Free Weekly Instant Tournament - November 10 - Board 6

Board 6
Opponents vulnerable

♠ K Q J  ♥ K Q 5 3 2  ♦ Q 7 6  ♣ K J

RHO opens with one heart. I could overcall with one notrump. But since the opponents are vulnerable and we aren't, it's tempting to pass, hoping to collect a penalty.

There are two problems with the approach. The first is that my defensive prospects aren't as good as my point count suggests. While I have five hearts, my spots are bad, so my heart stack may not be all that troublesome for declarer. And I have no aces; my values are all soft.

A more serious problem, however, is that if I pass, I may have no good follow-up. If the auction happens to proceed one spade--pass--one notrump, I'm in great shape. I can double, and partner will have a pretty good picture of my hand.

Other auctions, however, are more awkward. If opener rebids two hearts, my spots aren't good enough to double, so I will have to pass. If he rebids two of a minor over a one spade or one notrump response, I will have to pass then as well. 

So passing one heart will likely lead to defending something undoubled. Since this could easily be our hand for a notrump game, I'm not willing to do that. It looks better to overcall one notrump. That will not only make it easier to bid game if we have one, it will also keep the auction uncomplicated--always a good idea when playing with a robot.

I bid one notrump, LHO passes, and partner bids two notrump, a transfer to clubs. RHO passes, and I dutifully bid three clubs. LHO now comes to life with three diamonds. What's that all about? With long diamonds and a hand not good enough to double, why not bid two diamonds on the previous round? I can't imagine a hand where I would take this auction.

I have nothing further to say. I pass, and partner leads the deuce of spades.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Phillip	Robot
	1 ♥	1 NT	Pass
2 NT	Pass	3 ♣	3 ♦
(All pass)

Declarer apparently has ace third or fourth of spades and probably a stiff heart, since partner would have led a heart if he held the singleton. He must have six diamonds to trot out the suit unilaterally at the three-level. Perhaps he has something like

♠ A x x  ♥ x  ♦ K J 10 x x x  ♣ x x x

This would give some semblance of sense to his auction. With six good diamonds, he is happy to defend one notrump, but less happy to defend three clubs. He might have chosen to double one notrump with this hand, but perhaps not.

The next step after forming a provisional construction is to predict how the play will go. Then, if your prediction is wrong, you will know to revise your construction. If my construction on this deal is correct, declarer will probably win and play ace and a club, intending to ruff a club with the diamond ace and hook me out of the diamond queen.

My best chance for another trick is to find partner with a stiff jack of diamonds. Then declarer can't afford to ruff with the diamond ace. Even a stiff ten will force declarer to guess the diamond suit. Either the jack or ten in partner's hand makes South's decision not to double one notrump more believable. So this is a likely layout.

I have a slight problem in that I have no safe exits. On my construction, I have a safe club exit, but I don't want to commit to my construction unless I have to. While it's unlikely declarer has the club queen, I'd just as soon he didn't get any ideas about endplaying me. That means I don't want him to know I have king-queen-jack tight of spades. I'll play the spade queen at trick one, making it appear I have a spade exit. Partner will think declarer has the jack, but he doesn't have much to do on this deal, so I doubt the lie will do any harm.

I play the queen, and declarer wins with the spade ace. He then, surprisingly, plays the four of hearts to dummy's ace, partner contributing the nine, and leads a spade from dummy.

What's going on? Why isn't declarer trying to ruff a club in dummy? The most likely explanation is he doesn't have one to ruff. Perhaps he's 4-1-6-2 and intends to ruff a spade if they don't break.

But why go to the trouble to play spades from dummy? It's inconvenient to release the heart ace. He must have some reason. 

Maybe he wants me to win the second spade. Perhaps he's afraid if he leads a spade from his hand, partner will hop with the jack and shift to a club. He thinks if I win the trick, a club shift will be harder to find. Yes, that makes sense. He is hoping spades are three-three and trumps two-two. Then, if we don't get clubs going fast enough, he can pitch dummy's club on the long spade and ruff a club in dummy.

Since trumps aren't two-two, he can't do that. Say I cash both spades and play a trump. He can either draw all the trumps and lose a club or cash two trumps and pitch a club as I ruff in. He must lose either a club or a trump. Making four.

What happens if I go after the club trick? I win this spade, play a club, win the next spade and cash the club. Now he has to guess the trumps. If he misguesses, he makes only three. Since I have a notrump overcall without the diamond queen, he might well misguess.

I'm sure I'm wrong about why declarer is determined to play spades from dummy. The robots don't play at that level. But this looks like the right defense anyway. I win with the spade jack--five--eight.  Now the club king--three--six--ace.

Declarer plays another spade--king--ten--four. I lead the club jack and partner overtakes with the queen to lead the ten of hearts. Declarer plays low from dummy and ruffs it.

Now a diamond to the ace and a diamond back to the king. Partner, surprisingly, follows to the second diamond with the jack. So declarer is 4-1-5-3?

He ruffs a club in dummy. I overruff with the queen and declarer takes the rest. Making three. 

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

This is a surprising 100%. The field is passing one heart. The auction then goes one spade--pass--one notrump, and they pass again. I don't get it. Isn't this exactly what you are hoping for if you pass one heart? You get the continuation you were dreaming of and then don't double? One notrump makes two, so my minus 110 beat the minus 120s. If you double, partner will pull to two clubs. Who knows what happens after that, but you will surely do better than minus 120.

There seems to be a reluctance among some players to overcall one notrump. The deal last week was, I thought, a routine one-notrump overcall and almost no one bid it. I even got some weird objections in the comments in the Bridge People group on Facebook. One person, if I understood him correctly, suggested I wouldn't have overcalled one notrump in a real game.

I find the one notrump overcall to be a very useful call. If partner has a decent hand, it makes your auction run smoothly. It can make it easy to bid a game that would be difficult to reach otherwise. Yes, sometimes LHO will double and you will have no place to run. But, so what? You can get in trouble overcalling in a suit as well. You can't bid assuming the worst will happen. If you have a bid that describes your hand perfectly, it's usually a good idea to make it.