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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.
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