan if partner didn't respond in spades.   With this shape, I could follow up with 2 Diamonds without promising extra strength (an equal-level conversion), but this would also be mis-descriptive with that awful suit, or follow up with 2NT, which is also mis-descriptive with the singleton ace.   After thinking about this for a while, I finally decided to double and rebid 2NT if partner bid the dreaded 2 Clubs.  This sequence should promise 19-20 HCP,  but the prime cards and positional value of the spade jack and heart queen would allow me to upgrade even though the singleton ace was a liability.

Well,  the auction did indeed go pass, 2 Clubs by Dave, pass back to me, so I followed my plan and rebid 2NT.  Dave, who had passed originally, now made me really unhappy by jumping to 5 Clubs!   Everyone passed, and I reluctantly put this hand down as dummy.  But I felt a lot better after Dave made six!  He held

♠  AKJ3
♥  AQ6
♦   87543
♣  A

♠  8
♥  72
♦  A92
♣ Q986543

The opponents led a low spade.  He finessed the jack, cashed the club ace, pitched his two diamond losers on the AK of spades, played a diamond to the ace, then a low club.  LHO had to play the king (he started with K7), so Dave was able to draw the last trump with the queen and take a winning heart finesse through LHO to make 12 tricks.  This got us 10 matchpoints out of 12.

Next report will be from New Orleans.  Jenn and I are trying our luck there in the Mixed Board-a-Match teams and the Swiss Teams. 

Good luck!

 

Jennbridge: The Power of Tens (and Nines)

I played today in a pairs game at the Terra Linda Bridge Club, a nice venue in Marin County, with Dave Neuman, my other regular partner.  I picked up, in fourth seat, both sides vulnerable:

♠  A972
♥  A972
♦  AJ5
♣  J6

LHO opened 1 Heart.  Dave bid 2NT, showing the minors.  What to do?

I thought that he had to have decent suits to come in vulnerable, and I had protection in the majors, so I raised to 3NT, which ended the bidding.  I didn't realize it at the time, but the two nines in the majors were precious.  My LHO led a low heart.  Dave looked at:


♠  A972
♥  A972
♦   AJ5 
♣  J6

♠ T
♥ T8
♦  QT874 
♣ AQT52


He ducked this to the jack.  The contract was cold, as the full hand was:

           ♠  A972
          ♥  A972
          ♦  AJ5
          ♣  J6


♠ KJ863           Q54
♥ 43                 KQJ65
♦ 93                  K62
♣ 8743              K9


         ♠ T
         ♥ T8
         ♦  QT874
         ♣ AQT52

RHO actually played the heart queen, but had he shifted to a spade, the result would have been the same.  In either case, win dummy's ace and lead the diamond jack to force out the king.  The combinations of nine and ten in each major produces a second stopper, so you have time to score 4 diamonds, 3 clubs and two major suit aces.  Dave's four tens and my nines were the key to the hand.  The major suit tens and nines played defense, while the minor suit tens provided the offense.  The diamond ten solidified that suit, and the club ten was the ninth trick. 

10.5 out of 12 matchpoints, on our way to a 60% game that was worth second out of 16 pairs. 

Good luck!
 

Jennbridge: Matchpoints at its Best (or Worst)

Jenn and I won a two-session sectional pairs event this weekend, but since our margin of victory was less than a board, we might not have if we hadn't gotten this hand right.  It illustrates how different matchpoints is from IMPs or rubber bridge.  I held, in third seat with both vulnerable:


♠  AKT2
♥  J754
♦   J3
♣  T86

 
Jenn dealt and opened 1 Club and RHO doubled.  We play that whenever we have enough to respond over an opening bid, we usually make the same bid if there is an intervening takeout double.  I therefore bid 1 Heart.  LHO bid 2 Diamonds, Jenn bid 3 Clubs and RHO passed.  I was happy in this spot so I passed.  LHO now competed with 3 Spades, which was passed to me.  What now? 


I thought that it was likely that 3 Clubs would have made for +110 or maybe +130.  If I sold out to 3 Spades, we would have gotten a bad matchpoint score even if we set it a trick, since +100 would lose to all pairs allowed to play 3 Clubs.  So I had to do something. I decided that it was more likely that we could beat 3 Spades than make 4 Clubs.  LHO's bidding marked him with 5 diamonds and 4 spades, and RHO couldn't have more than 4 spades (if he had 5, he would either have overcalled 1 Spade or bid 3 Spades over 3 Clubs if his hand was too strong for an overcall.)  So I knew that they had at most 8 spades between them, so we had the law of total tricks on our side and they were getting a bad trump break.  So I whacked it. This is a bid I would never risk at IMPs, since if they make it, we'd be -730 for a huge adverse swing. 


Everyone passed, Jenn led the ace of clubs and dummy tabled:


♠  Q743
♥  KQ8
♦  A975
♣  J2

 I encouraged a club continuation.  The ace held, declarer dropping the queen, but the second round was ruffed.  Now I had a pretty good picture of the hand.  LHO was 4=3=5=1 or 4=2=6=1.  Jenn probably had the ace of hearts along with AK97543 to justify her 3 Club rebid.  So to beat this, I had to score the ten of spades for our fifth trick. 


