10.31.09
Posted in Defense, Opening Leads, Preempts at 6:02 am by Administrator
I had an interesting hand today. The auction really should have been quite standard and probably was at virtually every table. The key difference at the various tables was probably the defense.
I picked up the following hand, with nobody vulnerable:
Kx x x KJ98xxxxx
Everyone probably opened this hand 5 clubs in first seat, and the hand was probably passed out. After all, there is an old bridge adage — what do you call a 9 card suit? – Trump!! A 5-level opener should generally be a hand with an 8-9 card minor and about 8 tricks in the hand, perhaps 9 if vulnerable, and less than opening values. The hand probably has little defensive value, if any. For those who play traditional gambling 3NT opening bids, the suit should not be a solid 8-card minor.
The hand above fits this definition. I held a 9-card broken minor suit (not a bad suit, but not solid) and a doubleton king on the side. The side king was of questionable defensive value. I looked at the hand and figured I had 1, possibly 2 club losers and possibly a spade loser. This amounted to approximately 8 tricks, so I opened 5 clubs. If my club suit was stronger, say KQJxxxxxx with a side king, I might have opened 1 club, but with the broken suit, 5 clubs was the right call.
The opening lead was the A of clubs. I will come back to the opening lead shortly. Dummy hits with the following hand:
ATx AKxx KQTxxx —
A very good dummy. My partner gave careful thought to raising me to 6C, but she trusted me to have about 8 tricks and a club suit with at least 1 loser in it. Therefore, in order to make 6C, I would have to either have the A of diamonds (which I should not have for the non-vulnerable 5C opening) or a diamond void (possible to have but impossible for her to rely on or to discover without committing us to 6 clubs). Her pass was clearly the correct bid. If she had the A of diamonds instead of the KQ, then she should raise to 6 clubs, hoping I only had 1 club loser.
Back to the opening lead. My LHO (left hand opponent) lead the A of clubs from the following hand:
Jxxxx Qxxx Jxx A
I might have the exact holdings in the majors off a little bit, but she did not hold the QJ in either major. In any case, the A of clubs is almost certainly the right lead. It is hard for her to know which major suit (or diamonds for that matter) is the best lead, but leading the A of clubs on this auction will rarely give away a trick and will give her the opportunity to look at dummy and find the best shift. Well, she looked at dummy and shifted to a low spade!!!! I nearly fell out of my chair!!! After that great opening lead and looking at dummy, she found one of the two suits that she could shift to and let me make the contract. Upon the spade shift, I won the A of spades in dummy, played the A and K of hearts, pitching my losing diamond on the second heart. I now trumped a diamond to get to my hand, played the K of clubs and found the bad news — the clubs were 3-1 and I had to lose the Q of clubs. So I made my contract.
Looking at dummy, if my LHO trusted me to have 8 or 9 clubs and probably no outside ace, she clearly should have switched to a diamond at trick 2. My RHO (right hand opponent) would now win her ace and eventually would get the Q of clubs (as I do not have enough transportation to set up a trump coup to capture the Q of clubs – with 9 clubs, I simply have too many clubs to use up in order to set up a trump coup).
About half the players were in 5C, making 5, and half went down 1 trick. Basically, if the opening lead was a major, the declarer can pitch away the diamond loser on the second heart before drawing trump, and therefore make the contract. No person on opening lead in their right mind would find the lead of a diamond from Jxx on this auction. However, if someone did lead a diamond at trick one, that person would defeat the contract. However, I believe the best lead was the A of clubs, followed by a diamond switch.
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06.04.09
Posted in 7-Card Fits, Jump Rebids, Preempts at 12:54 am by Administrator
Two interesting hand from this afternoon. The first hand I call “To Save or Not To Save . . . That is the Question”.
You pick up the following hand, not vul v. vul:
S: 86
H: 94
D: A964
C: K8765
Not a great hand but reasonable support for a minor suit or NT (if partner has the majors). Anyway, the bidding proceeds as follows:
Partner RHO You LHO
3C Dbl ?
I chose 5C! If partner opens 3C at this vulnerability, partner could have real garbage. He may have one defensive trick, probably in clubs (which in this case is meaningless on defense). He should a 7-card suit, which means we are only missing one club. Therefore he probably has the AQJxxxx of clubs. If he is missing the Ace of clubs, then he might have an outside A or K. In any case, we have no defensive club tricks since one of the opponents is void in clubs. I have one diamond trick. Partner might have one trick on the side, but not likely. Therefore, the opponents can almost certainly make 5 of a major, and quite possibly 6. I want to keep them guessing, so I preempted to the 5-level, hoping that they will double. I am prepared to go to 6C if necessary, but I hope it is not necessary. I was concerned that they might make 6S, but there is a reasonable chance that they will not bid it, and if they do, partner could easily have a slow trick (a side queen) or a singleton diamond, meaning that they cannot make 6S. Was I right in bidding 5C?
