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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 just 11 tricks.
Afterthought: If West thinks his hand is good enough for 6NT, perhaps he should use Gerber along the way … after all, with 17 opposite a potential 15, it’s possible to be off 2 Aces
This will surely be a common auction with a common end result … South leads a Heart to Declarer’s King, and the defense scores 2 Clubs and 3 Hearts. Will this be +120 all around the room?
3♣ is down two, but the good news is that East can hardly be expected to find the double, and that 2♥ makes … -100 for N-S should be a decent result.
West made the winning decision when he passed 3♠ … non-vulnerable, with a 10-card fit, we fear that we would have bid 4♦ and gone minus on the board! The Law of Total Tricks certainly suggests bidding one more time … E-W have a 10-card fit, N-S presumably have an 8-card fit … that’s 18 total trumps, so the expectation is 18 total tricks … if N-S can make 9 of them, then 4♦ (even doubled) is a good save for down one … if N-S can only make 8, then 4♦ is making. Well, the Law of Total Tricks is not a great success on this hand, and it turns out that there are only 17 total tricks, and that both 3♠ and 4♦ are down one.
In order to defeat 3♠, East must get his Club ruff, which should not be that difficult … East will probably lead A♦ for want of better, then will expectantly try A♣, getting that lovely big Eight as a signal, and the ruff is achieved.
This will surely be a common auction, and East will normally lead a Club. At first glance, it looks like a simple 9 tricks … 1 Spade, 3 Hearts, 4 Diamonds, and 1 Club. But the hand has hidden depths, try it as a Play Problem.
After West’s 2NT (showing the minors), as North, would you support Spades or introduce Hearts? We’d mention that 6-card Heart suit first, and then support Spades later … but we would be nervous that by the time the bidding got back to us, things would be at the 5-level. N-S were playing the version of “Unusual vs Unusual” which uses the 3♣ cue-bid to show Hearts (3♦ would show Spades). As it happens, the Spade support turns out to be moot when South supports Hearts.
North was bidding 5♥ to make, of course, little realizing that she was, in actual fact, taking a sacrifice against the making 5♦! But, predictably, West had no plans to defend with his 6-6 shape, and took a (phantom) sacrifice of his own.
We’d expect 6♦ doubled down one to occur at several tables. But, if North neglects to introduce her Hearts and supports Spades directly it’s easy to see how N-S might misjudge at the 5-level, by doubling 5♦ and scoring -550.
North’s 2NT shows 20-21, so South can see that they are on the fringe of the slam zone. How should she plan the auction? Here are the possibilities: (a) Use Stayman, planning simply to play it in 4♥ or 3NT, depending on whether North has a Heart fit; (b) Use Stayman, planning to make a slam try later; (c) Bid 4NT (but only if the partnership has a way find a fit whenever Partner decides to accept … see Board 7, 17th May, 2006) (d) Simply bid 3NT, hoping that the abundance of points will be enough to make the same number of tricks as a 4-4 Heart fit.
We think that it’s a close decision. The T♣ looks as if it might be most useful in the play, but otherwise the hand is without plus features, and the potential Heart trump suit is very weak indeed. Our own choice would be to bid 3NT and leave it at that … but, if we were forced to make the (somewhat optimistic) slam try, we would bid 4NT, giving ourselves a chance to play in 6♣ or 6♥ whenever Partner accepts.
As it happens, 6♥ is a decent proposition … it needs trumps 3-2 and one of two finesses, or West with 4 trumps and both finesses working, or West with singleton King … all in all, it’s around 60%. More to the point, it happens to make (as does 6NT). But look at how miserable the slam would be if North did not possess the T♥!
Some pairs will no doubt bid this slam, either through optimism or good judgment, so playing in 4♥ will not score very well, especially as it also loses to those playing in 3NT or 4NT.
