Board 2
Our side vulnerable
♠ A 7 3 ♥ Q 8 ♦ K J 10 5 3 ♣ A Q 9 |
RHO passes. I open with one notrump, and partner bids two diamonds, a transfer to hearts. I bid two hearts, and partner bids three diamonds. I have quite a good hand in support of diamonds: five-card support, the queen of partner's primary suit, and aces in the side suits. If partner is interested in slam, I have what he needs.
Of course he isn't necessarily interested in slam. He could be probing for the right game, and my first responsibility is to aid in that probe. If he has a minimum game force, he should have a singleton in one black suit or the other, else he should simply bid three notrump. If his singleton is in spades, three notrump could easily be the wrong game. How do I suggest that?
Three spades shows strength in spades and implies clubs may be a weak spot. Unfortunately, without special agreements there is no way to suggest spades may be a weak spot. This is a flaw in standard methods.
The problem springs from the fact that three hearts is natural. There is no reason it should be. It's foolish to waste a three-level bid to show heart support when you know you are bidding past three notrump. All four-level bids should show heart support, and all three-level bids below three notrump should show diamond support. Since three spades shows good spades, three hearts, by elimination, should show good clubs and concern about spades.
Without that agreement, however, I have a problem. Neither three spades nor a standard three hearts conveys the meaning I want, and I'm not about to sign off in three notrump with such a slam-positive hand. So I decide to bid four diamonds.
It's dangerous to bid past three notrump at matchpoints with a minor-suit fit. But if partner isn't interested in slam, perhaps five diamonds will be a reasonable spot. It might make when three notrump doesn't. Or it might make when we have only nine tricks in notrump. Also, partner might bid four hearts to show hearts playable in a five-two fit, in which case I can pass.
I bid four diamonds. Partner passes. That was unexpected. I would have thought we were in a game force. RHO leads the ace of hearts.
NORTH Phillip ♠ A 7 3 ♥ Q 8 ♦ K J 10 5 3 ♣ A Q 9 |
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SOUTH Robot ♠ K 4 2 ♥ J 9 7 4 3 ♦ A 8 7 4 ♣ 7 |
West | North | East | South |
Robot | Phillip | Robot | Robot |
Pass | 1 NT | Pass | 2 ♦ |
Pass | 2 ♥ | Pass | 3 ♦ |
Pass | 4 ♦ | (All pass) |
I see. Partner didn't have a game force. I would have just transferred to hearts and passed with partner's hand. One of the reasons I pre-accept on almost any hand with four trumps is so partner needn't stretch with a marginal invitation like this one.
I have two heart losers and a potential diamond loser. I can ruff both dummy's clubs in my hand, so I need to dispose of dummy's spade loser. West is making that easy for me by leading my suit.
East plays the heart deuce; I play the three. West shifts to the six of clubs. I rise with the ace, ruff a club, and play ace and king of diamonds. Trumps are two-two. I ruff the last club and concede a heart. Making five.
NORTH Phillip ♠ A 7 3 ♥ Q 8 ♦ K J 10 5 3 ♣ A Q 9 |
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WEST Robot ♠ J 10 9 5 ♥ A K ♦ Q 2 ♣ 10 6 5 3 2 |
EAST Robot ♠ Q 8 6 ♥ 10 6 5 2 ♦ 9 6 ♣ K J 8 4 |
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SOUTH Robot ♠ K 4 2 ♥ J 9 7 4 3 ♦ A 8 7 4 ♣ 7 |
+150 is worth 18%. Almost everyone is bidding a timid three notrump over three diamonds. That doesn't have to make, but East leads a club, presenting declarer with his ninth trick.
A few are taking ten tricks. Should you? For some reason, West doesn't play the club ten at trick one, so declarer wins the trick with his nine. If declarer now runs diamonds, he comes down to the following position (flipping the board to make North dummy):
NORTH Robot ♠ K 4 2 ♥ J 9 7 4 ♦ -- ♣ -- |
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WEST Robot ♠ Q 8 6 ♥ 10 ♦ -- ♣ K J 8 |
EAST Robot ♠ J 10 ♥ A K ♦ -- ♣ 10 6 5 |
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SOUTH Casper M. ♠ A 7 3 ♥ Q 8 ♦ -- ♣ A Q |
To score ten tricks, declarer must hope that the defense can't score two club tricks before he can take a heart trick.
To prevent this, East must hold three clubs. (If he holds only a doubleton, declarer can drive a heart honor, duck the club shift, then drive the other heart honor.) Since East must hold two hearts and three clubs, he must come down to a doubleton spade. That means West must hold all his spades. He must also hold three clubs, so the defense can take two clubs. And he must hold a heart as an exit card, so declarer can't endplay him in spades. If the defense does all this, declarer can't score a tenth trick.
In practice, West pitched a spade at his first opportunity. Most declarers, however, did not exploit this error and made only three. So we would have been only slightly below average if partner had not chickened out on his game force and had raised four diamonds to five.
I believe the agreements I outlined after Jacoby and a minor-suit rebid make sense. I glossed over opener's four-level bids, simply stating that they should all show heart support, so let me expand on that idea now.
Four hearts should be a minimum with heart support, and four clubs should be better than a minimum. (It needn't be much better, since you are limited by the fact that you didn't pre-accept.)
Four diamonds should show support for both suits: three-card heart support and four- or five-card diamond support. The bid suggests diamonds as the strain for slam (using hearts to provide discards) but hearts as the strain for game if partner isn't interested in slam. This is a very useful agreement. Without it, you have to support hearts with support for both suits. If partner turns out to be interested in slam, it can then be hard to steer the hand back to diamonds.