Thursday, August 23, 2012

Can you trust the opponents?

Playing against two good players, who would go on to win the game yesterday evening, I pick up:
S
South (Me)
AK10x
KQx
Q10xx
Jx
The bidding goes:
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
Me
1
Pass
1NT
?

What would you now bid?

We are at favorable vulnerability and the bidding, if one can trust the opponents, seemed to indicate that partner was likely to have length in spades.  I bid 2S, which was passed out.

This did not play very well, to put it mildly, as the hand turned out to be:
.
Vul: E-W
Dlr: West
N
North
9x
A9xxx
xx
Qxxx
.
W
West
xx
J10xxx
AKJx
Ax
Lead: A
E
East
QJxxx
xxx
K10xxx
.
S
South
AK10x
KQx
Q10xx
Jx
.
With 5-5 in the black suits and a void in partner's suit, East had bid 1NT!  Unfortunately, the rest of the field was either in 1NT our way (making) or 2NT their way (down 1 or 2).

2 comments:

  1. Double, which shows a takeout double of one heart, seems normal. Partner will tend to show four spades before a minor and then you find your fit.

    Bidding two spades directly gives LHO an easy penalty double if he hold five hearts and four spades.

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  2. Why should partner have length in spades? Granted, I am expecting RHO to have fewer than four spades and for LHO to have fewer than five spades ... but that still seems to me to be a long way from expecting partner to have length in spades.

    After pass, my choice with South hand, West will rebid 2D and what will East do, given his weird choice to bid 1NT on the first round? For a good player, a second round 2S call would not show spades, but would instead show a super hand in support of diamonds.

    Perhaps I am being overly skeptical here, but since you say that the opponents are two good players in a club game, is it possible that East might have picked up something about your tendencies that caused him to lay a trap with the weird 1NT response?

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