Free Weekly Instant Tournament - December 1 - Board 6

Board 6
Opponents vulnerable

♠ A J 10 9 2  ♥ 2  ♦ K 3  ♣ A K 8 6 4

RHO opens with one spade. Overcalling with two clubs will be a popular choice, but it's a bad idea. One reason is that the opponents may get into trouble if you stay out of their way. But a more important reason is that a two-club overcall misdescribes your hand.

When you have two suits of equal length, you bid the higher-ranking one first. The the way you "bid" a suit an opponent opens in front of you is to start with a pass. If you pass and subsequently take aggressive action, partner will know spades is your primary suit. He may even elect to play in spades, a result you can't achieve if you overcall with two clubs. This is an important consideration if the opponents play four-card majors or if the opening is in third seat. It is less important otherwise. Even so, it can't hurt to clue partner in as to what your hand looks like. If you bid two clubs, partner will never play you for a good five-card spade suit.

I pass, and LHO raises to two spades. Now would be a good time to make an aggressive take-out double, partner. No such luck. Partner and RHO both pass.

One could argue that double here should be for penalties. If you weren't willing to ask partner bid at the two level on the previous round, how could you want him to bid at the three level now? This is a sound argument in auctions where the opponents haven't found a fit. But when a suit has been bid and raised, it's less compelling. It's quite possible that you didn't double the first time not because you couldn't summon up your courage but because you were offshape. Now that the opponents have found a fit, it's likely your side has one as well and you don't want to sell out at a low level. Offshape doubles are easier to handle when you balance, because you can use advancer's two notrump as a scrambling device, an option that isn't available over a direct double.

Note that auctions such as

West	North	East	South
			1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	2 ♠

or

West	North	East	South
			1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	2 ♦
Pass	2 ♠	Pass	Pass

are different matters. In these auctions there is no presumption of an eight-card fit. It is more dangerous to act now than it was on the previous round, so playing these doubles for take-out makes no sense. In fact, the prospect of doubling for penalties on such an auction is one of the reasons for passing with this hand on the first round.

Unfortunately, as the auction went, I can't double. All I can do is sell out and be satisfied with 100 points per undertrick. Since it's unlikely we can make a game, this will probably be a good result.

What should I lead? When you hold four trumps, it's usually right to play a forcing game, leading your long side suit to tap declarer. With five trumps, that's often the wrong approach. One factor to consider is your trump holding. With a suit like AK432, a forcing game is probably right. You are forcing declarer to ruff with natural trump tricks and promoting your own small trumps. With good spots, however, a forcing game is less appealing. Your trumps are already winners. And if you force declarer, you are allowing him to score small trumps that he might not be able to score without your assistance. 

Often with five trumps it's better to score ruffs yourself to avoid getting endplayed. Imagine, for example, you come down to a five-card end position consisting of AJ1092 of trumps while declarer comes down to king-queen third of trumps and two losers. Declarer leads one of his losers. You have to ruff partner's trick and give declarer one of his trump honors. Then declarer leads his other loser. You ruff partner's trick again and have to give declarer his other trump honor. Clearly you would have done better had you ruffed a couple of declarer's tricks rather than partner's, coming down to ace-jack-ten of trumps, then sat back and waited for your two trump tricks.

Going for ruffs can be the right defense if your side has tricks to cash off the top. You cash your top tricks, getting some ruffs in the process, then exit. Now declarer is endplayed instead of you. But on this deal partner doesn't have much, so our tricks aren't coming from top cards. Whatever side-suit tricks we have will come from running the club suit. And the only way we can run the club suit is to force declarer to lose control. So a forcing game looks right.

I've settled on a club lead. Now which club? When you play a forcing game, it is often right to lead low from your long suit. Since a forcing game is essentially an attempt to convert the play to notrump, why not lead as if you were defending notrump? But one of the reasons to lead low against notrump is either to avoid blocking the suit or to retain communication if partner is short. Here, since we know partner is void in spades, it's unlikely partner has short clubs. So it looks better to lead an honor.