Declarer played a spade to the queen.  I now had the hand set since I could win with the king, play the ace and a small spade, which declarer would have to win with the jack, setting up my ten, with the ace of hearts for our fifth trick.  +200 was worth 14 out of 17 matchpoints.  +100 would have been considerably below average. 


Declarer could not make this no matter how he played it.  Probably his best chance would have been to play a diamond to dummy and a low spade.  I would have to play low, then he would finesse against my ten by playing low from his J986.  However, he could never shut out my spade ten.  If he continued with the spade Jack or got to dummy again to play another low spade, I would win with the king, cash the ace, and then play my last club, forcing dummy's queen.  If he abandoned trumps, I would eventually ruff a diamond with the ten. 


It is noteworthy that RHO could have put more pressure on me by raising to 3 Diamonds.  Now, while the matchpoint logic would still call for a double, it would have been much riskier for me since I would likely have faced a 9-card fit so the law of total tricks would have been working against us.  I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision.  As the cards were, 3 Diamonds would also have gone down since Jenn would have gotten a spade ruff.  After cashing the ace of clubs, she would have shifted to her singleton spade as I would have discouraged a club continuation and spades would have been the obvious shift.


Good luck!

Jennbridge: Ostensibly a Game Try ***

Here's another hand from the Palo Alto KOs.  This hand helped us advance to the semifinals:

♠ AJx
♥ AKQxx
♦ KJxxx
♣ void

In response to my one heart opening bid, partner bid 3 clubs, a Bergen raise showing 8-9 points and 4 trumps.  He should have a 9 loser hand. 

I studied my hand and noted that I only had 4 losers.  We might be in the slam zone if partner had the right cards.  How to find out?

Values in diamonds would be the most helpful.  With that in mind, I decided to bid 3 diamonds, which we play as a help-suit game try.  I was pleased when Bob jumped to game.  I followed it with a jump to slam--6 hearts! 
 
♠ Kxx
♥ xxxx
♦ Qx
♣ Axxx

♠ AJx
♥ AKQxx
♦ KJxxx
♣ void

A club was led and I pitched a spade on the ace.  Partner's cards were just what I needed.  Hearts broke 2-2 and diamonds were friendly enough to bring in the slam.  Even though we were playing against a good team (national champions, all) they didn't find the slam at the other table.  These 13 imps contributed to a sizable win.

See you at the table!

Bidding 'em Up in Palo Alto **+

Jenn and I played in a two-day KO event in the annual Fourth of July Palo Alto sectional over the weekend.  We got to the finals but lost.  Here's a hand from our semifinal match.  I held, in fourth seat, neither side vulnerable:


♠  AT9x
♥  void
♦   Axx
♣  AKJT9x


LHO dealt and opened 2 Diamonds.  Jenn overcalled 2 Spades and RHO passed.  What now?


I should have just gone right to 5NT, a grand slam force in spades.  This asks partner to bid a grand slam with two of the top three honors.  The only risk here was that Jenn had a lot of diamond losers, since RHO didn't raise diamonds, or she held three small clubs and might lose a trick to the queen.  I could foresee setting up the clubs to take care of her diamond losers.  But I thought I might get more information, so I cuebid 3 Diamonds.   Jenn now bid 3 Hearts, which RHO doubled.  What now?


I couldn't risk bidding 5NT since this might be for hearts, the last bid suit, even though it was doubled.  I was afraid to bid 3 Spades, since while this should be forcing, I sure didn't want to see a pass from Jenn which would have been a huge disaster.  So I stalled for time by repeating the cuebid with 4 Diamonds.  Jenn now bid 4 Spades.  Phew!  Now I could bid 5NT as an unambiguous grand slam force in spades.  Jenn duly bid 7 Spades, uncomfortably,  with


♠  KQxxxx
♥  Qxxxx
♦  Qx
♣  void


She had the worst possible holding, a club void, so the slam required some care in the play.   It would be awkward to try for 13 tricks on a straight cross-ruff missing the trump jack, so Jenn had to set up the clubs.  Her LHO led the ace of hearts, ruffed in dummy.  Jenn ruffed a club and played a spade to dummy, the jack falling singleton.  Now she had enough entries to ruff safely until the club queen fell (clubs were 4-3) so the grand slam made. 


All of this produced a push board, as they bid the grand at the other table also (they didn't use GSF, just  Blackwood, so were lucky that partner held the spade king and not the heart ace.)  We won the match by just 10 IMPs, so we had to bid and make this to get to the finals. 


Good luck!

The Splendid Splinter, Redux

You hold, in first seat with neither side vulnerable:

♠  void
♥  Axxxx
♦  Kxx
♣  xxxxx

You pass. LHO opens 1 Spade.  Partner overcalls 2 Hearts, and  RHO passes.  What would you bid? 


