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Hand Analyses 13th September , 2006
A wild start to this week’s Wednesday Game! In the featured auction, South, with her freakish hand, decided to take charge with a Jacoby 2NT. This worked well when North showed Club shortness, and then showed a Heart control, which South assumed to be the Ace. That was all that was needed to take a shot at 7♠, which makes with ease when the Clubs get ruffed out. It all looks pretty easy, but there are a couple of possible problems with this auction: - North would have messed up things if she had been dealt a minimum with no shortness … she would leap to 4♠ (in response to 2NT), and South would have had trouble finding out about the only two cards she really cared about, namely the A♥ and K♣. For that reason, we don’t much care for the standard Jacoby 2NT responses, those 1♠ 2NT, 4♠ auctions too often cross up Responder’s intentions. Please see the link for an alternative set of responses to Jacoby 2NT. - Could South be sure that the 3♥ cue-bid was showing the A♥ and not the K♥? This depends on their cue-bidding style, and many partnerships are quite happy cue-bidding a King before they have denied the Ace. For more on this please see the Bidding Quiz.
Instead of the take-charge Jacoby 2NT, South might have gone the informative route, by bidding 2♣. Now North bids 2♦, South bids 2♠, after which a state of anarchy may ensue … South will want to captain the ship in search of the A♥ and a Club control, but North will think she knows better as she goes in search of the AK♠ and a Heart control. No, we really don’t care for a 2♣ response by South.
System Note: We hesitate to mention it but this is a good hand for Exclusion Key Card Blackwood. Using this exotic convention, a leap to 5♦, after agreeing Spades, is Roman Key Card with a twist … it’s asking Partner not to include the A♦ in her response. Accordingly, after the auction starts 1♠ 2NT, 3♣ 5♦, North will show just one Key Card (obviously the A♥) and South scoots into 7♠. But, again, if the auction starts 1♠ 2NT, 4♠, South’s Exclusion plan will be thwarted (the 5♦ bid must be a jump) … no, we don’t like those standard Jacoby responses at all!
The final contract of 3NT is quite hopeless, in fact it’s somewhat fortunate that 3NT goes down only one. But we don’t see much wrong with the auction … East has a normal 1♥opening bid, 2♦ was a 2/1 game force, at which point E-W are destined to go minus, they have no makeable game. Just one of those things!
SAYC Note: In SAYC, the auction 1♥ 2♦, 2♥ 3♦ is not forcing, so West will rebid 3♣ instead, presumably ending up in the same 3NT contract.
After West’s 1♠, North was close to making a 3♠ splinter (an extra trump would have been enough) but contented herself with a 2♠ bid, showing a limit raise or better. East might have raised Spades had the vulnerability been different.
On lead against 4♥, West will do well to start with a Diamond, as other leads only help Declarer. The bidding marks West with both black Aces, and Declarer is in danger of losing a Heart, a Spade, and two Clubs, and additionally has a second Spade loser to take care of. After the play to the opening trick, the spots will tell Declarer that West has led a singleton or doubleton Diamond. Any clues to the whereabouts of the Q♥? There's room in both hands for this card, but there is the small clue that West did not lead a trump on the go, perhaps he was reluctant to lead from the Queen. Anyway, happy guessing on this one!
When we are 5-5 in the black suits, our preferred style is to open 1♠. One problem with opening 1♣ occurs when Partner responds 1NT … now Opener is stuck for a rebid if her hand is not up to the Reverse strength needed for 2♠. Does this mean that it’s OK to open 1♣ here with the actual South hand? It’s certainly strong enough to overcome the rebid problem, and some players would open 1♣ accordingly. Nothing terrible about that, although we still prefer the 1♠ opening ourselves … Spades (being a major) is a more likely place to play, so there’s a lot to be said for mentioning that suit first. Compare these two auctions:
North South North South Pass 1♠ Pass 1♣ 2♠ 4♠ 1♥ 2♠ Pass 3♣ 3♠ 4♠ Pass
The left-hand auction is completely uninformative, but the right-hand auction gives the opponents all sorts of information as they seek to find the best opening lead and defense.
