Board 102

Board 102
Opponents vulnerable

♠ 7 ♥ A Q 9 5 2 ♦ -- ♣ A K Q J 7 6 5

This is certainly an improvement from the flat boards we were dealt in the third quarter. RHO opens four spades in first seat. I don't need much to make a slam, but I do need rather specific cards. I have rule, however, that if I have twelve cards in two suits and bidding a slam crosses my mind, I bid it. Taking a conservative view with hands like this never seems to work out well. I bid six clubs.

After two passes, RHO bids six spades. Awfully undisciplined of him. I don't know what partner will think he needs to bid seven clubs if I pass, and I don't want to find out. In general it doesn't pay to bid a grand when the opponents have saved over a small slam and have the higher-ranking suit. Most of the time, they won't let you play the grand unless they are fairly sure of beating you. So, even if you're right to bid, the most you can expect to pick up is 200 (or 300) points from pushing the opponents a level higher. Depending on the result at the other table, this might turn out to be a paltry number of imps. If you're wrong to bid, however, it can be quite costly.

I double six spades, and everyone passes. I don't see much point in leading a trump when I won't be able to lead a second one. It may serve to do nothing other than pick up partner's trump holding. And I doubt it's necessary to risk any heroics in an attempt to score a diamond ruff. So I lead the club ace.

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

West	North	East	South
			4 ♠
6 ♣	Pass	Pass	6 ♠
Double	(All pass)

Partner plays the eight of clubs and declarer ruffs. Declarer leads the ten of spades--seven--four--deuce. He then plays the ten of hearts. I hop with the ace, and partner plays the eight. That's either jack-eight doubleton or jack-eight fourth. I'm voting for jack-eight fourth. It seems unlikely declarer would attack hearts from ten third before drawing trumps. If he has a singleton heart, however, he would surely lead a heart toward the king while he still had a spade entry to dummy.

If declarer could have a doubleton heart, I would exit with the heart queen, killing the entry for the potential double squeeze. But partner's card tells me that isn't possible, and I'd just as soon not give declarer a second dummy entry. So I exit with the club king.

Declarer ruffs, plays a trump to dummy as I pitch a club, and discards the four of diamonds on dummy's heart king. He then ruffs a heart and draws partner's last trump. He still has two diamond losers, so he's down two, plus 500 for us.

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

Surely declarer should have led a diamond to the nine while he was in dummy, since I must have a diamond void or a singleton ace. Did he really think I would leap to six clubs with a three-loser hand?

I expect my teammate to open South's hand with two spades. This is the kind of hand the Acol two-bid was invented for. But he opens four spades as well. This is not my idea of a four spade bid in any system. I think it's safe to say that if you open four spades and dummy hits with a Yarborough, you ought to be going down.

Over four spades, East contents himself with five clubs and buys it. It looks as if this should make, but that's an illusion. North leads the king of spades. South overtakes with the ace and continues with the ten of spades. West ruffs high. That's clearly the right play.  How likely is it that South opened four spades with a seven-card suit at unfavorable vulnerability?  But this time he did, and it's 11 imps for our side. We're on a roll!

The king of spades is a dubious lead, by the way. How is partner supposed to know what to do if he has the ace but not the queen?  If South, thinking the king was a singleton, had overtaken at trick one and set up declarer's queen, the disaster would be 100% North's fault.  North is looking at the king of hearts, so he knows that two spade tricks are probably sufficient to beat this.  The right way to go after two spade tricks is to lead a low spade, expecting partner to win with the ace and return one.  The king of spades would be the right lead without the heart king, since your best chance for three tricks would be to play for two spade tricks plus a trump promotion. You would have to hope partner also sees this as the likeliest route to three tricks and will conclude that it's pointless to overtake even if the king is a singleton.  One encounters this matrix most frequently when defending a slam, where one doesn't have to worry about the third trick.  Against six clubs, I'd demote the lead of the spade king from "dubious" to "suicidal."

As the cards lay, declarer will presumably still ruff high at trick two even after the lead of the spade four. He will simply think South's spade ace at trick one was a falsecard.

Me: +500
Jack: - 50

Score on Board 102: +11 IMPs
Total: -36 IMPs