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Hand Analyses 14th June, 2006
In the balancing seat, non-vulnerable, with 13 HCPs, West will be most reluctant to pass meekly. His first question should be "Who's got the majors?" ... not North, if her bidding is to be believed, she has denied a 4-card major with her 1NT bid ... true, South could be 4-4 in the majors, and North 3-3 in the majors ... but, in any other scenario, East must have a 5-card major. So, bizarre as it may seem, we would suggest a balancing Double, notwithstanding the 2-2 in the majors. It turns out that East actually has a six-card Heart suit, and 2♥ is likely to be the final contract.
Looking at all 4 hands, it looks as if Declarer has 5 obvious losers in 2♥ … he’ll lose 2 Spades, 2 Hearts, and a Diamond. But, he also has that 4th Spade to worry about, how can he avoid that loser? Well, with normal play, he really cannot, he needs Qx of Hearts in the South hand, or else the Spade Queen must be doubleton or tripleton (with or without the Ace) in the South hand. Neither of these things happen, and the end result is likely to be down one. True, the contract can be made on some obscure lines, but it's not clear that they have better odds. One such line would be to establish the Clubs (postponing the drawing of trumps), cross to the Spade King, lead a Club (pitching a Diamond or a Spade), and force one or other of the opponents to fatally weaken their trump holding.
Back to the bidding. How about an immediate 2♥ by East? Not everybody would condone such a Weak Two, no doubt complaining about the topless suit, and the 4-card major on the side … valid points both, but non-vulnerable there’s a lot to be said for getting in there. It’s primarily a matter of style. After the some-would-say-dubious (we would say "enterprising") 2♥ opening, it’s hard to see how any of the other three players can find a good excuse to bid, so 2♥ will probably buy it.
East has a lively distribution, and is white versus red, but has nothing worth saying in first seat. But, after North opens in 4th seat with a 1♣ bid, the gloves are off. At this point in the proceedings action is required! It would be nice if East could show both of his suits here, but, using “standard” methods, he cannot … he can show the two lower unbid suits (with The Unusual 2NT), or the majors (with Michaels), but what he cannot do is show Diamonds and Spades. Given the unavailability of a two-suited bid, we rather like 3♦ here, that white versus red thing sometimes makes us go crazy … but, seriously, at this vulnerability, bidding a mere 2♦ would be quite lame in our view.
Anyway, after 3♦, South has no satisfactory bid. The choices were between 4♣ and Double, and we don’t care for either very much! The trouble with 4♣ is that we have a balanced hand and this bid takes us straight past 3NT, which may well be our best contract. The Double at least keeps 3NT in play, so that would be our choice. What is the world coming to? ... on Board 1 we suggest a take-out Double with 2-2 in the unbid majors ... and, on Board 2, we recommend another one, with just 3-3 in the majors!
Once the E-W pair starts preempting in Diamonds, and South shows some values and Club support, it would be feeble of North not to try for slam. And, well done E-W if they found the 6♦ sacrifice. This will go down 4, -800 instead of -1370.
Any thoughts on East's 6♦ bid? Is it really kosher to take another call after preempting, furthermore doing so in front of Partner? Normally it's not, but West is a passed hand, and East does have extreme distribution ... if it turns out that West's 5♦ had bounced the opponents into a bad slam, then East will just have to apologize profusely at Trick Fourteen.
At this point, South is good enough use Roman Key Card Blackwood ... do you play Minorwood or Redwood? We highly recommend one (or even both) of these conventions ... here they provide South with a cheaper way to ask for Key Cards, allowing the partnership to stop in 4NT or 5 of the minor if the response shows that 2 Key Cards are missing.
6♣ has all manner of practical chances. But, there’s a foul split lurking out there, and a Spade lead from West will get ruffed, then a Diamond back, and another ruff. Down two! Is it clear that East will lead a Spade? Not really, so, if you were West, defending 6♣, and you are still waiting for that Spade ruff, then unlucky, but a Spade lead from Partner was far from obvious.
Statistically, it’s a less than 1% chance that the defenders will have a Spade ruff on the go, so if you went down in 6♣ that way, you were desperately unlucky.
North decided, quite reasonably, that her hand was not worth a vulnerable 3♥ bid in second seat, but then later she bid up to 3♥ anyway, emboldened by Partner’s opening bid.
Both sides will make one less trick in real life, than they would make in the bar after the game with the benefit of Hand Records. Whether the final contract is 3♥ by North, or 3♣ by East, the trump Queen is likely to score a trick in over-the-table play … and so both contracts are destined to fail, even though they can be made in double-dummy play.