In 4♠, it may be possible to make 12 tricks, but it’s something of a long-shot. For example, West might lead a trump, Declarer leads a Diamond towards the King, and later scores a ruff in Dummy. Most lines will result in just 11 tricks (Club lead, or a Diamond misguess, for example).
Not everyone will care for North’s 2♦ preempt, we are somewhat ambivalent about it ourselves. 2NT was a feature-ask, 3♣ showed a Club feature, and at this point South could have bid 6♦ directly. However, she could see that 6NT would be a good spot if Partner held A♣ and KQ♦, so she tried 4NT (Roman Key Card) along the way. Playing 1430 responses, 5♣ showed one Key Card, so South settled for 6♦.
6♦ is a fine contract, but with both red finesses losing, it is destined to go down one. According to the Deep Finesse analysis, 6♦ can be made, and so it can, but only with this unlikely sequence of plays after, let’s say, a Club opening lead: Cash two Clubs and ruff a Club, Spade finesse, cash A♠ (pitching a Heart) and ruff a Spade, now A♦ and out a Diamond, and West is end-played … he must concede a ruff and sluff in Clubs, or else lead away from the Q♥.
System Note: Using 4NT for Roman Key Card when a minor suit has been agreed is not always such a great success, there is often the danger that the response will take the partnership too high. For this reason, many tournament players use Minorwood or Redwood.
SAYC Note: As SAYC does not use Roman Key Card, there would be no point in trying 4NT, it will only tell South what she already knows (one Ace, in Clubs, of course), so after 3♣ she might as well just take a shot at 6♦.
East found himself in an awkward, if not impossible, situation after West’s 2♥ rebid. None of the options were particularly attractive: Pass? Not really, it’s likely to be a 4-2 fit (as it happens, it is a 4-2 fit, but Partner’s Hearts are so good that it’s 8 tricks anyway); 2♠? That’s probably a 5-1 fit, not attractive at all (though also good for 8 tricks on the lie of the cards); 3♦? That would be a wild guess, but also a successful one, as 10 tricks roll in; 2NT? This would be our choice, though it’s quite an overbid and far from perfect. As you can see, this bid gets you into 3NT, which goes down with best defense.
But sometimes you don’t get best defense and we wonder how many Norths were up to the challenge on this deal. Let’s say that, against 3NT, South leads the J♥. Now, one obvious route to 9 tricks is as follows: Win the A♥ Finesse the J♦, losing to the Queen Win the Heart continuation (or Club shift) Play a Diamond to the King and Ace Cash the Diamonds Knock out the A♠ Pretty simple stuff, eh? But where was North when the defense needed her? At Trick Two, when a Diamond is led from the board, she must rise majestically with the King! This heads-up play gives Declarer two losing options. The first losing option is to win the Ace, whereafter South will duck the second round of Diamonds and Declarer’s hand will be dead. The second losing option is more complicated, let’s go through it trick by trick: J♥ led, won by the Ace Diamond, North playing the King, and Declarer ducking Club shift, won on the board Diamond to the Jack and Queen Cash Q♣ Spade to Partner’s Ace Cash K♣ Just how clear is it that North should play the K♦ at Trick Two? Pretty clear, we would say, it’s hard to see how it can lose, and it should be apparent as soon as Dummy tables that Declarer may have trouble with entries to his hand … obviously none in Hearts and Clubs, and maybe none in Spades. In fairness, this is a much easier play to find when reading a web-site or newspaper than it is when at the table.
What a nasty deal! Either side could get into trouble on this one. Let’s look first at the featured auction. East’s Double was intended as a take-out Double, E-W clearly playing this common treatment (well, at least common among tournament players): After a 1NT opening, and their interference at the three-level, a Double is for take-out. Note the “three-level” emphasis, because it’s common to play Doubles at the two-level as merely showing values (typically an invitational type hand with no alternative bid available)
East was no doubt delighted to have this agreement here, and West must have thought it was Christmas as he droolingly passed. Christmas, indeed, at least +800!
