Weekly Free Instant Tournament - Feb 11, 2022 - Board 2

Board 2
Our side vulnerable

♠ K 10 5 2  ♥ A 6 3  ♦ Q 10 2  ♣ A 7 3

RHO passes. I open with one club and LHO overcalls with one heart. Partner passes and RHO bids one notrump. I have nothing further to say. I pass and LHO bids two clubs. 

Not everyone would play two clubs as natural. Some players make it a rule that, with a few specific exceptions, bids in suits bid by the opponents are never natural. As a Lowenthal disciple, I go to the opposite extreme. ("Often the best trump suit on a misfit is the suit that splits five-one," John would say. "It's the only suit where the opponents can't crossruff.") But even if you prefer the former approach, this bid should be one of the exceptions. Partner has shown something in clubs with his one notrump bid. If you have shortness in spades or diamonds and four or five clubs, why shouldn't clubs play better than notrump? The robots agree; the tooltip says this bid is natural.

Partner passes over two clubs, and RHO corrects to two hearts, ending the auction. Partner leads the club five.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Phillip	Robot
	Pass	1 ♣	1 ♥
Pass	1 NT	Pass	2 ♣
Pass	2 ♥	(All pass)

Declarer plays the club nine from dummy.

What’s declarer’s shape? The club five looks like a doubleton, so declarer is probably 2-5-1-5. Or maybe not. Partner would have doubled one heart with four spades unless he is almost broke. So it's more likely declarer is 3-5-0-5.

I could win this trick and continue clubs. But perhaps ducking makes more efficient use of our entries. Suppose partner has queen third of hearts, for example. If I play two rounds of clubs, declarer will win in dummy, pitch a spade on the diamond ace, and play a heart. If I play low, he might (and arguably should) go up with the king and play another heart. Then there is nothing partner can do. If he hops with the queen, he can’t reach me for a club ruff. If he ducks to my ace, he’s ruffing with a natural trump trick.

What if I hop with the heart ace to  give partner his ruff? Now declarer may guess to drop partner’s heart queen. Ducking the club, then ducking when declarer plays a heart off dummy leaves declarer with no winning options. He can’t stop us from scoring two heart tricks and a club ruff.

There are two layouts where I may regret ducking both aces:

 (1) Declarer is 2-6-0-5. I can afford to duck the club ace, but if I duck the heart, we lose our club ruff. Is that a possible hand for declarer? It gives partner four spades and king-jack fifth of diamonds. With as much as the queen of spades, he would have doubled one heart. So if declarer is 2-6-0-5, he must have ace-queen doubleton of spades. That means, when the club nine holds and declarer cashes the diamond ace to pitch a spade, that spade will be the queen. If that happens, I'll hop with the heart ace. If he pitches a low spade, I know he can't be six-five, so I can afford to duck. 

(2) Declarer is 2-5-0-6. Now we can take two club ruffs if I win the first trick. Again, declarer must have ace-queen tight of spades if that's his shape. But now I won't find out in time. I'll just have to pay off to this case. It's too specific a hand to worry about.

Actually, come to think of it, there is another way that ducking the club ace might cost. What if we have spade tricks to cash? Can it be right to win and shift to spades before declarer gets his pitch on the diamond ace? If declarer has queen third of spades, the pitch doesn't matter. And if he has ace third, we can't stop it. It appears the only time a spade shift is necessary is when partner has both spade honors. Is that possible? It would give partner

♠ A Q x  ♥ x x x  ♦ K J x x x  ♣ x x .

I wouldn't pass over one heart with that hand, but a robot might. Still, I can't cater to that hand. If I win and switch to a spade, we might lose our club ruff altogether. Suppose, for example, declarer has both spade honors instead of partner. Again, this is a layout I just have to pay off to.

Back to trick one. I encourage with the club seven, and declarer plays the six. As expected, declarer cashes the diamond ace. I play the deuce, declarer pitches the spade eight, and partner follows with the diamond four. Declarer plays the deuce of hearts from dummy. I duck as planned. Three—queen—four. Partner had no trump honor, so my careful defense has made no difference. Declarer continues with the eight of hearts—seven—jack—ace. I play ace and a club, which partner ruffs. Eventually, we score a spade trick. Making three.

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

Minus 140, surprisingly, is worth 82%. Most defenders failed to navigate the club ruff. A couple of players found a strange one diamond opening and were severely punished. Over one diamond, South bid an unusual two notrump. Responder raised to three diamonds, and North doubled for penalties. The one diamond opening failed, weirdly, because it enabled you to find your fit.

The usual reason for opening the "wrong" minor is to inhibit the lead against a notrump contract. Some might choose one diamond for this reason if you move the diamond queen to the club suit. With this hand, however, I see no reason to inhibit a diamond lead, so I'm not sure what the point was. Perhaps they just wanted to do something random to increase the standard deviation of their results. If that was their objective, they succeeded.

Incidentally, the South hand is a good advertisement for playing two clubs as natural in this auction. I would hate to have to find a sensible call if it weren't.

My running score is 91%. I'm still in first place.