Another From Terra Linda

Here is another hand I held at last week's game with Dave at Terra Linda that is an intersting bidding problem. With none vulnerable, I picked this up in fourth seat:

♠  AKJ3
♥  AQ6
♦   87543
♣  A

Dave passed, and RHO opened 1 Heart.  How should I plan the auction?

There is no good action.  I could overcall 1NT, but this hand seems suit-oriented, and could play much better in spades than no-trump when partner would be too weak to use Stayman, say with xxxx/xx/Qx/Jxxxx.  I could overcall 1 Spade, but that seems like an underbid and is mis-descriptive.  I could double, but I didn't have a good follow-up plan if partner didn't respond in spades.   With this shape, I could follow up with 2 Diamonds without promising extra strength (an equal-level conversion), but this would also be mis-descriptive with that awful suit, or follow up with 2NT, which is also mis-descriptive with the singleton ace.   After thinking about this for a while, I finally decided to double and rebid 2NT if partner bid the dreaded 2 Clubs.  This sequence should promise 19-20 HCP,  but the prime cards and positional value of the spade jack and heart queen would allow me to upgrade even though the singleton ace was a liability.

Well,  the auction did indeed go pass, 2 Clubs by Dave, pass back to me, so I followed my plan and rebid 2NT.  Dave, who had passed originally, now made me really unhappy by jumping to 5 Clubs!   Everyone passed, and I reluctantly put this hand down as dummy.  But I felt a lot better after Dave made six!  He held

♠  AKJ3
♥  AQ6
♦   87543
♣  A

♠  8
♥  72
♦  A92
♣ Q986543

The opponents led a low spade.  He finessed the jack, cashed the club ace, pitched his two diamond losers on the AK of spades, played a diamond to the ace, then a low club.  LHO had to play the king (he started with K7), so Dave was able to draw the last trump with the queen and take a winning heart finesse through LHO to make 12 tricks.  This got us 10 matchpoints out of 12.

Next report will be from New Orleans.  Jenn and I are trying our luck there in the Mixed Board-a-Match teams and the Swiss Teams. 

Good luck!

 

Jennbridge: The Power of Tens (and Nines)

I played today in a pairs game at the Terra Linda Bridge Club, a nice venue in Marin County, with Dave Neuman, my other regular partner.  I picked up, in fourth seat, both sides vulnerable:

♠  A972
♥  A972
♦  AJ5
♣  J6

LHO opened 1 Heart.  Dave bid 2NT, showing the minors.  What to do?

I thought that he had to have decent suits to come in vulnerable, and I had protection in the majors, so I raised to 3NT, which ended the bidding.  I didn't realize it at the time, but the two nines in the majors were precious.  My LHO led a low heart.  Dave looked at:


♠  A972
♥  A972
♦   AJ5 
♣  J6

♠ T
♥ T8
♦  QT874 
♣ AQT52


He ducked this to the jack.  The contract was cold, as the full hand was:

           ♠  A972
          ♥  A972
          ♦  AJ5
          ♣  J6


♠ KJ863           Q54
♥ 43                 KQJ65
♦ 93                  K62
♣ 8743              K9


         ♠ T
         ♥ T8
         ♦  QT874
         ♣ AQT52

RHO actually played the heart queen, but had he shifted to a spade, the result would have been the same.  In either case, win dummy's ace and lead the diamond jack to force out the king.  The combinations of nine and ten in each major produces a second stopper, so you have time to score 4 diamonds, 3 clubs and two major suit aces.  Dave's four tens and my nines were the key to the hand.  The major suit tens and nines played defense, while the minor suit tens provided the offense.  The diamond ten solidified that suit, and the club ten was the ninth trick. 

10.5 out of 12 matchpoints, on our way to a 60% game that was worth second out of 16 pairs. 

Good luck!
 

Jennbridge: Matchpoints at its Best (or Worst)

Jenn and I won a two-session sectional pairs event this weekend, but since our margin of victory was less than a board, we might not have if we hadn't gotten this hand right.  It illustrates how different matchpoints is from IMPs or rubber bridge.  I held, in third seat with both vulnerable:


♠  AKT2
♥  J754
♦   J3
♣  T86

 
Jenn dealt and opened 1 Club and RHO doubled.  We play that whenever we have enough to respond over an opening bid, we usually make the same bid if there is an intervening takeout double.  I therefore bid 1 Heart.  LHO bid 2 Diamonds, Jenn bid 3 Clubs and RHO passed.  I was happy in this spot so I passed.  LHO now competed with 3 Spades, which was passed to me.  What now? 


I thought that it was likely that 3 Clubs would have made for +110 or maybe +130.  If I sold out to 3 Spades, we would have gotten a bad matchpoint score even if we set it a trick, since +100 would lose to all pairs allowed to play 3 Clubs.  So I had to do something. I decided that it was more likely that we could beat 3 Spades than make 4 Clubs.  LHO's bidding marked him with 5 diamonds and 4 spades, and RHO couldn't have more than 4 spades (if he had 5, he would either have overcalled 1 Spade or bid 3 Spades over 3 Clubs if his hand was too strong for an overcall.)  So I knew that they had at most 8 spades between them, so we had the law of total tricks on our side and they were getting a bad trump break.  So I whacked it. This is a bid I would never risk at IMPs, since if they make it, we'd be -730 for a huge adverse swing. 