That’s one way that N-S can get into a pickle. If E-W do not play that a Double of 3♦ is Negative, then it could be E-W who end up stepping into something unpleasant, as per this auction:
South West North East Pass 1NT 3♦ 4♦ Pass 4♥ Pass Pass Pass
4♥ is destined for down two, for a nasty -200. Should South double? No, we don’t think so, there’s no reason to assume that the opponents don’t have a better spot in 4♠.
That 4♦ bid was a Texas Transfer … it showed at least a 6-card Heart suit, enough for game but not enough for slam. As usual in a transfer sequence, the idea is to get the strong hand as Declarer, thereby protecting it from the opening lead.
Talking of opening leads, what South leads will most certainly affect the outcome of this board. Let’s review the possibilities: - Trump Lead? This looks pretty safe, but what will it achieve? It seems unlikely that there is a ruff in the short (2NT) hand, and, even if there is, it’s unlikely that a trump lead will prevent that (we just don’t have enough entries to keep leading trumps). - Diamond Lead? Heavens, no! Way too dangerous even to contemplate, especially with the strong hand on our right. - Black Suit Lead? If you avoided one of those red suit leads, then at least you got on the short list. Which black suit should you lead? There are no obvious clues, we’ll just say “Well done!” for leading a black card, and especially well done if that lead was a Club, enabling you to get a ruff for the third defensive trick. All other leads and it’s 11 tricks for Declarer.
West’s 2♣ rebid was the so-called New Minor Forcing. Of course, in this particular sequence, both of the minors are “new”, so we’d suggest that 2♣ is the “new minor” and 1♥ 1♠, 1NT 2♦ is simply weak and natural.
Anyway, after 1♥ 1♠, 1NT 2♣, East’s options are: - 2♠, which would show 3 Spades - 2♥, which would show good 5-card suit - 2♦, denying anything good (as in extra) in the majors.
Against 3NT, it seems normal for South to lead a Club. Declarer can count 7 top tricks, and Hearts looks like the best place to find an 8th and 9th. Declarer wins the trick in his hand and leads a Heart toward the Queen … when this holds, he plays a Heart to the Ace, and out a Heart. Now South will probably shift to a Diamond, and Declarer should duck a couple of times before taking the Ace … now, it’s 9 tricks, as South cannot get to North’s winning Diamonds when she gets in with her second Heart trick.
Note for Squeeze Enthusiasts: After that initial Club lead, do you see a route to 10 tricks? Well, there is a way, though it does risk the contract. Here’s the line of play: Club lead, won in Declarer’s hand Heart to the Queen Heart back to the Ace Heart to South’s Nine Diamond shift, but ducked only once! After winning the second Diamond, Declarer loses another Heart, wins the black suit return, and cashes the last Heart, squeezing North in Spades and Diamonds! An elegant line of play, but quite risky, if Diamonds are 4-3 then a cold contract will be down one.
SAYC Note: SAYC makes no provision for New Minor Forcing, which makes West’s hand somewhat awkward to bid. He obviously wants to play this in game, and ideally would like to offer Partner a choice between 3NT and 4♠. Here are some possible West rebids: 3♠: Not really an option, because the Spades are not long enough (should have 6 for that bid), and, even worse, the bid is invitational, not forcing. 3NT: A practical choice, giving up on the possibility of the 5-3 Spade fit. 3♣: A contrived forcing bid, not with any intention of finding a Club contract, merely giving Partner the chance to support Spades on the way to 3NT.
Of course, if you like the idea of the 3♣ bid as a way of keeping the options open, then perhaps your partnership should be working on adding New Minor Forcing to your arsenal … it really is a most useful convention.
North was not good enough to bid 2♠ over 2♣, so she made a Negative Double, showing some values and at least one of the majors. South’s Double was Responsive, and North felt emboldened enough to bid game.
It’s a so-so game … there is a Club loser, and two top Diamond losers, and the key to success is to avoid losing a 3rd Diamond trick. Clubs will be led, the second round ruffed, trumps drawn, and then when the Hearts don’t come in for 4 tricks, Declarer must hope that the J♦ is well-placed. When it is, that is 10 tricks. Some pairs will miss this game, so +620 should be a good score for N-S.
