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Hand Analyses 21st February, 2007
An uninspiring start to this week’s set, 2♥ is destined to go down one thanks to the bad trump break.
Post Script Yes, we admit that we would have opened the East hand 1♥, those Hearts look close enough to 5-card suit to us.
West’s 2NT was the Jacoby 2NT, showing a game-forcing raise in Hearts. 3♣ showed shortness, and that was a major turn-off to West … he had a little bit extra, but almost half of his HCP’s were opposite shortness, a serious damper on his hopes for slam.
Against 4♥, on opening lead, South will probably lead a Spade, hoping for a ruff. Not unreasonable, Partner might have the A♠ … or else, we might later get in with the K♥ and find our way over to Partner’s hand for the ruff. Two ways to win! As it happens, neither way comes to fruition, and 4♥ makes with an overtrick. A flat board if ever we saw one.
Those who like their Weak Twos to have two of the top three honors in the trump suit will no doubt be aghast at South’s bidding, but in her defense we’ll point out that she is White vs Red and that she did pay her entry fee. When the bidding gets around to East he has no good options. Even if his methods allow a natural 2NT here (some partnerships play this as artificial and forcing) he does not have the values for such a bid, and he has nothing but three-baggers in the unbid suits. In the circumstances, East might as well pass, hoping for one of these three good things to happen: - Either, E-W can make game and somehow manage to beat 2♠ by a whopping 4 tricks (unlikely). - Or, E-W can make only a part-score and will get more than adequate compensation by beating 2♠ by two tricks. - Or, nobody can make anything, and just going plus is a decent board.
As it happens, E-W can make 3NT, so, if South is to be taught a sharp lesson and if a blow is to be struck for sound preempts, then E-W must hold Declarer to just 4 tricks. Can they do it? It will be a close run thing and our money is on South to scrape up 5 tricks at most tables. Having said that, 9 tricks are available to the defense, but only if they find this obscure and well-timed sequence of plays: The defense cashes three rounds of Clubs A♠ is cashed A♥ is cashed 4th round of Clubs, East pitching a Diamond, South ruffing K♦, ducked by West (key play) J♠ losing to East’s Queen Diamond won by West’s Ace Diamond ruff That’s 8 tricks for the defense with a top trump still to come. A difficult defense to find, even looking at all 4 hands.
On the previous board (barring almost miraculous defense) South got away with her flimsy 2♠ preempt. No doubt emboldened by that triumph, North makes a rather aggressive (some would say egregious) 3♣ preempt. We know that we would be tempted to do the same, but perhaps this one is a little bit too much! The suit is crummy, N-S are vulnerable, and North is in second seat (absolutely the worst seat for dubious preempts).
Anyway, let’s say that North does open 3♣, and that East competes with 3♥. Yes, of course, he wishes he had a 6th Heart for this bid, but it hardly seems right to double with such a disparity in the major suits. Now, South bids 3♠, hard not to, game is still on the N-S horizon, and South has some safety in Clubs if Partner dislikes Spades. It turns out that it is West who likes Spades! He especially likes the thought of 3♠ doubled, and +800. North bails out to 4♣, which also gets doubled, and retribution for the flimsy preemptors is at hand! E-W will score 4 or 5 tricks (depending on how Declarer tackles trumps), and +200 or +500 will be enough for close to a top.
After the 1NT opening, with that game-going hand with 5-4 in the majors, the most common approach is to use Stayman. If Opener bids a major then South bids game, otherwise she jumps to the 3-level to show the 5-card major, offering a choice to Opener. For a wrinkle to this sequence, please see the Bidding Quiz.
Declarer has two Diamond losers and the question is whether she can come to 11 tricks. It’s a piece of cake if trumps are 2-2, Declarer simply ruffs a couple of Hearts in his hand. Even with trumps 3-1, 11 tricks should come home … East’s only safe lead is a trump, and now the appearance of the J♠ allow Declarer to get two ruffs in her hand before drawing trumps, she ruffs the first one low and the second one high.
Did you ever see an emptier hand than the one East has here? No Tens, no Nines, not even an Eight. Not withstanding the 2 ½ quick tricks, this is certainly not a hand to be opened, in our view. In fact, our featured East even took things a step further … when the bidding got back to him he responded 1NT, supposedly showing 6-10 HCP’s.
1NT is quite high enough. South leads a Spade, and Declarer is able to score 7 tricks by way of the K♠, 3 Hearts, and 3 Clubs.
