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Hand Analyses 7th February, 2007
N-S almost stole the pot on this one after South’s light (but not that light) third seat opening. But full marks to East for jumping into the fray at the appropriate moment, and likewise to West for having the self-restraint to pass throughout when holding by far the best hand at the table (at least in terms of HCP’s). For more on the E-W auction, please see the Bidding Quiz.
Against 2♠ South will no doubt lead a Diamond and Dummy’s Ace takes the first trick. Then a Spade to the Ace and another to North’s King. At this point North has a clear Club shift which holds Declarer to 9 tricks … if North is negligent the Club loser goes away on the Diamonds and that will be a well-earned zero for N-S.
At any other vulnerability South would likely have opened 4♥, but Red vs White 3♥ seems like enough to us, and it also turns out to be plenty high enough to cause E-W considerable inconvenience. West’s Double is obvious enough, likewise East’s 4♣, but then what? What does that cue-bid of 4♥ mean? West is trying for slam opposite a hand which has yet to show any values at all (that 4♣ bid promised no points, just Clubs). Our featured East wimped out in 5♣, but perhaps she could have tried 6♣. Not an easy slam to bid in the face of the enemy preempt.
The Club slam is such a good contract that it does not even get derailed by the 5-0 trump break and the losing Diamond finesse. South leads the K♥ won in Dummy, then the A♣ reveals the trump news. Abandoning trumps, Declarer takes the losing Diamond finesse and ruffs the Heart return. This has promoted a natural trump trick for North, but that disappears thanks to a Trump Coup. All that is required is for Declarer to cross to the A♦, come back on a Spade and run the Diamonds … if North ruffs in her trump trick disappears, so she pitches Spades (as does Dummy). Then Spades are cashed, and Declarer’s last high Club. In the three card ending, the lead is with West, North has 954 of Clubs, and East has JT8 of Clubs. Declarer leads a Spade, and North must ruff in ahead of Dummy, losing her trump trick. What the Trump Coup has effectively done is to allow the Club finesse to be taken indirectly. Well done, indeed, if any pair bid that Club slam and then found the Trump Coup!
East might well have bid 2♦ over 1NT, it’s still Michaels in that position, but instead he elected to bid his longer Spade suit first.
Against 4♠, South leads the A♦, and then on the appearance of Declarer’s Queen, shifts to a Club for want of better. At this point, Declarer must establish the Heart side-suit for no losers, and, as is so often the case, best strategy is to tackle the side-suit before drawing trumps. So, Declarer puts his Club Dummy entry to good use by taking the winning Heart finesse … then A♥, ruff a Heart high, and draw trumps … if Hearts had been 4-2, Declarer would have just enough trumps to ruff Hearts high twice, and still cope with the 3-1 trump break.
South’s Double was strength-showing, and West transferred to Spades. 2♠ is an easy enough contract to make, Declarer losing a trick to each of the 5 Key Cards … the potential second Club loser can be parked on the third round of Diamonds.
It was as well that E-W were playing that transfers were on over a Double, because, with West declaring 2♠, North has an obvious T♣ lead which nips 2♠ a trick. Another reminder that it’s generally beneficial for the strong hand to play the contract.
Diabolical Lead Department Yes, 2♠ can be beaten even is South is on opening lead. She must lead a low Club (or the Jack), and then get a Club through Dummy (East) when North is in with the A♦! Not a defense that will be found in real life.
Our own experience is that jumping in over their 1NT with shapeless hands is a hazardous occupation, so we would not fault West’s Pass. Not that 2♠ would necessarily be wrong, it’s very much a matter of style. We are programmed to check our own vulnerability before we jump into the auction, but let’s not forget the opponent’s vulnerability. On this particular hand, a Pass by West has an extra way to win … as the opponents are red, if we can set them by two tricks we’ll beat any part-score we might make. Depending on West’s decision, he’ll end up declaring 2♠ or defending 1NT. In either case he’ll have an opportunity to excel in the play of the hand.
If West declares 2♠ he must guess the trump situation correctly. To see how he turns that guess into a practical certainty, please see Play Problem # 124.
If West defends 1NT he can make a quite beautiful (and difficult) play if he is absolutely at the top of his game. West leads the 8♠ (no, the beautiful play comes later) to East’s King, back comes a Spade to West’s Jack, then the A♠ felling Declarer’s Queen. Now is the time for the terrific play … West leads the Two of Spades, deliberately blocking the suit. East has no choice but to win this 4th round of Spades and make the deadly shift of the Club Ten, setting up at least 3 Clubs to go with the 5 Spades. Great defense for down two and +200! Any other defense and Declarer has 7 tricks.