Everyone passed, Jenn led the ace of clubs and dummy tabled:


♠  Q743
♥  KQ8
♦  A975
♣  J2

 I encouraged a club continuation.  The ace held, declarer dropping the queen, but the second round was ruffed.  Now I had a pretty good picture of the hand.  LHO was 4=3=5=1 or 4=2=6=1.  Jenn probably had the ace of hearts along with AK97543 to justify her 3 Club rebid.  So to beat this, I had to score the ten of spades for our fifth trick. 


Declarer played a spade to the queen.  I now had the hand set since I could win with the king, play the ace and a small spade, which declarer would have to win with the jack, setting up my ten, with the ace of hearts for our fifth trick.  +200 was worth 14 out of 17 matchpoints.  +100 would have been considerably below average. 


Declarer could not make this no matter how he played it.  Probably his best chance would have been to play a diamond to dummy and a low spade.  I would have to play low, then he would finesse against my ten by playing low from his J986.  However, he could never shut out my spade ten.  If he continued with the spade Jack or got to dummy again to play another low spade, I would win with the king, cash the ace, and then play my last club, forcing dummy's queen.  If he abandoned trumps, I would eventually ruff a diamond with the ten. 


It is noteworthy that RHO could have put more pressure on me by raising to 3 Diamonds.  Now, while the matchpoint logic would still call for a double, it would have been much riskier for me since I would likely have faced a 9-card fit so the law of total tricks would have been working against us.  I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision.  As the cards were, 3 Diamonds would also have gone down since Jenn would have gotten a spade ruff.  After cashing the ace of clubs, she would have shifted to her singleton spade as I would have discouraged a club continuation and spades would have been the obvious shift.


Good luck!

Jennbridge: Ostensibly a Game Try ***

Here's another hand from the Palo Alto KOs.  This hand helped us advance to the semifinals:

♠ AJx
♥ AKQxx
♦ KJxxx
♣ void

In response to my one heart opening bid, partner bid 3 clubs, a Bergen raise showing 8-9 points and 4 trumps.  He should have a 9 loser hand. 

I studied my hand and noted that I only had 4 losers.  We might be in the slam zone if partner had the right cards.  How to find out?

Values in diamonds would be the most helpful.  With that in mind, I decided to bid 3 diamonds, which we play as a help-suit game try.  I was pleased when Bob jumped to game.  I followed it with a jump to slam--6 hearts! 
 
♠ Kxx
♥ xxxx
♦ Qx
♣ Axxx

♠ AJx
♥ AKQxx
♦ KJxxx
♣ void

A club was led and I pitched a spade on the ace.  Partner's cards were just what I needed.  Hearts broke 2-2 and diamonds were friendly enough to bring in the slam.  Even though we were playing against a good team (national champions, all) they didn't find the slam at the other table.  These 13 imps contributed to a sizable win.

See you at the table!

Bidding 'em Up in Palo Alto **+

Jenn and I played in a two-day KO event in the annual Fourth of July Palo Alto sectional over the weekend.  We got to the finals but lost.  Here's a hand from our semifinal match.  I held, in fourth seat, neither side vulnerable:


♠  AT9x
♥  void
♦   Axx
♣  AKJT9x


LHO dealt and opened 2 Diamonds.  Jenn overcalled 2 Spades and RHO passed.  What now?


I should have just gone right to 5NT, a grand slam force in spades.  This asks partner to bid a grand slam with two of the top three honors.  The only risk here was that Jenn had a lot of diamond losers, since RHO didn't raise diamonds, or she held three small clubs and might lose a trick to the queen.  I could foresee setting up the clubs to take care of her diamond losers.  But I thought I might get more information, so I cuebid 3 Diamonds.   Jenn now bid 3 Hearts, which RHO doubled.  What now?


I couldn't risk bidding 5NT since this might be for hearts, the last bid suit, even though it was doubled.  I was afraid to bid 3 Spades, since while this should be forcing, I sure didn't want to see a pass from Jenn which would have been a huge disaster.  So I stalled for time by repeating the cuebid with 4 Diamonds.  Jenn now bid 4 Spades.  Phew!  Now I could bid 5NT as an unambiguous grand slam force in spades.  Jenn duly bid 7 Spades, uncomfortably,  with


♠  KQxxxx
♥  Qxxxx
♦  Qx
♣  void


She had the worst possible holding, a club void, so the slam required some care in the play.   It would be awkward to try for 13 tricks on a straight cross-ruff missing the trump jack, so Jenn had to set up the clubs.  Her LHO led the ace of hearts, ruffed in dummy.  Jenn ruffed a club and played a spade to dummy, the jack falling singleton.  Now she had enough entries to ruff safely until the club queen fell (clubs were 4-3) so the grand slam made. 


All of this produced a push board, as they bid the grand at the other table also (they didn't use GSF, just  Blackwood, so were lucky that partner held the spade king and not the heart ace.)  We won the match by just 10 IMPs, so we had to bid and make this to get to the finals. 


Good luck!