Board 21

Board 21
Our side vulnerable

♠ 7 6 5 4 ♥ 4 2 ♦ 3 ♣ A K 10 9 7 5

Partner passes, and RHO opens one heart. I don't like pre-empting at the three level, especially vulnerable, with a suit headed by the ace-king. If partner is short in your suit, you are apt to find yourself going minus when the opponents can't make anything. I also don't like pre-empting with four spades. Spades may be the only suit we can effectively outbid them in. Since partner is a passed hand, I needn't worry about his getting excited without a fit, so I bid two clubs, keeping the auction low in case it's a misfit and making it easy for him to introduce spades.

LHO passes, and partner bids two notrump. I retreat to three clubs. Partner bids three notrump. Auctions like this drive me crazy. If partner wanted to bid three notrump over two clubs, fine. But why torture me? Why invite game and then overrule me when I decline the invitation?

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

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

Since I'm complicit in this disaster, it's hard for me to be objective. But I don't think partner's hand is worth a drive to game. It's an exaggeration to say that a passed hand can't drive to three notrump opposite an overcall, but not by much. If I did bid three notrump in this auction, I wouldn't have queen-third of clubs. I would have four small, a holding that may solidify partner's suit without wasting high cards to do so. That means all eleven of my high-card points would be functioning as stoppers or side-suit tricks, making my hand worth a full opening bid.

West leads the queen of hearts. That means East probably has the ace or king of diamonds. From West's point of view, we might have nine tricks ready to cash once we gain the lead. So, with ace-king of diamonds, he probably would have led a high diamond in preference to a heart.

I can't imagine I'll ever make this. I can either cash out for down two or I can try to swindle a trick and get out for down one. It could be worthwhile to go for that extra trick. If my teammates are making a partscore, say +130 in diamonds, converting down two to down one will gain three imps while converting down two to down three will cost only two imps. Unfortunately, we're not talking about down only three. If I try a swindle and it doesn't work, we could be down four or five. So I can't afford to try anything that doesn't offer a serious chance of success. One thing I can't do is attack spades myself. Once I show up with the king-queen of spades and the ace of hearts, LHO will know his partner has the missing high diamond honor. I need to get one of my opponents to play spades for me.

I play low from dummy. East, perforce, overtakes the queen of hearts with the king. What is East going to do if I duck this? Surely he'll switch to a diamond, not a spade. Too bad my high cards are opposite dummy's length. Suppose I win the heart and play a diamond myself? Somehow, I don't think that'll work either. I might as well just cash my tricks and hope the opponents can't figure out how to discard. Maybe dummy's four-card spade suit will scare someone into holding more spades than he needs to.

I take my heart ace and play the four of clubs. West plays the jack. Hmmm. What happens if I duck this? Now there's a play Lowenthal would be proud of. West will be sure I don't have the club queen. That leaves me room to have something in diamonds. He might even think I have two small clubs and clubs aren't running at all. Of course, for this to gain, he has to give me two tricks to compensate for the trick I'm throwing away by ducking. And I still have the problem that, if this doesn't work, I could be down a lot. I guess it's a bad idea.

I take dummy's ace of clubs and cash my tricks. They don't mangle the discards, so I finish down two:

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

At the other table, my opponent bids three clubs over one heart and buys it, making three.

Out of curiosity, I back up the play to see what would have happened if I had ducked the jack of clubs. (That's one of the advantages of playing against Jack.  With humans, you can only speculate about what would have happened on a different line.  With Jack, you can find out.) After winning his jack of clubs, West cashes his jack of hearts, and East pitches the three of clubs. Good idea. This lets his partner know he didn't start with queen fourth of clubs and clubs are indeed running. West shifts to the ace of spades, and East plays the eight. If West continues spades, I'm going to make this. But how can he? If I play the deuce, he will know East's eight of spades is his lowest. It looks as if I have to throw away another trick. I drop the queen. From West's point of view, his partner could have K1082 and I could be false-carding with Q9. West continues with the jack of spades and I'm down one. That's a lot of trouble just to get out for down one. I wonder if there's any way I could have made it.

I back the play up again and play the deuce of spades instead of the queen under West's ace. As expected, West shifts to diamonds and I'm down five. Dropping the queen of spades was critical. I back up again and again drop the queen of spades under the ace. But this time, when West continues with the jack of spades, I duck. Now I have nine tricks with dummy's long spade. If West thinks I can't possibly have the king of spades for this sequence of plays, he may continue spades so his partner can lead through my presumed king of diamonds. No. It doesn't work. He shifts to ace and a diamond. Now I'm down six.  I guess it's no surprise he didn't fall for this.  His partner would overtake the jack with K1098. Too bad. This would make quite a story if that had worked.

If not for all those years playing with John Lowenthal, I wouldn't have even thought of ducking the jack of clubs. This kind of coup was a specialty of John's. When all else seems hopeless, throw away a trick. Do something that renders the hand you hold totally impossible from the opponents' point of view. They will sometimes misread the hand so badly that they will give you two or more tricks in return. Of course, this strategy is more appealing when you're risking only one extra undertrick. I don't think even John would have tried it here, though you can be sure he would have thought about it.

If I could bid this hand over, would I still bid two clubs instead of three? Note that two clubs might have worked out poorly for another reason. My opponent's three club bid completely shut out East. But at my table, East had two opportunities to introduce diamonds. Had he done so (assuming they stopped below game), I would have had almost as bad a result as I did playing three notrump. I would have lost 6 imps instead of 7. But I still think two clubs is the percentage action. It's no surprise that three clubs works out better when partner has club support. If he didn't, or if he had both club support and a spade suit, I suspect two clubs would have worked out better. Kit Woolsey once suggested to me that, when your bidding judgment causes a bad result and you are wondering how at fault you are, try switching two of partner's suits and see how you like your action. We can try that here. Switch partner's majors. Would you rather be bidding two clubs or three?

Me: -200
Jack: +110

Score on Board 21: -7 IMPs
Total: +50 IMPs