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Hand Analyses 24th May, 2006
South’s 2♦ is Fourth Suit Forcing … it’s artificial and allows the partnership to explore the best game or slam. How forcing is it? The simple way is to play it as forcing to game, so much easier (and safer!) than having to memorize the non-game-forcing exceptions. South has the values for game, and there is a known 8-card Heart fit, so why doesn’t she just up and bid 4♥? Two reasons … firstly, South is not sure that 4♥ is the best game contract, 3NT is still a possibility … secondly, South has a pretty good hand, and does not want to crowd the auction if it turns out that North has some extras.
It’s not obvious whether the final contract should be 3NT or 4♥ … but neither is much of a bargain. If, against 3NT, East attacks the 4th suit (often a good ploy in these auctions) with the A♦ lead, then 3NT makes 9 tricks. But a black suit lead is more problematic for Declarer … the Spade finesse gives her 7 black suit tricks, and it looks as if the best line is to lead towards the K♥ early in the play … the K♥ loses to West’s Ace, and, inevitably, a Diamond (the Ten) comes back … if North is brilliant enough to play low on the first round then the suit blocks, but this hardly seems like a real-life play, so down one is Declarer’s fate.
Against 4♥, the A♦ lead is similarly fatal to the defense. A Club lead is the killer, it sets up a Club ruff while East still has that A♦ entry. On a Spade lead, Declarer will win the Ace … now the winning line is to play on Diamonds immediately, which has the pleasant effect (for Declarer, anyway) of knocking out East’s A♦ entry and scotching the Club ruff. More likely, Declarer will ruff a Spade, lead to the K♥ losing to the Ace, and now a Club back dooms the contract.
Another Fourth Suit Forcing auction, another 3NT contract. But, before E-W get there, West is faced with a decision on each of his first two bids: (a) What would you (or did you) bid opposite Partner’s 1♣ opening? It seems wrong to invite game with 2NT (showing 11-12) when we have three small Hearts, often that contract will play better from the other side. So, we’d bid 1♦, hoping that things became easier on the next round of bidding. (b) But, things don’t become easier, they become more difficult, if not to say impossible … after Partner’s 1♠, if we didn’t fancy bidding No Trump before, we can hardly bid it now, with Hearts as the only unbid suit … playing Fourth Suit as game-forcing, West has no satisfactory bid, and, even though West is not quite up to strength, we’d 4th Suit force anyway … it’s the best alternative in an awkward situation.
Fortune favors the overbidder, and 3NT played from the right side is the final contract. A red suit lead from South seems called for … this time, leading the fourth suit works best, as a Heart lead holds Declarer to 10 tricks.
And 3NT on a Diamond lead? Please see Play Problem # 12.
Over that 3♦ bid, we would be most sorely tempted to bid game in Spades, but, fortunately for the featured West, he was smart or lucky enough to bid only 3♠, which, as it turned out, gave him a chance of going plus on the hand.
Against 3♠, North will no doubt lead a Club … Declarer, rightfully fearing a ruff, will fly with Dummy’s Ace and play A♠ and out a Spade … South will win, cash the other high Spade, cash K♣, and exit a Club. Now, Declarer has two ways whereby he might attempt to make his contract … one of them works, one of them doesn’t! A good detective will not get this one wrong … so it’s over to you Sherlock, how do you make 9 tricks? Please check Play Problem # 13.
South raising on a void? Yes, we think it’s a reasonable choice in this situation, North’s hand is likely to be quite useless in No Trump.
4♥ turns out to be a poor contract, North’s Hearts are not quite good enough. Of course, it will make if the defense doesn’t cash the Spades pronto, but with AK♠ on opening lead, that hope is quickly dashed. After the Spades are cashed, it becomes an exercise in getting out for down one. How do you play the Hearts for only two losers? You cash the Ace first, of course, but then what? A low Heart (hoping to fell the doubleton King), or the Queen (hoping to squash the doubleton Ten or Jack)? Yes, laying down the Queen is the play which offers two ways to win, and it is also the play that works in practice. Down only one.
How about 3NT? That’s also down one (at least) on anything but the most generous of defenses.