You have great trump support, a void in the opponents' suit, and 7 losers overall.  As partner's bid  promises opening bid values, you surely want to be in game.  You could just bid 4 Hearts.  But since you want to be in game, you have a chance to show partner what you have along the way - a splinter bid of 3 Spades.  Since you are a passed hand, partner won't expect more than this.  If you bid 3 Spades, its effect is magical.  Now put yourself in partner's chair.  He holds

♠  J9x
♥  KQJTxx
♦  Axx
♣  A


Surely partner has the ace of hearts.  She has at most one spade.  So your only losers are two spades and two diamonds.  The hand is worth a slam try, so you cue bid 4 Clubs.  Partner responds with a cue bid of 4 Diamonds, which has to be the king.  Now I think there is enough information to just go ahead and bid 6 Hearts.  However, if you want to really be on the safe side, you can bid 4NT, RKC for hearts. 


Now go back and look at that first hand.  You would like to show the void.  However, the way to show a void with one keycard is usually to jump to the 6-level in the void suit.  Here, you would have to bid 6 Spades, which is higher than slam in your suit.  What many experts do in this situation is to jump to 6 of the trump suit, showing one keycard and a void in a higher-ranking suit.  You could do this, or, to be on the safe side, just show one keycard.  I would show the void, since this may be what partner needs for a grand slam.  Whatever you do, partner will put it into 6 Hearts. 

It is quite possible that a 3 Spade splinter bid will encourage LHO, holding

♠  AQxxxxx
♥  void
♦  Qxxxx
♣  KQ

 to compete with 4 Spades.  But partner would cue bid 5 Clubs and the slam would still be reached.  Now you will be either +980 or +500 if the opponents save in 6 Spades.   
Looking at the two hands together,

♠  void
♥  Axxxx
♦  Kxx
♣  xxxxx

♠  J9x
♥  KQJTxx
♦  Axx
♣  A

you see that 12 tricks are easy (just ruff all the spades in dummy), and 13 are possible if you can ruff out the club suit and set up dummy's long club.  Dummy has plenty of entries to do this.


What actually happened was that we lost the battle but won the war.  My partner (not Jenn) missed the opportunity to make the splinter bid, bidding 4 Hearts to end the auction.  However, things turned out good for us anyway.  Nobody in the field (it was bid 9 times) got to the slam.  Clubs were 5-2, so the hand should only make six, but at our table, our opponents misdiscarded and I ended up making 3 diamond tricks for  +510, a top on the board.   Fortunately this was a pairs game.  If it had been teams, it would have been a lost opportunity to win 11 IMPs. 


Good luck!

Jennbridge: Two from the Sacramento Swiss **

Jenn and I had fun at the Sacramento regional this past week.  We placed in a pair game, then finished in the top 10 in the main event, a two-day Swiss Teams containing most of the good teams in N. California, plus a few pro teams.


The first hand clinched a spot in the finals.  The second got us a nice match win on day two. 


1.  It was Round 6 of 7.  We needed 4 or 5 VP to qualify.  Our opponents were Jill Meyers and Jill Levin, two world champions.  I held, both vulnerable:


♠   AK754
♥   T83
♦    A65
♣   K7


Partner deals and passes, as does RHO.  I opened 1 Spade.  LHO passes, and partner bids 2 Clubs, which we play as reverse Drury, showing a limit raise.  RHO doubled, showing clubs.  I liked my hand, so accepted with 4 Spades.   Everyone passed,  LHO led a low club, and I looked at: 




♠ QT6
♥ KJ
♦ K9742
♣ Q54


♠ AK754
♥ T83
♦ A65
♣ K7


RHO won the ace and returned a club.  My plan was to draw trump and try to duck a diamond into RHO, so I could eventually pitch my heart losers on dummy's diamonds, losing a heart, diamond and club.  So I played the ace of spades and a spade to the queen.  RHO showed out on the second spade, pitching a club.  So my plan wasn't going to work, since I couldn't lose a diamond as that would give me a loser in each suit.  I had to use the club queen to discard my diamond loser, and somehow hold the heart losers to one. 


I played a diamond to the ace and a heart to dummy, planning to finesse the jack, hoping for LHO to have the queen and RHO the ace.  However, LHO hopped up with the ace and, after considerable thought, returned a heart.  I won the king and played the queen of clubs, pitching a diamond.  She ruffed and played her last trump, keeping me from ruffing the last heart in dummy.  Now there were 3 tricks remaining.   I had a spade, the heart ten and a low diamond.  Dummy had the king and two low diamonds.  So I played the last spade and hoped for the best.  Eureka!  LHO discarded the heart queen, so my ten of hearts became good for the fulfilling trick.  It turned out that LHO was squeezed between the red suits.  Her last 3 cards were the heart queen and two diamonds.  She had to protect the diamonds, so she hoped her partner had the heart ten.  Game made, 12 big IMPs won and a spot in the finals assured!


2.  Jenn heard me open a strong 2 Clubs, and looked at:


♠  962
♥ 43
♦  T32
♣ KJT87


The hand and club suit aren't good enough for a natural 3 Clubs, so Jenn bid 2 Diamonds, waiting.  I replied 2 Hearts.  Now Jenn had a problem.  She thought the hand was too good for a second negative, but she couldn't bid 3 Clubs, as that would have been an artificial second negative in our methods, denying a king or 2 queens.  So what should she do?  She had to improvise with 2NT, even though this risked wrong-siding the contract if we ended up in no-trump. 


