Thursday, August 11 2011

Right-click here for hands.

Board 15: West opens 1H -- move the stiff King to one of the long suits and I'd vote for 2C. North passes at this vulnerability. East is too strong for a single raise, and lacks the fourth trump expected for a jump raise, so he should respond 1S and plan to jump in hearts later. West forces to game with a jump shift (3D.) And now what does East do? "Fast arrival" devotees may argue that 4H would be weaker than 3H, but the standard view I think is that 3H may indicate mere preference (a doubleton) while 4H prtomises genuine support and therefore a hand too strong for a simple raise. West uses 4NT just to make sure partner has at least one key card, hoping it isn't the Ace of clubs. I've seen players leap to 6H on this sort of hand because "you can't Blackwood with a void", but it seems tto me partner is unlikely to have the King of hearts or the Ace of spades if his reply to 4NT shows 0 key cards. Here he shows 1 and West takes a shot at slam.

It is often best to lead an Ace against a suit slam (especially at matchpoints, where saving the overtrick may be important) but here it's fatal: club ruff, cash the King of spades, Ace of diamonds, ruff a diamond -- over-rufffed by South's King, heart return but declarer can still ruff a diamond and pitch his remaining three diamonds on the Ace of spades and the two top clubs.

With the auction as given, North should try to protect his diamond winners -- declarer's second suit -- and lead a trump, leaving declarer a trick short. 6H down one ties for a bottom, no surprise when a key suit breaks 5-1. Unlucky.

Board 24: North opens 3C in second seat, catching partner with a monster. Picturing little more than KQxxxx in trumps and out for a non-vulnerable preempt, South can still figure the heart suit can be established and slam looks excellent. May as well try 3H (100% forcing!) in case partner can support; North bids 3S as a probe toward 3NT. Unfortunately this muddies the waters for Key Card bidders, what would be the agreed suit if South now jumps to 4NT? Probably hearts; some partnerships assume simple Blackwood when no suit has been clearly agreed. North shows zero Aces or Key Cards and South settles for 6C.

East leads a spade, hoping not to give away anything. Declarer wins in hand and proceeds to establish the hearts: Ace of hearts, heart ruff (no 5-1 break here!), finesse in trumps or not? With ten trumps missing the King, the finesse offers better as well as some addded safety -- when East follows, if the suit is 3-0 the finesse will succeed, while if it fails trumps are 2-1 one way or the other. Finessing does not appear to interfere with declarer's plan to establish hearts, so North runs a high club to West. A diamond is led to dummy, a heart is ruffed high, a trump to the Ace pulls the last of those, ruff another heart, ruff a diamond, spade to dummy's Ace and pitch a spade on the now established Queen of hearts. Six making six scores a top. My partner and I made what turned out to be a "striped-tail-ape" double -- we doubled five when declarer can make six! But of course they weren't headed for six. Note to self -- watch out for those underbidders! At our table North/South bid Pass-1H; 2C-2H and I doubled to "compete for the part-score." North rebid his clubs, South leaped to 5C which East, not unreasonably, doubled. Oops.

Board 25: North opens either 1D (textbook) or 1NT (slightly off-beat.) Over either bid South should be thinking slam, but the topless suit may discourage an immediate jump shift. So, 1D-1H; 2C-2S, fourth suit artificial, forcing to game. (North skipped over spades so there's no chance of a fit there.) Now 2NT-3H; and North can take charge with 4NT, Roman Key Card for hearts. South replies one (5D, or 5C playing "1430".) That leaves one key card missing, and "1430" pairs may want to bid 5D to make sure the Queen is not also missing -- DANGER! Diamonds was North's original suit; might partner think 5D is to play? Better to skip the Queen ask and just gamble 6H. Two pairs reached 6NT but on the given auction I don't think North can assume 12 tricks at notrump -- South may need to establish the diamond suit by ruffing, for example.

West would dearly love to punt the lead; since that's not allowed a low spade may have the best chance to avoid blowing a trick. Leading the Queen of clubs hoping to catch King in dummy and Ace with partner strikes me as swinging for the fences on a slider low and away -- North bid clubs, and leading them is much more likely to lose a trick than gain.

South counts 13 tricks, but loses a heart if West glances at dummy before blindly covering the Queen. A rare hand where 6 of 9 pairs bid slam despite only 31 high card points.

Board 31: After South passes, West may open 3S with QJ98765 and out, or pass. I'm not a fan of extremely weak preempts, especially second seat where partner is just as likely to have a strong hand as LHO. North opens 2NT, and if South "does the math", 11+20 or 21 does not add up to slam. I'd probably just raise to 3NT with the 3433 shape, but 4H was the popular contract, whether due to Stayman or in response to North's double of 3S. Twelve tricks can be made when East has trouble guarding both minors.

Board 32: 1S-2C; 2D-3NT looks like a normal auction for E/W, and while West can add two or three points for the excellent spades 16+13 to 15 does not equal slam, and the club misfit argues for passing 3NT. The solid suit looks like a good source of tricks for partner, no need to insist on spades as trumps.