The answer is NO!! I should have bid 6C!!! This makes their decision even more difficult. When I bid 5C, I gave them too much bidding room . They could bid 5D, 5H, 5S, double or bid at the 6-level. By bidding 6C, I have taken an additional level away from them. Now, the only real choice is double or bid 6S (or another unbid suit, which may or may not work).
So the auction went as such:
Partner RHO You LHO
3C 3S 5C 5S
Pass Pass 6C Dbl
All Pass
I feel it should have gone:
Partner RHO You LHO
3C 3S 6C Dbl or 6S
All Pass
The full deal was:
Me (North)
S: 86
H: 94
D: A964
C: K8765
West East
S: AKQJ54 S: T32
H: T872 H: AK63
D: T2 D: KQJ853
C: T C: Void
Partner(South)
S: 97
H: QJ4
D: 7
C: AQJ9432
Actually, partner is a bit good for his 3C opening, but his QJ4 of hearts may as well be three small cards, so no harm in this case.
As it turns out, with proper defense, the opponents make 5S, not 6S, for 650, but 6C doubled only goes down 3, for 500. Once we bid 6C, the opponents can do no better than an average minus result (we got 8.5 out of 12 matchpoints for minus 500).
If they bid 6S, I see only one line of defense to beat the contract. I know we have no club tricks and partner should have no quick defensive tricks outside clubs, so I have to hope that partner has a singleton diamond. Therefore, I must lead the A of diamonds (I hate leading aces against slams, but sometimes it is necessary to minimize damage or to beat a contract), and then a second diamond, hoping partner has only one. The odds are not great, but this is probably my best shot. In this case, it pays off. Partner ruffs the second diamond, holding this to 5S (or down 1 in 6S).
Please feel free to post any comments.
The second hand, I call “But I Only Have One Trump for You, Partner”.
My partner’s hand is as follows:
S: 764
H: Q
D: AJT75
C: QJT8
So the auction went as such:
Partner RHO Me LHO
Pass Pass 1H Pass
1NT* Pass 3H All pass
*Forcing for 1 round, 5-11 HCP
We made 6, but could be held to 4. Should partner have passed my 3H bid?
The answer is clearly no. Partner should take another bid. I have announced approximately 15-17 or 18- HCP and a 6-card suit. Partner has a hefty 10 HCP, though no clear fit for me (and no knowledge as to whether I have a fit for one of his minors). What should partner do?
3NT is a treacherous bid. I do not have to have any useful spade cards, and we could lose 5+ spades off the top. I have jammed the auction a bit too much to comfortable find a minor suit game, but that was probably intentional. What kind of hand do I have? As noted above, I have approximately 15-17 or 18- HCP and a 6-card suit. For my jump to 3H, I either have a very good heart suit (at least AK9xxx, no Q, since partner has it) with at least 15 HCP, or a broken suit, something like AJ9xxx or KJ9xxx) with at least 16 HCP. Anything less than these two types of hands do not merit a jump to 3H. If my suit is a good suit, that Q is a huge card. It means I should have at least 5, if not 6 heart tricks, assuming a 6-card heart suit, plus at least 7-8 HCP on the side (should be useful cards, not soft values, otherwise I probably would not jump to 3H). If my suit is broken, that Q is still a big card, filling in my suit. Plus, I must have more side values if my suit is broken. In either case, we have game values and at least a 7-card fit (at least 6-1). I believe this is worth a 4H bid.
It is important to note that if you had a small singleton heart (say the J or smaller), then 3NT might be a better call. If my trump suit is broken, I can pull 3NT to 4H, as a broken trump suit might play better in a suit contract than in NT. If my suit is solid, it might produce the same tricks in either contract.
The full deal was:
Me (North)
S: 32
H: AKT985
D: KQ2
C: K9
West East
S: KT98 S: AQJ5
H: J62 H: 743
D: 983 D: 64
C: A32 C: 7654
Partner(South)
S: 764
H: Q
D: AJT75
C: QJT8
4H is cold on any defense (losing 2 spades and the A of clubs), but no trump can be held to 2 (losing 4 spades and the A of clubs).
Any comments?
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