Match 2 - Board 15

Board 15
Our side vulnerable

♠ 8 7 ♥ 8 7 ♦ 10 9 7 6 3 ♣ K 9 6 5

I pass in first seat--pass--one notrump (12-14) by partner. RHO doubles. Since Jack refuses to play my runout methods, I'm reluctantly playing his. I bid two clubs, showing either diamonds or both majors. LHO bids two spades, RHO bids two notrump, and LHO bids four hearts, which ends the auction. Partner, apparently concluding I don't have the majors, leads the king of diamonds:

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

West	North	East	South
		Pass	Pass
1 NT	Double	2 ♣1	2 ♠
Pass	2 NT	Pass	4 ♥
(All pass)
1Diamonds or (spades and hearts)

Why didn't North simply pass two spades? Two spades should be intended as a signoff opposite a minimum double, so North shouldn't bid again without extras (more than a strong notrump) or a good spade fit. But it looks as if he lucked out. South is marked with eight to ten high card points. I suspect he has exactly eight, since even that gives him a rather hefty two spade bid. Partner has a doubleton king of diamonds. That means he won't have a doubleton heart, so declarer has only four. Declarer, in fact, should be precisely 5-4-3-1. I know his shape and his exact point count. I'd better get this defense right, or it will be very embarassing.

Dummy wins with the diamond ace. I encourage with the ten. (If anyone thinks suit-preference applies here, please don't tell me.) Declarer follows with the four, then plays the deuce of clubs off dummy.

Why is declarer playing clubs rather than the majors? One reason might be to kill my entry. If partner has two entries, he can use the first entry to play another diamond and the second entry to underlead his club ace for a diamond ruff. Declarer seems to be putting a stop to that plan via a scissors coup. It's hard to see any reason for declarer to play a club if he holds a singleton ace, so I might as well hop to prevent his taking a ruffing finesse against my king later.

I play the club king--ten--eight. I'm in for probably the last time, so if there's anything I need to do, now is my chance. If we're going to beat this, we must assume partner has a trump trick. So let's give him king-ten-nine of hearts. (Although I guess king-ten-six is good enough. Even king-ten-deuce might be good enough depending on how declarer plays.) That leaves partner with four high card points in spades. If he has the ace, two more tricks are all we're getting. Maybe king-jack-nine gives declarer more of a problem.

If that's what partner has, surely a spade switch, stopping a potential endplay, is my best defense. A spade shift might not suffice, but if I don't shift to spade, declarer can make it easily. Say I play a diamond. Declarer wins in dummy, ruffs a club, heart to the jack, ruffs a club, heart to the ace, and plays the last diamond. If partner refuses to ruff, declarer can toss him in with a club to lead from the spade king.

I shift to the seven of spades. (Partner already has a complete count. No need to help declarer.) Declarer plays the queen. That's a good sign. Partner wins with the ace. That's not. I guess we can't beat this. And indeed we don't. Partner does have a trump trick, but that's all we get. Making four.

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

Would the spade shift have beaten it if partner had king-jack-nine fourth of spades? Say declarer ducks the spade shift to partner's jack. Partner continues diamonds. Declarer ruffs a club to his hand, plays a heart to the jack, cashes the heart ace, then plays ace and ruffs a spade. We're down to this position with the lead in dummy, declarer needing three more tricks:

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

Declarer leads the diamond jack. If partner ruffs, he is endplayed. He must either set up a trick for declarer in one black suit or the other. If partner doesn't ruff, declarer can score two more tricks on a crossruff. Declarer might not choose this line, of course. If declarer thinks spades are three-three and hearts four-one, he might find a way to go down. That was the point of shifting to the spade seven instead of the eight.

What about the auction? Obviously two spades was a underbid, which North compensated for with his egregious overbid. But what should South do? My agreement is that, when partner doubles one notrump and responder pulls, we play exactly as if partner had opened one notrump and the next hand overcalled. (See Countering Interference over One Notrump.)

If one of my spades were a club, I would have a classic negative double of two clubs. (Yes, I play double as negative even when two clubs is artificial.) I can't afford to double with a singleton club, however, and this layout shows why. Double would probably end the auction, and I don't think we can manage down two.

With the given hand, I would pass and let West bid two diamonds. If partner has a doubleton diamond, he is expected to double for takeout, even with a minimum. I'm willing to drive to game opposite a doubleton diamond, so I would then bid three diamonds, intending to pull three notrump to four spades.

If two diamonds is passed around to me (as it would be here), I would double. This, also, is ostensibly for take-out, showing a doubleton diamond and support for the unbid suits, but I think I can handle the continuations. I can raise two hearts to three, I can raise two spades to four, and I can bid three spades (showing a game invitation with a fifth spade) over two notrump or three clubs.

We get three matchpoints for minus 420. Everyone bid game. But one pair played three notrump making three, and two declarers contrived to go down if four hearts.

An interest side note. I find myself applying unusual critera for choosing discards when playing with Jack. At one point late in this deal, I had an apparently immaterial choice of discarding from three diamonds or from a doubleton club. I chose to discard a club. The reason? Laziness. I knew declarer was going to play a club next. If I came down to a singleton, Jack would play my card for me automatically. If I held two clubs, I would have to click the mouse button.

Score on Board 15: -420 (3 MP)
Total: 127 MP (70.6%)

Current Rank: 1st