This hand might be called the Tale of Four Queens. Each of the Queens, two on each side, is worth a trick on defense, but is quite worthless on offense! In 3♥, E-W’s major suit Queens are both favorites to score a trick for the defense, whereas Declarer's minor suit Queens are waste paper … and in 3♣, the defense's minor suit Queens score a trick (or, in the case of the Q♦, promote a trick), while Declarer's major suit Queens are mere spectators. See more on this theme in Board 24.
As a matter of fact, one of the reasons why North should not open 3♥, is the possession of those two Queens. As we just saw, both of them turned out to be quite useless on offense, but valuable of defense … quite the opposite of what we expect from our preempts!
West’s sequence of doubling, and then bidding a new suit, shows a very good hand. Of course, West does have a very good hand, and some might be tempted to bid even more with those 21 HCPs and that solid Heart suit. But, in the featured auction, West did plenty … he has 5 losers in his hand, and needs some help from Partner if game is to be made.
As it turns out, even 3♥ is not such a great contract, and only makes thanks to the most fortunate Diamond situation.
Over 2♣, North sensibly decides not to mess around with a Fourth Suit Forcing sequence, and just goes straight to the obvious game.
We don’t recommend a low Heart opening lead from East, but on this board it would be truly devilish, no doubt causing Declarer to misguess and holding her to 10 tricks. However, East does have a miserable hand from which to lead, and a Heart does seem like a reasonable choice … but, if it is to be a Heart, most will lead the Ace (not that we like leading unsupported Aces, either), and now a prompt Club shift is needed to hold the contract to 11 tricks.
Anyone for the opening lead of the J♣? Not unreasonable, but it will put West on the spot ... should he overtake and try to give Partner a ruff? ... if he does, Declarer has an easy 12 tricks when the Diamonds break. We'd expect most Wests to get this one wrong ... Partners hate it when they don't get their ruff, and who wants to risk that?
North is in an awkward, but not uncommon, situation here. She would like to play this one in 3NT or 4♠, depending upon whether or not South has 3 Spades. In fact, North is in exactly the same situation that she would be in if South had rebid 1NT instead of 2♣. After the 1NT rebid, most players use New Minor Forcing (or some other checkback method) to investigate the 5-3 major fit. And, yes, you can use it in this sequence, too! So, after 2♣, North bids 2♦, and now South shows that 3-card support.
Without that 2♦ device, North would be totally up the creek … 2♠ is not forcing, nor is 3♠ (which should show better and longer Spades, anyway), and 3NT would give up on a 4♠ contract. So, 2♦ is the practical bid … it’s forcing, and it gives Partner a chance to support Spades. In fact, on this hand, you might well make the bid regardless of whether you and your Partner have discussed its meaning, it seems like a safe enough way of investigating the 5-3 fit.
As can be seen, 4♠ is definitely the place to be (at least when the Club King is off-side!). Suppose that East leads his Club. Unless East is known to be extra-tricky, it looks like the K♣ is with West ... in that case the best play is to hop up with the Ace, draw just two rounds of trumps (leaving a high trump on the board), then knock out the K♣ ... if the hand with short Clubs is also the hand with the doubleton Spade, then Declarer will make 12 tricks, but, as it happens, the defense does get its ruff and it's only 11 tricks.
The defense does better by leading a red suit, and the play is quite interesting. Please see Play Problem # 21.
This auction could well be repeated a few times during the course of the session. Much to South’s chagrin, West will manage 8 tricks! In fact, even 9 in a couple of scenarios. In the play, Declarer must use his Diamond entries to take Club ruffs. Expect a sprinkling of 470’s and 570’s on the score-sheet.
When they invented the Negative Double, showing support for the unbid suits, it’s probably fair to say that they did not have East’s specific hand in mind. No, let's forget about the Negative Double ... this hand should be bidding Spades, and then Diamonds, all the way to the 5-level ... or, should we bid Diamonds, and then Spades, all the way to the 4-level? An interesting choice, please see the Bidding Quiz for more on how to handle East’s once-a-year hand.
Regardless of how East sets about bidding his hand, N-S will bid to 4♥, and very few Easts in this world will let them play there. So, 4♠ or 5♦ is likely to be the final contract. In 4♠ it's possible to make 11 tricks with a correct trump guess, but normal play will lead to 10 tricks. As for 5♦, that much more fun to play, especially if they lead a Heart ... please see Play Problem # 22.
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