Recap Of 2/14/2018 28 Board IMP Individual

Sorry readers, but I’m not sure how much bridge edification is available in today’s post.  I considered moving on to other hands, but decided to stick with my ‘standard’ of reporting on the double digit swings.  There were 4 of these swings in the Valentine’s Day game, 3 determined by bidding, 1 by declarer play.  See if you would make the winning decisions on these boards?

 

 

 

This first hand, dealer started with a preempt and 4th seat balanced with NT.  But, as you see, a different level preempt, different level NT at the two tables.  At the other table, bidding was simple and straight forward.  At my table after the 3♥ opening bid was passed around to me, given my flat shape, NT seemed to offer more promise than forcing partner to the 4 level (via a balancing double) with no known fit.  Pass seems out of the question.  If I can’t pass, then that only leaves 3NT or double.  Clearly double would have worked on this hand. In many bidding contests, respondents are always proclaiming the famous ‘F’ word – flexibility.  Would you double?  Double is certainly more flexible than 3NT (3NT figures to end the auction most of the time).  Double also pretty much rules out 3NT which may be our only makeable game.  After a double, my hand will become dummy, exposing the opening lead through the ♥K.  I chose 3NT (which works rather well on a non-diamond lead but, alas, South found the diamond opening lead).  After failing to unblock the diamond 10/8 (to keep partner in the lead for a heart through), South won the 5th and setting trick and decided to seek even more tricks by not cashing the ♥A.  That allowed me to escape for down 1, -100.  Meanwhile, our teammates were only able to score 2 tricks against 4♠ for a score of -650, lose 13 IMPs.

Many/most players preempt at the 3 level with a 7 card suit, but will usually open a weak 2 with a 6 card suit.  However, this was a good 6 card suit in a 1=6=5=1 hand.  I think the results speak for themselves – the 3 level proved to be an extremely effective start to the auction (for my opponents!).  Bid 1 more when you have this powerful distribution.  Of course Marty Bergen proclaimed you should bid 1 more (than standard) on all hands, but his style never really caught on in mainstream bidding.

Update: Sid Lorvan made some astute observations about this hand that I totally missed.  While spending time regarding the right number of hearts for South to open (2♥ or 3♥) I totally missed the fact that N-S are cold for 11 tricks in diamonds!  Should South be declarer, E-W better cash one of each black suit at trick 1 and 2, or there will be 12 tricks in diamonds!  If North declares, the two black singletons will be visible in dummy.

Meanwhile, 11 tricks are never possible in clubs (the longer E-W fit), and 11 tricks in spades are only possible if East declares (here, also, double dummy, 12 tricks are possible when East declares spades unless South starts with ♥A and a ruff).

The bidding questions are how to ensure East plays spades and how N-S get to diamonds?  If you rule out NT (not good for either side to play NT), lots of auctions could result in West being the declarer in spades where 10 tricks is the maximum after a heart lead (but North might be enamored with their diamonds and start unsuccessfully with a high diamond).  Singleton leads don’t always work – they can blow up the suit on partner, allowing declarer to find a missing Q or J that they would not find otherwise, but singletons are often the best start to the defense and that would be the case here.

Back to the bidding – what sort of bidding, for each side, could allow them to achieve their optimal results?  What if South, dealer, passes (what? pass a good 6 card heart suit!?)?  West could try 3♣ but their void and strong side spade suit should argue against that, so let’s say West also passes.  Now, North is in 3rd seat and might open 1♦ or even 2♦.  In spite of no diamond stopper, some East players will unwisely compete in NT anyway, but a more logical start would be to make a takeout double.  South, having begun with a pass, has some ‘undisclosed values!!!’  After a 2♦ opening bid, if playing McCabe or ‘transfer McCabe’, South would have tools to suggest a heart lead on their way to diamond support. In fact, since the double could suggest the ♥K will likely be in East’s hand, South can see that a high level diamond contract has great prospects – 11 tricks if partner merely has ♦Axxxxx or ♦AKxxx and diamonds behave.  But, with a nice 4 card side suit in spades, North might consider that a 2♦ opening bid could prevent reaching a good spade contract and start with 1♦.