Back to the bidding. As North, would you have balanced over 1NT with a non-vulnerable 2♥ bid? We confess that we would have done, in which case we had better hope that E-W don’t have on their doubling shoes, because 2♥ and 2♠ are both destined to fail by two tricks.
East’s 3♥ bid was somewhat risky, under the circumstances … E-W are vulnerable, and with both West and North short in Spades, it is North who is sitting in the over-ruffing position. This has all the hallmarks of a hand that will not play well, and although we have sympathy for the 3♥ bid, it was lucky to escape a Double.
The question in 3♥ is whether Declarer can avoid a two trick set. South does not have an appealing lead, we suppose that we would either lead a trump, or else lay down the A♣ and then shift to a trump. Either defense holds the Spade ruffs in Dummy to one, and then when trumps break badly Declarer can come to no more than 7 tricks. Minus 200 even without the Double!
Double Dummy Note Deep Finesse tells us that Declarer can make 8 tricks in 3♥, and it took us a while to figure out how. Say that South leads a trump to the Ten, Jack and Ace. Now, instead of going for a ruff, Declarer leads a low Diamond towards the board. South wins and cannot continue trumps, so she leads a Club to North’s King. North continues with trumps which sacrifices her trump trick but stops the Spade ruff and also cuts off Declarer from Dummy’s K♦. Declarer has to guess correctly the trump situation and finesse, of course, which gets him to 7 tricks. Now, he leads a Club to South’s King, and South must shift to a Spade. Declarer wins the A♠ and exits a Spade. Bingo! The Spade suit is blocked, and whatever the defense does they will have to surrender the 8th trick in one suit or another.
After that 3♥ preempt, South was resolved to play this one in slam, and her sequence offered North a choice between 6♣ and 6♠.
Against 6♣, West will no doubt lead a Heart, won by Dummy’s Ace. With trumps 3-1, Declarer can count 11 tricks easily enough … 5 trumps and a Spade ruff on the board, plus a Spade, a Heart and 3 Diamonds. For the 12th she must rely on an extra Diamond trick, and correct play, after drawing trumps, is to cash the Diamonds, ruffing the 4th round and setting up the trick while Dummy still has an entry via the Spade ruff. Yes, it’s true that the K♠ also turns out to be an entry, but why take that chance?
Perhaps you would have made a more vigorous preempt in the East seat with that 8-card suit. The featured East chose to lay up with a 3♥ bid, but suppose that he had gone for the gusto and bid 4♥. If that gets doubled, we’d expect Declarer to misguess Hearts and go for -500 … beating those E-W pairs who defended 6♣, but losing to those who defended a game contract. The question is, in the face of this high-level preempt, can N-S still get to 6♣? Please see the Bidding Quiz.
In defense of that vulnerable 2♣ overcall, let’s acknowledge that East has a 6-card suit and good trump fillers. But the bid is certainly minimum, some might say sub-minimum. West’s 2♦ was bid in the hope that Partner could show a 4-card major, and when that happened West settled conservatively for 3NT.
As it happens, West might as well have bid the slam, it’s an unusual hand where game and slam have equal chances of success! The play could go one of two ways, both of which involve pain and suffering for North. First, let us suppose that North decides against a Diamond lead, not wishing to give up an immediate trick to the K♦. So, North leads a safe Spade instead, won in Declarer’s hand. Declarer successfully takes the Club finesse, and now, before he runs the Club suit, he should take the precaution of cashing the Spades. Now we come down to this ending, with one Club still to be played: North ♠ ♥ KT ♦ AQ ♣ Declarer Dummy ♠ ♠ ♥ AQ ♥ J ♦ K5 ♦ 92 ♣ ♣ 5 South Immaterial On the play of the last Club, Declarer pitches a Diamond and North is caught in a Strip Squeeze. If she pitches a Heart then Declarer scores two Hearts. If she pitches a Diamond, then she gets thrown in with a Diamond and has to lead a Heart into Declarer’s AQ. Twelve tricks!