Pretty much everybody plays Jacoby Transfers for the majors. Many also play Minor Suit Transfers, part of which is that it gives Opener the chance to say (in this case) “I like Clubs” or “I don’t like Clubs”. South has a reasonable hand, and it would no doubt be improved if Partner said “I like Clubs”. But, this whole preamble, we confess, has been nothing but a red herring! South’s hand is good enough to gut it out in 3NT regardless of North’s opinion of his Clubs. Just because we have a gadget available, does not mean that we have to use it indiscriminately!
So, eschewing science, South bids 3NT directly, and East leads the T♥ (who would not?). Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets! Who will prevail? The defense or Declarer? Let’s see. Dummy plays low, and the first trick is won by the Q♥. Now, Declarer tries a low Diamond to Dummy’s Queen, and a Club to the Queen losing to the King. The defense can shift to Spades, but it’s too late at this point, Declarer already has 9 tricks.
The defense can do better. T♥ lead, won by the Queen … then, when a low Diamond is played, East hops up with the A♦, and shifts to Spades … Declarer will duck this twice, but, having scored 2 Spades, the defense can revert to Hearts. Down one! Well done to any E-W pair who found this defense, you’ll be in the vast minority, so to speak, as beating 3NT will be the exception rather than the rule.
Opposite that Weak Two, South is good enough to be thinking about slam, but she needs a suitable hand from Partner. How best to investigate slam? The options are: (a) Bid 2NT … if you play that 2NT asks for a feature (the method which worked so well on Board 2 last week), then 2NT here is not particularly useful, especially if Partner denies a feature … if you play that 2NT is some type of Ogust bid, you’ll be a bit better off, at least Partner will be able to express an opinion about her hand; (b) Bid 3♣ … even if you play this as natural and forcing, it doesn’t seem like a particularly useful solution to the problem … the hand will no doubt be played in Spades and 3♣ seems to be heading out in the wrong direction; (c) Roman Key Card … yes, that would be our choice, our plan is simple (though not foolproof!) … if Partner shows up with the two missing Key Cards, we’ll go to slam, otherwise we’ll subside in game … and we’ll miss those slams where North has a one Key Card perfecto, such as K♥ and a singleton Diamond. But there is a caveat, see below.
After a Weak Two opening, it’s a good idea to play 4♣ as Roman Key Card, giving the partnership a chance to stay at the 4-level when the Weak Two bidder makes his customary disappointing Key Card response. Here, this gadget works like an absolute charm … over 4♣, North shows just one Key Card, and the final contract is the safe 4♠, and not the perilous 5♠.
In response to that 4♣ Key Card ask, you could just use the standard 1430 responses, but you may want to tinker with them, and use 01122 instead, as in: 4♦ 0 Key Cards 4♥ 1 Key Card without the Queen of trumps 4♠ 1 Key Card with 4NT 2 Key Cards without 5♣ 2 Key Cards with These responses presume that you would never open a Weak Two with 3 Key Cards, which we are sure is the case.
On to the play of the hand … in 4♠, a Diamond lead will hold Declarer to 10 tricks, but a Heart (or Club) lead, gives Declarer a chance for 11, even with both finesses failing. Say that the opening lead is the 3♥. Declarer wins the A♥, and finesses the J♠ which loses to the King. West can cash J♥ and shift to a Diamond, but Declarer rises with the Ace, cashes AK♣, ruffs a Club, crosses to the Q♠, ruffs another Club, ruffs a Heart, and pitches the Diamond loser on the established Club.
You may have noticed that the defense erred grievously in the above line of play! It was a mistake for East to cash the J♥ … that trick was never going away, and it only served to give Declarer timely access to Dummy’s long Club. You probably also noticed that, on the opening (low) Heart lead, North can make sure of 11 tricks by ducking that first Heart trick!
In first or second seat, holding the West cards, you would not dream of opening 4♠, the hand is just too good, you’d prefer to reserve that bid for a hand with 7 solid or 8 maybe-not-so-solid Spades and not much else. In other words, an opening 4♠ is a preempt, pure and simple. But, in 3rd seat, with Partner having passed, West can see that slam is unlikely (though not completely out of the question). He can also see that 4♠ is almost certainly where the hand belongs, so why not bid it directly and hopefully put North under pressure?
