Recap Of 2/4/2019 28 Board IMP Individual

Across all of the hands, we had record low scoring in the Monday game, and only 2 boards achieved a double digit swing.  Many other boards afforded missed opportunities, but I will only report on the two where the big swings actually happened.  One was all about bidding while the other was all about defense.

Here, essentially the same bidding resulted in the same contract and the same lead at both tables.  Declarer needs to find 9 tricks, the defense needs to find 5 tricks after the opening ♥Q lead against 3NT.  Clearly if declarer could see the singleton ♠K and the doubleton ♦J, there would be no problems in the play…simply win 5+1+3+1 for 10 tricks.  But, not knowing how those suits are distributed…

At my table, declarer ducked my ♥Q lead and I continued the suit in spite of declarer’s play of the ♥10 (suggesting that he still held the ♥AJ over partner’s ♥K).  There was no suit that was appealing for a shift, none that I wanted to break for declarer and perhaps the ♥10 was a false card?  Naturally declarer won trick 2 with the ♥A and floated the ♠Q, losing to the ♠K.  Now, a heart continuation would establish the heart suit.  But to what avail?  With no obvious entry, the established hearts would wither on the vine.  North (my partner, Jerry) made the excellent decision to switch to clubs and chose the ♣10.  I like that play a lot.  It caters to declarer having a minor suit holding of ♦AKx(x) and ♣Kxx(x) as well as the actual minor suit holding that declarer did hold.  Note that simply leading a small club might work poorly when declarer ducks (but, as the cards were distributed on this deal, a small club can produce 2 club tricks for the defense just as well as the ♣10 did).  When partner chose to lead clubs, the defense already had 2 tricks and needed 3 more.  By leading the ♣10, we might achieve 3 club tricks immediately, or perhaps 2 clubs and a diamond before declarer can find 9 tricks.  We did not have heart tricks coming, so looking for tricks elsewhere was a wise move.  The ♣10 was covered by the ♣J, so I won the ♣K and continued with the ♣9.  Declarer could save a trick by ducking the ♣9 and severing our communication in clubs, but he couldn’t be clear who had what – ducking would assure defeat since declarer still had to lose the ♦A before they could score any diamond tricks.  In any case, declarer won the ♣A and cashed spade winners, but when diamonds were led to the ♦K, I could win the ♦A and lead to partner’s long clubs to give the defense 6 tricks (1+1+1+3) for down 2.

At the other table, declarer won the first trick with the ♥A and finessed spades at trick 2, losing to the ♠K.  North cleared hearts (cashed the ♥K and led another).  So, the heart suit was established, but with no certain entry in the North hand, it did no good for the defense.  Declarer won the 3rd heart lead (throwing a club from dummy while South discarded a diamond).  Then declarer cashed 4 more spade tricks.  North had to find 4 discards and chose to part with a club and all 3 of their remaining hearts.  Declarer pitched 2 clubs and South pitched a diamond.  Now declarer led a small diamond from dummy, North playing the ♦9, declarer the ♦K, won by South’s ♦A.  South then exited a diamond  providing declarer with a 100% line of play – simply play small.  If South has the ♦J, the finesse will win and there are 9 tricks (4+2+2+1).   If North has the ♦J, the finesse will lose, but that will only be the 4th trick for the defense and there are no hearts to cash.  So, the defense is limited to 4 tricks (1+1+2+0) and declarer still has a diamond in hand to lead to the 2 established diamond tricks in the dummy.  With the defensive club shift found by my partner, declarer never had a chance for 9 tricks.  With the sequence of plays by the defense against my teammate, 9 tricks were assured.  So, our teammates were +600, making 3NT to go with our +200 to win 13 IMPs.