Those Spade bids created a problem for North and at her second turn she had no sensible bid available. Sure, she could have cue-bid 4♠ but that would just be delaying matters. And what would 4NT be here? Ace-asking or Roman Key Card? Some partnerships play that it is always Key Card in the agreed suit, and if there is no agreed suit (as here) then 4NT is Key Card in the last bid suit (Clubs here). Anyway, 4NT wouldn’t help much either so North makes the practical bid of 6♣. Sometimes (often even) science must go out of the window. There’s nothing to the play in 6♣, it’s a claimer.
Just as on the previous board, E-W did a lot of bidding on slender values, and again they caused problems for N-S. South would have loved to show her second 5-card suit over 2♥ but was afraid that bidding 3♣ would overstate her hand. If she had been playing the Good-Bad 2NT she would nave had no such qualms! Please see the Bidding Quiz.
Against 5♦ West leads the J♥ won by Declarer’s Ace, and the question is this: “Should Declarer take the Spade finesse in order to pitch his Heart loser?” Assuming that the Clubs can be ruffed out, if she doesn’t finesse the Spade she’ll make 11 tricks … if she takes the winning Spade finesse it’s an overtrick … but if she takes a losing Spade finesse she’s down one in a cold contract! In practice, if South leads the Q♠ at Trick Two, then 99% of bridge players on this planet will cover with the King and the problem is solved. So, even though the evidence (from the bidding and the opening lead) strongly suggests that the K♠ is with West, if West heroically plays low on the Q♠ we would chicken out and go up with the Ace, playing to make our contract and giving up on the overtrick.
The classic Responsive Double situation is in an auction such as: West North East South Pass Pass 1♦ Dbl 3♦ Dbl This Double shows both majors (with just one North would bid it). It’s also common to play North’s Double in the featured auction as Responsive, and in this situation (with only two unbid suits) it’s more analogous to a Negative Double. So, using that analogy, South should confidently expect her Partner to have 4 Spades, and her 3♠ bid was a reasonable enough guess for the final contract.
Against 3♠, if West leads a Club the defense gets 4 fast tricks, but if the defense starts by cashing Diamonds the Diamond ruff in the short hand will be Declarer’s 10th trick.
E-W were playing Texas Transfers as well as Jacoby, and so were able to make a distinction between going to 4♥ directly (via Texas), or going there indirectly (via Jacoby). For more on this, please see the Bidding Quiz, for the time being let’s just say that West’s decision to use Jacoby and then jump to 4♥ was, by partnership agreement, a slam try. East was happy to cooperate, and, after some cue-bidding had established that there were no suits with two quick losers, the good slam was reached.
What would you lead as South? The cue-bidding was quite informative, with West showing a control in Clubs and East showing a Heart card and implying a Diamond card. With that in mind the most promising lead for South appears to be a Club through Dummy’s strength. This turns out to be the only lead which is likely to hold Declarer to 12 tricks as Declarer will play low from the board, not wishing to stake everything on the Diamond finesse.
Considering how informative was that cue-bidding, East might have been better advised to eschew science and bash straight into slam. Now, South has no idea what to lead and if she chooses a Spade or a Diamond it will be 13 easy tricks … well, fairly easy, there are some finesses to be taken along the way.
A routine auction to 3NT, after which West leads a fourth-best Diamond. Let’s say that South ducks the first Diamond, if only for practice, wins the second Diamond, crosses to Dummy with a Spade, runs the Q♣, then the T♣, and takes her 4 Club tricks, ending by necessity in her own hand. Ten tricks are in the bag and the question now becomes “Should Declarer take her 10 tricks and give up? Or should she try the Heart finesse, risking only 9 while trying for 11 (or even 12)?” No clues in the bidding, but what about West’s 3 discards on the run of the Clubs? He won’t dare part with a Spade in case his partner has the Jack, and will probably pitch a discouraging low-high in Hearts and the Diamond King … yes, West should unblock, of course. If Declarer trusts West’s carding she’ll go for broke and take the Heart finesse. Making 12 tricks when the K♥ comes down.