I know I've spent four paragraphs settling on the lead that most players would choose in half a second. But sometimes one's first instinct is wrong. It's worth thinking about what you are trying accomplish with your opening lead.

I lead the club king and see the following dummy:

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

West	North	East	South
Phillip	Robot	Robot	Robot
			1 ♠
Pass	2 ♠	(All pass)

Partner plays the club deuce, and declarer follows with the nine. I see no reason to abandon my plan. I continue with the ace of clubs. Partner follows with the five and declarer ruffs with the three of spades. Partner has kept the queen and jack of clubs, blocking the suit. I'm not sure whether I'm happy about that or not. A club entry to his hand might prove useful in getting off a potential endplay in diamonds. But in some scenarios it might prevent me from scoring my long club. Partner might have done better to keep one high club and one low one to give us some flexibility.

Declarer leads the five of hearts to dummy's king. Partner plays the four. I expect declarer to lead a spade off dummy. When partner shows out, he will duck, letting me win the nine. What should I do then?

I don't need to decide that. Declarer surprises me by leading the ten of clubs and ruffing it with the five of spades. What's that all about? What can he have for this line to make any sense?

Declarer now leads the spade king out of his hand. I take my ace, and partner plays the eight of diamonds. The robots play this card as count, and I assume partner would pitch a heart with 0-5-4-4, so it appears he is 0-3-6-4, giving declarer 5-5-2-1. If so, this is the current position:

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

I don't want declarer to score any more ruffs. I can lead the jack of spades, ruff declarer's likely heart lead, then draw the remaining trumps. Since I will still have a trump left, I can then lead a club to partner for a diamond play. If partner has the queen of diamonds or the jack-ten, this defense will hold declarer to two more tricks.

I lead the jack of spades. Partner pitches the five of diamond and declarer wins with the queen. Declarer doesn't even try to endplay me. He leads a diamond to dummy's ace. We have the rest. Down three.

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

Plus 300 is worth 86%.

I still don't understand declarer's line of play. Why not lead a trump toward the king when he's in dummy with the king of hearts? When partner shows out, he will change his mind about playing the king and duck. Now what do I do? Presumably I will continue the tap with a third club. That will bring declarer down to king-queen tight of spades. Declarer will play the heart ace. I will ruff and play ace and a spade, drawing declarer's trumps. This will be the position with declarer on lead. Partner might be holding a high club, or he might have pitched it and be holding four diamonds.

	NORTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ 9 6 ♦ A 9 6 ♣ --
WEST Phillip ♠ 10 ♥ -- ♦ K 3 ♣ 8 6		EAST Robot ♠ -- ♥ J ♦ J 10 8 (x) ♣ (Q)
	SOUTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ Q 10 8 ♦ Q 2 ♣ --

Declarer now leads the heart queen. If partner has pitched his high club, I can ruff the next heart and cash two clubs. But then I must concede the last two tricks. Down only two. If partner has held onto his high club. I must be careful. If I ruff, we get only one club trick, and declarer has the rest. Down only one. To beat it two, I must pitch a club, then ruff the next heart, so declarer has no entry to the long heart in his hand. Then I can play a club to partner for a diamond play.

What happened to those who overcalled with two clubs? LHO bid two spades, partner raised to three clubs, and RHO bid three spades, judging his five-card heart suit compensated for the missing sixth spade.

So the two-club overcallers did better than I did. Or they could have. Most of them squandered their good fortune by doubling three spades. Doubling can hardly be right. As I said earlier, partner isn't going to play you for five good spades after you overcall. He'll expect four spades. And South's three-spade bid corroborates that. With the spade void you know he has, there is no way partner will sit for this double. Your should simply pass, happy you pushed the opponents up a level.

For those of you who scoffed at the idea of a low club lead, let me point out that the double-dummy analyzer reveals that putting partner on play for a diamond switch is the only way to beat this contract legitimately. After the lead of the club king, declarer can make the hand by not touching trumps. Persistently leading hearts hold the defense to four trump tricks and one club. Of course, this is an absurd line of play unless you know trumps are five-zero. Perhaps it's just as well I didn't have a penalty double of two spades available.