Event 3 - Match 2 - Board 8

Board 8
Neither vulnerable

♠ A J 10 8 ♥ J 6 ♦ 7 5 2 ♣ Q J 7 4

RHO opens one spade in third seat. LHO bids two hearts, and RHO bids two spades, which is alerted as forcing. LHO bids two notrump--pass--pass back to me. At matchpoints this would be a clear double. I have spades behind dummy and partner has hearts behind declarer. I would not double three notrump, because they could have extras. The bad breaks may mean they're making only three when they would normally expect to make four or five. But when they stop in two notrump, I know they don't have any extras. There is very little downside to this double. If they make this despite the bad breaks, then they have underbid, in which case I have a terrible board anyway. Most of the field will be in game going down.

At IMPs, the risk of doubling is greater and the reward is smaller. It is still true that if they make this, they have underbid and our teammates will probably be in game. But doubling will still be costly. It will turn a five-imp loss into an 11-imp loss. And we must beat them at least two for the double to show any substantial gain. So I pass. Partner leads the deuce of clubs.

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

West	North	East	South
Jack	Stella	Phillip	Kate
			Pass
Pass	1 ♠	Pass	2 ♥
Pass	2 ♠1	Pass	2 NT
(All pass)
1Forcing

I don't understand two spades. There isn't much chance of a game opposite a passed hand, and two hearts seems as good a spot as any. So why not pass?

Partner probably has four clubs. But, since he rates to have four hearts, I must be alert to the possiblity that he is leading a three-card suit. Declarer rises with dummy's king. If I could afford the queen, I would play it. But if partner has ace third (or, more embarassingly, four small), the queen would not work out well. So I encourage with the seven; declarer plays the three.

I expect declarer to play a heart at trick two. When dummy has touching honors, it's usually right to cover the last honor if dummy has small cards and the penultimate honor if it doesn't. So my first instinct is to play the jack on the first round of hearts. Does that make sense here? Suppose declarer has ace-king-eight fifth (without the seven) and exactly one side entry. If I play low on the first heart, declarer can duck. Whether partner wins this trick or not, declarer can take four heart tricks. But if I play the jack, declarer can't afford to duck. She must win the trick and play a low heart to dummy's remaining honor. If partner ducks this trick, declarer doesn't have the entries both to establish and to run the suit, so she is held to three heart tricks. I'm sure there are other holdings that will work similarly, so it looks right to cover the first heart.

Declarer doesn't play a heart, however. She plays the nine of diamonds. I play the deuce, declarer wins with the king, and partner plays the eight. Why isn't she playing hearts? She must have the queen of diamonds as well. I can't imagine it's right to release her only side entry before playing hearts. Based on partner's eight, she would appear to have king-queen fourth. It's still not clear why she wants to be in her hand.

She plays the four of diamonds--six--ace--seven. I see. She's just trying to get a count. She plays the nine of hearts. I would have covered at trick two. But declarer has demonstrated she has no shortage of entries to her hand, so I don't see the point anymore. It's probably better to keep the favorable lie of the heart suit a secret. I play the six--king--five. On the bidding, declarer can't have the ace-king of hearts and the king-queen of diamonds. She must have king-queen in each suit, and partner must have ducked the ace.

If declarer has the heart eight, then, once she knocks out partner's ace, she has four hearts, four diamonds, and a club--nine tricks. If partner has the spade queen, as seems likely, we can cash enough tricks to beat this before declarer gets back in. If not, we can cash only five tricks--three clubs and two aces--so declarer will make it.

Declarer plays the ten of diamonds, on which partner pitches the deuce of hearts, and overtakes with dummy's jack. She leads a heart--jack--queen--ace. Partner shifts to the queen of spades. We have the rest. Down three.

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

Declarer could have cashed her fourth diamond to hold it to down two. But she was still trying to make it, hoping the spade ace was onside. Of course, partner didn't have to give her the chance. He could have reasoned, as I did, that declarer couldn't have entry problems given this line. So there was no point in ducking the heart. We were always entitled to down three. Maybe I should have doubled after all.

No. If I double, they might wriggle their way into three diamonds. Or three hearts for that matter. I can't be too unhappy when the opponents go minus 150 with two higher-ranking makable contracts available to them.

Our teammates sensibly stopped in two hearts, making four. So we pick up eight imps. That gives us 23 (out of 30) victory points. We are now n first place.

Table 1: +150
Table 2: +170

Result on Board 8: 8 imps
Result on Match 2: +26 imps (23 VP)
Current Total: 42 VP


For our third match, we play Marcus and Nathanial, who play the Jack convention card, whatever that means. I don't know Jack.