Jaz Hands -- Board 10

Board 10
Both sides vulnerable

This week, we continue our discussion of the Ong-Tan vs Noervita-Sugandi match from the SEABF Mixed Teams.

You can watch Hope's discussion of Board 10 on our YouTube channel:

♠ A K 8 4  ♥ A 7 5 3  ♦ Q 8  ♣ A 6 2

Desy opens one notrump, showing 11-14, balanced. Jazlene doubles, which she tells me they play as showing 13+ HCP. I know that's a popular agreement: double their notrump when you have the maximum of their range. But I've never understood it. I don't see what their range has to do with anything. You need just as many tricks to beat a weak notrump as you do to beat a strong notrump. If they open one notrump with six to eight HCP, I'm not doubling with eight.

Personally, I think double should show 15+ HCP regardless of their range. To be fair, I do loosen up a bit when they play weak notrumps, because you do have to worry that it's your hand on power, something you generally assume isn't true when their one notrump is strong. But I don't loosen up on the high-card points. To double a strong notrump with a mere 15 or 16 HCP, I need to have a good opening lead. I don't worry about that against a weak notrump.

In any event, Jazlene's methods are a given, so, in the ensuing auction, we must take into account the fact that she could have an ace less.

Paulus redoubles, which shows a single-suited runout and asks partner to bid two clubs. Gideon passes, and Desy dutifully bids two clubs.

My choice here would be to pass. You may have seen our video explaining my methods when I open one notrump and they interfere. If you haven't, it's worth checking out:

While I didn't say so in the video, I play the exact same methods when they open one notrump and we double.

So double here would show a doubleton club. With three clubs I pass. If LHO passes also, partner will reopen with a double if he has a doubleton club and 7 HCP or so. If he has three clubs (and not enough in high cards to be concerned about missing a game), he will pass. If LHO corrects two clubs to two diamonds and that gets passed around to me, now I will double, showing a doubleton diamond. The idea is that we want to defend if they have a seven-card fit, since this may be our last plus. If they have an eight-card fit, we want to bid, since now it is more likely that both sides can make something.

Jazlene chooses to double, which she plays as take-out. She doesn't have the right shape for a take-out double, but with four cards in each major and an ace more than she has shown, she apparently judged an offshape double was called for.

Paulus corrects to two diamonds. Gideon chimes in with two spades, and RHO raises to three diamonds.

Now what?

Can we have a game? Jazlene still has an ace more than she might. With a classic shape for a take-out double, she would have doubled even with a minimum. What do we need for game? Perhaps something like

♠ Q x x x x  ♥ K Q x  ♦ x x x  ♣ x x ?

Maybe. But Desy's diamond raise makes that hand unlikely. Her partner could be broke, so she wouldn't be raising diamonds without four of them. If Gideon has a doubleton diamond, we probably don't have a game. He would then need five spades and four cover cards. With that much, he would have bid three spades over two diamonds. So I would judge we don't have a game.

Jazlene judges differently. She bids four spades. I suspect she would have simply invited with three spades had RHO passed. But after the raise, three spades isn't a game try any more. It's simply competitive. The only way to "invite" game here is to bid it.

I'm switching directions to make declarer South. 

	NORTH Jazlene ♠ A K 8 4 ♥ A 7 5 3 ♦ Q 8 ♣ A 6 2
	SOUTH Gideon ♠ Q J 5 3 2 ♥ 9 8 6 ♦ 5 4 ♣ J 7 4

West	North	East	South
Desy	Jazlene	Paulus	Gideon
1 NT	Double	Redouble	Pass
2 ♣	Double	2 ♦	2 ♠
3 ♦	4 ♠	(All pass)

Desy leads the king of diamonds; Paulus plays the deuce. Desy cashes the diamond ace, on which Paulus plays the six, then switches to the seven of spades. We have four more losers, which will put us down three. It appears they're making three diamonds. Minus 300 will be a five-imp loss. We can hold that to three imps if we find another trick.

If hearts are three-three, we can set up a heart trick if they don't get clubs going in time. If hearts are four-two, can we endplay someone? If Desy has king queen of clubs and a doubleton heart king and forgets to unblock, perhaps we can endplay her. That gives her ace-king of diamond, king-queen of clubs, king of hearts. No. That's fifteen. It seems we're stuck with Plan A.