Let’s be East on this one. What are your methods opposite Partner’s simple overcall? The two most common treatments are as follows (a) New Suit is Forcing: If you play a new suit as forcing for one round, then East has an obvious 2♦ call (over their 1♠). (b) New Suit is Constructive: The featured E-W pair were no doubt using this treatment, so East was obliged to jump to 3♦ in order to create a force, obviously rating his hand as too good to stop short of game … we wholeheartedly agree with that assessment!
As luck would have it, the 3♦ bid has the beneficial consequence of crowding N-S out of the auction. Perhaps North should have dredged up a 3♠ bid anyway, given the fact that she can place Partner with at least 5 Spades (North would have made a Negative Double with only 4).
E-W can make 12 tricks in Hearts or Diamonds, but (famous last words!) we doubt whether any pairs will bid the slam. How do N-S do if they end up sacrificing in 5♣? Pretty well, it’s only down one. How about a sacrifice in 4♠ doubled? Well, in theory, this can be down three (one too many), but it requires an opening Club lead, which is the only way for the defense to get all three of its ruffs.
Singleton Theory Addendum: Imagine yourself in the North seat, playing in 4♠ (why weren’t E-W bidding more!?). East leads the A♦, and then makes the mistake of trying to cash a second Diamond. Now, if North can pick up the trump suit, he’ll make 12 tricks, if he fails in that quest he’ll score just 9 tricks. At an early stage in our bridge development we are all taught “Eight ever, nine never”, so in the Spade suit we’d be inclined to play for the drop of the Queen unless there are indications to the contrary. With East bidding Diamonds, and West bidding Hearts, there’s no obvious reason to think that one or the other is more likely to be short in Spades. Does this mean that you should play for the drop? Maybe, but there’s a theory out there (and it’s very much “out there”, some would assert) which says that if our side has a short suit (singleton or void), then the chances are that the other side also has shortness somewhere.
This theory works like a charm on the actual hand, of course, because Declarer will say to herself “We have shortness (in Diamonds), chances are they also have shortness, it might well be in Spades”. So, if she believes in the Singleton Theory, she’d take the finesse and make 12 tricks! Mystics 1, Scientists 0! Maybe future Wednesday Game hands will give the Scientists a chance to assert their presumed superiority, or at least to score an equalizer.
Law of Total Tricks Note: E-W have 10 (Diamond) trumps, and can score 12 tricks. N-S have 9 (Club) trumps and can score 10 tricks. That’s 19 total trumps and 22 total tricks, a whopping 3 trick discrepancy in the Law of Total Tricks. How so? The reason is that this is a double-fitting hand, both sides having a fit in two suits, and in such circumstances it’s common for extra tricks to materialize. Consequently, it’s a good idea to bid more than you otherwise would when the bidding indicates that you and Partner have a fit in two suits.
SAYC Note: In SAYC, opposite Partner’s overcall, East’s only forcing bid is a cue-bid, but we’d prefer to bid 2♦, running the (small) risk of getting passed out there, but at least getting our long suit into the auction. If you don’t care for this approach, there’s nothing much wrong with the 2♣ cue-bid.
The auction above featured the DONT convention, whereby 2♣ showed Clubs and another suit. North’s 2♦ was in the vain hope that the other suit was a major, but, of course, it wasn’t and 2♦ is where the matter rested.
Against 2♦ (from whichever side), the defense can cash a couple of Hearts, and even a Spade, but, early in the play, they’ll want to shift to a trump, to stop the ruff in the North hand. If the defense stops that ruff, Declarer will just score 5 Diamonds and 2 Clubs for down one. And, if Declarer manages to get the ruff? That will be the eighth trick, perhaps, except that it will also allow Declarer to take the losing Diamond finesse! So, the Club ruff turns out to be something of a mixed blessing, and it’s quite likely to be 7 tricks either way.
SAYC Note: SAYC offers no artificial methods over their 1NT opening, but we suspect that most SAYC partnerships would deduce that a 2NT overcall must be for the minors, even without prior discussion. But perhaps that is a red herring on this hand, even with a “2NT for the minors” bid available, we would prefer a simple 2♦, showing a one-suiter. Why play at the 3-level when we have such a good suit and can play at the 2-level?
