Free Weekly Instant Tournament - July 5 - Board 7

Board 7
Both sides vulnerable

♠ Q J 7  ♥ A 9 8 4  ♦ A Q 6  ♣ A J 7

I open with one club in first seat. Partner bids one heart and RHO doubles.

Before the days of supports redoubles, John and I would bid two notrump with this hand, an artificial bid showing four-card heart support and values to raise to the three level.

The theory was, if you had a balanced 18 or 19-count, you would redouble, since the opponents might be in trouble. Since this meant we had no need for a natural two notrump bid, we adopted the methods played by responder after a direct take-out double: Two notrump was a value raise to the three-level, and a jump raise was pre-emptive. "Pre-emptive" in this context meant a normal single raise with four trumps. So two hearts, by elimination, showed a single raise with only three trumps.

The advent of support redoubles changed all that. Redouble now showed three-card support, and a single raise showed four-card support. Two notrump was back to being natural, since you couldn't redouble any more.

The old-fashioned approach allowed you to penalize the opponents on occasion. And the pre-emptive raise to three sometimes made the opponents' life difficult. Of course, it sometimes made your life difficult when everyone passed and you found yourself too high. Most players today prefer the modern approach, where you can show your minimum with four-card support at the two level.

Back to deal at hand. I bid three hearts, and partner carries on to four. RHO leads the king of spades.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
	1 ♣	Pass	1 ♥
Double	3 ♥	Pass	4 ♥
(All pass)

If the opponent can take a spade ruff, I need the rest, which probably means finding both the diamond king and the club queen onside. If they can't take a spade ruff, I can afford to lose one minor-suit trick. So I need the diamond king onside, or, if that fails, I need to guess whether to finesse against the club queen or the diamond jack.

East plays the spade three; I play the four. West continues with the spade ace, and East plays the nine. The robots don't signal on opening leads, so nobody knows whether East is ruffing the next spade or not. At least that's true if I play the spade ten. Since East probably wouldn't play the spade nine if he had the ten, the ten is the card I'm known to hold. If East has a doubleton spade and I don't play the ten, I've given the show away.

I play the ten, and West continues with the spade deuce. East follows with the five. Now all I have to do is draw trump and win one of my three possible minor-suit finesses. Unfortunately, I can try only two of them.

No. I take that back. Actually, I don't need any of the finesses to work. I can draw trump and take a diamond finesse--either lead a diamond to the queen or float the ten. If East wins, he must give me a trick in one of the minors or lead a spade and give me a ruff-sluff.

Since West has at least eight cards in the minors, leaving East at most six, the right way to play trumps is to cash the ace and finesse against East. I cash the heart ace. West drops the queen. Well, I was right he had a singleton. I cash the king and jack of hearts. West discards the club nine and spade eight. This is the current position:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ -- ♥ 9 ♦ A Q 6 ♣ A J 7
	SOUTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ 10 7 ♦ 10 9 7 ♣ K 6

If my goal is to make my contract, it makes no difference whether I finesse the diamond queen or float the ten. But if I finesse the queen successfully, I can try the club finesse for an overtrick. So I lead the seven of diamonds to the queen. West takes the king and returns a diamond. I have the rest.

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

Making four is worth 54%.

Which method of handling sandwich seat take-out doubles is better? The old-fashioned approach, where redouble shows a two-notrump rebid, or the modern approach, where redouble shows a three-card raise?

As I said earlier, the old-fashioned approach will sometimes propel you to the three level when you don't want to be there. But that's more of an issue with spades than with hearts. Getting to the three-level with eight spades is overbidding total tricks. Getting to the three-level with eight hearts is OK if the opponents have a spade fit.

Of course, no one says you have to have only eight trumps. Sometimes responder has a five-card suit and you belong at the three-level anyway. And sometimes, even if you don't belong there, the opponents take you off the hook. Aggressive bidding puts a lot of pressure on the opponents and can gain even if it's a loser double-dummy. 

I suspect what's theoretically best is to play is the old-fashioned method when responder bids hearts and the modern method when he bids spades. I don't know anyone who plays that way, however. And I doubt I'll encounter anyone who does.