| Board 4 West Deals Both Vul |
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West has a choice of openings: 1C or 1S. If N/S keep silent, this holding is easily described by opening 1C and then bidding spades twice. However, with such a shapely hand, you can expect wild bidding, so the question is whether you will feel comfortable bidding spades for the first time at the three or four level. With strong spades and relatively weak clubs I would open 1S, treating the hand as 5-5. East responds 2H and South finally has a chance to bid his 8-card suit. How many diamonds? The 2H bid and South's spade void suggest E/W are headed to 4 of a major, and South has little defense. He can expect to win seven tricks on his own with diamonds as trumps; it would be reasonable to hope for a trick from partner. A bold five diamonds might escape being doubled but 4D looks right -- partner may be able to sacrifice, and the jump may cause E/W to miss their best fit (such as clubs on today's layout.
West should pass over any diamond bid; if partner cannot support spades it may be better to defend. North can picture a crossruff -- South must be short in spades and is likely to have some clubs; should North try 5D? This is why the ACBL requires (but does little to enforce) a pause by West (in this case) over South's jump -- North is entitled to time to think. North must decide if his hand is offensively better than South was expecting when he jumped. I'd say two trumps is what partner expected and no ruffing value, so North can reasonably sacrifice at 5D. If North passes instead, East can try 4S, but at the five level (with no known fit) East must double or try a forcing pass. I'm not an expert on forcing passes but in this case it seems West should be able to read partner for some club length: no spade raise, no heart rebid, no double of diamonds. 6C looks great on the expected diamond lead, but South might try a Lightner slam double: "don't lead my suit, find my void!" This would be clear at IMPs but less so at matchpoints -- the Ace of diamonds does not rate to cash.
If West opens 1C the bidding may proceed 1C-pass-1H-4D; 4S-pass-? North is happy for spades to be trumps; East must decide between 5C and 6C. The King in South's suit is a red flag and I would probably opt for 5C; West, however, raises to 6.
| Board 8 West Deals None Vul |
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North opens 1C, South responds 1H and North rebids 1S. South must decide between 3S and 4S. The good controls and 4-6 shape suggest optimism, but the shortage in partner's first suit suggests caution. As some point-counters may meekly raise to 2, I think 3S is reasonable. This suggests 11-12 points in playing value; 7-10 would raise to 2 and 6 or less could simply pass. Over either 3S or 4S, North has extra values, but he can expect wasted values in hearts and cannot make much use of the suit for pitches. 4S should be the final contract.
East leads a trump -- the bidding suggests a crossruff -- picking up partner's Queen. There was no safe lead on this auction, certainly not the Ace of diamonds. Declarer's best plan is to set up the clubs, and a ruffing finesse against East has better chances than the straight finesse against West, which cannot be repeated. Declarer pulls trumps in three rounds, cashes the Ace of clubs and runs the Queen, pitching a diamond from dummy. This insures five trump tricks, four clubs, a heart and a diamond for +450. (For some reason I thought I was playing a 5-4 fit and failed to pull the last trump.) Declarer must be careful with his entries -- don't cash the Ace of hearts until you've set up both diamonds and clubs, if possible.
| Board 10 East Deals Both Vul |
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South opens 1D and West overcalls 2C. As North I promptly bid 2S despite only 6 hcp -- the 6-5 shape has great potential and my points were all in my longest suit. East compete with 3C; South bids 3NT based on the expectation of 24 hcp in the two hands and his double club stop. Bidding 3D or 3H risks missing the "golden game." West may double but in any case North has no intention of playing notrump. 5-4 in the majors would not be worth pulling to 4H (too big a risk of no fit) and a 6-4 hand would either pass or bid 4S, so when North bids 4H South should assume at least 5-5. Both East and West have reasonable defense for their previous bidding and so it is not obvious for either to push on in clubs.
East leads a club; declarer calls for the Ace and then the Queen, pitching his diamond. He'd like the defenders to break trumps and this maneuver threatens a crossruff. West leads a low trump, keeping the Ace to overruff in spades or to play two more rounds quickly. Declarer captures East's Jack and leads dummy's spade. If E/W are in the habit of giving count, East can read West's 2 for a singleton: the bidding marks North with five or more spades and West would hi-low with a doubleton. But partner led a trump - that doesn't look like he wants a ruff. East leads the Queen of diamonds, ruffed by North. Now declarer ruffs a low spade with anything but dummy's 2 and leads a trump, losing only to the high trump. Repeated diamond leads starting with the Queen may foul declarer's communications.
To add insult to injury, E/W can make a very lucky 6C! Generally, the favorable location of high cards for declaring will also be favorable for defending, but in this case North's extreme distribution makes for an exception. At a team game East or West might bid again as insurance against a double game swing. Of course, some Norths may have felt they were too weak to bid, but it is not obvious that E/W would get any higher than 3C on their own steam.
| Board 14 East Deals None Vul |
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South opens 1C, West overcalls 1D or doubles. I generally prefer to overcall first and double later -- the odds favor a fit in diamond and you cannot expect partner to bid diamonds (with 3 of them) in preference to spades (with 4.) The suit is robust and you want partner to lead diamonds. North was planning a strong jump to 2S but it is normal to play weak jumps in competition so North begins with a nebulous but still forcing 1S. This does not promise five card length -- it is better competitively for the double here to show both majors and simply to bid when you have only one of them. If you think "bid shows 5, double with 4" you risk not finding your fit when East raises and South is not strong enough to bid at the two level without certainty of a fit.
East has zero high card points, but four trumps and a void are worth a preemptive raise. Three diamonds won't accomplish much; you can bid 4D, hoping they have a slam but stop at game, or overbid to 5D, taking away their 4NT bid and forcing them to guess whether to double or bid at the five level. I'd probably bid 5D, preferring to have at least a little defense for the below-game 4D. South would pass any lower bid around to partner, but pretty much has to double 5D with his three Aces. North, still thinking slam and with a potential double-fit, wishes he could've started with a strong 2S. Is partner's double based on diamond strength or quick tricks? Who knows? But it seems likely partner has two Aces and North bids 6S, hoping he doesn't lose a spade trick when 6C is cold. Thirteen tricks are easy. We were able to find our fit and use RKCB 4NT and 5NT, but it was not obvious where a 13th trick was coming from.
| Board 17 North Deals None Vul |
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