| ♠ A 10 9 6 5 4 ♥ A Q J 10 2 ♦ 3 ♣ K |
Once again I'm dealt a hand where I probably don't need to work too hard to produce a swing. I just need to do what I think is right and hope my counterpart has his own ideas. I open one spade, and partner bids two diamonds. I bid two hearts, and he bids three clubs.
Fourth-suit auctions after a two-over-one response are a little tricky. One of the hands responder must bid the fourth suit on is a balanced hand without a stopper in that suit. If he follows with three notrump on the next round, this two-step auction suggests his stopper is suspect, perhaps something like queen third. This means responder can't bid the fourth suit if he actually has it, at least not if he intends to bid three notrump next. Otherwise opener may pull three notrump for fear of an inadequate stopper. If responder does have a good holding in the fourth suit, he should bid two notrump. This doesn't preclude finding a fit in the fourth suit. In this auction, for example, opener will continue with three clubs with a 5-4-1-3 pattern. I don't know if Jack understands this or not. It would be nice to know, since if three clubs does deny good clubs, I have a better chance of finding him with fitting honors in my suits.
I have no intention of sitting for three notrump whatever three clubs means. So the decision I face is whether to bid three hearts now, intending to pull three notrump, or whether to issue an immediate slam try by jumping to four hearts. The way to decide this is to ask yourself what you would do if you bid three hearts and partner raised. Would you bid on? If the answer is either "absolutely" or "certainly not," you should bid three hearts. If the answer is "I don't know. I would feel nervous either way," then you should bid four hearts. That's precisely what four hearts means: I have some interest in slam but not enough to risk bidding to the five level.
This hand seems to fall squarely in the "nervous either way" category. I don't need much to make a slam, but I do need a fit and three key cards (counting either major-suit king as a key card). If partner has that hand and I express some slam interest with four hearts, he will know he has a useful hand and he should bid on. One way to think about this is to consider that an opening bid (which is all partner has shown) typically has four controls. Two aces and the king of one of my suits is one control more than his expectation, and he knows all those controls are working (unlike, say, two aces and a minor-suit king). So if I make any move toward slam, partner should cooperate with that holding.
I bid four hearts, partner passes, and West leads the five of clubs.
| NORTH ♠ 2 ♥ K 5 ♦ A 8 7 5 2 ♣ A Q 10 4 3 | ||
| SOUTH ♠ A 10 9 6 5 4 ♥ A Q J 10 2 ♦ 3 ♣ K |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1 ♠ | |||
| Pass | 2 ♦ | Pass | 2 ♥ |
| Pass | 3 ♣ | Pass | 4 ♥ |
| (All pass) |
As I suspected, partner should have bid two notrump, not three clubs, but it probably wouldn't have made any difference. Slam looks pretty good. Even if they lead a diamond, killing the entry to the club suit, I may manage by ruffing two spades in dummy. Partner does have the five controls I said should induce him to bid again, but he doesn't have the fit. His heart support is poor, and the singleton spade is a serious liability, so I suppose he was right to pass. What makes slam good is the fitting club honors. Make partner's club queen the diamond queen, and we don't want to be in a slam. Even removing his ten of clubs makes slam less attractive. We had no chance to diagnose that on our auction.
I have ten easy tricks. The safest play for an eleventh is to ruff a spade with the king of hearts, then lead a low heart back to my hand. What happens on that line if trumps are five-one? I can play the fifth trump, allowing the opponents to win that trick and cash whatever spades they can. Most of the time I would survive, but I would go down if one hand has five hearts and king-queen-jack fifth of spades. In fact, I might go down if someone were to ruff the spade ace. While these scenarios are improbable, it doesn't make sense not to worry about them. If I were fairly sure the opponents would play the same contract at the other table, I might be willing to take some risks to play for overtricks, since when you are losing small gains have larger than normal utility. But here my best chance to pick up IMPs is to hope that my opponents get too high and run into bad breaks. It would be foolish for me to fail to capitalize by going down myself on the same bad breaks.
I play four rounds of hearts. East follows to four rounds; West discards the four of diamonds and the three of spades. I play a low spade out of my hand. West wins with the queen and shifts to the jack of diamonds. When the jack of clubs does not drop, I'm held to ten tricks.
| NORTH ♠ 2 ♥ K 5 ♦ A 8 7 5 2 ♣ A Q 10 4 3 | ||
| WEST ♠ K Q 8 3 ♥ 9 7 ♦ J 6 4 ♣ J 8 5 2 | EAST ♠ J 7 ♥ 8 6 4 3 ♦ K Q 10 9 ♣ 9 7 6 | |
| SOUTH ♠ A 10 9 6 5 4 ♥ A Q J 10 2 ♦ 3 ♣ K |
I would have made six if I had been there, so I'm a little nervous about this result.
At the other table the auction is the same up to three clubs. South then rebids three hearts, and North raises on his doubleton king. South takes over with Blackwood. I don't see how Blackwood solves his problem. If partner shows three key cards, he can bid a slam with some confidence. But what does he plan to do if his partner shows two? Slam might still be good if his partner has the spade king, and it will lie somewhere between poor and hopeless if he doesn't.
North bids five clubs, showing zero or three key cards. I'm pretty sure I've lost this board, but South bids five spades and North passes. I'm not sure how South intended five spades nor how North interpreted it. Perhaps the bid was supposed to get his partner to bid a grand with the spade king. It's strange that Jack could have a misunderstanding playing opposite himself, but that seems to be what happened. Whatever South had in mind when he bid five spades, I doubt he intended to play there. Declarer loses three trump tricks for down one.
We pick up 10 imps. Bidding the slam would have been worth only four more.
Me: +420
Jack: -50
Score on Board 67: +10 IMPs
Total: -144 IMPs
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