Board 22

Board 22
Opponents vulnerable

♠ A 5 3 ♥ A 6 5 3 ♦ Q 10 9 4 ♣ Q 3

East opens with one club. This is a little thin for a double. I'd rather the queen of clubs be elsewhere. But I've never had much luck passing with marginal take-out doubles, so I double anyway. West passes, and partner bids two clubs. I bid two hearts, which partner raises to four:

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

West	North	East	South
		1 ♣	Double
Pass	2 ♣	Pass	2 ♥
Pass	4 ♥	(All pass)

I hope partner would have raised spades only to the three level. (Just switch my majors, and you'll see that three is quite high enough.) But with the fifth trump, he decided his hand was worth a raise to game. I agree, despite the fact that this isn't much of a contract. West leads the four of clubs. I play low from dummy without much hope, but East plays the ten, and I win with the queen. And here I was disparaging my queen of clubs! I play ace and a heart. They split, so I make four:

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

This is a better result than we deserve, but I expect it to be a push, and it is.

A one diamond opening might have worked out better for the opponents, but not for any of the reasons I prefer it. (See Board 13.) The auction would presumably proceed pass--pass--one heart--pass. While I don't expect too many people to agree with me on this, I don't think two diamonds here should be a cue-bid. I think it should be natural and non-forcing, roughly an opening bid with primary diamonds. A pre-emptive raise in front of a hand that couldn't respond has limited value, so you don't need a cue-bid to show a good raise.  You can simply raise hearts to whatever level you think your hand is worth. Of course, you could play two diamonds as a cue-bid anyway, just not one that shows support. But that amounts to pretty much the same thing. If you passed over one diamond with a hand good enough to warrant a progressive move without heart support, doesn't that probably mean you have primary diamonds? So why not make that understanding explicit? Allow partner to pass two diamonds if it looks like the right thing to do.

With this hand, I would raise one heart to three, and partner would have a close decision whether to go on or not. It's appropriate that it's close, because it's hard to decide how good game is given the auction.  It's obviously worse than 52%, since those are the a priori odds of having only one heart loser.  But it's not clear how much worse.  It may be hard for the defense to get all their tricks without looking at each other's hands, particularly if East holds the king of clubs.  Even on this layout, the right defense isn't obvious.  Remember that, on this auction, East has no reason to suspect declarer has four spades.  Simply switch partner's black suits, and East needs to switch to a spade at trick two, not a club.  And partner's signal is no help.  All his low diamond at trick one means is that he doesn't have a doubleton. (This is the kind of observation vu-graph commentators frequently miss.  The right defense is so clear looking at all four hands, that it's easy to forget it may not be clear looking just at East's hand and the dummy.)

Me: +420
Jack: +420

Result on Board 22: 0 IMPs
Total: +50 IMPs