Board 5
Our side vulnerable
| ♠ A K 10 9 5 ♥ A K Q J 6 4 ♦ J ♣ K |
Partner passes, and RHO opens with one diamond. I'm willing to drive this hand to game. In fact, I don't need much for slam. The spade queen and an ace suffices. A small doubleton spade and an ace might be enough opposite adequate heart support.
I could start with two diamonds, a Michaels cue-bid. But I'm not a fan of Michaels with good hands. When it's our hand, I like to keep the auction low to find out as much as I can. If I bid one heart and partner raises to two hearts, at least I know he has something. But if I bid two diamonds and partner bids two hearts, I know very little. Partner could have a hand where he would have raised an overcall. Or he could have nothing. He might even have a doubleton heart. In short, I'm better placed if I give partner a chance to raise my suit voluntarily.
One downside to overcalling is that you might buy it there. In general, I don't worry about that too much, since opponents rarely sell out at the one-level. But there is more danger with this hand than with most--not because of the high cards but because of the spade suit.
If the auction goes one diamond--one heart--pass--pass and opener is looking at a stiff spade, he might well choose to sell out. He knows his partner can't have four spades unless he's broke. So either his partner has a terrible hand, or the opponents have a nine-card or better spade fit they haven't found yet. Either way, the opponents probably have a better spot than one heart. Why give them another chance to find it?
Maybe I'm giving the robots too much credit. But the prospect of the auction's ending in one heart does worry me a little. And, while bidding two diamonds may not be best, it isn't a terrible choice. Many players wouldn't even consider a different action.
A bit reluctantly, I bid two diamonds. LHO passes, partner bids two heart, and RHO passes.
This was just the auction I was worried about. Now I wish I had bid one heart. If I bid one heart and partner passes, I can give up on slam. I would continue with three spades over RHO's presumed balance. But if partner raises to two hearts, I can be more aggressive. A reasonable approach would be to make a "game try" of two spades, bidding Blackwood if partner accepts and settling for four hearts if he doesn't.
How do I get partner's cooperation after this start? Two spades isn't even forcing. It's simply a forward-going bid with a sixth spade. Three clubs and three diamonds are available as "game tries," but they should show fragments. Partner will expect the king of that suit to be worth something. Furthermore, they are passable. With a misfit, he might decide to pass three of a minor. Since I want to play game even opposite a misfit, I can't take that risk.
Four of a minor is obviously a slam try, but it's not clear what it means. Does it suggest concern about the other minor? Might four diamonds, for example, be this hand:
| ♠ A K 10 9 5 ♥ A K Q J 6 4 ♦ -- ♣ x x ? |
Perhaps the right bid is three notrump. That should be some kind of slam try, and it avoids focusing attention on a specific minor. If partner has a minor-suit ace, he can cue bid it, and I can bid four hearts. Now, if partner has the spade queen, he should bid on. Two sure cover cards must be enough if I have slam interest after two hearts.
Of course making up bids in the middle of an auction is a bad idea even with a non-robot partner. However obvious it may seem to you that an undiscussed bid should mean what you want it to mean, it may not be obvious to partner. Slam is sufficiently remote that I'll just give up on it and bid a practical four hearts.
I bid four hearts, everyone passes, and RHO leads the diamond king.
| NORTH Phillip ♠ A K 10 9 5 ♥ A K Q J 6 4 ♦ J ♣ K |
||
| SOUTH Robot ♠ 7 6 4 ♥ 8 5 2 ♦ 10 9 2 ♣ J 10 8 2 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Robot | Phillip | Robot | Robot |
| Pass | |||
| 1 ♦ | 2 ♦ | Pass | 2 ♥ |
| Pass | 4 ♥ | (All pass) |
We didn't miss a slam. I'm off two minor-suit tricks. I need to avoid two spade losers to make this. If trumps are two-two, that should be easy. If not, I need to find spades three-two or find a singleton honor somewhere.
Can I handle a four-one spade break if an honor doesn't fall? If the hand with four spades has three hearts, I can draw one trump, then play ace-king and a spade. They can't stop me from taking a spade ruff. That would be poor line, however, if spade are four-one but trumps two-two. Now I'm letting the defense score a ruff when I'm cold if I just cash two trumps.
If someone does hold a stiff spade, he is likelier to hold two hearts than one. So unless something strange happens to convince me otherwise, drawing two rounds of trumps looks best.
East follows to trick one with the five of diamonds. I play the deuce. West cashes the club ace and taps dummy with another club.
I draw trump. East follows to three rounds. When I cash the spade ace, West follows with the jack. I'm making this. In fact, if that was queen-jack doubleton of spades, I'm making five.
I cash the king of spades. West drops the queen, and I claim. Making five.
| NORTH Phillip ♠ A K 10 9 5 ♥ A K Q J 6 4 ♦ J ♣ K |
||
| WEST Robot ♠ Q J ♥ 9 ♦ A K 7 6 4 3 ♣ A 9 5 4 |
EAST Robot ♠ 8 3 2 ♥ 10 7 3 ♦ Q 8 5 ♣ Q 7 6 3 |
|
| SOUTH Robot ♠ 7 6 4 ♥ 8 5 2 ♦ 10 9 2 ♣ J 10 8 2 |
Plus 650 is worth 64%.
What would have happened had I overcalled with one heart? Some players tried that. The auction proceeds pass--pass to West, who balances with two clubs. Most players now bid three spades. Partner should correct this to four hearts, but of course, he doesn't. He passes three spades.
This is a robot quirk I've noticed before. They don't like correcting with bad hands. A robot once left me in my second suit with a doubleton, holding four cards in my first suit. Maybe, knowing that's a danger, two diamonds is the right bid after all.
So far as not balancing as opener with a stiff spade goes, my favorite example is this hand, which I held years ago in a Regional Open Pairs in Denver:
| ♠ x ♥ A K Q J x x x x ♦ x x ♣ x x |
Vul against not, I opened with one heart. LHO overcalled with two diamonds--pass--pass back to me. It felt funny to sell out below two hearts with eight tricks in my own hand, but the stiff spade worried me. At this vulnerability, I didn't want to get pushed too high, and I suspected the opponents could do a lot of pushing. So I passed. I still remember the look on partner's face when he led a heart and declarer ruffed it.
Selling out was right, but not in the way I expected. The opponents were not cold for four spades. They were cold for five clubs.
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