Free Weekly Instant Tournament - May 30 - Board 7

Board 7
Both sides vulnerable

♠ A 9 4 3  ♥ A K  ♦ K Q 6  ♣ K 7 6 5

I open with one club in first seat. Partner bids three clubs, pre-emptive.

Should you bid three notrump with 18-19 balanced opposite a pre-emptive raise? My partnership notes say, "yes." If responder has no interest in playing three notrump opposite that hand, he shouldn't make a pre-emptive raise. Some say, "no." Responder is expected to be weak, and any hand that want to play in three notrump opposite 18 to 19 balanced doesn't qualify. It's a matter of partnership agreement, but you need to make one agreement or the other and responder should bid accordingly.

There was a poll on Bridge Winners a few years ago: "I've heard some say that, playing inverted minors, one should avoid the pre-emptive raise to three with a hand that wants to play 3NT opposite a balanced 18-19. Do you agree with this?" The answers were evenly divided, so there does not appear to be a consensus on this matter.

When I hover my mouse over three notrump, the tooltip says it shows 21 HCP. So the robots, if they subscribed to Bridge Winners, would presumably answer 'yes' to the poll. But I don't believe the tooltip. I've seen the robots make pre-emptive raises with quite good hands. So I'm bidding three notrump. If partner has the wrong hand and three notrump has little play, maybe the cards will lie favorably. Or maybe the opponents will misdefend.

I bid three notrump. Everyone passes, and LHO leads the three of hearts.

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

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

See what I mean? I don't understand three clubs with this hand. Even in my style, I would bid one notrump rather than three clubs, since I believe three clubs suggests more shape. In a style where you don't expect partner to bid three notrump without 21 HCP, three clubs makes no sense at all.

The deuce of hearts is missing, so I'm not sure which opponents has five hearts. But hearts are probably five-four one way or the other. 

What do I need to make this? If clubs come home, I'll take four clubs, two hearts, and two spades, for eight tricks. If I knock out the diamond ace, they will take three hearts and two aces for down one. So I need to find my ninth trick in spades. I could simply take a finesse. Or I could hope that the hand with five hearts has the diamond ace and the spade queen. If so, he'll be squeezed when I run clubs. He must either come down to a doubleton spade or pitch a heart, allowing me to knock out the diamond ace. Of course, it will take some good card-reading to exploit that possibility.

I play low from dummy and East plays the jack. If I had the ace alone, I might duck. If I had the king alone, I couldn't afford to duck. So the king conveys less information. I win with the king and lead the six of clubs--deuce--queen--ten. I continue with a club to my king. East discards the deuce of diamonds, which is probably from a five-card suit. That makes East either 3-4-5-1 or 2-5-5-1.

West takes the club ace and leads the ten of hearts. East plays the eight, and I win with the ace. If West began with ten fifth, it would be strange to lead the ten. He would be more apt to retain it to avoid blocking the suit. So I suspect he has four hearts, making East 2-5-5-1. It's also possible hearts are 3-6, though West might have chosen a spade lead over a heart if that were the case.

I might as well run clubs to see what I can find out. Since West seems to have spade length, I'll probably wind up taking a spade finesse unless something strange happens.

I lead the seven of clubs to the jack. East pitches the five of diamonds. This is the current position:

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

If I finish running clubs, I'll need to lead a spade to the ace to take the finesse. If spades are three-three, then I won't be able to cash the fourth spade. So if I want to retain the option of taking four spade tricks, I must lead a club to my five and play a spade to the jack now. But my provisional construction places East with 2-5-5-1. Since it doesn't appear spades are three-three, I think I'd prefer to cash two more clubs and get more information.

I cash the eight of clubs. East pitches the seven of diamonds; West, the seven of spades. That's an unexpected card. Does that mean he doesn't have the queen? Or might he pitch from queen fourth? Actually, he might. Since I don't have two hand entries anymore, pitching from queen fourth is perfectly safe.  I don't think I can assume East has the queen.

I cash dummy's last club. East pitches the deuce of spades; West pitches the six of spades. There are only three spades left. If I'm right that East was 2-5-5-1, then the spades are dropping, and I can make an overtrick by cashing dummy's king and overtaking the jack with my ace.

Could my construction be wrong? Can West have all three remaining spades? If so, I go down if I cash the spade king. I must, instead, lead a low spade to my ace and take a finesse. But a low spade from dummy blocks the suit and gives up the overtrick if spades split.

For West to have three spades, East must be 1-6-5-1. That means West led a heart from ten-third rather than his own five-card spade suit. And it means West echoed with five spades, playing 7-6 from Q10876. Any one of those three things is possible, but they are all unlikely. So I'm not playing for the parlay. I cash the king of spades--eight--four--ten. I take three more spades and concede the last two tricks. Making four.

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

Plus 630 is worth 86%. Cashing all the clubs turned out to be a good idea. Had I led a club to the five for an early spade finesse, it might have been easier for West to hold his spades.

Actually, it was pretty easy for him to hold spades on this line. Why did West pitch the second spade anyway? Could that ever have been right? Maybe he was playing me for

♠ A x x  ♥ A K Q 6  ♦ Q x  ♣ K x x x

and assumed his partner had squandered the eight of hearts on the second round. If so, this would be the position, with West to play:

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

A heart or the diamond ace gives me a trick. If he pitches a low diamond, I can cash three spades and lead a diamond, forcing him to lead into my queen-six of hearts. But a spade pitch doesn't help. After three rounds of spades, ending in my hand, he's faced with the same problem. If he thinks this is the layout, his best play is to pitch a low diamond and hope his partner has the six of hearts. 

Surprisingly, everyone is in three notrump. Given the lack of consensus on the Bridge Winners poll and given what the tooltip says, I would have thought at least some would pass three clubs.