Recap Of 1/15/2020 28 Board IMP Individual

Today there were 4 double digit swings (I lost them all!) and all involved bidding judgment.  Two were high level doubles that did not work out, 1 was a low level double that didn’t work out, and one was a slam decision.  See if you can do better…

As an aside, when the blog began, I was using North/South/East/West.  Then I had a request to start using names so I started using first names.  But, we have multiple Dans and Marks and Garys and…so forth, resulting in queries about ‘which one’ so, starting today I am using last names.

 

 

There is a saying in bridge ‘bid one more/take out insurance’ and it certainly applied on this hand.  If the opponent’s bid might be making and if you bid one higher in your suit to a contract that might also make, simply bid one more and find out.  Looking at your own hand, you really can’t tell which is right and rather than guess – take out insurance – if both are down, it is a small loss, if both make it is a huge win (to bid on) but a huge loss to stop bidding or, even worse, double.  As you can see, this is a classic hearts vs. spades battle – classic in the sense that it happens all the time, but, usually the side that holds the spade suit comes out the winner…not here.  One table stopped off to double 4♠ and the other table (me) decided to double 5♥.  I looked at my relatively flat hand, 2 aces, knowing that partner opened, and so I decided to double 5♥.  Should I pass and let partner decide?  Should I take out insurance and bid 5♠ myself?  If I do bid 5♠, we ‘only’ lose 14 IMPs instead of 17 IMPs (because the opponents would double for -200 and our teammates -790 would net to -990 and 14 IMPs away). 

Of course, had I bid 5♠ they could then bid 6♥ and then I need to bid 6♠!

Jump shifts during auctions are a matter of partnership style/agreement and since most partnerships are not ‘regular’ there is a certain amount of table talk allowed in the game.  Here, at my table, North, East and South assumed that West’s 4♦ was a splinter raise of hearts.  East asked ‘is that a a splinter?’ and was told ‘no’.  We decided that was enough table talk and East was left to guess and fend for himself.  It turns out 4♦ was a fit jump shift – perfect description of the values he held if that is what the 4♦ bid means.  In any case, East chose to bid onward and reached the unbreakable 5♥ contract.  In fact, 12 tricks are cold on any lead.  Simply lose a spade and ruff 2 spades and pitch the last spade on the 13th diamond.  At the table, declarer was in a doubled contract and found a path to 11 tricks and took it.  Since declarer did not score 12 tricks, we were ‘only’ -850 while our teammates were -790 to lose 17 IMPs.  The high card points were split 21 for us, 19 for them, but who needs points when you have tricks.  A sad start to the day, but it only gets worse.

The spade contract that was doubled at the other table has 10 easy black winners and 3 unavoidable red losers (as long as club ruffs don’t come into play).  Double dummy, a diamond lead/club shift; then another diamond lead/club ruff and then underlead ♥AKQ for a third club ruff and 4♠X can go down 3 for +800.  Much better to bid onward in hearts than hope for that miracle defense that was not found.  The heart slam depends on 2-2 diamonds (otherwise a diamond ruff is threatened), but 11 tricks are no problem in hearts unless there are 2 diamond ruffs (4-0 split with the 4 card diamond suit on opening lead).

 

 

Support with support.  This is a bridge maxim that has stood the test of time – when partner knows you have support, they can usually handle their hand much better than they can if they do not hear support.  At my table, West chose the simple raise to 3♠ which ended the auction.  The opening bidder was unable to picture that all 3 missing kings that mattered (as well as the ♠Q) could be finessed away so that, barring an unlikely diamond lead, 12 tricks were cold.  The high card points are split 20-20, but the friendly location and distribution of all cards means that it takes a diamond lead to defeat slam in spades.  When partner led their singleton ♣5, declarer dutifully took his finesses and scored his 12 tricks, so we were -230.  Not bad… we thought.