It could be even worse for North! Suppose that she leads a fourth-best Diamond, to South’s Jack and Declarer’s King. Now, the play follows similar lines to before, except that the squeeze is slightly different: North ♠ ♥ KT ♦ A ♣ Declarer Dummy ♠ ♠ ♥ AQ ♥ J ♦ 5 ♦ 9 ♣ ♣ 5 South Immaterial Now, the last Club inflicts a simple squeeze on North and 13 tricks are made. It must have been galling for South to have been marginalized as “Immaterial” in both of these end-games, but she only had herself to blame for her irrelevance in the second layout. If she had applied the Rule of Eleven to North’s opening lead of the Diamond Eight, she would have known that Declarer had just one card higher than that Eight, and presumably that card was not the Ten. Therefore, she must play low at Trick One, saving that precious Jack, outranking Dummy’s Nine and taking North off the squeeze. If she had done this, she would have been far from immaterial!
Some of our protagonists this week have been skating on thin ice with dubious preempts, and here’s a hand which demonstrates that even sound preempts can land us in the soup. East’s 2♠ bid, with two of the top three trumps and some useful fillers, would pass muster with all but the most conservative of bidders, and yet it results in a penalty of 200 on a hand where the opponents can make no more than a part-score. And it could have been worse if it hadn’t been for West’s disciplined Pass of 2♠. We should add that South was not exactly salivating when she made her Penalty Pass, she just had no sensible alternative.
Bold bidding by East! We certainly would not pass 1♣ with that hand, experience tells us that those 3-1 and 4-1 fits don’t play especially well. So, despite his paltry HCP’s, he bids 1♦, and then freely competes to 2♠. Alas, his Partner had no sense of humor and deposited his side into game. That, of course, was the downside of East getting involved in the auction.
4♠ is not a hopeless contract, just a rather poor one. It needs the doubleton Q♠ plus some luck in the Diamond suit, and only one of those good things happens. Down one.
Walsh Note If E-W were playing Walsh-style, East would have by-passed Diamonds and responded 1♥, shutting out South from the auction. West now rebids 2NT which will no doubt be the final contract. Who knows what North might lead after this auction? Perhaps a Spade! Dummy’s Jack wins (Declarer thoughtfully unblocking the Eight!), now a Diamond to the Ten, A♠, K♠, back to the board on a Spade, and a Club finesse for 8 tricks (maybe even 9 on a Club end-play against North).
On this particular deal, opening 1NT with a 5-card major worked out quite well for E-W. Against 1NT, South will no doubt start with the T♥, covered by the Jack, King and Ace. The ensuing play is difficult to predict, but 7 or 8 tricks will no doubt be made, as North has no entries, and South will no doubt have to break open the Diamonds eventually.
If East instead opens 1♥, West bids 1♠, and North has no satisfactory rebid. Not 2♠, his hand is too strong, and, likewise, not 1NT. The only remotely sensible follow-up is to manufacture a bid of 2♦. Now West bids 2♥, and East has another uncomfortable bid to make … game is still not out of the question, and East will have to resist the temptation to bid again, otherwise his side might well go minus on the board. Better to open 1NT right away, in our opinion, limiting our hand and leaving the decisions to Partner.
We like the N-S auction! Back on Board 8, South offered North a choice of slams, and here the roles are reversed. Please see the Bidding Quiz.
Notwithstanding our admiration for the N-S auction, we must admit that 6♥ is probably the place to be, especially at matchpoints. Against 6♥, let’s say that East leads the Q♠, won by Declarer’s Ace. Now, a Club to the Ace, a successful trump finesse, A♥ and K♥ and lose a Heart, after which the Clubs can be established for the 12th trick provided that they are no worse than 4-2.
How about 6♦? Again, East will lead a Spade, after which the simple line is to draw just two rounds of trumps, and then set up the Clubs for 12 tricks, allowing the defense to take their trump trick whenever they wish.
Playing in 6♦, anyone for a trump safety play, protecting against a 4-1 split? Say that Declarer wins the opening Spade lead, crosses to the K♦, finesses the T♦ (protecting against 4 with West) losing to the Jack. Now, unless Declarer finesses against the Q♥ (playing West for QTxx) she will end up a trick short. So much for safety!
We would not invite to game with that East hand, it’s a pretty miserable 8-count, not much in the way of useful fillers, and that square shape is another cause for pessimism. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it turns out that, even opposite Opener’s highly respectable 16-count, 3NT is a poor contract.
It’s true that 9 tricks can be made but that requires the winning Heart finesse and successful guesses in both black suits. Of course, an opening Spade lead from North would eliminate one of those guesses, with a less helpful J♥ lead Declarer will have little to guide him to the location of the Q♠. Anyway, making 9 tricks in No Trump, with or without bidding the optimistic game, will surely result in an excellent board for E-W.
