Free Weekly Instant Tournament - March 10 - Board 5

Board 5
Our side vulnerable

♠ A K J 5 4  ♥ 10 9  ♦ 3  ♣ A K 8 5 4

Partner opens with one diamond and RHO passes. I bid one spade and partner rebids one notrump. I bid two clubs, artificial and forcing, and partner bids two spades, showing three-card spade support. 

Should I investigate slam? Culbertson's Rule states that when slam is virtually cold opposite the perfect minimum, you should invite. What do I need for slam to be virtually cold? Both black queens and the red aces will suffice. Both black queens and the ace-king of hearts will work as well, which is even less than a minimum. So this hand merits an invitation.

Note that counting points wouldn't lead you to this conclusion. I would count this hand as 18 total points: 15 HCP plus one for each of the five-card suits plus one for the singleton once a fit is found. That's still not enough to make a slam try opposite a weak notrump. 

Counting losers would work. Five losers opposite partner's presumed seven should produce slam if the hands fit well. But I prefer using Culbertson's Rule. It's both easy to apply and accurate. 

I once suggested this rule to a player who responded, "Playing partner for the perfect hand seldom works out." I don't think she quite grasped the rule. To clarify: (1) This perfect hand you are postulating must be a minimum. (2) Slam must be cold on normal breaks opposite this hand. (3) Even when you meet conditions (1) and (2), you only invite. So it's hardly "playing partner for the perfect hand." Each of these three elements serves to slow you down. It's actually a conservative rule.

I bid three clubs to show my second suit, and partner bids three notrump. Apparently most of his high cards are in the red suits, so slam no longer appeals. I bid four spades, which ends the auction. LHO leads the four of hearts.

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

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

Partner has neither black queen, so these hands don't fit well. I was toying with slam and I might go down in game.

First I have to decide what to do on this trick. The robots are not fond of aggressive leads, so the heart king is a favorite to be on my right. It's possible I should hop with the ace, cross to my hand, and lead a diamond to the queen to take a heart pitch. That's quite a position to take, however. It would be embarrassing to lose two tricks in the red suits--especially if the heart finesse was on all along.

Another concern is that, even if the diamond finesse works, cashing two diamonds opens me up to getting tapped. If trumps don't break, I could lose control. I may then wish I had held on to some of my red-suit stoppers.

Besides, while the heart king is a favorite to be offside, it's not a heavy favorite. Hearts is the unbid suit after all. And West doesn't necessarily have a safe lead in any suit.

I've talked myself into taking the heart finesse. If it turns out it was right to go up and take the diamond finesse, at least I can say I thought about it.

I play the heart queen. East plays the five. Yay! The three and the deuce are still out.

I'm going to need to ruff at least one club, possibly two. There is variety of ways to do that. I could start ruffing clubs now. Or I could play two rounds of trumps, then ruff a club. The two rounds of trumps could consist of cashing the ace and king or it could involve a spade finesse.

Often when you have potential trump losers, ruffing the side suit early is the best approach. If someone scores a ruff, it may be with a trump trick you were destined to lose anyway. If so, you are compressing two losers into one. In this case, when I may need to ruff two clubs, starting trumps seems like an especially bad idea. I don't want to give the opponents  a chance to take all the trumps off the table.

I lead a club to the ace. East plays the three; West, the seven. On the club king, West plays the six; East, the jack. West follows to the next club with the queen. I ruff with dummy's six. East overruffs with the ten and switches to the spade three. I play the ace, and West follows with the nine. The spade queen is the only spade out higher than dummy's eight. If West has it, I can ruff another club to establish my suit.

It doesn't hurt to try. If I get overruffed, I was losing that club trick anyway. I ruff a club with dummy's eight. It holds. The remaining spades split, so I make six. See? We did have a slam.

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

96%! Most declarers played trumps too early. If you lead a spade to the queen, West wins and returns a spade. Now when you ruff a club, it gets overruffed and you are left with a club loser, making only four. 

Cashing the top spades is better, since you drop the queen. Now you make five. Again, the third round of club gets overruffed and you are left with a club loser.

Playing one round of trumps does no better. When East overruffs, his trump return removes dummy's last trump, so you still make only five--assuming you drop the trump queen.

The only way to make six is to ruff clubs twice, and to do that you must ruff a club without touching the trump suit. I did say "when I may need to ruff two clubs, starting trumps seems like an especially bad idea." Retaining the ability to ruff the second club proved to be critical.