Now let's look at my hand.  I held:


♠  A8
♥  AKJ86
♦  AKQ
♣ AQ2


Not a bad collection!  27 HCP with a 5-card suit.  When I heard Jenn reply 2NT, I really didn't know how strong her hand was.  She could have had as little as the king of clubs and nothing else.  However, since the hand has such great potential, I just decided to take a shot at 6NT.  I figured that if she had a really good hand, say three of the missing kings and queens, she might raise to seven.  So Jenn played it in 6NT.  This proved easy to play, as when she cashed the heart ace, RHO showed out, so she had a marked finesse and was able to claim.  6NT bid and made, and 13 IMPs won.  Jenn's counterpart at the other table treated her hand as a second negative, so they stopped in 3NT. 


Good luck!

Jennbridge: An Inferential Squeeze

In last week's team game, I had a chance to do something neat - make a hand because the bidding and play strongly suggested that an opponent had been squeezed.  I was dealt, in second seat:

♠   63
♥  KQ875
♦  AT
♣  KQT3

Neither side was vulnerable.  RHO opened 1 Diamond, I overcalled 1 heart, LHO passed, Jenn bid 2 Clubs and RHO rebid 2 Diamonds.  I raised to 3 Clubs and Jenn bid 3 Spades.  She probably had 5 or 6 clubs and 4 spades.  I trotted out Hamman's Rule and bid 3NT, which ended the auction.  LHO led the jack of diamonds, and Jenn tabled:

♠  AKJ2 
♥  A9
♦  76
♣ J9654


♠  63
♥  KQ875
♦  AT
♣  KQT3

Not quite what I was hoping for (the ace of clubs instead of all these spade honors would have been enough; with what she gave me, I would have rather been in 5 Clubs, which would have been an easy make.  In 3NT I had to have some luck.  I won the second diamond and took stock. 

I couldn't just knock out the club ace, since RHO would run her diamonds.  So I needed the hearts to run, then I had to find a ninth trick either in clubs or spades.  RHO had to have the club ace in order to have opened the bidding and bid again.  If she had the queen of spades as well, she would have a hard time discarding down to 6 cards on the run of the hearts.  So I played the A then K of hearts, and RHO luckily obliged by having the doubleton JT.  On the next three hearts, she pitched a club; then, after some thought, two diamonds.  (She might have made things a bit dicey by pitching one or 2 spades, but she would have to do this in tempo, a hard thing to do.)  I decided that her bidding and plays indicated that she started with

♠  Qxx
♥  JT
♦  KQxxxx
♣ Ax


So after discarding two diamonds, she only had two remaining winners.  Thus, I was able to knock out the club ace and come to 9 tricks once she took her two remaining diamond winners.  We won 6 IMPs as they played in 3 Clubs at the other table. 

Good luck!

Jennbridge: When Plan A Fails, Try Plan B, C, ...

Sometimes you have to dig deep into your contingency plans to land a contract.  Yesterday in the club's team game, I was dealt, in third seat,

♠ QT87x
♥ QJTx
♦ Void
♣ KJTx

Jenn opened 1 Diamond.  I bid 1 Spade.  She rebid 3 Diamonds.  Since she showed a good hand and didn't reverse, I knew she didn't have 4 hearts, so I didn't bother bidding them and followed Hamman's Rule and ended the auction with 3 No-Trump.  I got a low heart lead, and looked at:

♠ K
♥ A8
♦ AJT98xx
♣ Axx

 
♠ QT87x
♥ QJTx
♦ void
♣ KJTx


There were only four quick tricks, so I had a lot of work to do.  The shortest route to 9 tricks is to work on the diamonds for 5 tricks after knocking out the king and queen.  If I lost 2 diamonds, a heart and the ace of spades, I would have the rest.  So how could I execute Plan A?


To set up the diamonds, I needed three entries to dummy: two to lead diamonds to set them up, and the third to get over to cash them.  There are only two sure entries - the heart and club aces.  The opening lead gave me a possible chance at the third entry; the lead could have been from K9xxx.  If so, I could get to dummy with the 8, so I played it.  Unfortunately, RHO produced the 9.  I won with the Jack (the best way to confuse the opponents about my holding).  What now?


I had to start planning ahead.  If I couldn't set up the diamonds, how was I going to get to 9 tricks?  If I could bring in the clubs for 4 tricks, I could get 4 clubs, 3 hearts, the ace of diamonds and a spade trick by driving out the ace.  Plan B was to play a spade to the king.  I had a faint hope that the defense, not fully aware of my entry problems, would duck, after which I would be able to set up the diamonds.  This didn't work as RHO took the ace and continued hearts.  What now?


Plan C was to pick up the clubs.  The best way to get 4 club tricks here is to start low from dummy and finesse the jack.  You can only pick up Qxxx if RHO has it since you don't have the hand entries to start clubs from your side.  RHO figures to have more clubs than LHO since LHO started a low heart.  So I played a club to the jack.  This didn't work either as LHO won the queen.  He cashed the king of hearts, RHO following, and exited with a heart.  I pitched two diamonds from dummy on the hearts and won in my hand.  I still only had 8 tricks.  What now?