We mentioned the Spade guess, but more interesting is the guess in the Club suit. At some point in the play, Declarer will cash Dummy’s KQ♣, and North will play the Ten on the second round. Until the appearance of that Club honor, Declarer would have been obliged to play for a 3-3 break, but now the option of a 3rd round finesse has presented itself. Do you finesse, playing for the 4-2 break, or do you finesse against the missing honor? It may seem like a close guess, one way or the other, but the Principle of Restricted Choice tells us that the percentage play is to take the finesse. The logic is convoluted, but it goes something like this: - If North started with Tx he would have had to play the Ten on the second round, he would have had no choice. - If North started with JTx he had a choice on the second round of the suit, either play the Ten or play the Jack. Therefore, if we play for the drop on the third round, we are betting for two occurrences, namely the specific holding and North’s choice to play the Ten. But, taking the third round finesse is betting on just one thing, and that is the specific holding where there was no choice of plays. Well, we did warn that it was convoluted. But valid, nonetheless.
Our non-vulnerable East might have been tempted to bid 1♠ over 1♥ but he did well to curb his enthusiasm. Let’s face it, those Heart honors don’t reckon to do much in the play of a Spade contract, which effectively leaves East with a pathetic two-count. Later, over West’s 3♠ bid, East could restrain himself no longer and most sensibly bid the game.
4♠ is a fine contract, making 11 tricks on a decent day. Unfortunately, trumps are 4-0 and 9 tricks are the limit. Bad luck for E-W who had a well-judged auction.
East’s 4♦ was a Texas Transfer, getting E-W to the obvious Heart game. There’s nothing to the play, but the hand does illustrate the benefit that usually accrues when we get the stronger hand as Declarer. Played by West, the hand always makes 11 tricks, but, if East is the Declarer, South can hold the contract to just 10 tricks if she is smart enough or lucky enough to find the Club opening lead.
This is a most difficult hand to bid, particularly from the West point of view. West’s 2♣ was game-forcing after which E-W bid naturally for a while as they fished around for a fit. The key point arose after East’s 3♦ bid … West was too good to bid just 3NT and not good enough to insist on slam, and an added complication was that no fit had been found. We discuss West’s dilemma in the Bidding Quiz, for the time being let’s say that 4NT was a general slam try, not Roman Key Card or Ace-asking.
The 7-0 Diamond slam is certainly the place to be, and it illustrates the power of good spot cards. 6♦ will make whenever Declarer can hold his trump losers to just one, let’s see how the slam gets better as we progressively improve the trump suit: - AK65432 With no useful spot cards we must rely on a 3-3 break, and the chances of that are only 36% - AKT5432 That Ten has helped just a little bit, we have the added benefit of being able to handle QJ doubleton in either hand, improving our chances to 39% - AKT9432 Now we are further bolstered by the Nine, allowing us to pick up all those hands where an opponent has Qx or Jx, taking us all the way up to 64% - AKT9872 This is the holding on the actual hand and possession of the Eight further allows us to succeed when there is a singleton honor in either hand, giving us a 69% chance of success, almost double what our chances were without the spot cards!
This one looks like an uneventful 7 tricks to us, on to the next board!
South’s 3♠ was preemptive and successfully bought the contract. With the A♣ on-side, 3♠ looks like a piece of cake for 9 tricks, but contracts that look too easy sometimes get away from Declarer. Suppose that East leads a Heart to West’s Ace, and West continues with a Heart to Dummy’s Queen (Declarer pitching a Club). Now, Declarer plays A♠, Q♠, and a Spade to the King. Oops! Declarer has squandered her Dummy entries, and now cannot lead twice towards her Club honors. Down one! Needless to say, after cashing the Dummy’s second high trump, she had to lead a Club towards her hand … then the last trump is drawn, eventually a Diamond is ruffed on the board, and a Club led from Dummy one more time. A simple enough hand, but only if Declarer keeps her eye on the ball.
Another broken suit preempt, but with or without that Weak 2♠, it looks likely that North will end up declaring a Spade part-score. At first glance it looks as if Declarer can score 10 tricks, losing just 3 Clubs, with the Heart loser going on a Diamond. But that doesn’t quite work, East will cover the Diamond, blocking the suit for Declarer … and playing on Diamonds early won’t work either, because West has a doubleton Diamond and the 3rd trump.
One game that does make is 3NT, but you wouldn’t want to be there, especially if a Heart is led. Now the contract requires the doubleton J♠ and the Diamond finesse, quite a long shot.
