Event 3 - Match 7 - Board 5

Board 5
Our side vulnerable

♠ A Q J 9 7 ♥ A K 10 7 2 ♦ 4 ♣ J 5

Two passes to me. I open one spade, and partner responds one notrump. We play Acol two-bids, so three hearts by me is non-forcing. An Acol two-bid shows about eight playing tricks. Since I was just short of that, three hearts now seems about right.

Over three hearts, partner bids four clubs, a cue-bid in support of hearts. This is an encouraging development. If partner has, say

♠ K x ♥ Q x x x x ♦ x x x ♣ A x x

we have a slam, which we will bid easily. At the other table, the auction may well go one spade--one notrump / two hearts--four hearts.

I bid four diamonds to show my diamond control. Partner bids four hearts. If he had the magic hand above, he wouldn't be giving up, so I suppose we're high enough. I pass. West lead the deuce of diamonds.

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

West	North	East	South
Dimitri	Jack	Brodie	Phillip
	Pass	Pass	1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	3 ♥
Pass	4 ♣	Pass	4 ♦
Pass	4 ♥	(All pass)

I don't like the four club bid. It's dangerous to cue-bid a king in a suit partner is apt to be short in. And it's not as if partner needs to find an aggressive bid. Slam seems pretty unlikely opposite a hand that couldn't open two spades, so a simple four hearts is adequate.

Presumably RHO is going to win the diamond ace and shift to a spade. I'm not sure yet whether I will finesse or not. But, if LHO has the spade king, at some point he will get in and will play a low club, forcing me to guess the suit.

What clues do I have about the club honors? One clue is RHO's failure to double four clubs. I'm not sure what to make of that, however. Would East be more likely to double four clubs with the ace or with the queen? East presumably has the diamond ace. If I were East, I would be more inclined to double four clubs with the queen, encouraging partner to lead from his putative king before my diamond ace is knocked out. With both minor suit aces, I would have no reason not to let partner make his natural lead. But I doubt Jack thinks that way. His failure to double probably suggests he doesn't have the ace.

Another consideration is the opening lead. If West has the club ace, he knows North cue-bid a king, so underleading the club ace at trick one would look pretty attractive. This is exactly the time to try such heroics: We have investigated slam and stopped at the four-level, so a straight-forward defense is unlikely to beat us. For a good player, failure to lead a low club under these circumstances is a pretty good indication that he doesn't have the ace. (The converse, however, is not true. Leading a low club at trick one does not suggest the ace. On the contrary, if West has the club queen, he would expect dummy to have the ace, and a club lead in an attempt to establish a trick would be pretty normal. That fact is what makes the underlead of the ace a plausible deception, unlike many trick-two situations where such an underlead is risibly transparent.)

But, again, to draw an inference like that is to give Jack more credit than he is due. Against an expert pair, I have two indications that the club ace on my right. Against Jack, I think both the failure to double and the failure to lead a club suggest the ace is on my left.

If East has both the ace and king of diamonds and is careless enough to win trick one with the king, then I can establish a diamond for a club pitch and not worry about who has the club ace. There is no particular reason I need to play dummy's nine. For all East knows, I have the stiff ten in my hand. By retaining the nine, I may get two pitches if West has ten third.

I play a low diamond from dummy. East wins the trick with the ten. He can't possibly do that with ace-ten. He might have king-ten, but that requires West to have underled the diamond ace into my cue-bid, which would be bizarre. So East must have ace-king-ten. That means I get to pitch a club.

East plays the ace of diamonds. What's this? He thought I psyched my cuebid? I ruff with the ace of hearts, as East plays the five. Against some pairs, I would suspect that West had falsecarded his opening lead.

I play the seven of hearts to the queen. West plays the four; East, the nine. If I draw the last trump, then ruff out the diamond king, I have no way to get back to dummy safely. So I have to take the ruffing fineese now. Despite my suspicion that West falsecarded on the opening lead, I don't think I need to worry that he has a doubleton. East would not have passed twice with ace-king-ten sixth of diamonds. Nor he is wily enough to have won trick one with the ten while holding the eight. So West must have the eight, and ruffing out the diamond king should be safe. I play the jack of diamonds--six--club jack--diamond eight. I draw the last trump and take a spade finesse. I'll take the rest if it wins. It doesn't. West takes the king and cashes the club ace. Making four.

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

Partner's gratuitous cuebid might have been fatal. On this auction, a low club lead from the West hand seems pretty obvious.

The board is a push, although our opponents did reach four hearts from the other side of the table. I assume North bid two hearts, rather than one notrump, over the one spade opening. I'm not sure whether I approve or not. That choice will probably work out well if partner bids again. In some cases, it may make it easier to find a five-three heart fit. But if partner passes, two hearts may well be the wrong partscore.

Table 1: +620
Table 2: -620

Score on Board 5: 0 imps
Total: +3 imps