Can you trust partner's signal?

First of all, a lead problem.  The bidding has gone:

W

West

N

Partner

E

East

S

Me

1♣

2♥¹

3♦

3♥

5♦

All Pass

(1) weak

You hold:

S

South

♠

Axx

♥

A10x

♦

xxx

♣

xxxx

What do you lead?

I reasoned that a passive lead was probably unwise, since West's clubs rated to be very good.  Partner having shown 6  hearts, it appears to be reasonably safe to lead the ace of hearts.  Dummy comes down:

S

Me

♠

Axx

♥

A10x

♦

xxx

♣

xxxx

.

Lead: ♥A

W

Dummy

♠

Qxx

♥

x

♦

KJxx

♣

AKQJx

Under the ace, partner plays the 8 of hearts. Your agreements are quite simple: upside down count and attitude.   What is partner trying to say?


In this case, partner's count and attitude are both already known. He has 6 hearts and any heart continuation is going to be ruffed in  dummy.  So, it must be suit preference.  I am a little doubtful though, because we have not quite agreed on suit preference situations.

I decide to trust partner to be signaling suit preference and I plop down my second unsupported ace. The ace of spades.

Under the ace of spades, partner plays the 8 of spades. What is partner trying to say?  What do you do next?

At the table, I decided that partner had probably forgotten about suit preference and was emphatically discouraging both hearts and spades. Ergo, he must be void in clubs. I led a club, hoping for a ruff.

That was not the right move, because declarer now proceeded to make his contract:

.

Vul: E-W

Dlr: West

N

North

♠

KJ108

♥

KQ8xxx

♦

x

♣

xx

.

W

West

♠

Qxx

♥

x

♦

KJxx

♣

AKQJx

E

East

♠

xxx

♥

J9x

♦

AQxxx

♣

xx

.

S

South

♠

Axx

♥

A10x

♦

xxx

♣

xxxx

.

Partner had not forgotten.  The 8 of spades was his lowest spade and he was encouraging as best  he could.

The thing is, once he'd given suit preference for spades, his job was done. I need not have looked at what he played under my Ace of spades. Put another way, with a club void, he'd have played low under the Ace of hearts.  That is, if he and I are agreed to play suit preference when dummy has a singleton in our bid and raised suit.

What are your agreements regarding suit preference? Are they complete enough to avoid a mishap like ours?

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).

Bidding slams

Playing online with one of my regular partners, we ran into two slammish hands.

Here is one that we missed:

N

Pard

♠

Q108

♥

KJ9

♦

AQ109654

♣

—

Lead: ♣K

S

Me

♠

AKJ6

♥

A106532

♦

7

♣

95

This was the bidding:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

Me

—

—

Pass

1♥

Pass

2♦

Pass

2♠

Pass

3♥

Pass

3♠¹

Pass

4♣²

Pass

4NT³

Pass

5♥⁴

All Pass

(1) cue-bid

(2) cue-bid

(3) RKC

(4) 2 keys without trump queen

Partner's told me (I thought) that he had the club Ace, and now we missing either the Ace of diamonds or the king of trumps. And no queen either.  I passed 5H out.

Dummy came down and, with the club lead, I had the tempo to ruff my clubs in dummy and play the king of trumps. When hearts turned out to be 2-2, I made 7.  Obviously, 5H+2 was not a great result.  Where did we go wrong in the bidding?


As if to compensate, we ended up in a no-play slam on this hand:

W

Me

♠

A108

♥

K4

♦

J1073

♣

10965

Lead: ♣K

E

Pard

♠

KQJ2

♥

AQJ872

♦

A

♣

Q7

Here, the bidding went:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

Pass

Pass

2♣

Pass

2♦

Pass

2♥

Pass

2NT

Pass

3♠

Pass

3NT

Pass

4♥¹

Pass

6♥²

All Pass

(1) 6-4

(2) a bit rash?

Once partner showed me a 6-4 hand, I was stuck.  4S would be a preference for spades, not a cue-bid. I like my hand though, because I have two monster cards in partner's two suits. I guess there is no harm in asking for aces, but since I have no keycards in partner's short suits, it's no panacea -- off one keycard, I would still have to bid the slam. So, what's the right approach here?

Slam bidding is, of course, one of the most pleasurable parts of the game, so I need to get better at this stuff.

Not the fix I was looking for

Traveling within India and away from the weekly club game, I badly needed my bridge fix.  So, I decided to play a robot tourney on BBO.

8 boards.  53%. Ouch:

Now, I know robot tourneys are for the birds and one should not read too much into them, but see if you would have fared better on the disaster boards.

