Board 44

Board 44 (Click to download pbn file)
Our side vulnerable

♠ A K Q J 10 ♥ 7 4 ♦ 9 6 5 3 ♣ K 9

LHO opens two diamonds, weak, which is passed around to me. I bid two spades, and partner raises to three. I have six losers. To make a game, partner needs to cover three of them. It generally takes a limit raise to cover three losers, and partner doesn't have one, since he didn't bid three diamonds. Still, this looks like a pretty good hand for a balancing two-spade bid, so let me think about this some more. Let's give partner two aces, a pretty optimistic construction for a raise to three spades. To make game even opposite that ideal hand, I would need to ruff two diamonds in dummy without getting overruffed. I guess it's right to pass. West passes also and leads the seven of clubs.

	NORTH ♠ 7 5 3 ♥ J 9 8 2 ♦ K 10 4 ♣ A J 6
	SOUTH ♠ A K Q J 10 ♥ 7 4 ♦ 9 6 5 3 ♣ K 9

West	North	East	South
2 ♦	Pass	Pass	2 ♠
Pass	3 ♠	(All pass)

I play low from dummy, East plays the ten, and I win with the king. I have eight tricks, counting the diamond king, but I can't afford to work on a ninth until I get the trumps out of the way. I draw trumps in three rounds. Both opponents play up the line; East discards the deuce of clubs on the third round.

West would probably have led a singleton heart, so he is either 3-2-6-2 or 3-3-6-1. The king of diamonds will be my eight trick.  I will need to develop either a second diamond trick or a heart for my ninth.  Since I know how the diamonds lie, let's consider going after a second diamond trick first.  If that doesn't work, I'll think about playing hearts. Say I lead a diamond to the jack and king. I now play a heart. If the defense continues hearts, I ruff the third round and play a diamond toward the ten. West hops. Since he has no more hearts, he can't tap me. I can establish my diamond nine, and I still have a trump to get to my hand to cash it. Suppose when I play a heart from dummy, West wins and plays another club. That means he was 3-2-6-2, so if I rise with the ace and play another heart, he's down to all diamonds. I can ruff whatever they return and play a diamond, eventually scoring my nine. It doesn't help for West to hop with the diamond ace on the first diamond. In fact, that makes my job easier.

So diamonds it is. I play the three of diamonds--jack--king--club three. Now the deuce of hearts--six--seven--queen. The defense plays two more hearts, tapping me, and I play another diamond. Making three:

	NORTH ♠ 7 5 3 ♥ J 9 8 2 ♦ K 10 4 ♣ A J 6
WEST ♠ 8 6 4 ♥ Q 5 3 ♦ A Q J 8 7 2 ♣ 7		EAST ♠ 9 2 ♥ A K 10 6 ♦ -- ♣ Q 10 8 5 4 3 2
	SOUTH ♠ A K Q J 10 ♥ 7 4 ♦ 9 6 5 3 ♣ K 9

At the other table, the auction begins the same way, but South continues on to four spades after the raise and goes down one. I was a little surprised by this, so I checked to see what three diamonds by North would have meant. Jack calls this an "unassuming cue-bid." Apparently it denies spade support. I suppose if you have a good hand with no support, no stopper, and no suit of your own, it might be useful for three diamonds to mean that. But that seems like a rare hand. I would rather just do the best I can with that hand and give myself two ways to raise spades below game. If I had known three spades showed any hand with support that was unwilling to raise to game, I'm not sure what I would have done. The diamond length is a big liability, so I suspect I still would have passed, but I would have been a lot more nervous about it.

Me: +140
Jack: -100

Score on Board 44: +6 IMPs

Total: +105 IMPs