I had to find a Plan D.  It had to be to get a second spade trick.  I took a good look at my spades. If I could smother either the Jack or nine, I could get a second trick without losing more than one.  I cashed the Queen, and finally something good hapened: LHO dropped the nine!  Now I could force out the Jack, get back to my hand with a high club and the rest were mine.  If the Queen had only gotten low cards, I would have had to guess whether to play the ten, hoping for Jxxx/9xx, or low, hoping for Jxx/9xxx.  It turned out that LHO had J9x. 


Good luck!

Jennbridge: Not Exactly Your Dad's Dummy Reversal

By John Kozero, Santa Rosa

Whoever would have thought that you could reverse dummy when your hand has KQJ1097 and dummy has A63? But if you can get a little help from your friends, magic can happen -- which is what happened in my favorite hand from the recent North American Open Pairs at the Reno Nationals
In first position at no vulnerability I pick up:

♠ A64
♥ 10742
♦ KQJ1097
♣ Void

This six-loser hand begs to be bid so I open 1D, hear pard bid 1NT and see RHO call 2C. Thereafter follows a club raise, a diamond raise and another club raise until I buy the hand in 4D. Dummy puts down:

♠ K75
♥ J65
♦ A63
♣ J964

♠ A64
♥ 10742
♦ KQJ1097
♣ Void

I take stock and see, that although I have only three top losers, I have only eight sure winners: six trump winners and two spades. Clearly I'll need to find hearts splitting 3-3 if the 10 of hearts is to score or else I must trump it with dummy's ace. But that's only nine tricks. Still, the hand is young, so I trump the club lead and get to work by leading a small heart to board. LHO puts in the Q and continues with another club. I trump that and lead another heart. This time RHO wins and leads a third club which I ruff and lead the third round of hearts to find that LHO wins as the suit breaks 3-3. LHO now leads clubs yet again which allows me to score my fourth ruff.

Hmmmm, magic HAS happened. With four tricks in the bag, I merely cash my last two trumps (the K and Q), enter dummy with the spade K, pull the remaining trump (they split 3-1) with the Ace as I dump my losing spade, re-enter my hand with the spade Ace, and cash my 10 of hearts for 10 tricks.

At any point all the opponents had to do was lead a trump rather than a club to foil my play, but old habits die hard, especially when it ostensibly seemed safe to keep me ruffing. So I guess the lesson to the defense in this story is this: Sometimes you must be kind to be cruel. So consider leading trumps whenever declarer seems well-stocked in trumps and yet for some reason doesn't take your little kiddies off the street.

Picture Bids

About a year ago, I learned of a way to show a specific hand type that is helpful in certain types of auctions.  What does it mean when you open one of a minor and partner jumps to four of a major?  What if there is interference in between?  I don't think that there is a well-defined meaning for this bid. 

I heard through the grapevine that some experts use this bid to show a very specific hand:  a solid seven-card suit with no outside controls, e.g.,

AKQxxxx
x
Qx
xxx

Because the bid is so specific, I call it a "picture bid".  I don't know where this idea originated.  I learned of it from my partner Dave Neuman, who heard of it from another friend of mine, who didn't know where he got it.  Anyway, since I didn't have a better use for the bid, I decided to adopt it, with one variant:  it can also be a 7-card one loser suit with an outside ace, e.g.,

AQJTxxx
x
Ax
Jxx.

So the bid promises 7 tricks.  

I discussed playing this with Jenn before the recent regional.  Unfortunately, we had not discussed whether or not it applied after interference.  Accordingly, we had a missed opportunity in the regional IMP Pairs.  On the very first board, I picked up, vulnerable in third seat:

Qx
AKQxxxx
Txx
Q

Jenn opened 1 Diamond, and RHO bid 1 Spade.  I thought that the picture bid agreement applied here, so I bid 4 Hearts.  Jenn wasn't on the same page, so she passed holding

Axx
J
AK9xxx
Axx

If she had read it correctly, she would have bid at least 6 Hearts and even would have thought about a grand slam.  We made 6, losing a diamond trick.  The IMP par was  +650 our way, so it was a 1-IMP gain, almost a non-event.  However, we lost a great opportunity to win 13 IMPs if she had just bid 6 Hearts.  This would probably have made, as it did at our table after a spade lead. 

It turned out that my RHO had a diamond void, so there were pairs going down in 6 or 7 hearts.  Curiously, if 6 Hearts is doubled (a Lightner double asking for the lead of dummy's first bid suit, diamonds), it will be made as it would warn declarer to not put up dummy's ace on the opening lead.  If it isn't doubled, and a diamond is led anyway, the slam would go down since the ace would be ruffed and another diamond would have to be lost.  However, if a spade is led, the slam makes since dummy's ace of spades provides a parking spot for the diamond loser. 

