Free Super Sunday Daylong - May 29 - Board 9

Board 9
Opponents vulnerable

♠ 3  ♥ K 3  ♦ A J 8 5 3 2  ♣ A 8 6 4

Two passes to me. I open with one diamond, LHO bids one heart, and partner makes a negative double. RHO bids two hearts. 

The tooltip says three diamonds by me shows 17 to 22 total points. That's nonsense. I can't sit here and let the opponents steal from us when they are at the two-level in a known fit and I have a six-card suit to compete in. Pass, to my mind, should suggest a weak notrump.

I know some like to play good-bad two notrump here, but I don't care for the convention for three reasons. 

First (and admittedly least important), I can't stand the unimaginative name. 

Second, I'm more interested in telling partner something about my shape than in distinguishing whether I have a good hand or a bad hand. Any bid that says "I'm interested in competing but I'm not going to tell you in what suit" makes no sense to me. In a competitive auction, you need to bid your suits so partner knows how the hands fit. Partner should assume you are just competing. If you do have interest in game, you can usually find some other call--a double or a natural two notrump for example. 

And that brings me to the third reason: I find a natural two notrump to be a very useful call in this auction. Frequently it is offshape, possibly a hand with which you would have jumped to three diamonds in an uncontested auction.

Back to the problem at hand. While I think it's clear to act, it's not so clear whether to bid three clubs or three diamonds. Three diamonds risks catching partner with a singleton. Three clubs risks playing there when partner is two-three in the minors. I'm not entirely confident in my choice, but I expect three diamonds to work out better on balance, so I bid it.

Everyone passes, and West leads the spade king.

	NORTH Robot ♠ A 7 6 2 ♥ J 8 2 ♦ 10 7 ♣ K J 10 2
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ 3 ♥ K 3 ♦ A J 8 5 3 2 ♣ A 8 6 4

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Robot	Phillip
	Pass	Pass	1 ♦
1 ♥	Double	2 ♥	3 ♦
(All pass)

Partner has four-card club support, and diamonds still looks like a better spot than clubs, so perhaps three diamonds is indeed the better bid.

I have only two sure losers--a trump and the heart ace--but I lots of potential losers. I might have two additional trump losers, a second heart loser, and a club loser. To make this, I need to avoid two of those four potential losers. I would normally take West's failure to lead the bid-and-raised suit as an indication that he has the ace, which would make avoiding two heart losers unlikely. But since he appears to have a spade sequence, I can't make that inference.

First let's see what I can do in the trump suit. I take the spade ace, as East plays the four. I lead the diamond seven and, when East plays the six, I let it ride. It loses to the queen. So far so good. I have a shot at losing only one diamond trick--and a pretty good shot, since, as a passed hand, West can't have the diamond king unless he has no honors in hearts.

West leads the spade queen, East follows with the five, and I ruff.

I have only one sure dummy entry, and I need that entry for a trump finesse, so I can't conveniently play East for the club queen. Since it's fifty-fifty who has the queen, I might as well take the finesse that's more convenient. I play the four of clubs--three--jack--seven. Now the diamond ten. East plays the nine and I overtake with the jack. West follows with the four. Nothing left to do except to draw trump, repeat the club finesse, and play East for the heart ace. He has it. I managed to avoid all four of the potential losers. Making five.

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

Plus 150 is worth 71%. Those who passed two hearts survived because partner reopened with a double, which seems like a bad idea to me. I don't think eight working HCP is anything special for a one-level negative double. If partner heard me double and, with heart shortness, chose not to compete, it's not my job to nudge him.

On the other hand, if partner can't bid a minor without 17 total points, I suppose you have to reopen with this hand. So at least the robots' methods are consistent. Even so, I don't care for double. I would expect partner to pass it with any 3-2-5-3, and I have no expectation of beating this contract. If I felt compelled to reopen, I would bid two spades.