At the other table, West, in spite of their spade support, found a double over South’s classic Michaels cue bid of 2♠.  When North bid a ‘pass or correct’ 3♣, East (with a minimum opening bid in terms of HCP) felt that 9 tricks would not be possible in a club contract, so they doubled, going along with partner’s theme of penalize the opponents.  South corrected to 3♦ but the momentum of ‘we have them on the run’ saw another double hit the table and the auction was over – 3♦X.  Any normal defense should produce 5 tricks for the defense.  The defense should manage to score the ♥Q as well as 3 aces.  The setting trick can come from a third heart trick (the power of the ♥AQ9 behind the ♥K10) or else a diamond trick (the power of the ♦J9xx behind the ♦10).  That is, the defense can lead 3 rounds of diamonds until there is no heart ruff in dummy (giving up their diamond trick), or not lead diamonds and allow a heart ruff in dummy, but still score a diamond trick for down 1.  In practice, the actual spade lead established a spade winner in dummy and when East returned a spade at trick 2 (reluctant to cash the ♣A on air), the club trick went away allowing 9 tricks for declarer, 4 for the defense (East should shift to a heart at trick 2, and then West wins and puts a club on the table to achieve an easy down 1, but that is not what happened).  Thus, our teammates were -470 to pair with our -230 to lose 12 IMPs.

 

 

Once again we see a heart/spade battle where ‘bid one more’ is necessary, but that theme got taken to an incredible (bizarre!) extreme at the other table.  Again the HCP were nearly evenly split with 21 for North-South and 19 for East-West. 

The choice of opening bid changed the auction in a profound way.  As dealer, East is too strong for an equal vulnerability 4♠ preempt.  The playing strength amounts to a 2♣ opening bid, but since the HCP and defense is below the expectations for a 2♣ opener, 1♠ seems like the normal way to start.  As North, I was stunned to hear partner overcall 2♥, but what do I (North) do?  I have very very weak defensive prospects (my only outside cards are the ♦Q and ♣J and it is unlikely that partner had only ♥QJxxx to overcall 2♥ (therefore zero heart tricks on defense)) – perhaps I should bid an immediate 5♥ in advance of the upcoming 4♠ bid?  Instead, I cue bid 3♠ showing a strong heart raise (well, I DID have strong hearts!).  But, that led partner to later choose to double 5♠.  I came close to bidding 6♥ after the double, but fear of turning +200 into -200 made me pass the final bid of 5♠X.  I should have bid.

At the other table, East chose the opening preempt of 4♠ which was passed around to North who (quite reasonably/correctly) bid 5♥.  South then looked at their 6 card heart support with outside values and decided the initial preempt was actually weak and that North-South owned the hand and was being robbed, so they raised to 6♥.  West had spade help with very little defense, so they assumed that partner also had little defense and took out insurance with a 6♠ bid.  But, speaking of insurance, South still wasn’t done, so they further competed to 7♥!  Which was passed out!!!!!!!!?

There are 2 losers and 11 winners in spades (clubs set up for diamond discards and the defense cannot effectively attack diamonds).  There are 3 losers in a heart contract with double dummy defense (East needs to bang down the ♣K to avoid an end play where they would be forced to provide a ruff/sluff or a diamond lead, allowing the North-South diamond loser to slip away.  It was a great contract to buy at the 5 level, but it wasn’t for sale at the 5 level for the heart bidders, so I needed to go on to 6♥.  We lost 12 IMPs when we were -850 while our teammates picked up +200 defeating the undoubled 7♥ contract 2 tricks when the lead of the ♣K was not found (at trick 2 after winning a spade at trick 1).  If our teammates had simply doubled the grand slam, they could have picked up +500 (or +800 with the inspired ♣K lead) and this miserable hand would never have been reported in the blog.

 

 

Often when I am 6-3-3-1 and open my minor and hear a major where I have 3 card support, I will raise the major.  My singleton allows a ruff in the short hand and my side suit has potential tricks later.  The more likely game is 10 tricks in the major rather than 11 tricks in the minor.  Here, my diamonds are rather robust and my spades a bit modest, but I raised spades anyway.  Did that irreparably harm the auction?  Partner (with no control in clubs) had visions of a grand slam, so he immediately went to a key card ask.  After learning we held all the key cards, he checked on the ♠Q, but when he found that missing, he inexplicably passed 5♠.  I’m not sure how grand slam can be in view at one minute and all of a sudden small slam isn’t bid when the trump Q goes missing.  In any case, both sides had an inescapable loser with the ♠Qxx behind the ♠AK, but 12 tricks were there for the taking.  We were +680 and our teammates were -1440 to lose 13 IMPs.

At the other table, East rebid 3♣, their second ‘suit’ and then bounced to the slam in NT, feeling that a club lead was unlikely and partner probably has them covered anyway.  East’s heart holding made it desirable to be declarer, and playing IMPs, NT can be safer than a suit – bad splits have more recovery options, but a 5-0 spade split would likely doom a spade slam.