Match 2 - Board 26

Board 26

Both sides vulnerable

♠ A 6 ♥ A 10 9 7 2 ♦ A 6 4 3 ♣ K 10

RHO passes. I open one heart. LHO overcalls one spade, partner bids two diamonds, and RHO bids two hearts, showing a constructive spade raise.

I have enough to force to game opposite partner's two diamond bid, and three diamonds isn't forcing in this style, so I cue-bid two spades. Partner bids three diamonds. Since my two spade bid did not guarantee support, partner probably has six diamonds. Jack thinks I should bid five diamonds at this point. That might be right if partner has a singleton heart. In that case, I might be able to hold my losses in five diamonds to a spade and a club when three notrump has no play. But any time partner doesn't have a singleton heart, it seems unlikely that I would be making five diamonds unless I'm also making three notrump.

I could punt with three spades, asking partner to bid three notrump with either solid diamonds (which I know he doesn't have) or help in spades. But I'm not so sure I need help in spades. Why can't partner have the club ace or the heart king or a seventh diamond? Even the heart queen may be enough for me to make three notrump on a strip squeeze. I bid three notrump, and everyone passes. West leads the ten of spades.

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

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1 ♥
1 ♠	2 ♦	2 ♥1	2 ♠
Pass	3 ♦	Pass	3 NT
(All pass)
1Constructive raise

Well, I hope I was right about that strip squeeze. I cover the ten with the jack to isolate the spade stopper in West's hand. East plays the queen. I have no particular reason to win this. Maybe if I duck, East will find something clever to do. I play low. No clever antics are forthcoming. East simply continues with the seven of spades--ace--three--deuce.

Given the auction, the heart king and club ace are surely split. Probably East has the club ace, since he the heart king will not look like a particularly good card to him, and he seems to be light for his two heart bid as it is. If so, West can't defend the end position. He must come down to five cards. If he discards a spade, I can simply drive the club ace. So he must come down to three spades and two hearts, throwing all his clubs away. I can now toss him in with a spade to lead away from the king of hearts.

If the heart king and club ace are switched, I can still make this provided West has the heart jack. To hold all his spades and the club ace, he must stiff the heart jack. I can now lead the heart queen to pin it.

I play a diamond to the queen and play the seven of diamonds back to my ace. (I doubt very much if I'm going to need that deuce of diamonds. But what does it hurt to hold on to it? One of these days this habit of routinely retaining deuces is going to pay off.) West plays nine-jack of diamonds. East follows once, then discards the club deuce.

It's a good idea in these situations to make an initial guess about how the cards lie, then modify that guess as you go along if the opponents' discards are inconsistent with your picture. If you wait until you're through running the diamonds before you try to reconstruct the unseen hands, it's easy to overlook an inference. Reading the ending on this deal could be difficult. The defenders already knows they have to come down to five cards. So West knows his objective. He must either stiff the heart king while making it appear that he hasn't, or he must retain king doubleton of hearts while making it appear that he has stiffed it. It's East's job to figure out what hand West is trying to represent and to cooperate.

For my initial guess, I'm going to place West with 5-2-2-4 and East with 3-4-1-5. That seems like the single likeliest pattern.

I play a diamond to dummy. West discards the heart three; East the club three. Possibly West is being tricky and stiffing his heart king right away. But Jack isn't usually so deviousl. So I'm inclined to doubt that he began with a doubleton heart. I'm going to revise my guess. I'm now guessing that West started with 5-3-2-3; East, with 3-3-1-6. Having a six-card side suit is perhaps more consistent with his aggressive two heart bid anyway. On the next diamond, East plays the club four; West, the heart five. This doesn't look good. Could West have started with three small hearts? If so, I'm not making this. Perhaps he has jack third of hearts and is hoping his partner has king-ten (or the ace).

On the penultimate diamond, East plays the heart four. I pitch the heart seven, and West pitches the five of spades. Not a good move, West. Now I'm cold. Both opponents pitch clubs on the last diamond. I drive the club ace and claim my nine tricks.

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

West had a golden opportunity to mislead me. I wasn't expecting East to have seven clubs. West should have represented 5-3-2-3 and pitched two clubs and two hearts. I might then play him to have stiffed one honor or the other and go down. We again see the difficulties in teaching a computer to play bridge. Jack can tell that there is no defense, so he gives up. Since he can't look at the deal from his opponent's point of view, he has no way to see that pitching a spade offers declarer no realistic opportunity to make a mistake, whereas pitching two hearts and two clubs does.

Only one other pair reached three notrump. That pair was also plus 600. Every other pair was down in five diamonds, so we get 11 matchpoints.

Score on Board 26: +600 (11 MP)
Total: 207 (66.3%)

Current rank: 1st