Free Weekly Instant Tournament - July 5 - Board 2

Board 2
Neither side vulnerable

♠ A K 10 8 5 2  ♥ 6  ♦ Q 7 5  ♣ A K Q

RHO opens with two hearts, weak. The usual rule in bidding over a pre-empt is that you place partner with 8 HCP and bid accordingly. By that standard, I should be driving to game. I might make four spades opposite as little as a doubleton spade and king-jack of diamonds. Unfortunately my suit isn't good enough to blast four spades, and I have no convenient way to set up a force and investigate. My best choice is probably three spades. It's an underbid. But it's justified because the suit is poor. At least partner knows I have six of them and a good hand. He doesn't need much of an excuse to raise.

I bid three spades, and partner bids four diamonds. Is this bid natural? Some would argue that three spades set the trump suit, so four diamonds is a cue-bid in support of spades. Others would argue that, while three spades shows a good suit, other strains are still possible, so four diamonds suggests diamonds may be a better spot than spades.

Marty Bergen once told me that he plays that, if partner has bid a suit, you can't introduce a minor at the four level except in auctions that begin with two clubs. At least I think that's what he told me. It was a long time ago. So presumably Marty would play this as a cue-bid.

Edgar Kaplan did not agree with this approach. He liked being able to bid his suits. Even in an auction like

1 ♠	1 NT
3 ♠	4 ♦

Edgar played four diamonds as natural. I suspect most experts would play it as a cue-bid.

My own agreements are in between these two extremes. My partnership notebook states that you can't introduce a minor at the four-level if you have previously bid notrump. Thus I would play four diamonds in the previous auction as a cue-bid, but in the auction

1 ♥	1 ♠
3 ♥	4 ♦

I would play it as natural.

The idea is that if you wanted to bid diamonds on the latter auction, it's your own fault. You had your chance and you blew it.

Fortunately, playing with robots, we don't have to guess how partner intends four diamonds. If we ask, he'll tell us. And he intends it as natural.

So what could partner have? A stiff spade and ace-king sixth of diamonds seems like a likely hand. Opposite that we belong in slam. If I had to place the contract, I would probably bid six diamonds. But there is no reason not to bid Blackwood on the way. If partner has only one keycard, we can stop in five diamonds.

I bid four notrump, and partner bids five diamonds. Oh, well. Glad I checked. I pass. RHO leads the king of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
2 ♥	3 ♠	Pass	4 ♦
Pass	4 NT	Pass	5 ♦
(All pass)

Nicely done, partner. I suppose. I might have passed three spades with your hand. If you don't catch a diamond fit, we are propelled too high. I'm glad we were sitting in the right seats.

East plays the heart seven at trick one, and I follow with the deuce. West's best defense is to tap dummy with a heart. Now, with two heart losers exposed, I can't afford to draw trump. Cashing the ace and king of spades, pitching my hearts, will work so long as West doesn't have a stiff spade. Is there anything I can do if he does?

It depends on what heart East follows with at trick two. If he plays the queen (or lower), then West, with ace-king-jack of hearts, can't have the diamond ace. And East is out of hearts. So there is no need to take my pitches immediately. I can just draw trump and take them later.

What if East follows with the heart ace at trick two? Personally, I would open one heart with king-queen-jack sixth of hearts and a side ace. But I suspect the robots would open two, so I can't afford to play two rounds of trumps. Can I play one round? Suppose I play a low diamond from dummy to my ten. If either opponent takes the ace or if West shows out, I have no further problems. What if my ten holds? Then I've reached this position:

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

I can't afford to play another trump. So I must play a club to dummy, take my pitches on the ace and king of spades, then lead another diamond. Have I gained anything? I gain if  West holds

♠ x  ♥ K Q J x x x  ♦ A x  ♣ x x x x

since he would be ruffing the second spade with his trump ace. I don't see any downside to playing one round of trumps, so that's my plan.

My plan proves unnecessary, however. At trick two, West shifts to the six of diamonds. East takes the ace and continues diamonds, and I claim.

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

Making five diamonds is worth 85%. Quite a few players bid two spades over two hearts and played it there. Of those two bid three spades and heard partner bid four diamonds, no one else bid Blackwood. Most simply raised to five diamonds, which seems awfully pessimistic. As I said earlier, if I were barred from bidding Blackwood, I would raise to six, not five.

One person stubbornly persisted with four spades over four diamonds and went down two. (You realize you still get to play the hand even if partner is declarer, right?)

After I posted this, some suggested I should have doubled two hearts rather than bid three spades. I didn’t address that earlier, because I didn’t consider that a possibility. With a one-suited, one generally tries to get his suit into the auction as early as possible before the auction gets uncomfortably high. Sometimes one must, regrettably, double a one-bid with a strong one-suiter, since there is no other option. But there is no reason to double a pre-empt with a one-suiter. Since jumps are strong, you can simply bid your suit at whatever level you deem appropriate. Doubles of pre-empts should always show flexible hands. Accordingly, if you do double and bid spades, partner should not play you for a suit this good. He should play you for a five-card spade suit with playability in other strains.