After 4♠, North is under extreme pressure! She can hardly pass, even slam is possible from her point of view (in fact, if South held the East cards, 6♥ would be cold!), so what are her choices? It used to be that, over a 4♠ preempt, Double was for penalty, and 4NT was a 3-suited take-out. But, nowadays, the style is for Double to be card-showing, and for 4NT to be a two-suiter. In that scenario, you could make an argument for 4NT or 5♥, both are reasonable, neither is perfect.
Either way, the final contract will be 5♥, unsportingly doubled by East, and West should be given a severe talking to if he even thinks about pulling this! With accurate defense, Declarer can be held to just 5 trump tricks and a Club. North can wear that -1400 as a badge of honor, her bidding was impeccable. Full marks to West for that 4♠ pressure bid.
Would you have opened in 4th chair with the East hand? It doesn’t quite measure up in terms of Cansino points (HCPs plus Spades), having only 14 instead of the recommended 15 … and the hand is Aceless … and 2 of the points are a singleton Queen … but, despite all these negatives, it’s hard to pass up on the chance to bid a 6-card major, so we would open anyway.
West’s 2♣ was another of those Two-Way Reverse Drury bids (this one showing 3-card support, and yes, Drury is generally played opposite 4th seat openers as well as 3rd seat openers), and 2♥ showed a poor hand. North had an obvious balancing Double, and 3♣ was mercifully undoubled (West may have been tempted, and, if he had doubled, then East would have been tempted to pull it!).
In the play of 3♣, South escapes for down one by getting two Heart ruffs on the board and double hooking the Diamonds.
West’s 5♣ cue-bid is enough for East to bid what turns out to be a pretty decent slam. If South has the K♠ singleton or doubleton, then the slam always makes. If there is a Spade loser to be had, then Declarer must hope that the North has the K♣ and cannot profitably attack the suit on opening lead. And, even if the K♣ is with South, there’s no expectation that a Club will be led … a red suit lead seems more likely. Most, if not all, Declarers will make 12 tricks, but probably only about half the field will bid the slam.
You may wish to skip this write-up until you have been fortified by a strengthening cocktail, because we are about to stumble through some of the complex issues of Walsh-style and Fourth Suit forcing. Consider yourself warned.
First of all, what is Walsh-style bidding? Your Partner opens 1♣, and you hold 4 (or maybe more) Diamonds, and a 4-card major. Which one do you bid? Up-the-liners bid 1♦, of course … but a Walshite bids 1♦ only when he has a decent hand, and with lesser values he bids the major directly. The Walsh style has become so common that it is no longer even alertable.
Secondly, that 1♠ bid is not Fourth Suit Forcing for most partnerships … 2♠ would be the artificial Fourth Suit Forcing bid … 1♠ is natural (and, also forcing, by virtue of being a new suit by Responder).
Even with that brief and inadequate grounding in Walsh-style and Fourth Suit Forcing, one can see how the above auction can have two completely different meanings: Up-the-Line Bidding: If this is the style being employed, then that 1♠ shows about 5+ HCPs, and has no upper limit … alas, up-the-line bidding has dug a deep hole for Opener on this hand, he has no satisfactory call at this point, being too good for 1NT, not good enough for 2NT. What’s the solution? Open 1NT or play Walsh! If neither appeals, then make your best guess between 1NT or 2♠ or 2NT, all of them flawed, of course. Walsh-Style Bidding: With this approach, where Responder must have some values to bid 1♦ when holding 4 Spades, the auction is simpler … at his third turn, Opener jumps to 2NT, showing extras (and therefore forcing to game), and the partnership can explore the best game or slam at their leisure.
Against 3NT, the defense must lead a Diamond to hold Declarer to 9 tricks … any other lead, and the Clubs get established first, and 11 tricks are made.
Let’s put ourselves in the North chair, after Partner has responded 1♥. Partner is a passed hand, so we can forget about game. There are two schools of thought here … one says “Raise to 2♥ anyway, it’ll preempt the opponents” … the other says “Pass!”. The trouble with raising to 2♥ is evidenced on this deal … if North raises to 2♥, South would be quite justified in trying for game with her chunky 11-count, and that will get N-S too high. We prefer Pass for that very reason … but raising to 2♥ here also has its advocates, so you choose.