South’s 2♥ was “Fourth Suit Forcing”, in other words an artificial bid, one which usually means one of two things: Either: Responder isn’t sure where the auction is headed; Or: Responder doesn’t want to give up on slam.
It turns out that North has a rather good hand, and a whiff of Diamond support was all she needed to plunge headlong into an excellent Diamond slam. This slam is only excellent for the good guessers, though, there is the small problem of picking up that trump suit for one loser. The percentage play is to lead towards the KQ with this holding … if the King wins, then lead towards the Queen. However, if the Ace takes the King on the first round, Declarer must then choose whether to play for the drop of the Jack (76.57% overall probability), or whether to finesse against the Jack (76.00%). Obviously, not much to choose between the lines of play, and most players would no doubt play the Queen, seeing it as another “Eight Ever, Nine Never” type of situation. Commiserations if you bid the good slam, and then misguessed the Diamonds, that was cruel luck indeed.
Another Singleton Theory Addendum: We encountered this theory just two boards ago, and here it is again. If North is mystically inclined, she will say to herself (in the play of 6♦): “We have shortness (in Hearts), chances are they also have shortness, where else would that be but in our big Diamond fit?” So, she’d take the finesse and score up +1370! That means that the running score is now: Mystics 2, Scientists 0!
SAYC Note: Fourth Suit Forcing is a part of SAYC, but it is defined as “forcing for one round”, which presumably means that 3♣ (over 2♥) is non-forcing. This is not good, as it seems to place North in an impossible situation … she doesn’t want to get passed out in 3♣, but she cannot bid No Trump without a Heart stop. We don’t like a jump to 4♣ because it takes us beyond 3NT. No good alternatives, perhaps 3♣ is a reasonable guess, hoping that Partner won’t pass.
Here is an auction which could have gone in different directions, let’s explore the possibilities: - South’s Pass: South’s hand is a Pass by all the commonly used methods, such as HCPs, Rule of Twenty, Quick Tricks. But to us it looks awfully close to an opening bid anyway! - West’s 1♠: Your typical ugly third seat opening bid with a crummy suit … well, at least the crummy suit is Spades. - South’s Dbl: Yes, it’s the so-called “pre-balance” … South knows that Partner will have trouble balancing if West passes, she obviously has too many Spades to make a take-out Double … so South “pre-balances”, she is the one with shortness in their suit, so the onus is on her to get her side into the auction.
North was no doubt licking her chops as she passed the Double, and must have been disappointed to get the contract down only one. Declarer is always entitled to the K♥, AK♦, AK♣, and has two natural trump tricks to take her up to 7.
A Negative Double by East in this situation is generally used to show both majors, which East certainly has. However, with a 4-5 hand, and game-going values, it’s preferable to bid the 5-card suit first … the hand is good enough to get the Spades into the auction later on.
The auction reached a critical point after West’s 3♣ bid, with East still in search of the best game … Hearts, Spades, Clubs, or No Trump? For more on this, please see the Bidding Quiz.
As it happens, E-W can make 3 of those possible games, the only one that fails is 3NT, which will go down two on good defense … North leads a high Diamond, shifts to a Heart, and gets a Diamond through.
4♥ and 4♠ both make due to the friendly major suit breaks, but neither are particularly good contracts. The best contract is 5♣ which requires no more than a successful Heart guess. Well done to those pairs who bid and made 5♣, but, as sometimes happens in this game, virtue will have to be its own reward, because the optimum contract is likely to score quite badly … those who bid one of the lucky major suit contracts will score 420 against 400.
Notwithstanding his 3-card Spade suit, East has a normal enough take-out Double. When the bidding gets back to him, East has nothing extra to show, but he can hardly let N-S buy it so cheaply, so he makes another take-out Double. West made a speculative Pass, partly in hopeful expectation, but also because there was no satisfactory alternative bid.
In the play of 2♥, East will probably lead the Q♦ which will be won on the board (maybe after a first-round duck) … next a Spade to the King and Ace, then the defense will clear the Diamonds and no doubt shift to Clubs … North continues with Spades and will eventually hold her losers to seven tricks (2 Diamonds, 2 trumps, and only 3 Spades) … but that’s -300 and a bad board for N-S.