I suspect that some pairs were doubled in 7 Hearts.  There is no escape from this double, as 7 No Trump cannot be made from either side.  If it is declared by the hand with the long diamonds, a heart lead takes out dummy's only entry so you cannot finesse twice against QJxx and pick up the diamonds.  If it is played from the other side, a spade or club lead beats it for the same reason. 

Jenn doesn't particularly like the bid as she thinks it takes up too much bidding room, so whether we leave it on our card is in question.  In my opinion, however, it has a lot of merit.

Good luck!

Jennbridge: Diamonds are Forever

In last night's 24 board team game, playing with Jenn, I was dealt a 9-card, 8-card, 7-card, 6-card and 5-card suit in the same session - all in diamonds!  (I also held suits containing 4,3,2 and 1 diamond; no voids.)  I think that the odds against that happening are so astonomical that it may never have happened before.  I will present them in descending order of the suit lengths. 


1.  First seat, neither vulnerable.


♠  x
♥  Qx
♦  AKQxxxxxx
l♣ K


How would you handle this freak?  Jenn and I play a gambling 3NT opening to show a long solid minor, but our agreement is that the hand may contain no outside ace or king.  So the only choices are 1 Diamond or 5 Diamonds.  I decided to bid 1 Diamond.  LHO overcalled 1 Spade, partner made a negative double, and RHO bid 2 Spades.  Now what? 


Since partner showed some values in hearts, I decided to simply bid Blackwood.  If she showed 2 aces, I would take a shot at 6 Diamonds.  She actually bid 5 Diamonds, showing one ace, so I passed.  LHO led the ace of spades, and I looked at:


♠  xx
♥  xxxxx
♦  JT
♣ AQxx


♠  x
♥  Qx
♦  AKQxxxxxx
♣ K


A disappointing dummy - neither the ace or king of hearts.  I should have been down one.  LHO knew that I was off 2 aces. Fortunately for us, he had a stiff king of hearts and didn't play it, going for a passive defense, so we made six.  (An interesting sidelight: if he had played his king, RHO would have had to decide whether or not to overtake.  Overtaking is right if the lead is a stiff king, breaks even if it is from KQ, but loses if it is from Kx.  In this case, RHO had AJTxx, so if partner had Kx, declarer would have a singleton and his play wouldn't matter, so he should overtake.) 


At the other table, our opponents had an accident.  The bidding went 1 Diamond, one Spade, Double, 2 Hearts, alerted as a good spade raise.  The person holding my cards now cue bid 2 Spades. LHO went on to 4 Spades, and her partner bid 5 Hearts (thinking that the cue bid showed a heart fit) which was doubled.  She passed and her partner went for -1700!  Had she correctly removed to 6 Diamonds (9-card suits should always be trumps), our teammates would have likely set it one (after partner doubles 5 hearts, leading the king at trick 2 would have been easy, but might not beat it 2 tricks.)  We won 19 IMPs.  It might have been 4 or 8 depending on whether they beat it one or two.


2.  In third seat, neither vulnerable,  I held:


♠  Jx
♥  void
♦  KJTxxxxx
♣  xxx


This was an easy one.  Jenn dealt and opened 1 Heart.  We play Bergen, so I couldn't bid 3 Diamonds.  I had to bid a forcing 1NT.  She bid 2 Clubs, I bid 2 Diamonds, she bid 3 Clubs, I bid 3 Diamonds and she passed.   The contract was the same at the other table.  We made 4 for a 1 IMP gain.


3.  In first seat, neither vulnerable, I held:


♠  x
♥  AK9xx
♦  JT9xxxx
♣  void


Do you open, and if so, what?  I didn't want to preempt in diamonds as this could bury the heart suit.  I considered opening it 1 Diamond, but instead chose to pass.   LHO opened 1 Club, Jenn overcalled 1 Spade, and RHO made a surprising bid of 2 Hearts.  Now I decided to get into the auction with 3 Diamonds.  Jenn surprised me with a raise to 4 Diamonds.  Since this was IMPs, I couldn't just leave it there, so I tried 5 Diamonds.  Everyone passed, Jenn produced:

 ♠ Axxxx
♥  void
♦  KQxxx
♣ Jxx

Nice trump support!  Jenn, considering that I had been a passed hand and hearing strong opposition bidding, made only a gentle raise.  We made six, losing only the ace of diamonds.  My counterpart at the other table chose to open my hand 2 Hearts, which I consider a serious breach of discipline in first position.  He got what he deserved.  Everyone passed, he went down 2 and we won 11 IMPs.

4.  In third seat, both sides vulnerable, I held:

♠ x
♥ Jxxxxx
♦ Kxxxxx
♣ void

Partner passed, and RHO opened 2 Clubs.  I decided to get into the auction with 2 Diamonds.  I knew it was their hand, but a sacrifice bid was possible.  LHO passed (showing some values), and Jenn raised to 3 Diamonds.  RHO bid 4 Clubs, so I took an advance save with 5 Diamonds.  LHO doubled, RHO bid 5 Spades and LHO raised to 6 Spades.  Rats!  Our bidding may have pushed them into a making slam.  If this had been pairs, I might have saved with 7 Diamonds, but in a team game, this is losing strategy.  You certainly are going for 500 or more, so you might as well hope the slam can be set.  I tried my best shot, my lowest diamond, hoping RHO had one so partner could win the ace and give me a club ruff.  Alas, he was 5=1=0=7 and the slam was cold.  Our teammates couldn't find their way to the slam, so we lost 11 IMPs.  Preempts are good tactics but sometimes they backfire. 