East hates to sell out so cheaply, but has no convenient way into the auction. East could guess to bid 2♦, but that will just result in a 2♥ contract by N-S.
In the play of a Heart part-score, N-S can make only 8 tricks (the defense has that Spade ruff coming), so we’d predict a bunch of N-S +110s, with a few -50’s by the pairs who got to 3♥.
This deal illustrates the relatively poor playing strength of 4-3-3-3 hands. E-W have a combined 25 HCP’s, all the Aces, and most of the intermediate cards … and yet 3NT is not a good contract, because those two square distributions reduce the trick-taking potential. However, with some good fortune 9 tricks are possible … 1 Spade, 4 Hearts, 2 Diamonds, and 2 Clubs.
East has quite a bit extra, but not enough to be thinking of slam, and the obvious 3NT game is reached.
North will no doubt lead a minor, and if she chooses a Diamond, Declarer’s obvious line of play is to win the A♦, Heart to the Ace, and finesse the T♥ losing to the King. The defense does best to shift to a Spade, won in Declarer’s hand … he cashes the Q♥, discovering the 4-2 break, and leads a Club to the King for his 9th trick. A clever South will duck the Club, giving Declarer the chance to get greedy … he might cross back to his hand with a Diamond, and lead another Club towards the board, trying for 10 tricks. When he plays the Queen he goes down in flames as the defenders score 3 Clubs for down one. Cold for 9, tried for 10, got just 8.
If North leads a Club on the go, Declarer will call for Dummy’s King, which South must smoothly duck. Dummy plays A♥ and a Heart to the Ten and King. Now, another Club and if Declarer misguesses, it’s down one. If Declarer guesses correctly, it’ll be 10 tricks, as Declarer loses just one Club and 2 Hearts.
E-W can make 12 tricks thanks to the successful trump finesse, but, with two Key Cards missing, and with almost everybody using Roman Key Card Blackwood these days, the slam may not be bid at all.
When they double Partner’s transfer bid, the most common method is probably as follows: Pass Only 2 cards in Partner’s major (now Partner can Redouble as a re-transfer) 2♥ 3-card support Rdbl Big Diamond holding, suggesting that 2♦ redoubled is a place to play. Other Other bids would be Super-Accepts.
However, it’s been almost 10 years since we elected to play in their suit redoubled (and on that occasion we went down 2 for -1000!), so surely there is a better use for the Redouble. One method that is popular on the tournament circuit is to use the Redouble to show a good hand with 3-card support … and the 2♥ bid to show not-so-good 3-card support. And what’s the benefit of this? If Responder has an invitational hand he won’t need to invite if Partner bids 2♥, and the partnership can stay at the two-level. Any downside? Not to speak of … true, the weak hand will play the contract at the 2-level (at higher levels, re-transfers are available, if required), but that is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the lead-directing Double.
Applying this new technology to East’s hand, what would you bid over the Double? The choice is between 2♥ and Redouble, of course. East may have only 15 HCPs, but every single high card is gilt-edged, and there is that useful-looking doubleton in their suit … all things considered, we’d say this was worth a Redouble! This upwards evaluation by East gets the partnership to 4♥ in a hurry.
The final contract is a good one, but it requires careful play. Please see Play Problem # 15.
More often than not, South’s raise to 2♠ will be based on 4-card support, but here, with decent 3-card support, and a worthless doubleton, South has an obvious raise.
Provided that East avoids the disastrous Heart lead, the defense will come to 3 tricks … West must shift to a Heart as soon as he gets in with one of those black Aces, but that should not be too difficult. An alternative defensive route to 3 tricks is to arrange a Club ruff, but that can only be done at the expense of the Heart trick. So, a flat board … dare we say it?
This should be another flat board. 4♥ all around the room, making 11 tricks.
