A high-stakes gamble goes awry

The STaC results from the Monday game are in, and we missed winning the district by 2%, which means that this high-stakes gamble on the last round was worth 4 masterpoints. I held:

S

South

♠

xxx

♥

9xxx

♦

AJxx

♣

xx

This was the auction:

W

West

N

Pard

E

East

S

Me

—

1NT¹

Pass

Pass

2♥

Dbl²

Pass

?

(1) 12-15

(2) takeout with a good 14 or 15 points

What would be your call?

For me, it was a tough decision. Partner might have 4 spades and 3 diamonds for his double. In which case, 2S is the right call. Or he might also have only 3 spades and 4 diamonds in which case 3D is the right call. Finally, it appears from my 5 points that the points are evenly divided and no 2-level contract may make. Were we trading a +50 for a -50?

I think I had convinced myself. This was going to be a high-stakes gamble: +100 or -470. A matchpoint top or a matchpoint bottom. I passed.

Alas, 2H was cold on the hand as the cards lay:

.

N

Pard

♠

Qxx

♥

Ax

♦

K109xx

♣

AQx

.

W

West

♠

Kx

♥

KQxxxx

♦

Qx

♣

Kxx

Lead: ♦10

E

East

♠

AJ10xx

♥

J

♦

xx

♣

Jxxxx

.

S

Me

♠

xxx

♥

9xxx

♦

AJxx

♣

xx

.

We got 2 diamonds, 2 clubs and a heart (yes, if I had arranged to give myself a club ruff, we could have beaten it). 2H doubled and made was a matchpoint zero. We had been at 72% heading into the last round; the zero dropped us to 68%.  68% was enough to win our 9-table club game, but we needed 70% to win the district.

2S, which would have been my second choice, doesn't look like a picnic either and -150 would also have been a bottom.  3D goes down only one, and -50 would have been a top, since most pairs were in 2H making for -110.  2Hx and down 1 for +100 would also have been a top.

If 4NT could be Blackwood ...

Playing in the STaC game today, I was stuck for a bid on the third hand of the night. I was South and I held:

N

North

♠

Jxxx

♥

A

♦

QJ10x

♣

KQxx

Lead: ♦3

S

South

♠

AKQxxx

♥

Kxx

♦

Kx

♣

Ax

Partner dealt and opened 2D.  This is mini-Roman and shows a 4-4-4-1 hand with an unspecified shortness.

I have this vague feeling that his shortness might be spades. But I need to find out, so I bid 2NT, asking him where his shortness was.

I nearly fall out of my chair when he bid 3H. His shortness in hearts.

Now what?

3S is merely invitational (2NT was just a one-round force).

4S is fast arrival. I don't think we are quite done yet.

5S would ask him how good his trumps were.  Holding four little trumps, there ain't no way he's raising to 6.

How on earth does one explore slam after Mini-Roman?

Well, I bid 4NT. I intended it as plain-old Blackwood. Partner reasoned that since we had no suit agreement, it was quantitative.  I thought that since neither of us had bid NT naturally, it could not be quantitative. Quite obviously, we had not discussed what 4NT meant in this situation and our general principles were in conflict.

Fortunately, partner did not pass the 4NT.

Instead, he raised to 6NT!  I gulped. We had blown right past 6S!

They led a diamond, dummy came down and I claimed 12 tricks.  It was a cool top because everyone else was in spades.

Some days you just can't lose and today was one of those days.

Take, for example, another hand:

S

South

♠

KQJx

♥

—

♦

Kxx

♣

1098xxx

If East opens 1NT (15-17), what do you do?

I overcalled 2S!  Yes, I have only four of them, but what do you expect me to do? Pass with this offensive monster? Bid 3C (2C would have been the majors) on a 10-high suit? I decided to overcall 2S.

West Texas-ed to 4D, partner bid 4S and over East's 5H, partner bid again! Mercifully, this did not get doubled. West now led a small diamond and this was the dummy that came down:

N

North

♠

Axx xxx

♥

AKx

♦

—

♣

KQxx

Lead: ♦3

S

South

♠

KQJx

♥

—

♦

Kxx

♣

1098xxx

East turned out to have AJx in clubs, so 5S made on the nose.

This too was close to a top.

Thanks to results like these, we finished with a 68% game for first in A, B and C and have some hope of getting a nice district award.

Coming up roses

Playing our big club system, online, I forgot my bid.

My double here (after a jump overcall of partner's artificial bid showing 16+ points) is supposed to show 7+ points and a balanced hand. I thought it was showing 5-8 balanced (as it would had the opponents bid 2C, not 3C). Anyway, having overbid my hand, I was now playing a 4-3 fit at the 4-level.  Click on my name to hide the other hands and plan the play once East leads the 7 of clubs.

Can you make it? I could! (click Next to see my play) Sometimes, the most egregious bid comes up roses.

Had I passed, of course, partner reopens with a double and now I ought to pass. We would have gotten an easy 500 instead of the seemingly miraculous 420.

When opponents don't draw inferences from our bidding

Partner and I had one of our worst club games in a long time, finishing with 44%. Looking back over the boards, the whole thing was very swingy -- lots of fives (tops), but unfortunately lots of zeros as well. And the zeros outnumbered the tops. Hence 44%.