Some players might have opened with the East hand, either 1♠ or 2♠, both are tempting. But, in our view, it’s a bit too weak for 1♠, and not quite suitable for 2♠ (an outside Ace and a void?). However, sooner or later, East will get Spades into the auction, and E-W will bid up to 4♠ based on their 10-card fit, and the favorable vulnerability. North knows that her side has a double fit, which persuades her to bid on to the 5-level, despite modest values. Perhaps East was tempted to push on to 5♠, but he did well to pass.
North was no doubt bidding 5♥ to make, but, instead, it turns out to be an excellent sacrifice! 5♥ is down one, 4♠ is ice-cold. We’d expect some N-S pairs to bid on to 5♠ for a bad board, while some others will no doubt get doubled in 4♠ for +590.
Neither North nor South have enough to push on to the cold 4♥ game. Of course, 4♥ does require 3 or 4 finesses to succeed, so don’t feel too bad if you managed to miss this one. In the featured auction, N-S went one better than making their (non-vul) game, they collected 500 from doubling 3♠. Despite the awfulness of the result, we wouldn’t fault West’s 3♠ bid at all, it was just unlucky … and East could hardly have given him a worse Dummy! After all, it’s not often that you play the contract opposite Partner’s (so-called) opening bid, and Dummy contributes just a solitary trick to your cause.
Back on Board 4, when it was N-S in their 7-0 fit, Declarer held AQ98743 … then we said that the best play for just two losers was Ace, then Queen, hoping to pin either the doubleton Ten or doubleton Jack. But here, with AQ96432, it doesn’t help us to do that … even if the Ten or the Jack came down doubleton, our lesser spot holding would still result in 3 losers … no, with this suit, the only chance to hold the trump losses to 2 tricks when trumps are 4-2 is to lay down the Ace, and then play a low card, hoping that the King is doubleton. As it happens, the King does come down, but it’s still -500 for virtually no matchpoints.
At IMP’s, East would bid 4♠ (over 2♠) like a shot, but, at matchpoints, a less aggressive approach to bidding games is generally recommended. Here, the featured E-W pair were playing a little 2NT gadget, after the major suit raise, asking Partner further to describe his hand. The responses are: 3♣: 3-card support, bad hand 3♦: 3-card support, good hand 3♥: 4-card support, bad hand 3♠: 4-card support, good hand.
To be honest, we are not sure how useful this tool is on the actual hand … with extreme distribution sometimes a more blunt instrument is required, as in the aforementioned leap to 4♠. The bottom line is that 4♠ will not be made on any normal line of play, and even 3♠ could be tough sledding.
By a passed hand, after a 3rd or 4th seat major suit opening, most pairs play some version of Drury … in the featured auction, N-S were playing the exotically named Two-Way Reverse Drury, whereby 2♦ showed a 4-card raise in Partner’s suit, with limit raise values (or something very close).
After 2♦, we’d have to say that South’s 4♠ bid was quite exuberant, given the unexciting shape and those dangling red Queens. This would be an easy game to miss, but it turns out to be a reasonable contract … it always makes when trumps are 2-2 … and with 3-1 trumps, it’ll need some luck in the Diamonds.
West’s winning call, after that 1NT opening, turns out to be 4NT, but, in our own opinion, West is good enough to bid 6NT directly.
Not for the first time, the bid that we recommend turns out badly. Opener has a minimum with no fitting minor honors (even just the T♣ would have made a big difference), and 6NT turns out to be not much more than an even money proposition. It will make whenever the Clubs are worth 5 tricks, or when they are worth 4 tricks with the Diamond finesse working. Plus, if they don’t lead a Diamond on the go, there is the extra chance that one of the defenders started with JTx of Hearts.
Whether the final contract is 4NT or 6NT the play has a couple of points of interest. South leads the J♠, won in Declarer’s hand … next comes the 5♣ (don’t squander that 8!) and South pops up with the Queen. Now, we can be sure of 4 Club tricks by leading a low Club towards the 8. But, suppose that South is being fiendishly cunning … how embarrassing to discover that South started with QT♣ doubleton, also that the Diamond finesse is losing, and that, ergo, we have just blown a cold contract. As a safety play against potential ridicule, Declarer crosses to her hand with the A♥, and leads the Club 8 from her hand, ducking when South throws a Spade. Now, correct play is to cash 3 rounds of Hearts (hoping for JTx somewhere), and then take the Diamond finesse. When that does not work, it’s | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