For the fourth time in recent weeks, we find ourselves looking at a square hand opposite a 1NT (or 2NT) opening, a situation where some players do not bother with Stayman on the grounds that they have no ruffs coming their way. The counter-argument to that is, yes, it’s true that Responder has no ruffing value, but maybe it is Opener who can do the ruffing. One time when we might want to avoid the 4-4 fit is when we have mirror distributions, but even that is not always the case, as we see on this deal. Notwithstanding the 3-4-3-3 distribution in both hands, 4♥ is still the place to be, playing in a trump suit stops the opponents scoring their 13th Diamond, and the 4♥ contract outscores 3NT by 620 to 600.
Our tiny sample proves nothing, of course, but the running total is: Staymanites 2½ No Trumpers ½ To explain our scoring, one hand was not relevant (both camps ended up in 3NT), and another hand was adjudicated as a tie (it was unclear whether 3NT or 4 of the major was actually the better contract).
In the obvious contract of 4♠, the defense starts with Diamonds, and Declarer ruffs the second round. Declarer has a relatively safe route to 11 tricks just by cashing A♥, and exiting a Heart, planning for 2 Heart ruffs on the board. However, Declarer can do better than that by setting up the Clubs. With trumps 3-1, we don’t see any safe way of going for 12 while safeguarding 11, so we’d just draw trumps in 3 rounds, and ruff out the Q♣. This line will be a spectacular disaster if one defender or the other has QTxx in Clubs, but most of the time it will be good for 12 tricks.
N-S are getting a strenuous slam workout this week, here’s another chance for them to show off their high-level bidding skills. After West’s Unusual 2NT, 3♦ was “Unusual vs Unusual”, a cue-bid of one of the opponent’s two suits showing, according to the partnership methods, a limit raise or better. South had plenty to take her side to game, and then accepted the slam invitation (for more on this, please see the Bidding Quiz). 12 tricks are easy, of course.
Forcing Pass Note After 3♦, the N-S pair has shown an opening bid opposite a game-invitational raise, and this is not a situation that creates a Forcing Pass situation over 4♣. However, suppose that East had, instead, jumped to 5♣ (as he might well have done). Is this a Forcing Pass situation? Well, it could be, it depends upon your partnership agreements. Our own preference is that, when our side has established invitational values and they bid to the 5-level, the Forcing Pass is on, please see our link for more on this subject.
OK, now suppose that East jumps to 5♣, and that the Forcing Pass is in effect. What would your choice of bid be with the South hand? It doesn’t look right to bid on with all those high cards in the opponents’ suits. Then again, it doesn’t look right to double with that shortness in the opponents’ suits. So, we’d suggest a (forcing) Pass, indicating uncertainty.
A straightforward invitational sequence to a normal contract. Against 3♠, North leads the K♣, won by Dummy’s Ace. Declarer has 4 inescapable losers, 2 in Hearts and 2 in Clubs. And he has 8 certain winners via 6 Spades and 2 Aces. Where is the 9th trick? Maybe we can build a Heart trick by guessing the location of the Ten. Or maybe the Clubs are 3-3 and the 13th Club will be the extra trick. But, who needs those maybes when there is a certainty available? Yes, the 9th trick can come from a Club ruff, all we have to do is to postpone the drawing of trumps. Instead, we return a Club at Trick Two, and now the Club ruff in the Dummy cannot be stopped. It would be a mistake to draw even one round of trumps because, on some layouts, the defense would be able to knock out Dummy’s trumps in time to stop the ruff.
West was not quite good enough to bid 2♥ over 2♣, so he contented himself with a Negative Double. And East’s Double? It’s the so-called Responsive Double, another in the family of fit-seeking Doubles. Please see the Bidding Quiz for more on the E-W auction.
Declarer is destined to make 11 tricks in 4♥ provided that he manages not to revoke. It makes no difference on the actual layout, but the question is “What is the correct way to tackle the trump suit?” Of course, we’ll always lose at least one trick in the suit, the idea is to find the line that maximizes our chances of avoiding the second loser. The two choices are: - Cash the A♥ first, which works fine when trumps are 2-2 or one opponent has a singleton honor. - Take a first round finesse, and, if that loses, then finesse again, playing South to have either or both of the missing honors. Provided that Declarer has sufficient entries, and further provided that there is no impending defensive ruff on the horizon, the clear winner is to finesse twice. That succeeds 76% of the time, whereas starting with the A♥ is only a 66% shot.