5.  I actually held 2 hands with 5 diamonds.  Here is the more interesting one.  I was dealer, both vulnerable, and held:

♠ KJxx
♥ J
♦ JT9xx
♣ AKx

I opened 1 Diamond, LHO passed, Jenn bid 1 Spade, RHO bid 2 Hearts, I bid 2 Spades (promising 4-card support since we play support doubles), LHO bid 3 Hearts, and Jenn bid 4 Spades.  RHO led the queen of diamonds, and Jenn, looking at:

♠ Axxxx
♥ xx
♦ AKx
♣ xxx

had no trouble making 6 (spades were 2-2). This board was a push.



Good luck!

Hand Re-evaluation

Sometimes a hand improves in value during the bidding, so that you become more optimistic and hence aggressive.   I recently held, in a pair game, vulnerable vs. not in third seat:


♠  953
♥  QT84
♦  6
♣ AKQ87

 After two passes, I opened it one Club.  Partner bid 1 Heart, and RHO chimed in with 1 Spade.  I bid 2 Hearts, showing a minimum with 4-card support.  (We play support doubles, so a double shows 3-card support.)  LHO raises to 2 Spades, partner bids 3 Hearts and RHO passes.  What now? 

This modest 11-count now looks pretty good.  With both opponents bidding spades, partner can't have more than two, and perhaps only one.  Partner re-raised to 3 Hearts, so he is showing either a fifth heart or a good competitive hand.  My hand has 6.5 losers, but 5.5 of them are in spades and hearts, where partner should cover most of them with his hearts along with spade shortness.  So I decided to take the plunge and bid 4 Hearts, even though I only had 11 points and partner was a passed hand.  

A diamond was led, and partner looked at:

♠  953
♥  QT84
♦  6
♣ AKQ87.

♠  87
♥  AJ76
♦  A7432
 ♣ T6

Only 20 HCP in the two hands, yet 4 Hearts is an excellent contract.  Partner had a hand close to a limit raise once I showed heart support, so he was justified in pushing to the 3-level.  The heart finesse worked, everything split and we made an overtrick.  He was able to ruff my losing spade, bring in the clubs and lost only 2 spades.  Needless to say, we got a lot of matchpoints.

Good luck!

Adventures in Cyberspace ***

I sometimes play bridge on Bridge Base Online, a free service developed by Fred Gitelman.  It is a testament to the wonders of modern technology.  You can log in and play with people all over the world at any hour of the day or night.

The players identify themselves by a tag which may or may not resemble their real names.  They also indicate their skill level, which goes from Beginner to Expert and even World Class, and the country they live in.  Many grossly exaggerate their ability.  I have found that most of those who call themselves World Class are actually intermediate-level players at best; among the "Experts", some are really expert and others aren't very good.  So if you get into a game, don't take the skill levels too seriously.
 
I picked up this hand the other day at a table where all four players called themselves Experts:  I was in third seat.  My partner and I agreed to play 2/1.

♠  xxx
♥  void♦  AJT9xx♣ AKQx

Partner dealt and opened 1 Spade.  This looked good, as he bid the suit where I had 3 of my 5 losers.  I bid 2 Diamonds, creating a game force.  He bid 2 Hearts, I showed spade support with 2 Spades, and he jumped to 4 Spades.  Now what? 

I didn't think RKC would be a good idea because of the void.  If I bid 5 Spades here it should ask for trump quality, but since there was one unbid suit it could be misinterpreted as asking for a club control.  So I just gambled that he had decent spades and bid 6 Spades.  LHO doubled.  Oops!  Maybe I bid too much.  If he has the AK of spades, too bad.  If he has the ace of spades and a diamond void, I could remove to 6NT which might make.  However, since all the heart honors were missing, I thought that his double could be based on the ace of hearts and a spade trick, in which case I surely didn't want to play it in no-trump.  So I decided to tough it out and pass. 

A diamond was led.  My partner looked at:

 ♠  xxx
♥  void♦  AJT9xx♣ AKQx

♠  AQTxx
♥  JTxx♦  KQ
♣  xx

How would you play it?  Hopefully you would do better than my "expert" partner. 

Wherever you win the first diamond, RHO follows.  So his double wasn't based on a diamond void.  So surely he has the king of spades and the heart ace, and likely the heart K as well.  He probably has the spade jack also, but this isn't a sure thing.  If he has KJ9x of spades, you can't make it no matter how you play it, so assume spades are 3-2.  So here are some reasonable lines:

(1) Win the ace of diamonds, play a spade to the queen, cash the ace of spades, unblock the diamonds, play a club to dummy and run the diamonds until RHO takes his spade king.  This works if spades are 3-2 no matter who has the jack.

