Free Weekly Instant Tournament - May 30 - Board 4

Board 4
Both sides vulnerable

♠ A 7 6 3  ♥ 4  ♦ K Q 5 3 2  ♣ K 7 3

Partner opens one club in second seat, and RHO overcalls with one diamond. 

Often it's right to pass when the opponents bid your best suit. The point in passing isn't necessarily to try to penalize them. In this case, for instance, I know we aren't going to be doubling some number of diamonds, since they have at least an eight-card heart fit. The point, instead, is to give partner a better picture of my hand. If I pass, then back in with spades, partner knows I have primary diamonds and four spades. Any auction that starts with my bidding one spade will not be so descriptive. 

My robot partner, however, would not understand that auction. If I pass and bid spades on the next round, he might think I had six spades and a bad hand and was braindead on the first round of the auction. While bidding one spade now isn't the best way to handle this hand, it's at least adequate. And safer opposite a robot.

I bid one spade. LHO bids two hearts. Partner passes, denying three spades, and RHO raises to three hearts.

Partner has at most two spades and might have rebid a six-card club suit, so 2-4-2-5 is his likeliest pattern. With 12 HCP and a stack in RHO's primary suit, I have quite a good hand for defense, so I double. This is defined as a penalty double. But, since the suit has been bid and raised and I'm sitting in front of declarer, it's presumed to be based on high cards and a misfit, not on trumps.

Partner pulls the double to four clubs. I guess he's not 2-4-2-5. His likeliest shape now is 2-3-2-6. And he shouldn't have much in the way of high cards, since he didn't bid three clubs over two hearts. He needs a little extra to do that, but he doesn't need a full-fledged jump rebid.

Can we make five clubs? We're probably off two red aces and a diamond ruff, so it's likely four clubs is the limit of the hand. But I have a much better hand in support of clubs than partner has a right to expect. Undisclosed support. A side singleton. What if partner has something like

♠ K x  ♥ x x x  ♦ x  ♣ A Q x x x x x ?

Even if partner has a doubleton diamond, they might need to find the ruff to beat it. And that might not be clear. In general, trying to stop on a dime one trick short of game is seldom a winning strategy. So I raise to five clubs. Everyone passes, and LHO leads the diamond ace.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
		Pass	1 ♣
1 ♦	1 ♠	2 ♥	Pass
3 ♥	Double	Pass	4 ♣
Pass	5 ♣	(All pass)

We're off two aces and a diamond ruff, as we rated to be. I play low from dummy. East plays the eight. He would presumably play the nine from nine-eight doubleton. That means the nine is the card I'm known to hold, so I play it.

If West doesn't give his partner the diamond ruff, I'll make this. He does. He continues with the four of diamonds. He might have cashed the heart ace first if he had it just in case his partner wasn't ruffing, so East probably has the heart ace.

East ruffs with the five of clubs and shifts to the queen of spades. The defense didn't cash their heart ace. Is there any way I can make this now? West has the diamond guard. If East has AKQ of hearts, I have a double squeeze. This will be the position when I lead the last club from my hand:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ A 7 ♥  ♦ 5 ♣ --
WEST Robot ♠ 10 x ♥ -- ♦ 10 ♣ --		EAST Robot ♠ J x ♥ A ♦ -- ♣ --
	SOUTH Robot ♠ x ♥ x ♦ -- ♣ x

West must pitch a spade. Now I can pitch dummy's diamond and East is squeezed in the majors. But this layout is impossible. West must have at least one heart honor for his one-diamond overcall. All he has to do his hold onto it and let his partner guard spades. In the diagrammed position, West will hold

♠ 10  ♥ K  ♦ 10  ♣ -- .

Now he pitches his last spade to guard both red suits, and East pitches the heart ace to guard spades. So the squeeze fails.

A legitimate squeeze isn't going to work. Is there any way to coax a misdefense? Suppose West has ten fourth of spades. If he thinks I'm 3-2-2-6, then his partner has queen-jack tight of spades and can't guard spades. If that's the case, then West must throw away his hearts and keep spades. This will be the end position he envisions:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ A 7 ♥  ♦ 5 ♣ --
WEST Robot ♠ 10 x ♥ -- ♦ 10 ♣ --		EAST Robot ♠ J ♥ A x ♦ -- ♣ --
	SOUTH Robot ♠ x x ♥ -- ♦ -- ♣ x

I'm out of hearts, since I've pitched them on dummy's diamonds. So West can now pitch his hearts to guard spades. But that doesn't work. When I lead the last club, West is caught in a simple spade-diamond squeeze. West can't beat me if I'm 3-2-2-6, so he must assume I'm 2-3-2-6. And in that case, as we've seen, he must keep a heart honor.

At least that's true if I keep the spade ace in dummy. Suppose I "carelessly" win this trick in dummy, destroying the potential spade-diamond squeeze. Now I can reach this end position:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ 7 6 ♥ -- ♦ 5 ♣ --
WEST Robot ♠ 10 x ♥ K ♦ -- ♣ --		EAST Robot ♠ J x ♥ A ♦ -- ♣ --
	SOUTH Robot ♠ K ♥ x ♦ -- ♣ x

If each opponent thinks I hold a small spade instead of a heart (leaving his partner will a singleton spade), then each one will think he holds the only spade guard. They will both pitch their heart honors and let me score a heart trick. Of course that means I went down in a cold contract by winning the spade shift in dummy. But robots don't draw inferences from declarer's play, so they won't consider that.

I play low from my hand, win the spade ace in dummy, and play a club to my jack. Both opponents follow. Now a club to dummy's king. West pitches the six of hearts.

I cash two diamonds, pitching two hearts. Which hearts should I discard? Pitching the jack and ten to make it appear I'm out of hearts will fool nobody. Each opponent will wonder why his partner is throwing heart honors if he holds the seven and will conclude I must hold it. I do better to hold onto the jack.  When West discards the heart king in the above position, perhaps East will think he's pitching high from equals. So I pitch the ten and the seven. East pitches the deuce and eight of hearts.

So far, so good. Both opponents are clinging to their spades. This, I hope, is the current position, with the lead in dummy:

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

I play a club to my ace. East pitches the five of spades. 

Oops. It's all over now. West knows I have a stiff king of spades left, so he has no reason to hold spades anymore. How did East know he could afford a spade? He must have started with queen-jack fourth of spades instead of queen-jack third. So the diagram above is wrong. West actually holds two spades and East holds three. I never had a chance.

I run clubs, but it's no use. West knows his spades are worthless, so he pitches both of them, and East knows to save the heart ace. I'm down one.

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

It's still a decent result. We score 71% for minus 100.

The opponents' failure to double was costly for them, since most of the field played three hearts, making three. They would have scored 100% for plus 200.

Not that I blame them. Neither one of them has a reason to double that I can see. East is perhaps closer, since he can envision winning the heart lead and shifting to his stiff diamond. But there is no particular reason to believe West holds a minor-suit ace. And one must be extra careful when doubling five of a minor. If three notrump is the normal contract, your interference may have already won the board. There may be little to gain by doubling and a lot to lose.

The brilliancy award goes to the North player who psyched a negative double over one diamond. This kept the opponents out of their heart fit and allowed him to buy the contract for three clubs, making four.