Match 2 - Board 49

Board 49
Neither vulnerable

♠ K Q 9 3 2 ♥ K 7 5 4 2 ♦ Q ♣ K 7

Partner passes; RHO opens with a Precision one diamond. At one time, it was customary to restrict Michaels' cue-bids either to hands worse than an opening bid or to very good hands. With intermediate hands like this one, one would simply overcall. Today, most players cue-bid on almost any hand of the appropriate shape. But I've never figured out how to make that work. To my mind, this hand is not good enough to cue-bid and bid again and too good to cue-bid and go quietly. So I overcall with one spade.

LHO bids two diamonds, and partner raises to two spades. RHO bids three diamonds. With five losers, I'm worth a game try. So I bid three hearts. Partner bids three spades, and RHO bids four diamonds. I have nothing further to say. I pass, and partner goes on to four spades, which ends the auction. West leads the deuce of diamonds (fourth best).

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

West	North	East	South
	Pass	1 ♦	1 ♠
2 ♦	2 ♠	3 ♦	3 ♥
Pass	3 ♠	4 ♦	Pass
Pass	4 ♠	(All pass)

Continuing on to four spades was foolish. Competing at the four level when we rate to have eight trumps and they rate to have nine makes no sense at all. We were probably beating four diamonds, and we are unlikely to make this.

What do I know about the opponents' shape? Diamonds appear to be four-five. West didn't make a negative double, so hearts are either three-three or two-four. And, since East didn't open with a weak notrump, he rates to have a second suit. So, putting all this together, either East is four-five in the red suits or he is 4-3-5-1 or 1-3-5-4.

How about the high cards? It's unusual to raise a Precision diamond with only four trumps. West would probably have preferred to bid one notrump if that were an option. So I suspect he doesn't have the spade ace.There is room, however, for him to hold the club ace.

East wins with the diamond ace and shifts to the ace of clubs. This is a strange defense. I was expecting a diamond continuation. Could this be a singleton? Unlikely. How is East planning on putting his partner on play to give him a ruff? It's more likely he's trying to give his partner a ruff. That means he's 1-3-5-4.  He plans on playing a third round of clubs for a possible trump promotion when he gains the lead with the spade ace. If I'm right about all this, I have four inescapable losers.

I unblock the king to get an extra dummy entry. I'm confident enough of East's stiff ace that I would play a low spade out of my hand if I couldn't get to dummy. But as long as I have an entry, there's no need to do that. West plays the club three. East continues with the deuce of clubs. West plays the five, and I win in dummy with the eight. I play a spade from dummy--ace--deuce---six. East plays the ten of clubs. I pitch the deuce of hearts, allowing West to ruff with his natural trump trick. He continues with the king of diamonds. I ruff and claim. Down one.

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

The hand was an open book at trick two. Maybe I should have won the second club in my hand and played the deuce of spades. Perhaps my flamboyant display of card-reading prowess would demoralize the opponents. Nah. Jack seems pretty unflappable.

As I expected, four diamonds was going down. We get five matchpoints for this result, tying the pair who went down one in three spades and beating the two pairs who sold to three diamonds. Going plus against four diamonds, it turns out, would have been worth only an additional two matchpoints. To get a good score, we must buy it in three spades.

West's diamond raise made that goal hard to achieve. Not everyone would raise a Precision one diamond opening with West's hand. But I think the raise makes sense. His spade length makes diamond shortness in his partner's hand unlikely.

Would a Michaels' cue-bid have worked out better? I replayed the hand, bidding two diamonds at my first turn to see what would happen. LHO passes, partner bids two spades, and RHO doubles. I pass, LHO bids three diamonds, and partner bids three spades, ending the auction. I guess that works, but I'm still not sure why. Partner's three-spade bid is as incomprehensible to me on this auction as his four-spade bid was on the auction we had.

Score on Board 49: -50 (5 MP)
Total: 383 MP (65.1%)

Current rank: 1st