What about the bidding?  For starters, it is good to have a mutual understanding about Stayman – that is, make sure that whatever partner thinks and what you think match.  After the auction goes (2♥)-2NT-(P), some play that 3♣ is Stayman, some play the cue bid (3♥) is Stayman, and some play that the transfer into the opponents suit (3♦) is Stayman.  Amazing: 3 possible Stayman bids – 3♣, 3♦, 3♥!!!  But only one of those actually is Stayman – there is no right/wrong answer, just be sure you and partner agree.  And how do you show 5 spades with Jacoby (vs. 4 spades with Stayman)?  Some play a normal transfer (3♥) and some play transfer through the opponents suit (3♦) to show spades.  Assuming partner showed 5 spades, what is declarer to do?  There are two schools of thought: 1) if you have 3+ spades, the partnership has 8+ major suit fit, bid the spade game; 2) use judgment, sometimes bidding 3NT in spite of holding as many as 3 spades.  On this hand, there is reason to fear that your nearly certain 2nd heart trick (due to the power of ♥AJT) could be ruffed away (and that fear is validated with the card layout on this hand).  Plus 3NT requires 9 tricks instead of 10.  Plus the East hand is 4-3-3-3 with a stopper in every suit with minimum values, so 3NT might offer as good or better play for game compared to 4♠.  Bottom line, every hand is different (using this hand as an example is a poor basis for a long term plan) – 4♠ might work better sometimes, 3NT other times.  With a heart lead (as expected) and the ♠K onside (as expected), there are 9 easy tricks in NT on this hand, but 10 tricks in spades will be challenging.  I don’t think there is a clear cut right answer.  Do you?

What about the play – win trick 1 or duck?  My preference is to duck, because you need 2 heart tricks.  Ducking trick 1 all but guarantees your 2 tricks (you can lead later to the ♥J when you choose to).  If you win trick 1, your 2 heart tricks are still possible.  But, you’ve lost control of the suit.  Sometime they must be led again to establish your trick, but at that point you have no hearts left in dummy to lead to declarer’s hand to enjoy that trick.  So, some other entry must be found.  You have 1 sure entry (the ♣A), but you may not want to use it for that.  Communication can be awkward, and ducking trick 1 simplifies getting your 2 heart tricks.

What about defensive options?  Clearly the club shift at my table doomed declarer.  But at the other table, as spades are cashed, if North discards 1 heart and 3 clubs, keeping 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and a club, declarer has to have his guessing shoes on.  He can no longer enjoy a 100% play of finessing for the ♦J (after South won the ♦A and continued diamonds).  If he is wrong, he is down.  Furthermore, with the actual discards that North made at the table, if South plays a club after winning the ♦A, declarer once more is faced with a guess in diamonds.  After winning the ♣A, declarer is down to 1 remaining (losing) club and 2 diamonds.  Dummy is down to all diamonds.  If he guesses wrong in diamonds, the defense will reach 5-6 tricks depending on how he guessed and how the remaining clubs/diamonds are divided. Declarer can reach 8 tricks, but never 9 if they guess diamonds wrong.

This hand was all about bidding with very little to the play.  Both tables reached a minor suit game, one in the 5-3 diamond fit and one in the 4-3 club fit.  In diamonds, declarer can draw 2 rounds of trump and then play 3 rounds of hearts, ruffing in dummy.  If hearts are 3-3, no problem.  If hearts are 4-2 and the hand that is short in hearts is also short in diamonds (it was), the hearts are ruffed good and you can return to hand, draw trump and wrap up 12 tricks, losing a club at the end.  That is what happened at my table.  Our teammates were playing the weaker club fit.  The short hand is able to ruff the opening spade lead, but eventually declarer lost control and lost 2 clubs and 2 spades for down 2.  So, we were -420 while our teammates were -100, lose 11 IMPs.

South has a really strong 3 loser hand.  How should they proceed?  Michaels showed 2 suits initially and proved to be an effective bidding tool.  Even though 6♦ is cold, slam is not especially good (looking at the North-South cards), but the 5♦ game in diamonds is quite good.  Very strong 1 suited hands are often bid effectively by starting with a double and then showing your suit.  Partnership understanding is important as to HOW strong of a hand does that bidding show (I play that it is quite strong, others less so).  However, it is difficult to construct auctions that allow you to double and show 2 suits.  The cue bid (3♠) used at both tables is often considered ‘Western’ in these types of auction, stating that the values are there for possibly scoring 9 tricks if partner can produce a spade stopper.  Sometimes the cue bid is merely forcing, showing strength and ‘tell me more.’  Here it is hard for North to visualize the shape and strength of the South hand.  They are reluctant to introduce a second ‘suit’ that is only 3 long.  Double asked partner to bid their best suit and they did.  The cue bid forced another bid from partner and they simply repeated their clubs as the only suit they held.  It is certainly frustrating to have such a strong hand and arrive in a hopeless contract, but my opinion is that starting with Michaels is a more promising way to get this monster off your chest.  Yes, you do have at least 3 card support for all unbid suits, but your red suits are WAY stronger than your clubs.  What do you think?