This is getting really involved, guessing the various routes the bidding could take, with each seat having choices that vary widely depending on what the prior bids have been!  On top of that, it assumes South passes to start with, and I would project that nearly zero contestants would pass with the South hand in a bidding contest/quiz.  After the recommended 3♥ opening bid, I can’t really see how N-S can arrive in 5♦.  With no heart fit to fall back on, North bidding 4♦ over 3♥ seems crazy, and all standard bidding would consider that forcing.  The only option would seem to be new suits non-forcing after a weak 2♥, allowing 3♦ to be bid, but North has no reason to suspect that a 3 level diamond contract will play better than a 2 level heart contract.  Nor can I see how East can play 4♠ or 5♠ after the 3♥ opening.  The strong diamond fit with N-S is a freak unexpected fit, but it would always be nice, playing bridge, that the optimum contract could be achieved with best possible bidding.  Sometimes that is not possible.

The last comment – the old adage “6-5 come alive” applies to this hand.  If you make a ‘rule’ that 6-5 hands first bid their 6 card suit but ‘must’ introduce their 5 card suit later, that would work well on this hand.  One hand obviously cannot establish a ‘rule’ and it cannot be blindly followed if you smell a misfit, but it would work really well here!  Judgment and more data required.

 

Here, the same auction at both tables resulted in the same lead at both tables.  Since the diamond lead gave up a trick for the defense, declarer is looking at 4+1+3+1 to reach the required 9 tricks, as long as spades are 3-3.  You hate to rely on 3-3 spades, but finding extra tricks in clubs or hearts is really not very likely – spades better be 3-3 or you probably will not be making this contract.  My partner was declarer on this hand and simply led a small spade at trick 2, maintaining communication with dummy.  When spades turned out to split 3-3, they had their game with 9 tricks as well as the needed transportation to cash them.  At the other table, declarer had a blind spot.  He wanted to fully ‘know‘ that spades were splitting right away.  So, he played ♠A, ♠K and another spade.  Sure enough they split and now he knows it.  But, so do the opponents.  They switched to hearts which provided an entry to the established spades, but removed the crucial entry to the ♦K.   This meant the ♦A/K could no longer be untangled.  After winning the ♥A, declarer could cash spades and cross to dummy’s ♦A.  But there was no small diamond to return to hand and score the ♦K, and no other entry back to hand.  Thus, declarer ended up with 8 tricks, down 1, plus 50 for our teammates to go with our +400, win 10 IMPs.

What about that opening diamond lead?  Since Stayman by North followed by 2NT did not promise a 4 card heart suit (due to other system constraints), I think a good case can be made for West to start with a heart lead (besides the heart suit includes the 10, which is potentially significant).  As the cards lie, after a heart lead and best defense, declarer has trouble finding 9 tricks.  In fact, after the heart opening lead, it is difficult to construct any layout that will produce 9 tricks other than 3-3 spades plus a diamond finesse, but this hand contains one such layout (a route to 9 tricks without counting on spades 3=3).  The alternative route to 9 tricks involves the fact that East (the danger hand) is unable to gain the lead early for a diamond through declarer. Here, the strength of the club suit as well as the ♥9 dropping doubleton brings into play the power of the ♥8 allowing declarer to score 2+2+2+3 and reach 9 tricks without scoring long spades.  As the cards lie, Declarer’s club losers must be won by West and West cannot attack red suits.

Here, the diamond opening lead provided declarer a trick with the ♦J that they can never score otherwise.  Finding 9 tricks after a heart lead would have been possible, but difficult.

