|
Hand Analyses 31st October, 2007
South’s 2NT asked Partner to describe her hand, and the 3♦ response showed a 3-card raise with a good hand. We’d say that South’s plunge into Roman Key Card was a little impetuous, she might have tried a 4♣ cue-bid first. Anyway, the final contract of 6♠ is a pretty good one.
If West starts out with a Club lead (he might well do so), Declarer should jump up with Dummy’s Jack, and take an immediate Spade finesse into West’s hand. When that loses, she goes after a Club ruff on the board for her 12th trick.
Suppose, instead, that West’s opening lead is a Diamond. What’s the best route to 12 tricks now? Please see the Play Problem.
West was surely right not to invite to game with that 8-count. Yes, we are taught to revere Aces, they are generally agreed to be undervalued in the 4-3-2-1 scale. But let’s take off something for that square shape, and then some more for the abominable absence of Tens and Nines. Not even close to being invitational!
It turns out that, even with a super-maximum 1NT opening, the E-W hands do not belong in game. South will lead the J♦ (or the Ten if that is the N-S lead convention), won by Declarer’s Queen. At this point Declarer has 6 top tricks and will cross to the A♠ in order to lead a Heart. North ducks, and the King wins, giving Declarer his 7th trick. Where should he look for the 8th? Two possibilities: - Cash the K♠, and if the suit is 3-2 then lose a Spade and take 8 easy tricks, no more, no less. - Cross to the A♣ and lead another Heart. We’ll look foolish if South had the A♥ all the time, but that is unlikely, it would be quite a play by South to duck, not knowing where the Q♥ was. When the second Heart is led from the board, North will have an awkward guess. If Declarer started with KQJx of Hearts then North does best to duck, holding Declarer to 2 tricks in the suit. But, if Declarer ducks on the actual hand, the Q♥ will win the trick, and now a 9th trick can be established in Spades. Of course, a 3-3 Heart break will also bring in 9 tricks.
We would say that this is a well-judged auction by all concerned. Playing in 4♦, North must guess the Diamond situation to make 10 tricks. She’ll be familiar with the Principle of Restricted Choice, and will want to guess which of the defenders is likely to be short in Diamonds: - If West is short in Diamonds, she will want to play the A♦ first. That way, if West’s singleton is the Queen or Jack, she will finesse against East for the other honor. - Conversely, if she thinks that East is more likely to be short in Diamonds, she’ll play the suit the other way.
Declarer won’t have much to go on, the only clue is that West has longer Clubs (probably by 6 to 4), so therefore East is slightly more likely to have the Diamond length. It’s a pretty slim indication, and also the wrong one as the Diamond length turns out to be with West. Anyway, making 9 or 10 tricks depending on the play of the Diamond suit.
How do N-S do playing in Clubs? North lays down the A♦ and promptly shifts to the K♥. Nice shift, but to no avail. Declarer wins the Ace, draws trumps and leads a Spade towards the board. North hops up with the Ace, but the Heart suit is blocked, so Declarer’s second Heart loser goes away on the K♠.
Double Dummy Note At first glance, one might think that the opening lead of the K♥ will beat 4♣. Not so, if North is allowed to make double dummy opening leads, then we will permit Declarer to find this delicately timed line of play: K♥ opening lead, won by Declarer’s Ace Declarer draws just one round of trumps Declarer exits a Diamond (Scissors Coup!) won by North T♥ wins the next trick Diamond ruff Club won by Declarer Spade won by North’s Ace Nicely done, Declarer! He needed the second round of trumps for communications, so played North to be 6-2-4-1. It was also essential to lose the Diamond at Trick Three, severing the enemy communications and making it impossible for them to untangle their 4 tricks.
When was the last time that you had such a great hand opposite a 2NT opening bid? We are not sure that we ever have! If we were playing a team game, we’d no doubt bid as follows: North South 2NT 4♥ 4♠ 4NT 5♥ 6♠ Pass Yes, a nice simple auction to a safe slam. 4♥ is Texas, and 4NT is Roman Key Card. How about this auction as an alternative? North South 2NT 3♥ 3♠ 4NT 5♥ 6♠ Pass No, the standard treatment of this auction is that South is showing 5 Spades and invitational slam values. Jacoby then 4NT is quantitative (that is, invitational to slam), and Texas then 4NT is Roman Key Card. Exactly the same applies if the opening bid is 1NT (although some pairs use 1NT 2♥, 2♠ 4♣ as Roman Key Card, a fine treatment in our view).