West is on the slam borderline with an 11-count (including a 5-card suit) opposite a 20-21 2NT opening. But we don’t think it’s quite enough, the hand would be so much nicer if one of those black Jacks were in with the Diamonds.
It turns out that 3NT is high enough and 11 tricks are the best that Declarer can do.
South might well have opened her splendid Heart suit, but that would have back-fired on this hand, getting N-S to 3♥ for a minus score. 2NT fares better … East leads a low Diamond won by Declarer’s Jack, the A♣ is knocked out, Diamonds are cashed, and Declarer claims the balance. Making 8 tricks.
The Snapdragon Double makes its Wednesday Game debut! With just one unbid suit, opposite a bidding Partner, a Double can be used to show tolerance (invariably a doubleton) for Partner’s suit, and 5+ in the unbid suit. And how about strength? Typically it shows, as here, a hand which is not strong enough to bid the 4th suit directly.
Nice 3NT bid by East! The Heart stop may look tenuous, but with a doubleton on his left, East’s Qxx was enough. In real life 3NT will make 9 tricks, but can you see the double dummy lead that beats 3NT? Yes, it’s a Diamond, but not the prosaic 4th best. What is required is a 5th worst lead, by which we mean the King! Quite diabolical!
What do you think of West’s 2♠ overcall? Vulnerable, no less! Well, it all depends on your partnership style. Some believe in active “pre-balancing” in this situation, by which we mean getting into the auction aggressively when the opponents have bid and raised to the two-level. In effect, West is taking a balancing type of action even though he is in the direct seat, emboldened by the fact that the opponents have a fit and that Responder has made the weakest of raises. So, if you are a member of the pre-balancing fraternity, then 2♠ is fine (but not risk-free!), Partner will cut you some slack. If Partner will expect more, then obviously it’s better to pass. As it happens, after the “pre-balance” of 2♠, East can hardly not invite, even though he is aware of Partner’s tendencies.
N-S can make 2♥, so, even though the adventurous pre-balance has pushed E-W overboard, they will get a decent matchpoint score if they can salvage 8 tricks from their 3♠ contract. Here’s how the play may go: North cashes the A♥ Heart to South’s King, ruffed by Declarer Cash A♣ Club to North’s Queen Diamond shift, ducked in Dummy, won by South’s King Heart to North’s Queen, Declarer pitching a Diamond Another Heart, ruffed high by South, Declarer pitching another Diamond Now, the defense is out of gas, and Declarer takes the rest. Delicate timing by Declarer, using those Heart spots to deflect the forcing defense.
Against 3NT, East leads a Heart to Dummy’s Jack and now it seems normal to finesse the overcaller for the Q♣, all the more so as, if there is a doubleton Queen somewhere, it is most likely be with East. After all, he has more points than West, and is also likely to have fewer Clubs because of the Spade length. When the Q♣ shows up with West it is 10 tricks.
N-S were playing a 2/1 style, and yet North forced to game anyway with her 8 HCP’s. Do you agree? We wouldn’t argue against a 1NT response, East has the kind of hand that will play not play well unless a fit is found. This North took the optimistic viewpoint, perhaps reassured by the doubleton in Partner’s suit, which provided some extra safety and a possible third suit in which to play.
Now, let’s reassess the North hand on the second round of bidding. How much better it has become! Both the opponents are bidding her void suit, and Partner’s 3♣ raise improves her hand immensely. We don’t think that 5♣ is enough at this point, surely 6♣ is likely to have a good play.
Bold bidding by North, but also good restraint by South with her 17 HCP’s. She could tell that her K♥ was worthless, it’s obviously opposite shortness. Bidding 7♣ relies on Partner having all the right cards, just too much of a gamble.
The small slam turns out to be a very fine proposition indeed, depending on one of two good things happening … either pick up the Q♣ or take a successful Spade finesse. The overall percentage is in the high seventies, and in practice it is even higher … for example, East might try to cash the A♥ at Trick One, making the Spade finesse unnecessary.
West’s 4♣ bid was a Splinter, which may well be met with scorn and derision in some quarters, considering the conventional wisdom that Splinters with the Ace or King are to be avoided at all costs. Well, all we can say is that Professor Oddbid made us do it, and the more we thought about it, the more we liked it. Please see the Bidding Quiz.
How about the play in 6♥? Fairly straightforward, we would say. With trumps 2-1 there are 12 tricks available, and 13 when the Diamond finesse works.
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