E-W have the necessary values for a 3NT adventure, but the bad Club break is likely to do in Declarer. In fact, on the lead of a Diamond, Declarer will be down two with normal play. He’ll win the first trick in her hand (not wanting a Heart shift), cross to the Q♠, finesse the J♣ successfully, and cash the A♣, getting the bad news. Now, Declarer must abandon Clubs (or else be down 3), and his best bet is to cash his winners, hoping for a Spade break and down one … when that does not work, either, it’s down two. E-W will surely have lots of company on this one.
East will usually declare this one in 3NT, and South’s opening lead will be a Heart. But which one? There’s something to be said for each of these three choices: Lead the Queen? It’s now pretty much standard that, against a No Trump contract, the opening lead of the Queen requires Partner to drop the Jack. However, our spots aren’t really good enough for that lead, we’d hate to have Partner to drop the Jack from Jx, thereby handing Declarer a second stop with his A9xx. Lead 4th Best? This may well be the lead most likely to beat the contract, catering for the aforementioned Jx holding in Partner’s hand (though losing when Dummy is the one with Jx), but it is also the lead most likely to blow an overtrick. This is a major consideration playing matchpoints, of course, far less so when playing IMPs. So, we’ll save that fourth best lead for a team game. Lead the King? Yes, that’s the obvious choice, and probably the best over the long run. The King lead asks for attitude from Partner, or, more specifically, attitude for the Ace or Jack … as North has neither of these cards, she’ll play the discouraging 7. Declarer will duck, hoping for a Heart continuation (and what would turn out to be 11 tricks), but South wasn’t born yesterday, and exits safely with a black card (holding Declarer to 10 tricks).
We hope that the favorable vulnerability at least tempted the South players to throw in a 3♣ bid. If they yielded to that temptation, then West would probably make a take-out Double … now, East must avoid the mistake of trying to collect a penalty, they’ll only get +500, which is inadequate compensation for their vulnerable game.
However, the featured auction is a bit more “mainstream” than that wild and woolly preempt. East did not have a convenient bid over 1♠, so he improvised with 2♣, a bid which typically shows a 5-card suit. East’s 3♠ was an attempt to get to 3NT, the so-called Western Cue-Bid.
If North leads a Spade, Declarer will count 8 tricks, and must hope that the A♣ is with South … when it is, 10 tricks materialize.
This time it is West who bids 3♠, trying to find a 3NT contract. This placed East in something of a dilemma, and the sequence shown, with East bidding his 5-card Club suit, but never mentioning his 6-card Heart suit, may seem a trifle odd … please see the Bidding Quiz for more on this one.
Anyway, the best that E-W can do in the circumstances is to play in Diamonds. But 4♦ is one too many, so long as N-S stop a Spade ruff on the board (pretty obvious defense).
How would N-S do in 3♠? East will lead the 4♦, won by the Queen … now the A♥, Diamond ruff, Heart ruff, and it’s down one. Declarer can at least give West pause for thought by playing the J♦ at Trick One … now it’s possible that East has led the 4♦ from the 42 doubleton, but West should pursue the same line of defense regardless.
This is one of those hands which defies thorough analysis. East will probably declare 1NT, and will likely make 7 tricks, maybe even 8. But we hesitate to suggest any particular opening lead, or line of defense, or line of Declarer play, there are altogether too many twists and turns. On to the next board where normal analysis will resume shortly!
A fascinating auction, quite the most interesting of the week in our view. East had a simple overcall and then had nothing more to say. But the other three had great fun with their doubling and redoubling … and how could you not like an auction where there are no fewer than four balancing actions?
As we said, East was pretty much out of this one, but please see the Bidding Quiz for a play-by-play commentary of the entire sequence of bids by the other three players.
The final contract turns out to be spot on! E-W can make 2♠, so 3♥ had to be bid … and even though N-S were tough enough to double 3♥, it’s down only one and still a well-judged save against 2♠.
We urge you to go to the Bidding Quiz and follow the logic of the auction from all three different seats (other than East). If you like to win matchpoints, this board is more useful than a dozen slam auctions.
