Match 2 - Board 14

Board 14
Neither vulnerable

♠ J 10 4 3 ♥ A J 6 5 3 ♦ 5 ♣ K 7 3

RHO opens with one diamond. I double. This seems pretty routine, but Jack will object to this double in the post mortem. (Jack has a feature I only recently discovered where he criticizes your actions after the hand is over. Just like old times! Feels as if I should be sitting at P. J. Clarke's.) Jack prefers a one heart overcall, claiming that a double promises 11 high-card points. I thought the idea that a take-out double showed a better hand than an overcall went out some time in the 60s. Or is it back now? With a 4-5-1-3 pattern, I might choose one heart over double. But, if I did, it would be because most of my high cards were in the heart suit. It would have nothing to do with how good or bad my hand was.

LHO bids three diamonds, an invitational raise. RHO bids three spades, and LHO bids five diamonds, which partner doubles. Doubling a voluntarily bid five of a minor is usually a bad idea at matchpoints, because you may already have a fine result even if they make it. If everyone else is in three notrump making four, for example, doubling gains no matchpoints when you beat it and converts a top to a bottom when you don't.

Dummy rates to have a singleton heart for the five diamond bid. He is probably 3-1-5-4 or 3-1-4-5. Normally, that would be a reason to shy away from a heart lead, since it might set up winners in declarer's hand on which he can pitch dummy's spades. But declarer has already announced weak hearts by bidding three spades rather than three notrump, so it seems safe to lead the ace of hearts.

I do so, and dummy is a bit of a surprise:

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

West	North	East	South
			1 ♦
Double	3 ♦	Pass	3 ♠
Pass	5 ♦	Double	(All pass)

Over partner's three spade bid, I would just take a shot at three notrump. We might have hearts stopped. And if we don't, maybe four heart tricks is all they can take. If I were too lily-livered to bid three notrump, I would bid four diamonds, not five. The distinction between four diamonds and five would be a little more complicated if my hand weren't limited. But, since it is, four diamonds should show a balanced hand without a heart stopper (and should be passable), and five diamonds should imply a heart singleton. If I bid five diamonds with this hand and partner has enough to make it, he will probably bid six.

Partner plays the eight of hearts, and declarer plays the four. Presumably partner has king-eight-deuce and declarer has ten-nine-four. I continue with the six of hearts (present count)--queen--nine--deuce. Well, now. It looks as if declarer made a peculiar three spade bid; he should have bid three notrump himself. Partner should have begun with nine-eight doubleton of hearts. But, knowing Jack, he might also have begun with ten-nine-eight, since he seems to play up-the-line after the first round of a suit rather than give present count.

Declarer plays the deuce of clubs from dummy--five--queen--king. What's going on? My first thought is that declarer has a singleton queen and is preparing a crossruff. But I doubt partner, with ace-nine fourth, would duck his ace, since declarer would be marked with at most a singleton club. (Not to mention that the five presumably shows an odd number of clubs.) It appears, then, that declarer has ace-queen doubleton, or perhaps queen doubleton, and is playing clubs in order to establish the suit.

The only constructive thing I think of to do is to switch to a spade in case partner has the king. If partner has the club ace, he probably does have the spade king. Otherwise he might have hopped with the ace to play spades from his side. Come to think of it, if he doesn't have the club ace, he probably needs the spade king for his double. I know that leaves declarer with a strange-looking three spade bid, but we already know he has a strange-looking three spade bid. I see no reason to waste the jack of spades. Even if I'm wrong about the spades and declarer has king-queen fourth, he's not going to block the suit by playing the nine. So I lead the three of spades. Declarer plays dummy's ace--deuce (OK. So no spade king.)--five.

Partner surely has the club ace (though I'm not sure why he ducked). And we have whatever natural trump tricks he has. My job now is to persuade declarer that I'm void in diamonds. If he thinks that, perhaps he'll talk himself into some sort of endplay that won't work. So I need to convince declarer I'm 4-5-0-4.

Declarer plays the spade nine--six--king--four (honest count). He then leads the eight of clubs. I play the three (false count, hoping to represent king fourth originally)--ten--ace. Partner returns the nine of clubs. Declarer ruffs with the ace! Partner eventually scores the diamond queen for down two:

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

Declarer ruffed with the ace? I guess he was serious about my needing 11 high-card points for a take-out double. He actually thought I was more likely to double with

♠ J 10 x x ♥ A J x x x ♦ Q x ♣ K x

than with the hand I held! I'll let you in on a secret, Jack. I doubt that the presence or absence of the unsupported queen of diamonds would ever affect my decision to double one diamond. Any double with the queen is a double without the queen.

We get 12 matchpoints. One pair managed to go down three in three notrump. Everyone else bid three notrump and made it. As usual, the odds on partner's double were not good. He risked five matchpoints to gain two. And the gain would have been zero had declarer not butchered the end position.

Score on Board 14: +300 (12 MP)
Total: 124 MP (73.8%)

Current rank : 1st