With or without North’s vigorous preempt, E-W seem destined to arrive in a contract of 3NT. With West as Declarer, the Q♦ lead will knock out the K♦ … that will be Declarer’s 8th trick but there will be no way to arrive at a 9th without letting the defense in to run the Diamonds. If North errs by starting with the A♦ she’ll cut herself off from Partner and the long Diamonds will never be enjoyed by the defense. Finally, if Declarer decides to lead a major, hoping for a Diamond lead through Declarer, she had better choose a Spade and not a Heart.
West might well have opened a 4-card major with such good Hearts and such poor Diamonds. As for N-S, they did well to stay out of the rather poor 4♠ game. Or perhaps not as it happens, the game has some practical chances. Let’s follow this line of play: East leads a Diamond, won by Declarer’s Jack K♦ is cashed Three rounds of Spades, ending on the board A♦ is cashed, pitching a Club Club lead won by West’s Ace Now, with nothing but red cards, West is end-played and must give up Declarer’s 10th trick one way or another.
How about a low Heart opening lead from East does that beat 4♠? Not if Declarer somehow guesses the Diamond suit, then she can orchestrate the same end-play as before. Yes, the unlikely Ten of Hearts opening lead will spell instant doom to Declarer. But the most interesting line of play comes if East starts with a Club. Here’s what happens: East leads a Club to West’s Ace Diamond shift (hoping for a Club ruff), to the Jack, Queen, Ace Cash the K♦ Three rounds of Spades, ending on the board Cash A♦, pitching a Club Cross to the K♣ Now, a Heart towards the board, Dummy playing the Seven, won by West’s Jack Yes, West is end-played yet again, and it’s his entirely his partner’s fault this time! Needless to say, East must hop up with the T♥ to take West off the end-play. A routine play looking at the diagram of all four hands, but one that might be missed at the table if East is on auto-pilot by this point in the proceedings.
Yet another super-accept auction, there has been a veritable plague of them in recent weeks. Actually, as super-accepts go, North’s is not too impressive with that minimum point-count and doubleton QJ♠, so if the N-S agreement is that the super-accept is not mandatory with rotten hands, then this one might be a candidate for a simple accept.
Anyway, 4♥ by North will be the universal contract, and it can be seen that the opening lead of the K♦ will beat the game thanks to a Diamond ruff. Looking just at the East hand, the choices seem to be the K♦ or a Club, which would you lead? We consulted Dr Goodlead on this one, and for once he did not dither, not even for a moment. “Playing IMP’s I lead the K♦, looks like the best chance of beating the contract. But at matchpoints the K♦ lead is too likely to blow a trick, I’ll go for the Club lead”. Yes, we can always rely on the Doctor for good analysis, though not always a good lead.
E-W did well not to push on to 3♠, that might have been the victim of a speculative Double and -300. As for North, she no doubt would have preferred a weaker hand and better Clubs for her 3♣ bid but that was not what she was dealt.
In 3♣, with the friendly trump break, Declarer has 8 top tricks, and will seek the 9th from a Spade ruff on the board, but the defense will deprive him of that … the A♠ will be led, hastily followed by a trump shift. That leaves the Diamond suit as Declarer’s last hope … after the trumps have been drawn, she can either cross to the board for the first and last time to take the Diamond finesse, or else she can duck a Diamond and hope that the suit breaks 3-3. All things being equal, the finesse is 50% and the break is 36%, and there does not seem to be enough evidence to buck those odds … when you subtract the A♠ and the presumed K♠ from the East hand, both East and West are likely to have about the same remaining number of HCP’s. Does that mean we’ll take the losing Diamond finesse? Maybe not. How about trying a delicious swindle? Declarer leads the J♦ from her hand, and East might say to himself “Declarer obviously thinks that I was born yesterday, she must have the Ten, only an idiot would cover here, I’ll play low smoothly, she’ll go up with the King and take the losing finesse the other way”. How sweet it will be when the J♦ holds the trick, and now Declarer gets 4 Diamond tricks and 10 altogether! And if East doesn’t fall for the double bluff and covers the J♦? Then Declarer must play low from the board, hoping for the 3-3 break.
A balancing Double by East would be a bit too much! If West has some values and some Spades, as seems likely, we may do fine by passing and collecting some vulnerable undertricks … but if we double there’s the danger that Partner will expect us to have something more closely resembling our bid, in which case we could get overboard.
Defending against 2♠, West leads the Q♥, let’s say that Declarer ducks, wins the continuation, crosses to the A♣, pitches a Heart on the K♣ and leads a trump towards the King. Declarer is now fated to lose 3 Spades, and 5 tricks altogether for +110. It may appear that Declarer can hold her trump losers to just two by leading towards the T♠, but that’s not the case, Declarer cannot quite hold things together and is forced to concede a trump promotion in the end-game for the same number of tricks.