Gideon cashes the ace and king of spades. Both follow.

What's the best way to attack hearts. If possible, it looks better to lose the first heart to Desy . A club shift rates to be harder from the West side than from the East side. So I would play a heart from dummy now. Gideon, however, judges to go the other way. He plays a trump to his hand. Paulus discards the diamond seven; Desy, the diamond three. He leads the six of heart and passes it when Desy plays the four.

Paulus wins with the heart jack and shifts to the five of clubs. The only hope now is for Desy to have the club king and to believe Gideon started with queen third instead of jack third. If so, when he wins this trick, he will be reluctant to continue clubs. Gideon plays low, Desy wins the the nine, and Gideon ducks in dummy. It works. Desy shifts to the ten of hearts. Gideon wins and plays a third heart. They split. Down two.

	NORTH Jazlene ♠ A K 8 4 ♥ A 7 5 3 ♦ Q 8 ♣ A 6 2
WEST Desy ♠ 10 7 ♥ Q 10 4 ♦ A K J 3 ♣ K 10 9 3		EAST Paulus ♠ 9 6 ♥ K J 2 ♦ 10 9 7 6 2 ♣ Q 8 5
	SOUTH Gideon ♠ Q J 5 3 2 ♥ 9 8 6 ♦ 5 4 ♣ J 7 4

Gideon's play of a low club on Paulus' shift was critical. Had he played the jack, Paulus  would win with king and would have no reason not to continue clubs. Nice play, Gideon.

This should be minus three imps. Let's see what happens at the other table. West opens one diamond, North doubles, and East raises to two diamonds. That's passed back around to North, who doubles again. South bids two spades and East-West break the Law by selling out. West certainly should have competed. Responder usually has five diamonds for his raise. And, even if he doesn't, West knows the opponents have an eight-card spade fit. So it can't be right to let them play the two-level. That's a recipe for going minus at both tables. East has no reason to complete in balancing seat. He's said his piece. For all he knows, his partner is 4-4-3-2 and neither side has a good fit.

Here's the full auction:

West	North	East	South
Peter	Della	Huijun	Emmy
1 ♦	Double	2 ♦	Pass
Pass	Double	Pass	2 ♠
(All pass)

Having under-competed, the pressure is now on to beat this. East-West can make three diamonds, so they must go plus.

The defense begins just as it did at the other table: two high diamonds and a trump shift. Except that East plays ten-deuce on the top diamonds. I'm not sure what their signaling methods are. Personally, I would discourage on the opening diamond lead to show tolerance for a club shift. (Clubs not hearts, because hearts is a possible source of tricks. And only tolerance. It's not a request.) On the second diamond, I would give count. That would make the defense easy. With king-ten nine of clubs, West can shift to a low club. East will win and return one. The defense gets their club tricks in before anything bad happens.

Declarer wins the spade shift in dummy and immediately plays a heart. That's a nice play. If you don't draw trump, sometimes the opponents think it's a good idea for them to do so. The opponents don't know you have five spades, so playing a heart immediatly may make it appear you want to ruff hearts in your hand. East doesn't fall for it. He hops with the heart king and shifts to the deuce of clubs.

Unlike Gideon, he's not going to talk the opponents out of a club continuation no matter what he does. Since they need two club tricks to beat the contract, West will always continue clubs after winning this trick. Delcarer does have one chance left, however. He can hope hearts are four-two and the hand with the doubleton heart must win the club trick. If so, he can win the second club, draw trump, cash the heart ace, and exit with a club. That hand will now have to give him a ruff sluff.

If anyone has four hearts, it must be West, so declarer wants East to win the third round of clubs. Therefore he must play the jack, driving West's honor, then hope East forgets to unblock on the club return. It was correct for Gideon to duck the club shift, but Emmy must rise with the jack. He does.

West covers with the king, declarer ducks. West continues clubs, and declarer wins in dummy with the ace. No queen from East, so things are looking up for him.

Declarer cashes the last spade, plays a heart to the ace, and exits with a club to East's queen. Unfortunately for him, East has another heart. Down one.

That's minus 3 imps for the good guys.