Sitting East (as dealer) and holding:

W

West

♠

KJx

♥

Kxxx

♦

KQxx

♣

K9

Lead: ♦5

E

East

♠

AQ10x

♥

Jx

♦

J

♣

Q10xxxx

I opened the hand, taking advantage of the preemptive nature of our 2C bid:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

—

2♣¹

Pass

2♦²

Pass

2♠³

Pass

3NT

All Pass

(1) 5+ clubs, 11-15 pts

(2) stayman, range-ask

(3) 4 sp, weak (11-13)

We ended up with 3NT played by West.  2/1 or standard players who passed as East would find that the auction goes:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

—

Pass

Pass

1NT¹

Pass

2♣

Pass

2♥

Pass

3NT

All Pass

(1) 15-17

Same contract, same direction, so what's the big deal?

Well, by bidding 2D and then raising to 3NT, partner has sort-of-indicated a 4-card heart suit whereas in the 2/1 auction, partner has stated he has a 4-card heart suit.  Against us, when South got in with clubs, she led a heart through partner's king. Against the others, presumably, defense was more passive because the Jack in dummy made it look as if we would get an extra trick if they led the suit.  3NT exactly making vs. 3NT+1.  The difference between a bottom and an average board.

Can we teach our opponents to make the right inferences from our bidding?

Of course, I had my share of bad decisions as well. Here's a bidding problem. Sitting South, I hold this wonderful hand:

S

South

♠

xx

♥

9xxx

♦

9xxx

♣

AJx

I pass, naturally, and find that partner has a strong hand:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

—

—

Pass

Pass

1♣¹

Pass

1♦²

1♠

2♥

2♠

?

(1) 16+ points

(2) 0-7 points

Now what?

If I had an invitational bid available here, I could have used it. (Do you play Lebensohl in these situations?). I can bid 3H or 4H, but 3H is not really invitational, just competing.  I bid 3H, partner passed and made 11 tricks for a bottom board.  Turns out my 4th trump, spade shortness and the ace of clubs (he had a singleton club) were huge.  Playing 2/1, partner would open 1H, I would stretch to respond 2H and with his 18 points, partner would raise to 4.  Having opened 1C, and then bid 2H, partner had told me everything about his hand, so he didn't feel compelled to bid the game.

Is it time to ditch precision and go back to a 2/1 bidding system? The advantage of this is that we might get less swingy matches. On the other hand, as our string of clear tops from last night illustrates, opening light does play dividends as well.

Virtue unrewarded

Playing in a robot tourney on BBO, I bid 5C, got doubled and made it.  For 32%!  The majority were in the same contract, but they made an over trick.

What would be your line of play here? Once you have decided, click Next to see my line of play.


Since I have only entry to dummy, I decided to take what I thought was the better line on diamonds, to lead the Queen.  It appears that most players took the heart finesse, and when that won, they had a diamond discard available.

Is this just virtue unrewarded, or am I missing something?  Such as that since West discarded the 7 (assuming that is not a false card), I could have assumed that he had the King and led a low diamond towards the queen.

A Guinness with That

Thanks to a chain of contacts initiated by frequent commenter Paul Gipson, I got to play bridge in Ireland the second night after I got here.

Not only did I have a pleasant partner, friendly opponents and a glass of Guinness at the table, we even scored up 64% for second place!

The one dark spot was this board. See if you can make a better decision than I did.  I was South on this hand and had started 1S. West made a negative double. Partner prempts 4S and east bids 5D. What would you do at this point? Pass, double or bid 5S?



Would your decision change if I told you that this was a strong pair? (I didn't know this at the table).  Well, I passed and 5D made. They were one of only two pairs to bid a E-W game. 5S would have been a good sacrifice; this was the full hand:



Still, it was not all terrible  judgment. Here was a defense that turned out to be worth all 18 matchpoints. In the following hand, 1NT is 12-14 and 2D is natural. Against 4C, you lead the Ace of hearts and partner encourages with the 4 of hearts. Now what?



Click Next to see my defense:


Did you find the spade switch on trick 2?  I thought it was a relatively straightforward deduction, given partner had bid. Also, 4H our way makes on anything but a trump lead. So, I expected the board to be flat.  Some pairs bid 3NT and made on a diamond lead by North. Others were in 3C making 4. No one was in a heart contract.  +50 was the only positive North-South score!

Preempting the play

With a system change, I find myself playing a lot more low-level contracts, playing them blind and messing them up. See if you can do better.  You open 1NT (12-15) and three passes later, you get to play the hand. You get a heart lead, you play low from dummy and East inserts the 10 of hearts. Plan the play.

N

dummy

♠

Jxx

♥

Kxx

♦

xxx

♣

Axxx

Lead: ♥7

S

You

♠

KQx

♥

Qxx

♦

KQx

♣

Q10xx

The contract is only 1NT. I can come to 7 tricks with 2 spades, 1 heart, 1 diamond, 2 clubs and a possible extra trick either in hearts (if west has the Ace) or diamonds (by leading twice towards my hand).  The problem was that the 7 of hearts looked high and so, I thought it was East who had the heart length. So, I ducked a heart.  Bad assumption. Then, when I was in dummy with a heart, I decided to use that single entry to lead a diamond. Second bad move.  I needed to breach clubs, full of holes as they are.

The whole hand:

.

N

North

♠

Jxx

♥

Kxx

♦

xxx

♣

Axxx

.

W

West

♠

xxx

♥

AJxxx

♦

AJxx

♣

J

Lead: ♥7

E

East

♠

Axxx

♥

10x

♦

10xx

♣

K9xx

.

S

South

♠

KQx

♥

Qxx

♦

KQx

♣

Q10xx

.

Standard bidders would open my hand 1C, west would overcall 1H and then the hand becomes much easier to play because you have an approximate count.  So, this was a matchpoint zero.