We’d expect most N-S pairs to compete to 3♥, but will they make it? Please see Play Problem # 125.
West dutifully bids her so-called major suit, North has a perfect passed-hand Double for the unbid suits, and East’s 3♣ shows the same extras it would have shown without that Double. When the bidding gets back to West she knows that her side has a 10-card fit so she disregards the mediocrity of her hand and bids on to the 4-level.
As it happens, bidding 4♣ is both wrong and right. Wrong in theory, it goes down two which would be a disaster if doubled. But right in practice because N-S have no reason to double and -100 is a fine score compared with -130 for defending a Diamond part-score.
Should South have bid 4♦ over 4♣? She must have been tempted, but may have feared that 4♣ and 4♦ were both going down. In fact, put the Q♠ in the East hand and they would both be down one.
E-W were in a 2/1 auction, and eventually reached the only making game in the 5-2 fit. They had a nice auction for more on which please see the Bidding Quiz.
At first glance it looks like a simple enough hand. The auction tells South to lead the A♥, then a Heart to North’s King, and a third Heart hoping for a trump promotion (figuring that South might hold the J♠, for example). Declarer ruffs high, draws trumps and makes 11 easy tricks.
It won’t be obvious at the table, but the defense does better to shift to a Diamond after cashing the two Hearts. So much for drawing trumps and running the Diamonds! Now the contract is in jeopardy and Declarer’s best bet is to cash 3 rounds of Diamonds, hoping that the suit breaks 3-3. When it does, Declarer is a lock for 10 tricks, and will, of course, try for 11 via a Club ruff on the board. So, he’ll cash the AK♣, or at least he will attempt to do so. North ruffs the second round and shoots back a Heart which Declarer must ruff high. Next, a Club ruffed high on the board, then a friendly Spade break and it’s 10 tricks the adventurous way!
We had a couple of these situations last week, hands where playing 1♦ 2♣ as game-forcing created a problem for Responder. Today’s East solved the problem by overbidding slightly and forcing to game on insufficient values. Please see the Bidding Quiz for more on this.
Against 3NT, North will lead a Spade which Declarer might as well win on the board with the Ace in the vain hope that concealing the K♠ will increase the likelihood of a Spade continuation when they get in with the A♣. But this ploy is unlikely to succeed, and the defense will score their A♣ and 4 Hearts for down one.
Although East had a pretty decent hand, game opposite a Weak Two seemed somewhat unlikely and his 3♠ bid was purely preemptive, simply going to the 3-level with 9 trumps and letting the opponents figure things out. Actually, East might well have passed instead, hoping to buy the contract at the two-level … after all, his side does have half the points, the opponents are vulnerable, and they will have to come in at the 3-level if they are to compete.
What’s the percentage play in the Spade suit? Obviously, we are going to finesse against the King, but do we lead the Queen towards Declarer’s hand? Or do we lead a low card? Here are the pros and cons: - Leading the Queen allows Declarer to pick up K96 or KT6 in the South hand, but loses when South has the K or K6 (in the latter case, the second finesse will be won by North’s 9 or T) - So far, it’s pretty much neck-and-neck between the two methods, but the clincher in favor of leading the Queen is that it will hold the trump losers to one when South has all 4 missing trumps. Anyway, on this particular hand the percentage play of leading the Queen also turns out to be the winning play, and Declarer makes 10 tricks if he also guesses the Diamonds correctly.
East’s 3♣ preempt and West’s disciplined pass combine to make life most unpleasant for the opponents. North can hardly be faulted for reopening with a Double and South had nowhere to go. Her best bet seemed to be to pass in the hope that a forcing defense in Hearts might bring her puny trumps into play.
South will lead a Heart to North’s King, and one possible continuation is to play the A♥, setting up a winner on the board, but also weakening Declarer’s trump holding. We’ll leave the rest of this line of defense for the reader to work through, but with careful play it will be 10 tricks for Declarer (the defense scores a Heart, a Diamond and a Club). Instead, let us follow this more interesting line of play: Heart to North’s King Club to Dummy’s Ace K♦, losing to North’s Ace J♦ to Dummy’s Queen Heart ruff Cash the remaining 4 Clubs With one trump left to play, this is the 5-card end position. North ♠ Q53 ♥ AT ♦ ♣ West East ♠ AK9 ♠ J862 ♥ Q8 ♥ ♦ ♦ ♣ ♣ 6 South Immaterial
On the last Club, West pitches the low Heart and North is caught in a Throw-In Squeeze! If she pitches a Heart, Declarer crosses to the board and throws North in with a Spade, forcing her to lead away from her Q♠. And if she pitches a Spade it’s even worse, now Declarer scores all of the remaining tricks!
