Board 7
Both vulnerable
| ♠ J 9 8 ♥ A K Q ♦ 8 ♣ A K 9 8 7 3 |
I open one club in first seat and partner responds one heart. Five club tricks and three heart tricks make eight. Seven and a half to eight tricks is worth a jump rebid, so I bid three clubs.
Partner bids three diamonds. If I were sure partner had five hearts, I would consider four hearts as a picture bid. But he could be probing for three notrump, so I bid a mere three hearts. Partner bids four diamonds. I'm not entirely sure what partner would do with four hearts and longer diamonds, but the tooltip confirms this shows five hearts, the diamond ace, and slam interest. Nice to know for sure what partner's bids mean.
Any time partner makes a slam try and you hold ace-king-queen of trumps, it's up to you whether to bid it or not. Partner isn't going to be accepting any invitations. So bidding five clubs or five hearts--whichever bid you think announces you are looking for a spade control--is pointless. You can't command partner to bid slam with a spade control, because you are limited and partner is captain. Partner might reasonably decide you would make the same try holding the club queen instead of the heart queen. It is almost inconceivable that partner is making a slam move missing ace-king-queen of hearts, ace-king of clubs, and a spade control, so you should just drive to slam. If this hand isn't good enough, partner shouldn't be inviting.
Accordingly, I bid Blackwood and bid six hearts over partner's five diamonds.
| NORTH Phillip ♠ J 9 8 ♥ A K Q ♦ 8 ♣ A K 9 8 7 3 |
||
| SOUTH Robot ♠ K Q 6 ♥ J 9 7 3 2 ♦ A K 5 3 ♣ 6 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Robot | Phillip | Robot | Robot |
| |
1 ♣ | Pass | 1 ♥ |
| Pass | 3 ♣ | Pass | 3 ♦ |
| Pass | 3 ♥ | Pass | 4 ♦ |
| Pass | 4 NT | Pass | 5 ♦ |
| Pass | 6 ♥ | (All pass) | |
Partner's auction was quite aggressive. With jack fifth of hearts and a misfit for clubs, I wouldn't have been thinking about slam. Over three clubs, I would have simply bid three notrump. But slam is good, so I can't complain.
West leads the spade ace. I have eleven tricks if nothing bad happens. Where is the twelfth coming from? If I ruff a diamond in dummy, I will need three-two trumps (or a stiff ten). If I ruff out clubs, I will also need three-two trumps unless clubs are three-three. Perhaps I can try both. Suppose I cash the ace-king of trumps. If they split, I go after a diamond ruff: Diamond to the ace. Ruff. Club ace. Club ruff to my hand. Finish drawing trump. Now I need to get to dummy to cash the club king, so I will need the spade jack as an entry. If trumps don't split, I play for three-three clubs: Cash the heart queen. Ace and ruff a club. Cash the last trump and, again, get to dummy with the spade jack. Actually, I might not need clubs to split. If the defense doesn't shift to diamonds at trick two and someone is 2-1-6-4, he's squeezed on the spade.
Both lines require a late spade entry to dummy. So, when East follows to trick one with the three, I drop the queen. West continues with the spade seven--nine--five--king. I cash two trumps. Everyone follows, with West playing the ten on the second round. That means I can afford to ruff the club high when the time comes. Diamond to the ace. Ruff a diamond. Club ace. When this doesn't get ruffed, I claim.
| NORTH Phillip ♠ J 9 8 ♥ A K Q ♦ 8 ♣ A K 9 8 7 3 |
||
| WEST Robot ♠ A 10 7 4 2 ♥ 10 5 ♦ Q 10 9 ♣ 10 4 2 |
EAST Robot ♠ 5 3 ♥ 8 6 4 ♦ J 7 6 4 2 ♣ Q J 5 |
|
| SOUTH Robot ♠ K Q 6 ♥ J 9 7 3 2 ♦ A K 5 3 ♣ 6 |
95%. Another generous reward. Only two other pairs reached six hearts. Four other pairs had auctions that began the same way. Three players showed considerable pessimism by signing off in four hearts over four diamonds. Another tried to be scientific about it. He bid five clubs. When his partner bid five diamonds, he bid five hearts. He might just as well have signed off in four hearts like the pessimists. As I said earlier, there is no way partner is bidding on missing the three top trump honors.
A few players tried their customary cute tricks with auctions like:
| North | South |
| 1 NT |
2 ♦ |
| 2 ♥ | 3 ♦ |
| 3 NT | Pass |
Hard to find six hearts that way. Someone should tell these guys you don't have to try so hard. Sometimes you can score 95% with a normal, straightforward auction simply by exercising halfway decent judgment at the critical juncture.
I can understand the 3D bid, because it gives partner a chance to show 3H. However, the 4D bid over 3H is too aggressive, IMO.
ReplyDeletePerhaps an immediate 3NT is too unilateral. 3D, intending to bid 3NT over 3H to offer partner a choice may be better--assuming that's what the sequence means.
DeleteWith the pointed suits reversed, I like two diamonds provided you are playing sensible methods. Unfortunately, the bots play completely unplayable methods over reverses: Two notrump is the only weak bid. Two hearts is game-forcing, so with five hearts and a bad hand, they bid two notrump. This is so unplayable that I try to avoid reverses altogether playing with bots.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to comment on how your methods would handle the hand better. I do that myself from time to time. In standard non-bot methods, I would bid two diamonds with the pointed suits reversed, but I don't see a good alternative to three clubs with the actual hand, even though the bid is clearly problematic. Matthew and I played two diamonds as artificial, including this hand type as well as others. But that was Matthew's idea and I haven't had much experience with it. I'm not sure if I like it or not.
ReplyDelete