West’s 2♣ created a game-forcing auction, and his 3♠ gave East space for a cue-bid. It would be most misleading if East were to cue-bid his void in Partner’s suit here, West would imagine that he was facing a fitting Club honor … instead, East cue-bids 4♦ showing a control.
In response to Roman Key Card Blackwood, we can see that East lays claim to the Q♠. An optical illusion? No, East has extra trump length, and expects the partnership to have 10 trumps between them … this makes ownership of the Q♠ (more or less) moot.
Looking at just the E-W hands, the final 6♠ contract has good chances, and the worst case is that it will ultimately come down to a Diamond guess. But, before things get to that point, there are a couple of good things that might happen to Declarer. On opening lead, an imaginative South might lead away from his K♣, trying to deter Declarer from an immediate finesse, perhaps for fear of a defensive ruff … this will allow Declarer a free finesse, and when this works, the Diamond guess is no longer required. Failing that windfall trick, Declarer will draw trumps and ruff two Clubs, hoping that the Club King comes down. If it doesn’t, then he must play on Diamonds and hope to guess right. As it happens, there is no guess, both missing Diamond honors are well-placed.
Needless to say, bidding and making slam will be a good board, but maybe not that much above average, surely most pairs will get there.
North’s 2♣ was natural, and West’s Double of 2♣ turned out to be a mistake … instead of collecting a modest +100 (and a good board) in 2♣ undoubled, West chased South into the making 2♥ contract (and close to a zero for E-W). Was West just unlucky? Not really, he fully earned his zero in our respectful opinion … he knew the opponents were in a 6-card fit, and that they must have a better spot somewhere else, and he should have just passed and taken his plus score.
North is clearly border-line for inviting to game opposite a 15-17 1NT, it’s the T♥ that would talk us into making a try. Question: If, after 2♣, Opener responds 2♥, how about changing plan and passing? Not a bad idea … some Souths will pass 1NT, so finding the 4-4 Heart fit would already put us ahead of the game.
As it happens, there is no 4-4 Heart fit, and 3NT is reached. It’s not a terrific contract, but it is a mighty friendly one. Declarer can always score 3 Spades, 1 Heart, 3 Diamonds, and 1 Club, and the 9th will come thanks to the 3-3 Clubs (if they attack this suit), or the lucky Heart situation (lucky, because Declarer can lead towards the board twice, then play a low Heart, felling the stiff King).
Last week we considered the issue of what to open with those 6-5 hands, where the 6 is in the lower ranking suit, and we offered these three options (suits changed to fit the current hand): (a) Open 1♦, pretending that the hand is 5-5; (b) Open 1♣, and take the chance that the Diamond fit may be lost; (c) Open 1♦ if the Clubs are relatively weak, and 1♣ otherwise.
But, perhaps we should have mentioned a 4th choice: (d) When we have a little extra, but not quite a reverse, open 1♣, planning to stretch the hand into a reverse anyway.
We’d say that a good approach on North’s hand is to stretch it into a reverse … it’s not quite up to standard, but it’s pretty close. However, all this becomes moot when the opponents preempt in Hearts. It’s one thing stretch to a reverse at the 2-level, something else altogether to do it at the 4-level.
3♠ is a reasonable final contract, though far from iron-clad. West will lead the Q♥, then smartly shift to the Q♠ to stop the ruff on the board … Declarer plays three round of trumps, and when they split, and when the Club finesse works, no fewer than 10 tricks result. 12 tricks are possible in Clubs, thanks to the same winning Club finesse, and the 3-3 Diamond break. Neither 4♠ nor 6♣ are reasonable contracts, they’ll go down far more often than not, but N-S will have done well if they find their way to 5♣.
By the way, with that 10-card Heart fit, was any West tempted to leap majestically to 4♥? Oh, dear! It was no doubt doubled and the play was quite brutal … A♠, K♠, Spade ruff, A♦, K♦, Diamond ruff, followed by 2 Club tricks. Now, with as much dignity as can be mustered in such a situation, Declarer will claim the last 5 tricks and score up -1400.
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