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Hand Analyses 1st November, 2006
The N-S auction runs out of steam in 2NT and East has to find an opening lead. It would be somewhat bizarre to lead anything but a Spade here, the question is “Which one?” The sequence is not quite strong enough to start leading from the top, so the 6♠ seems like the obvious lead, albeit a risky one. However, all’s well when West produces the J♠. Now, whether North ducks or wins the first trick, she can come to no more than 7 tricks.
However, if East tries the “safer” opening lead of the K♠, the Spades can no longer be cleared for one loser, and 8 tricks are made. So much for safety!
Let’s look at South’s options over 1NT. It’s somewhat dangerous to come in vulnerable over a strong No Trump, which is why the inventors of conventions such as DONT and Cappelletti came up with methods that allow two-suiters to be shown, thereby providing some extra safety. Playing DONT we have a choice here: - Either, Double to show a Club one-suiter; - Or, bid 2♣ showing Clubs and another suit. We’d go the latter route, showing a two-suiter, even though there is a two-card disparity in the length of the suits.
This is not a good hand for Cappelletti, though. We can show a Heart-Club two-suiter alright, by bidding 2♥, but that forces us to the 3-level if we are to play in Clubs. Or, we can show a Club one-suiter by bidding 2♣, which is any one-suiter. But Partner is obliged to relay to 2♦ and again Clubs have to be played at the 3-level. So, playing Cappelletti we’d be far less inclined to enter the fray here.
Let’s assume that the 2♣ bid in the featured auction is DONT. What are West’s options? Please see the Bidding Quiz for more on this, for the time being we’ll just say that West’s double of 2♣ was Stayman.
Against 2NT South will lead a Club, won by Dummy’s Jack. Declarer will not know what is South’s second suit, he’ll suspect Spades. So, he’ll play on Hearts, running the 9 to South’s Jack. Now, South does best to exit a Diamond, which is the only way to avoid handing Declarer his 8th trick. Declarer wins the Q♦ in his hand, and now his best guess is to exit a low Heart, hoping that someone started with Ax. However, when South wins the Queen, and North shows out, the truth begins to dawn. South exits another Diamond and Declarer is obliged to take cash Dummy’s Diamond winners. Declarer pitches 3 Hearts, South pitches 3 Clubs, and now a Spade is led from the board. There turns out to be no wrong guess in the suit, and 8 tricks stagger home.
West’s Double showed some extra values, and so did North’s Redouble. We’d say that West is full value for those extras, but North was definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel with that Redouble. However, it did embolden a non-vulnerable South to compete to the 3-level with no more than two (useful-looking) Queens.
Playing in 3♥, South makes no fewer than 10 tricks. The defense attacks with Spades, Declarer gets a Spade ruff and a Diamond ruff in her hand, picks up the friendly trump suit, and establishes two Club tricks. But, by the time that the Clubs are played, Dummy will have the last trump and the lead will be in Dummy. We would not take an immediate Club finesse, if it loses we are down in a cold contract … better to play the King from Dummy, making sure of 9 tricks. On the second round of the suit the Jack obligingly pops up and that is 10 tricks.
South (correctly in our view) preferred Double to bidding 3♠, but, with such a poor Heart holding, must have been a bit nervous when her Partner bid 4♥. However, 4♥ makes with just 3 losers, all in the trump suit.
East might have been a bit more macho with a 4♦ preempt, but that would also be followed by a Double and a 4♥ bid, and the same result.
A sad auction for N-S! They can make 4♥ but wind up defending 3♠. Perhaps South could have made a game try over 2♠ with her extras … by bidding 3♥ she was merely competing, if she had wanted to suggest game she might have tried 3♣ or 3♦. But we don’t really fault her actual choice, it was just unfortunate that Partner had such a perfect hand.
Just as South had two ways of bidding to the 3-level (competing with 3♥, or trying for game with 3♣ or 3♦), so did West. Or at least, so did West if his side is playing Maximal Support Doubles. We’ve added an article on this to the System Library, and here we’ll just say that, with this useful little gadget, West’s 3♠ was purely competitive, and that with a hand that wants to try for game he would double 3♥.
Against 3♠, South leads the A♥, and now 3 rounds of Diamonds will promote a trump trick for the defense and beat the contract by one. But that may not be obvious, she may just continue passively with Hearts, forcing Dummy to ruff. Now, Declarer cannot afford to draw trumps right away, first he must establish the Clubs while Dummy still has a trump to look after the Heart attack. So, A♣ and a Club to South’s King. By now, it should be obvious to play on Diamonds and try for a trump promotion, and the same down one results.
Against a Heart contract, Declarer’s 10th trick will usually come from a Spade ruff on the board. If West strangely starts with a singleton trump lead, he will pay for his eccentricity when Declarer sets up the Diamonds, draws trumps ending on the board, and eventually makes 12 tricks.
East’s Double showed a good passed hand and the unbid suits, but that was not enough to stir West’s vulnerable and square 7-count into action. And just as well, 2♥ will not escape unscathed (down two, probably doubled). But if E-W defend 1NT they’ll hold it to 7 tricks and suffer a far less painful score of -90.
Walsh Note: Walsh-style players will not respond 1♦, of course, they’ll bypass that suit and get their major into the auction. Even so, we predict the same end-result.
North does not have a perfect text-book preempt, but in third seat with those nice trump fillers we don’t see much wrong with it. Well, there is one thing definitely wrong with it, it goes for -800! West converts the double and North can manage no more than 5 trump tricks and the A♦. Very unlucky, South’s KQ♣ were quite useless and would have saved the day if they had been in a red suit. Oh well, preempting doesn’t always work!
Presumably E-W were playing that 3♠ opposite a 1♣ opening was a Splinter, otherwise a preemptive 3♠ would have been an obvious response by East. And, if it so happened that E-W were playing Strong Jump Shifts as well, then East should respond 1♠ … 7-card Spade suits must be bid! Well, except on the previous board, of course.
4♠ is an easy make with zero opportunity for overtricks.
South’s 2♠ bid showed Diamond support, and would usually deny a 4-card Heart suit as well. West’s 3♠ might seem on the light side, especially being vulnerable, but he does have shortness in the opponents’ suit, we think the bid is just fine. It wouldn’t be quite so fine if the opponents had stopped off to double 3♠, but quite reasonably South charged into 5♦.
However, against 5♦, a Spade lead puts the contract in peril. The danger, of course, is that Declarer will lose a Spade and two Clubs. It would be most unlikely to be able to play that Club combination for just one loser (less than 10%, in fact), so the best shot for 11 tricks is to finesse the Heart, hoping for a Spade pitch on the A♥. This works, assuring 11 tricks. And then the miraculous Club situation allows her to make a whopping 12 tricks!
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