Free Weekly Instant Tournament - August 11 - Board 1

Board 1
Neither side vulnerable

♠ A Q J 9  ♥ A K J  ♦ --  ♣ K 9 8 7 6 2

Two passes to me. I open with one club. LHO overcalls with one diamond, partner bids one spade, and RHO bids three clubs, showing a mixed raise of diamonds (four diamonds and seven to nine support points).

I don't need much for slam. King fifth of spades and queen doubleton of clubs may be enough. King fifth of spades and ace doubleton of clubs may be enough for a grand slam. The fifth spade is important, however. If partner has only four spades and I need to ruff a club to set up the suit, I won't have a trump left to take care of the third round of hearts. I don't have a slam drive. All I have is a strong invitation.

I could bid four diamonds, a splinter, showing a spade raise with diamond shortness, but I wouldn't feel comfortable respecting a signoff. Splinters should surrender captaincy. If you splinter and want to bid over partner's signoff, you shouldn't have splintered.

Checking the tooltips, I see the robots play that an insult cue-bid (three diamonds)  shows four-card spade support and a game force. I'm not sure that's the most common treatment. I should have thought it showed a game force with doubt about strain. But I'm happy for now that they play this way. I'll bid three diamonds, and if partner shows any sign of life, I'll drive to slam.

I bid three diamonds. LHO passes, and partner bids four notrump, Blackwood.

I'm not happy about this development. It would be better if I were in control of this auction, not partner. If I make my systemic bid of five notrump, showing two keycards and a void, we might miss a grand unless partner can be counted on to bid six diamonds any time we have all the keycards. Can he?

With something like

(A) ♠ K x x x x  ♥ x  ♦ x x x  ♣ A Q x x

he should bid six diamonds, but I have no confidence he will. Actually, that's an unlikely hand anyway. It gives the opponents too many hearts. How about something like

(B) ♠ K x x x x  ♥ x x x  ♦ A x x  ♣ A x?

With that hand, I don't think he should bid six diamonds. I think he needs a black-suit filler rather than the wasted diamond ace.

If partner does have the diamond ace, maybe my best move is to ignore my diamond void--to just show my keycards. If we have them all, partner is required to bid five notrump, then I can bid seven spades. No, that's not going to work. I have two keycards and the trump queen, so my Blackwood response is five spades. I can't risk partner's passing that.

Suppose I lie about my keycards and show only one? If partner bids six spades, then he must have three, and I can surprise him by raising to seven. If he signs off in five spades, I can bid six. In theory, that shows that my keycard response was based on four keycards rather than one. Might this induce partner to bid a grand off an ace? I don't see how. Since I'm looking at the spade queen and both round kings, partner can't have enough to go on to seven. This plan won't get us to a grand opposed (A), but at least it will get us there opposite (B), which is the likelier hand anyway.

I bid five diamonds. Partner bids five notrump, promising all the keycards. How is that possible? He presumably has six spades not to ask about the trump queen. But if he thinks we have all the keycards, he must have only one and is assuming I have four for my five-diamond bid. Can partner really be driving to slam with only one keycard and a hand he wasn't willing to open?

One thing for sure, I don't want him to bid a grand. So I must bid six spades, denying either of the kings I actually have. That should stop him from bidding seven. If anyone asks, I'll say I made a mistake when I bid five diamonds, which might be true anyway.

I bid six spades, and everyone passes. West leads the diamond jack.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
			Pass
Pass	1 ♣	1 ♦	1 ♠
3 ♣	3 ♦	Pass	4 NT
Pass	5 ♦	Pass	5 NT
Pass	6 ♠	(All pass)

Partner's four-notrump bid seems a bit aggressive to me. Fortunately, I have him covered. I ruff in dummy with the trump nine. East plays the diamond seven.

I might as will get started on the club suit. I play a low club from dummy. East hops with the ace, and West follows with the five. East returns the three of clubs.

He must have ace-ten fourth and think his partner forgot to lead his singleton. I ruff small, and West follows with the queen.

Do I have a claim now? I can draw three rounds of trump and ruff a club to establish the suit. I still have a trump left to take care of dummy's heart. I claim.

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

100%!

Since we didn't have a grand, my shenanigans weren't necessary. Simply responding accurately to Blackwood would have worked just fine. So why was no one else in slam?

Almost everyone bid four spades over three clubs and played it there. I don't think they appreciated the value of this hand. As I said earlier, this hand isn't quite worth a slam drive, but it's close. If I weren't allowed to invite--if I had to choose between bidding four or six--I would choose six.