West’s hand is worth forcing to 4♠ with, and he chose to go there via the Jacoby 2NT. East’s 3♥ showed shortness and the bidding soon subsided in 4♠. Both players were happy to make cue-bids along the way, but neither had the extra values needed to go beyond 4♠.
In 4♠, with trumps 2-2, 10 tricks are easy enough, but can Declarer make 11? Let’s say that South leads a Diamond, won by North’s Ten, and that is followed by a trump shift. Now, Declarer draws another round of trumps, and has enough entries to ruff out the Heart for his 11th trick. Can the defense do better? Yes, When North wins the opening Diamond lead, she must exit with a Club. This not-so-obvious play knocks out an entry to the board before it can be gainfully employed in the establishment of the Hearts and now the long Heart can never be enjoyed by Declarer.
Against 2NT West leads a Spade, Dummy goes down, and Declarer politely says “Thank you, Partner, exactly what I was hoping for”. The most likely outcome of this mess is down three … Declarer has 3 Spade tricks, can establish a Diamond trick, and will eventually score a Heart when the defense is forced to lead that suit. That will be just 5 tricks and -300.
The points are almost evenly divided, and neither side has a fit. As it happens, the only makeable contracts are in the N-S direction, but the way that the auction develops it’s not easy to see how either North or South could have competed. 2♠ by West has no chance, and is, in fact, down two when the Heart finesse loses. This is just a miserable hand altogether.
This auction takes us into some murky waters. Our featured N-S pair were playing that Stayman followed by 3 of a minor was natural and forcing, with 5+ Diamonds, often with slam interest. After 3♦, North has a decent hand and will want to cooperate in a Diamond slam, but this is where it gets murky, because N-S have yet to explore fully a major suit fit: - If North has 4 Spades, she can leap to 4♠ (so 3♠ is available as a cue-bid in Diamonds) - If North has 5 Hearts, would it be useful for 3♥ to say that rather than to show Diamond slam interest? Well, we did say that it was murky. This North clearly meant 3♥ as a cue-bid for Diamonds and not a 5th Heart, and that got them to 6♦ in a hurry.
Suppose that North leads a trump against 6♦. It’s a pretty straightforward hand. South can count 10 top tricks, and a successful Heart finesse will take her to 12. If the Heart finesse loses she’ll need to take the Club finesse for the 12th trick. Normal play in Hearts would be to cash the K♥ and finesse twice against West … when that turns out to be the wrong way, the Club finesse saves the day for Declarer.
Next, suppose that West leads a Club. At first glance it might seem obvious to rise with the Ace but that would be a mistake. Just as before, the Club finesse provides Declarer with an extra way to get to 12 tricks, the only difference is that Declarer is forced to take the Club finesse first.
Not a particularly elegant auction by E-W! It’s hard to fault the auction up to 3NT, but what was poor West supposed to do then? 6♥ seems like a reasonable enough guess, and West was lucky that East had such a strong hand, but unlucky that he also was void in Hearts.
The success of 6♥ obviously depends on not losing 2 trump tricks, and it turns out that this is around 55%. The contract will succeed whenever trumps are 3-3, or when one opponent has the doubleton Queen or doubleton T9.
North would have loved to bid “Two Forcing Clubs” over that Double, thereby getting her best suit into the auction and simultaneously showing a good hand. However, standard practice is for that bid to be “Two Non-Forcing Clubs”, something in the 6-9 range or thereabouts, a hand not good enough for a Redouble. So, North redoubles to show some values. When 1♥ comes back to her, she bids 2♣, a bid which (after the Rdbl) is forcing for one round, and then when 2♦ gets back to her she is worth one more effort, this time a 2NT bid. And that is where she will play the hand.
There won’t be much excitement in the play of this one. East leads a Heart, Declarer holds up, winning the third round, finesses the T♠ (no rush to run those Clubs), and when that draws the King it’s 8 tricks for Declarer.