Here is board #3:



Should I have bid on after partner's preemptive raise?  I decided partner would probably cover only one diamond loser, not two and passed. The brave souls who plowed on to 5C got 95%, which is reasonable -- high risk, high reward.  But what rankles is that majority of the field opened the South hand 1NT and made 3 or 4 when west did not lead spades!  Would you downgrade that South hand (3 aces!) to 17 points?

Here is board #6:



The field here bid 4S and West competed to 5H and went down several, usually doubled.  Me, I figured game was unlikely to make (those pesky clubs!) and passed. 3S went down one which seems reasonable -- they make 3H on the normal lead of a diamond (discard spade king on club).  But when everyone is overbidding, the par score is worth only 20%.

And finally, here is board #7.  How do you open the South hand?



I thought the 3C was forcing to game, but obviously partner did not agree.  The folks who opened the South hand an off-shape 2NT got to 4H while those who opened it 2C got to 3NT.

Not exactly the kind of fix I was looking for!

How to handle light openings and even lighter responses

This is obviously not one of *my* mishaps, but this hand from the 2012 Spingold is a mishap for the ages:



East obviously needed to pass.

But more importantly, doubles that show points are very useful when your opponents open light and do fake bidding with weak hands. Note also that it was West's support double that lined up the lucrative penalty for N-S.

I am starting to think that it is worth giving up support doubles in favor of point-showing doubles.  

Decisions, decisions!

Vulnerable, righty opens 2S (weak) and I hold:

N

North

♠

107

♥

Q82

♦

AQ32

♣

Q1075

Do I come in? Even though they're vul and I'm not, I passed.  Right decision?

East passes and partner who holds a 11 point balanced hand with four spades also passes. So, now, I had to lead.  What would do you choose?

I chose a spade, partner encouraging. Click "Next" on the diagram below to see the defense; can you spot the misdefense?


It was at this point:

I led a club at this point, but the only winning return is a heart.  It is clear that I should not lead diamonds because partner needs the king of diamonds as a safe escape card.  But why hearts over clubs (partner has not had a chance to signal suit preference)?  The club holding that I'm hoping for from partner is AJ.  If I lead hearts, I'm hoping for A10 with him. Which is likelier?  How does one tell?

Choose the lead ... for 6 silver points

Playing in a STaC pairs game (one of only two C pairs in a room full of strong players), we are holding our own (we think).  And then, I forget our system and as a result, partner has doubled their contract.

This is the hand I held:

S

South

♠

876543

♥

K9876

♦

5

♣

9

6-5 in the majors, but only 3 points.

Partner opens 2C, which shows a 5+ clubs and an opening hand:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

2♣¹

Pass

2♦²

Dbl

2♥

5♦

Pass

Pass

Dbl

All Pass

(1) 5+ clubs, 10-15 points

(2) Stayman

We play that 2D now is Stayman and I thought I'd be cute and do a "Garbage Stayman".  Whatever partner bids, I thought I could pass.  Of course, if he rebid clubs, I'd have a problem and if the opponents interfered, I'd have a problem, but I wasn't thinking too clearly.

After carefully ensuring that my 2D was artificial, West doubled.  Partner bid 2H, showing 10-13 points and a 4-card heart suit.  East who had heard enough of our bidding on 13 total points, jumped to 5D.  I passed of course, but partner who thought my 2D showed an invitational hand, doubled for penalties.

So, now, I have to come up with a lead.  What would you lead?  Take a look at my hand (above). Make up your mind.  I didn't know it at the time, but this hand would make the difference between placing in the district overalls and not making it.

Decided?

I chose the singleton club and this turned out to be the full deal:

.

Vul: N-S

Dlr: North

N

North

♠

A

♥

Axxx

♦

xxx

♣

Qxxxx

.

W

West

♠

KQx

♥

Qx

♦

AKxxx

♣

xxx

E

East

♠

J10x

♥

xx

♦

QJxx

♣

AKJ10

.

S

Me

♠

876543

♥

K9876

♦

5

♣

9

.

As you can see, either a spade or a heart lead produce down 2.  +300 would be a clear top.  The club singleton lead that I chose at the table gave declarer the tempo to pull trumps and throw away a heart loser on the good club. -550 was a clear bottom.

So, the lead on this hand produced a 14 matchpoint swing and was the difference between coming in first and coming in third, placing in the overalls (with 58%) or not placing (with 52%).  The lead turned out to be worth about 6 silver master points ...

UPDATE:  I was looking at the wrong thing ... turns out to be a difference of only about 3 silver points.