Wednesday 5/4/2011

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Defense: Ace lead at notrump
Board 7: South might open 1C or 3C -- you hate to pass with such a good suit -- but pass is the mainstream choice vulnerable, you'll get a chance to bid the clubs later. North opens 1D (lots of tricks but nowhere near enough high cards for 2C), East overcalls 1H (too strong for a weak jump overcall) and South as expected bids 2C. West would like to raise, but will partner allow for such slim values? Still, West can expect to provide a heart trick and a ruff so a raise is not out of the question. I passed, however, and North leaped to 3D. South should raise -- if North had hearts stopped, North could've rebid 3NT, the normal action with a long, running suit and a stop in the enemy suit. At our table, however, South cue-bid 3H (support? partial stopper?) and North misinterpreted the bid as showing a heart stop. A good rule is that when the opponents have bid or shown one suit, bidding that suit ASKS for a stopper; when they've bid or shown two suits, bidding either suit SHOWS a stopper.

On lead against 3NT, partner decided against a routine 4th best lead, correctly assuming declarer would run 9 tricks if she gained the lead. Instead, partner lead the Ace of his bid suit, conventionally asking for partner to drop his highest card in the suit to unblock. Yours truly blew it; had the ten not appeared in dummy I might've worked it out but instead I signalled with the 8 and continued with the 2 under partner's King (I could've unblocked at that point as well.) I won the third trick of course with the Queen but declarer had the rest.

I'm not sure what partner would do had declarer or dummy held the Queen; I suppose at matchpoints it might save an overtrick to cash two winners anyway, and declarers have been known to bid 3NT with Qx hoping for an underlead. The auction certainly gave little hope that partner could be reached for a lead toward the AKJ9xx of hearts.

Do you and your partners know to drop your highest card under an Ace led at notrump? I'm not convinced this should apply to an unbid suit but definetely in a suit partner has bid. And the lead may be a good shot from a six card or longer suit headed by AKJ10, AKJ9, or AK109 where you have no sure side entry and cannot expect partner to contribute much.

Better bidding -- Self-splinter after transfer
Board 18: A few pairs might upgrade East's hand to a 15-17 notrump; I would want an extra ten at least for that. A five card suit is worth about 0.4 points at notrump according to real-world data compiled by the French Bridge Federation. That's about the same as a ten, and an average hand contains an Ace, a ten and a nine, all of which are short-changed slightly by the standard 4-3-2-1 point count. So East has the equivalent of an extra ten but is missing a nine and should treat the hand as a normal 14 count.

Playing a 14-16 range as is common with Precision my partner did open 1NT. Add the Jack of diamonds and it would be a routine 15-pointer. West counts 7 1/2 tricks, and at 3 points per trick, it is no stretch to hope a 1NT opener can provide the 4 1/2 needed for slam. Visualizing, partner might have a hand like
KQx Qx AKxx xxxx, only 14 points and slam is a laydown barring a quick defensive ruff. On the other hand, some of partner's values are likely to be in clubs (as with East's actual hand); even a hand like
KJx xx AKxx Axxx, with only the Ace in clubs, does not fit as well as when all of partner's values are outside clubs.

This is where a bidding trick known as the Self-Splinter can help. Responder transfers to his 6 card major and then jumps in a side suit: 1NT-2D; 2H-4C(!) As a new suit (3C) would be natural and game-forcing, there is no obvious or natural meaning for the jump to 4C, and modern bidders typically use wierd jumps to show shortages. Unlike the familiar Splinter Raise (1H-4C, for example) no tricks are gained by ruffing low cards in the short suit, as those ruffs are with long trumps that will take tricks anyway. But the splinter allows opener to judge how well the honor cards combine in the two hands. 28 hcp outside the short suit will usually produce slam (you will be missing one Queen, along with the Ace of the short suit.) With solid trumps, a side source of tricks, and sufficient controls, 26 or 27 may be enough. With the Ace opposite shortage, you will generally need more high cards; 25 outside with solid or near-solid trumps is probably enough (29 total high cards counting the Ace of the short suit.)

On the actual hands (adding a Jack to East) the bidding would proceed 1NT-2D;2H-4C; 4H-pass since AK opposite the singleton leaves too little outside. With KQx Qx AKxx xxxx, opener proceeds with Blackwood or RKCB and the excellent slam is reached. With KJx xx AKxx Axxx, opener cue-bids 4D over 4C, suggesting either no spade control or (as here) a borderline hand. With nothing extra, responder signs off at 4H. Give opener instead xxx Qx AKQxx Axx and he continues over the sign-off with a 5C cue-bid, highlighting the spade problem, and responder cue-bids 5S or simply leaps to 6H.