E-W were playing Lebensohl over enemy interference, and West’s 3NT denied a 4-card Heart suit and also denied a stopper in Spades. If East had also been without a stopper then he would have bailed out into a minor suit contract.
South’s Spade sequence is just about robust enough for the lead of the King, but, even it were not, leading a low Spade would be altogether too risky at matchpoints, the potential for giving away an extra overtrick is altogether too great. The K♠ is ducked, and South continues with the Queen. South, who has no HCP’s and who is already looking forward to the next hand, must stay awake for a few moments longer. Yes, she must unblock the Spade Ten, allowing the Spades to run when Partner gets in with the A♦, setting 3NT two tricks.
North was quite borderline for her invitational sequence, but she did have a most promising Heart holding, so who are we to say that she was wrong to invite to game. What we can say is that the resulting contract is ugly indeed, due in no small part to the fact that the promising Heart sequence was useless on the actual hand. Sometimes hands just fit badly together and it doesn’t do to over-analyze the resulting minus score.
West will lead a Spade and we’d suppose that Declarer’s best hope is to play low from the board winning the Ace, then play A♦, K♦ and out a Diamond. When the suit is 4-2 Declarer is headed for down two and -200.
North’s 2♣ was DONT, showing Clubs and another suit. In this situation, most partnerships play that a Double is Stayman and that the rest of the (uncontested) NT system is still on. That’s a reasonable treatment, but it does mean that East cannot throw in a natural and competitive 2♦ bid in this sequence. Consequently, we’d expect most tables to end up in a Spade contract played by North.
Against 2♠ East leads the K♦, so, if Declarer reasonably assumes that this is backed up by the Queen, she can be sure that West (for his 15-17 1NT) has the remainder of the HCP’s with the possible exception of a minor suit Jack. Therefore there is no possibility of misguessing the Q♠ on this board! But there is a trap for the unwary, as illustrated in this rather careless line of play: Defense cashes two Diamonds Declarer ruffs the third round of Diamonds Spade to the Ace Spade to the Queen and King Cross to the A♥ Club finesse Cash A♣ Club ruff Oops! Declarer is stuck on the board and needs to get back to her hand in order to draw that last trump. She has to concede a Heart to West, who now cashes a Club, and gives Partner a trump promotion by leading the third round of Hearts. Making just 8 tricks when 9 were there for the taking. Declarer messed up her communications … the correct line is to take care of the Club ruff first, and use the trump suit for getting back to her hand. Let’s try again: Defense cashes two Diamonds Declarer ruffs the third round of Diamonds Cross to the A♠ Club finesse Cash A♣ Club ruff Spade back to Declarer’s hand Yes, that’s the ticket, 9 easy tricks.
Most players with the East hand would respond 2♥, but we confess to being in the minority and prefer 2♣ (please see the Bidding Quiz). Does West’s 2♠ guarantee a sixth Spade? Not as played by most 2/1 partnerships, sometimes it is made as a “neutral” bid with 5 Spades but no other convenient bid available. Next, what does that 4♦ bid mean? East is surely not introducing a new suit at the 4-level in the hope of playing the final contract in that suit. No, it’s a cue-bid in support of Spades and when West fails to cue-bid any thoughts of a grand slam are banished.
Nice 6NT bid by East! Not only does this get his side into the better scoring contract but it also right-sides the contract into the bargain, protecting his hand from the potentially fatal Heart lead through the King.
E-W have 12 easy tricks in No Trump with no prospect of a 13th. Those pairs that played in the inferior 6♠ get lucky when it turns out that the defense does not have two Hearts to cash on the go, and they might get really lucky if North starts out the defense with the J♦ lead (or a Club) … now Declarer can arrange a Diamond ruff for his 13th trick, undeservedly outscoring those worthy folks who played in 6NT.
Back on Board 27 we had a 1♦-Dbl-Rdbl auction which worked rather smoothly for the redoubling side. Is this a chance to relive former glory? We don’t think so. Some might redouble here, but this would lead to an awkward auction: West North East South 1♦ Dbl Rdbl 2♥ Pass Pass ?? Not very comfortable is it? We have yet to show any suits, we have invitational game values but have no invitational bids available, other that 2NT or 3♦, neither of which suits our hand. Yuck!
How about trying a 1♠ bid over that Double. Yes, indeed, it gets our 5-card major into the auction, and additionally 1♠ is forcing for one round. What could be finer? Well, this one won’t work so well, either, West will bid 2♦ and E-W are on the road to perdition, or, even worse, a -200 score on a part-score hand.
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