What are North’s options here? - 4♠? 4♠ will probably make, but bidding it directly like that is usually played as a preemptive bid, showing 5 Spades and not much else. - 2NT? The hand does not seem good enough for that, Partner might get carried away and take us overboard. - 4♦? A Splinter bid, showing Spade support and Diamond shortness, but perhaps the hand is not quite strong enough, and, anyway, it’s generally not a good idea to splinter with a singleton Ace or King, it’s altogether too misleading to Partner. - 3♠? A limit raise … this (or 2NT) would be our choice, but it’s not ideal, we might miss game opposite quite a few minimum hands.
If North does bid just 3♠, should South accept? Yes! It’s only 10 HCPs, but the 5-5 shape is enough to go to game.
Bergen Raise Note: Actually, if N-S are playing Bergen Raises they’ll have another option, and one that we rather like. After the opening bid, North will bid 3♣ or 3♦ (whichever one the partnership plays as the limit raise), and then, if Partner signs off in 3♠, she’ll go to game anyway. To us, this seems exactly right, we want to be in game, just in case it happens to make, but we don’t want to preempt and we don’t want to show game-forcing values.
South’s 1NT bid showed 15-18, so she is clearly maximum for the bid. In fact, some might say that, with those two Tens and the 5-card suit, she is too good for the bid, and should be doubling and then rebidding 2NT (over 2♣), showing 19-20. Maybe, but we prefer 1NT, that 5-card suit is somewhat ratty, and the slight underbid gives her a chance to play at the one-level. Anyway, we may argue about whether South should overcall 1NT or should double and then bid No Trump, but let’s at least agree that this is not a 2♥ overcall, with such a rotten suit, and with 15 of our 18 HCP’s in the enemy suits.
As it happens, even 1NT is too high! West will probably lead a Spade, giving Declarer a 5th trick, with little hope for a 6th.
After 2♦, South had no satisfactory bid, and 2♥ seemed like the least of evils, even though Partner is entitled to expect 6 Hearts (or 5 decent ones) for this bid. North’s 2NT invited game, of course, and shows a Strong No Trump kind of hand. South will no doubt be wondering why North invited with 2NT and not with 3♥. The answer is easy enough, of course, North probably has Heart shortness, in which case 3♣ is a reasonable shot. This is not an every-day auction by any means, hopefully North reads it as showing a weak hand with Clubs.
2NT makes 8 tricks on all sensible lines of play. Can South do better in 3♣? Ten tricks will be the target, and the auction will scream for a trump lead, attempting to prevent the Heart ruffs on the board. After the trump lead, South can make 9 tricks easily enough (5 Clubs, 3 Diamonds and a Heart ruff), and that is no doubt what she should settle for. She’ll try for a 10th in Spades, of course, and will wind up disappointed. The only way to manage 10 tricks is to ruff out the A♠, which is something of a long shot, and which also risks the contract (for entry reasons the Heart ruff has to be sacrificed, meaning that Declarer will score 8 or 10 tricks with this line of play).
West’s 2♠ was Michaels, showing Hearts and a minor. 2NT asked for West’s minor, and West was worth one more call over 3♦.
In the play to 4♠, South can make 11 tricks if she plays East for JTxx of Spades. Should she? It’s not clear that she should … true, West is at least 5-5 in Hearts and Clubs, but there’s no reason that he could not be 2-5-1-5. For more on this, please see Play Problem #66.
Perhaps West could have bid 5♣, which turns out to be a good save. But, it was far from obvious, from West’s point of view there might well have been 4 defensive tricks against 4♠.
East’s 1♠ bid was out of sheer necessity, West was worth another bid, and the precarious 2♠ Moysian (4-3) fit was the final contract. The play is tough to fathom, as so often in these low-level contracts there are so many different ways that the play may go. But let’s at least try one line of play and see what happens: South leads a Diamond, won by the Ace Club finesse, losing to the Ace Diamond continuation, won by the King Club to the King Club ruff Now, South is down to 3 trumps and 5 Hearts, and the bidding tells Declarer that South needs to hold the Q♠, and KQ♥ for her opening bid. Whether South gets out with a trump or a Heart she’s done for and Declarer will score 8 tricks: - If South gets out with a trump, the Jack wins, then K♠ and A♠, and a Heart towards the board … if South splits her honors, the Ace wins, and now she must duck the second Heart! … failure to do that results in 9 tricks! - If South gets out with the K♥, it comes to the same thing, again with South having to duck the second Heart to prevent 9 tricks.
