Free Weekly Instant Tournament - September 16 - Board 4

Board 4
Both vulnerable

♠ A K 8 4  ♥ 5  ♦ A Q 8 4 3  ♣ A J 6

Partner opens with one spade in second seat, and RHO passes.

We are probably reaching at least a small slam, and I need to consider a grand slam. With normal breaks, I can take all the tricks opposite as little as,

♠ Q x x x x  ♥ A x x  ♦ K x x  ♣ x x,

which isn't even worth an opening bid. 

What is the best way to investigate? Four hearts would be a splinter, showing heart shortness and at least four-card spade support. But it would be a poor choice with this hand. Splinters should surrender captaincy. They are for describing your hand, then bowing out and leaving further moves to partner. This is hand is obviously too good for that.

Since a grand slam may depend on our diamond fit, it might make sense to start with two diamonds. Again, that start is more attractive when I wish to surrender captaincy. There are some hands where you want to describe your own hand and leave the final decision to partner, and there are others where you wish to inquire about partner's hand and make the final decision yourself. This hand falls into the latter category, so the best approach is to start with Jacoby two notrump. This approach allows you to find out about partner's hand and keep control of the auction.

I bid two notrump, and partner bids three diamonds, showing a singleton or void in diamonds. That's bad news. Our grand slam prospects go down when we don't have a diamond fit. I continue with four clubs, showing the club ace and denying the heart ace. Partner bids four hearts, showing the heart ace.

Now what? Let's give partner queen fifth of spades and the heart ace. An opening bid rarely has fewer than three controls, so he probably has either the heart king or club king. That gives us four cashing tricks. If we bid a grand slam, they will probably lead a trump, holding us to eight trump tricks on a crossruff. That's only twelve tricks. Of course there are a variety of ways to take another. Partner might have a sixth spade. He might have both the heart and club kings. He might have the queen to go with whichever king he has. I'm not going to be able to find out if partner has the right hand. But if I bid Blackwood, the auction may time out to enable me to invite a grand. Over four notrump, he will bid five diamonds. Then I will bid five hearts. If he bids six clubs to show the spade queen and club king, I can invite a grand with a cue-bid. Partner should have a fair idea whether he has an extra trick or not.

I bid four notrump, and partner bids six diamonds, showing an odd number of keycards and a diamond void. If I bid six spades now, partner is not allowed to bid again. While I still can't count thirteen tricks, I'm hardly content to sign off. If I let partner know I'm interested in a grand, perhaps he can bid it. The only forward-going bid available to me is six hearts, so that's what I bid. Partner isn't interested. He bids six spades, and I pass. RHO leads the king of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
		Pass	1 ♠
Pass	2 NT	Pass	3 ♦
Pass	4 ♣	Pass	4 ♥
Pass	4 NT	Pass	6 ♦
Pass	6 ♥	Pass	6 ♠
(All pass)

We have the four side tricks I anticipated. Since they didn't lead a trump, and since partner has excellent spots in the trump suit, we can probably crossruff nine tricks to bring us to thirteen.

Since I expect the field to be in this contract, I have to try to make seven even if I risk going down. The risk is small to begin with, and if I manage the play carefully, I can make it even smaller. One way I might go down is to have an opponent overruff a small trump and lead another trump. Now I score only seven trump tricks instead of nine. To avoid going down, I will then need to take three club tricks. Normally one cashes one's side winners before embarking on a crossruff. But in this case I'm not sure yet how many club tricks I need, so I must postpone cashing my club winners.

Hearts are more likely to be six-one than diamonds are to be seven-one, so I should start by ruffing a heart with dummy's four. I play a low heart from dummy. East play the deuce, and I take my ace. I play the heart three. West plays the six, I ruff with the four, and East follows with the seven. So far so good.

I could play ace and ruff a diamond now, continuing my plan of  testing whether two club tricks suffice. But the risk that someone has a stiff club is greater than the risk of a diamond overruff. Is there any way to guard against a stiff club? I may be able to survive a club ruff if I can cash an honor, then lead through the hand with the singleton, so that at least he isn't ruffing my winner. Since West might have led a singleton club, if anyone has a singleton club, it's more apt to be East, so I want to cash the club ace and lead toward the king. But if I cash the diamond ace and pitch a club, I won't be able to that, so I must play clubs first.

I cash the club ace--five--four--seven and lead the club jack. East plays the deuce, I rise with the king, and West follows with the eight. We're almost home.

I ruff another heart, and East pitches the five of diamonds. Everyone follows to the diamond ace and follows again when I ruff a diamond with the deuce. Now I can claim.

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

Plus 1460 is worth 82%. The overtrick was important; 1430 would have been below average. Too bad my careful play wasn't necessary. It can be hard to put in the necessary effort to play a hand like this correctly. Seven looks cold once they don't lead a trump, and most of the time it will be, so you will probably get away with not working too hard. Still, if you make the extra effort, you will have some edge over those who don't--even if it's only a small edge.

One person did bid and make seven. He bid Blackwood directly over one spade, then bid seven over six diamonds. Given you get 82% for bidding six and not butchering the play, I don't think odds were in his favor with that decision--especially if West had led a trump and forced declarer to guess the club queen.

I don't care for the immediate Blackwood bid. If you are afraid LHO may pre-empt and deprive you of a chance to bid Blackwood, bidding it immediately may be a good idea. But that's not the case here. It probably can't hurt to bid two notrump first. You may find out something useful.

And there is another consideration that this hand illustrates. Even if you have an agreement that an immediate four notrump asks for keycards rather than just aces (an agreement not everyone has), an immediate four notrump should still allow you to select a different trump suit. After one spade--four notrump--six diamonds, it's not clear that six hearts is an invitation to seven spades. It might be construed as to play. An immediate two notrump bid, however, agrees spades unambiguously.