Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Wednesday, December 28th 2011

Right-click here for hands.

Board 7: West, in second seat, must decide between opening 1S or 4S. (Definitely too strong for 3S.) The modern guide to preempting is the Rule of 2-3-4: overbid by two tricks at unfavorable vulnerability (vul vs. not), three tricks at equal, and 4 tricks at favorable (not vul vs. vul.) So the seven likely spade tricks justifies 4S; is the hand too good? The key question is the likelihood of missing slam, and that's less important at matchpoints than a team game. I'd open 1S if the side Queen were not singleton, but chose 4S on the actual hand. (Side note: when preempting in a minor, it may be wise to underbid with 3 on fairly good hands to avoid bypassing 3NT.)

East now counts his tricks: one spade, three hearts, A-AK in the minors, with the Jack of diamonds as a bonus. It seems likely that some losers can be pitched on the hearts. Counting on opener for seven tricks with both sides vulnerable,  that's 14 tricks! So the only question is how many losers you have; Blackwood can make sure partner has at least one Ace, while RKCB can insure he does not have a likely trump loser. Using RKCB (regular or 1430), West replies 5S, showing two key cards plus the Queen of trumps. This means either the hearts or spades are solid, and there are plenty of tricks for either 6S or 6NT. Not everyone will bid this slam, however, and with no reason to assume opener has the Queen of diamonds, an opening diamond lead could doom 6NT. 6S is the sensible bid, scoring a solid 67% on the board. As it happens, of course, 6NT ties for a top. Give East the AQ of diamonds and 6NT would be clear.

Declarer wins any lead (I took a pointless finesse in diamonds, not sure why I thought I needed it), pulls trumps and drives out the Ace of hearts to dump his club loser.

Board 20: West opens 1D (Goren 13, adding two for the singleton spade, or Rule of 20.) This is sound if your style permits a rebid of 2D on any five card suit. East might leap to 3NT to sow a balanced 13-15, gambling partner will have help in hearts or they'll lead something else if you don't give them too many clues. However, this style "fixes" opener whenever he holds a singleton; I strongly prefer 2NT forcing, or a straightforward 2C response. You may well have slam in either minor.

After 2C, opener rebids 2D. This leaves responder with a problem -- the danger of a heart lead has increased, but responder has no second suit to bid. Since 2S would be natural and forcing (game-forcing in my methods), a jump to 3S can be used as a game-forcing "fragment", showing values in spades but not length. (Some players would "invent" a 2S call, but faking a major suit is dangerous.) West has an easy 3NT call over the descriptive 3S bid, and that should end the bidding.

I would expect West to make 10 tricks after an opening heart lead, but several declarers managed 11 or 12.

Board 22: South opens 1NT (15-17) and North smells slam with his own 16 count. With 4-5 in the majors, Stayman is a logical first step -- a 4-4 spade fit might provide an extra trick, discarding one or two minor suit losers on the long hearts. South obligingly replies 2S -- now what? Most partnerships would treat 4NT at this point as Blackwood or RKCB agreeing spades, but there's some risk of two fast club losers. Experts prefer a gadget bid to agree spades and show slam interest; I recommend "Three Other Major Slam Try". A 3H call over 2S should sound weird -- if responder wanted to bid hearts, why didn't he start with a transfer? So 3H artificially agrees spades and asks opener to cue-bid with a suitable hand. South is minimum and is unsure about his red suit Queens, but with two key cards I would cue-bid 4C. Now North can confidently proceed with 4NT and bid 6S over South's 5H reply. West has no effective lead and South has an easy time, pulling trumps in three rounds and finessing the hearts for 13 tricks.

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