 

 

 

As you can see, with N-S passing throughout, the first 4 bids by E-W were the same at both tables.  My partner, with a quacky hand (loaded with queens and jacks) reasonably decided to pass my invitational 4NT.  The same hand at the other table, noting the same lack of values, decided to signoff in 5♠ rather than risk 4NT with the weak doubleton in clubs.  However, East wasn’t done.  After issuing an invitation that was declined, they proceeded to bid 6♦ and found partner with 100 honors!  Wow!!!  Had the clubs and diamonds been reversed in the opening NT bidder’s hand, the auction would have proceeded to 6♠ or 6NT.  Then, as long as the heart finesse works and the missing minor suit ace was onside, no problem. Anyway, bidding 6♦ had the benefit of keeping the ♣K protected as well as the virtue of scoring 12 tricks without a club lead.  On the heart lead, declarer went up with the ♥A, drew three rounds of trump and found that trump split.  Then they simply ran the spades, pitching dummy’s clubs.  Then the lead of the ♥J forced a second heart trick and declarer had a trump left in each hand to land 5 tricks in diamonds, 5 in spades, 2 in hearts, 12 tricks, unbeatable as the cards lie.  -1370 for our teammates to go with our +660, lose 12 IMPs.

After a club lead scores the ace, declarer cannot benefit from throwing away clubs or hearts and must eventually rely upon the heart finesse which fails.  The auction seems to call for either a club or heart lead and on a different lie of the cards, a heart might have worked.  Here a club lead works and a heart doesn’t.

We had a fair discussion (without resolution) regarding responder’s second bid.  I considered 3♦ and that would have worked very well here.  My problem (at the time) was that I didn’t know how to invite slam after that, and bidding 3♦ might indicate I hold a more robust suit than ♦K864?  Given a chance to bid this hand over, I think the right answer is to offer a 3♦ bid after partner makes  a minimum acceptance of my transfer to 2♠.  If partner likes diamonds (In this case, they would like them a lot), I can forget invitations – simply ask key cards and blast slam.  I was so focused on my hand evaluation (I think, this is clearly a slam invitational hand, not a slam force), that I wanted to get that valuation across with a 4NT bid.  That involves partner in the decision.  But, a 3♦ bid would involve partner even more in the decision and I think that should be the way to handle this hand next time.  If you don’t know what the final contract should be, go slow and involve partner.

On the other hand, if partner held:

 

 

He would like diamonds, have maximum HCP, and yet 6♦, 6♠ and 6NT all have no play. Here, checking on key cards should avoid the slam.  Of course, on the actual hand all 3 slams have no play on a club lead. Sometimes bridge is tough.

Would you have bid 6♦ over partner signoff in 5♠?  It sure worked here.  West realized  (correctly) that the 4-4 fit would likely produce one more trick than the 5-3 fit, plus partner can’t be disappointed with 100 honors, so they passed 6♦!

Back to the opening lead – Lew Stansby points out that opening leader knows a lot about the distribution. Declarer (in 6♦) is likely exactly 5242.  Dummy is likely 3442 or 3244. (would have passed 4NT if 3343). So you want to lead the suit where they have a 22 fit, because that’s the suit where dummy’s cards can be discarded on the long spades.  No guarantees, but holding longer clubs than hearts, clubs is more likely to be their 2-2 fit.

 

 

 

Again the auction began exactly the same at both tables.  Again, one table quickly ended the auction, passing out in 5♦.  The other table also quickly ended the auction by taking one more bid over 5♦… 6NT!  The North hand possibly has 3-4 points  more than a dead minimum negative double of 3♥.  Still, 6NT is a pretty big bid considering the misfit and single heart stopper.  7♣ happens to make if you guess the location of the ♦K and ruff it out after drawing trumps (pitching your spade loser on the ♥K).  If you go for a big cross ruff in 7♣, it will fail, because the defender who is also short in diamonds sits over the your shortness.  But, as the cards lie, you could ruff 1 diamond low, then ruff 2 diamonds high and then, as long as you find diamonds 4-2, and clubs 2-1 you would find your 13 tricks.  However, when vulnerable opponents preempt, there is often foul distribution.  Here, the 3♥ bidder had two singletons, it just happened that neither was diamonds.

Anyway, the contract wasn’t 7♣ it was 6NT by North with the ♠AQ protected as declarer.  However, even with South declarer, a spade lead through the ♠AQJx, simply duck to the ♠10 in dummy to guarantee 12 tricks.  After the expected heart lead, declarer was able to run the ♠10, ensuring 12 tricks no matter where the ♠K was and no matter whether they covered or not.  So our teammates scored 1440 while we were -620 defending 5♦, win 13 IMPs.