Consider these two auctions: North South North South 1♠ 2♥ 1♠ 2♥ 4♥ 2♠ 4♠ If we assume that South’s 2♥ bid was a 2/1 game force, then what is your partnership’s agreement on those subsequent leaps to game? It’s conventional wisdom to subscribe to the “Principle of Fast Arrival”, which says that, when we are in a game-forcing auction, a jump to game is intended to be discouraging … if we liked our hand we would bid more slowly in order to facilitate a slam investigation. Our own subscription to this theory is paid up fully, but the question on this deal is how to handle No Trump jumps. As in these two auctions: North South North South 1♠ 2♥ 1♠ 2♥ 3NT 2♠ 3NT Most players would say that this is not the Principle of Fast Arrival in action, and that No Trump jumps show extras. For more on this, please see the Bidding Quiz.
Returning to the featured auction, South’s 3NT jump was intended to show extras, something in the 15-17 range (and definitely a super-max for the bid). 3NT turns out to be quite the perfect contract, and the only question is whether or not Declarer can wangle an eleventh trick. West will lead a Club, and now it will depend upon whether Declarer can divine the Diamond situation and take a third round finesse against the Nine … we are guessing that wangling will not occur at many tables and that the standard result on this board will be +630 to N-S.
What are your agreements after Opener reverses? If you don’t really have any, then you are not alone, not by a long shot. And, if you’d like to plug that gap, please check the Bidding Quiz for a review of the possibilities in this somewhat murky area.
In explanation of the above auction, we’ll just say that 3♣ was forcing, that 3♦ and 3♥ were fishing around for a 3NT contract, and that East’s 5♣ was based on the assumption that his side had two Spade losers (otherwise, perhaps East would have bid 3NT instead of 3♥). Well, there we go again with one of those “obvious” assumptions, see also the narrative of Board 31.
In the play to 5♣, South will lead the unbid Spade suit, and the hand will be over in the twinkling of an eye … two fast losers, then 11 easy tricks for Declarer. Without the lead of a Spade, it’s 12 tricks, of course.
Not a very successful auction by E-W, but far from unreasonable. Most Easts would open that hand, after which West is surely going to game. 4♥ is destined to go down two (a greedy South might even double). Anyone for 3NT? Yes, it’s a lucky make, thanks to the J♣ coming down and the successful Spade finesse, and a top board for those who somehow avoided the 8-card major fit.
Let’s pick up the narrative with the 4♣ bid: 4♣: Intended as a Splinter, but don’t make this bid if your Partner will not read it as such! What may seem like an obvious Splinter to North may be far from obvious to South. However, in this major-oriented game of ours, it makes little sense to agree Spades and then to start exploring the minor fit (unless at the 6-level as a choice of slams). But, what makes little sense to one, is eminently reasonable to another, of course. The word “obvious” is quite dangerous when it comes to undiscussed bidding agreements! 4NT: As soon as North bids 4♣, South is surely going to slam. How could she not? She has great controls and a perfect Club holding opposite shortness, no wastage whatsoever. She also has a 4th trump (which was far from guaranteed), and, having limited her hand with that 2♠ rebid, she is now entitled to like her hand enormously, for slam purposes it is hard to imagine how it could be much better! 5NT: An unusual response! Please see the Bidding Quiz for more (but, in the meantime, it was intended to show “2 Key Cards with a void”).
If you got to 6♠ on this one you must have scored close to a top. Even 7♠ makes, but that is somewhat perilous and quite unnecessary … why try for a risky world-wide top on the board, when you already have a Club-level top in 6♠?
As soon as East bids that Jacoby 2NT, West is likely to charge into slam. The slam is a good proposition, but it requires accurate Declarer play, please see Play Problem # 67.
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