(2) Win the ace of diamonds, play a spade to the ten, play a club to dummy, play another spade to the queen.  If RHO has KJx of spades, you make seven.  If LHO has the spade jack and RHO a stiff diamond, you go down.

(3) Win the diamond in hand, play a club to dummy and a spade to the queen.  This works out the same as (1) but gives you an extra entry in case RHO has a stiff club.

(4) Win the diamond in hand, play a club to dummy and a spade to the ten.  If this holds, play another club to dummy and repeat the finesse. 

Any of these lines would succeed as the cards lay.  What you don't want to do is choose line (5), which my partner did.  He won in hand, ruffed a heart to dummy, and played a spade to the queen.  Now he didn't have the critical third trump in dummy to stop the hearts, so he went down three!  My LHO's hand was:

♠ KJx
♥ AKxx
♦ x♣ xxxxx.

Yes, he made a bad double.  Since he really wanted a heart lead, he shouldn't have doubled, asking for a diamond lead!  (Note that a heart lead is quite troublesome as it taps dummy.) But he was another BBO "expert", so you don't expect miracles. 

 Good luck!




 

Opening Leads: 3 Hands from the NA Swiss Teams

Here are three opening lead decisions I had to make in Day 1 of the North American Swiss Teams.  Two worked out well, one didn't.  On each one, if you get it right, they go down.  If not, they make their game.  Decide what you would lead in each of these before reading on.  All involve a decision on whether to make an aggressive or passive lead. 

1.  You hold, in second seat:
♠  Q9xxx
♥  xxx
♦  xx
♣ Kxx

RHO deals and opens 1NT, strong.  LHO transfers with 2 Diamonds, then over 2 Hearts bids 3NT.  RHO bids 4 Hearts, which ends the auction. 

2.  You hold, in 4th seat:

♠  KQxx
♥  xx
♦  xx
♣  J9xxx

RHO opens 1NT after 2 passes.  LHO bids 3NT. 

3.  You hold, in second seat:

♠  Jxx
♥  ATxx
♦  xx
♣ AKxx

 RHO opens 1 Club. LHO bids 1 Diamond.  RHO rebids 1NT. LHO  bids 2C, alerted as a puppet to 2 Diamonds.  After RHO bids 2 Diamonds, LHO now bids 3 Diamonds, and RHO bids 3NT.  Before leading, you learn that LHO is inviting 3NT with a diamond suit.  You also learn that RHO would bypass a 4-card major after 1C-1D, and that even after LHO's bid of 2 Clubs, RHO would not bid a 4-card major instead of accepting the puppet request. 

Problem 1. 

An aggressive lead would be a spade, a passive lead a heart.  I chose a low spade, which turned out successfully.  Dummy came down with 
 
♠  Ax
♥  KJTxx
♦  Q9xx
♣ xx

Declarer played a low spade, won by Jenn's king.  She played the ten of clubs.  Declarer finessed, losing to my king.  I now shifted to a diamond. Jenn had the KJ over dummy's queen as well as the ace of trumps, so we established a trick in each suit.  We actually set it two tricks, since I was able to get a diamond ruff as well.  Had I led a trump to start with, Jenn would have had to find the difficult defense of a spade shift from her king into the Ax in dummy.  At the other table, a trump was led and they didn't find this defense, so we won 13 IMPs. 

Problem 2. 

An aggressive lead would be a spade; a passive lead would be a club.  I didn't think that I would be able to set up such a weak suit as J9xxx, so I thought the best shot was to find Jenn with a spade suit such as Jxxxx or Txxxx, with the opponents' spades 2-2, or possibly 4 to the Jack or ten with an opponent holding Tx or Jx, respectively.  So I led the king of spades.  This turned out to be wrong, since the opposition had only 8 tricks if I made a passive club lead, and the spade lead set up the ninth trick.  Dummy held

♠  987x
♥  Axx
♦   Jxx
♣  KQT

 Declarer held:

♠ AJ
♥ KQxx
♦  Kxxx
♣ Axx

Jenn had:

♠  Txx
♥  J9xx
♦  AQT9
♣  xx

Note that declarer cannot set up a ninth trick in a red suit.  The spade lead allowed declarer to set up a second spade trick by winning the ace and playing back the jack.  Now, after Jenn wins her ten, the dummy has an established spade winner for trick 9.  My counterpart led a passive club, and we lost 12 IMPs. 

Problem 3.

It sounded to me like the opponents had a long diamond suit ready to run, so we might have to cash out our tricks right away, either in clubs, hearts or both.  So, in order to retain control, I led the king of clubs.  This catered to Jenn holding either good clubs or good enough hearts for me to get her in for heart plays through declarer.  This worked out very well, as she held QJTxx of clubs and the heart queen!  We cashed out the first 7 tricks for down three.  In this case, a low club would also have succeeded, but anything else would have been a disaster, as the opposition had 6 diamonds and 3 spades ready to cash.  This got us +300 and 10 IMPs, as our teammates played it in 3 Diamonds, making 3 for +110.  If we had gotten this wrong, we would have lost 10 IMPs instead, a huge 20 IMP swing. 

Good luck!


 

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!

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!

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!