OK, now that we’ve straightened out our Jacoby/Texas/Blackwood agreements and figured out our strategy for the Sunday Swiss, let’s get back to the actual problem, which is, of course, being played for matchpoints. In those circumstances, we’d like to play in 7NT given all the Aces, and in 6NT if one is missing. Of course, there is the danger that we are missing AK in one suit, but we’d say that is a fairly small risk, more than overridden by the more likely benefit of getting those extra 10 points in No Trump. We wouldn’t mess around, we’d bid 4♣ (Gerber) and end up in 6NT. During the auction, our 9-card Spade suit would not see the light of day, and we’d look forward to putting down, as Dummy, the unmentioned 9-card magnificence with a great flourish.
Tragi-Comical Afterthought Has your Partner ever opened 2NT, holding: ♠ A, ♥ AKQ9, ♦ JT98, ♣ AK87? If she has that hand and if they lead a Diamond, your matchpoint-influenced 7NT will be down 5 when 7♠ is cold. Well, if that happens, you can always console yourself with the thought: “Thank goodness for Partner’s renowned sense of humor!”
If West had not so rudely interrupted the N-S auction, then North would have had a perfect hand for a 2♣ Drury bid (or maybe 2♦, according to some methods). But, the 2♥ bid removes that option, so we’d try 3♥ here. Yes, it’s slightly dangerous, who only knows what third seat atrocity our esteemed Partner might have perpetrated? But, we can hardly do less than bid 3♥, sometimes our third seat Partner actually has a real opening hand! East’s Double showed Hearts and a decent hand, and the bidding subsided in 3♠. Please see the Bidding Quiz for the difference between 3♠ and Pass in this situation.
3♠ may not be a lot of fun for Declarer. West might lay down the A♥ and when Dummy hits with that KT6 in Hearts, what are your methods? Suit preference is not a bad idea, provided that both Partners are on the same wavelength. Of course, that will work like a charm on the actual hand, and the defense will collect a Heart, two Clubs, a Club ruff and two Diamonds for 6 tricks and a whopping +200. Whopping only because 4♥ does not quite make.
In this auction, North follows the tried and trusted procedure of trying for a major suit fit (via that Negative Double) before supporting Partner’s minor.
Both sides have 8 trumps, both sides should make 8 tricks on the lie of the cards. A triumph for the Law of Total Tricks. North did well to compete to the 3-level non-vulnerable, and we will bet that there will be some N-S pairs in your Wednesday Game who just could not resist bidding 3♠, converting the E-W minus into a N-S minus.
The featured auction looks reasonable enough, but it’s easy to see that how this hand might be played in Hearts, Diamonds or Clubs. Here’s what might happen in those contracts: - If West plays in Hearts, he can be held to 9 tricks, but the defense must start with Diamonds and ruff out Declarer’s Q♦, otherwise that card will provide the 10th trick. - If North plays in Clubs, the defense will surely grab it’s Heart trick immediately, holding Declarer to 9 tricks when the Clubs break 4-1. - If South plays in Diamonds, it’s only 8 tricks on all but the most unfortunate of defenses.
Bidding Post Script Many North players will prefer a Negative Double of 1♥, and we wouldn’t argue with that, it keeps Spades in the picture and the plan would be to venture Clubs later on, no doubt at the 3-level. Here’s how the auction might proceed on the actual hand: South West North East 1♦ 1♥ Dbl 2♦ 3♦ Pass ?? How awkward! We suppose that North should pass now, but it’s difficult not to try 4♣, and, sadly for North, this will be doubled by East and down one for the dreaded -200. Unlucky for North, we’re not suggesting that the Double was wrong, it just didn’t work out on this hand.
It’s unusual to overcall 1NT with just two cards in the enemy suit, but reasonable here with that strong Spade holding and only three Hearts. Over 2♠, North decided she would not sell out so cheaply and would compete to 3♣, which she did via Lebensohl. Her 2NT was a relay to 3♣, allowing her to compete to the 3-level without offering any encouragement about game.
North’s decision to compete worked well when the 5-4 fit was found. Even so, 3♣ can be defeated if West finds the K♥ opening lead (or A♦ and K♥ switch), getting the defense 4 top tricks and a Heart ruff. Nice going by West if he found that lead or switch, but even down one in 3♣ is preferable to letting E-W make 8 tricks in 2♠ (and it will be 9 if South’s opening lead is anything other than a Club).
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
