Jaz Hands - Board 16

Board 16
Neither side vulnerable

Today we conclude Jazlene's SEABF Mixed Team match. She's up six imps going into the last board. Can she hang on?

♠ 4  ♥ K 10 7 6 2  ♦ K Q 9 7 3  ♣ 9 4

LHO opens one spade. The opponents play Precision, so one spade is limited to 15 high-card points. Partner passes, and RHO bids two clubs. This could be a doubleton. They would bid two clubs with any balanced game force--even with primary spade support. 

We pass, and LHO bids two spades, promising six. RHO raises to three spades. LHO bids four clubs, a cue-bid--either first or second-round control.

I don't care for that agreement. It's too early to cue-bid. Your first job in a slam auction is to decide whether you have a shot at twelve tricks. Only then do you worry about whether the opponents can take the first two. That means your initial slam try should be aimed at determining how well your hands fit. It's hard for responder to evaluate his hand if opener's first slam try could be either ace fourth or a singleton. When opener has shown only one suit, his first slam try should be natural. It should be at least a three-card suit and should neither confirm nor deny a control in that suit. It says that cards in that suit are useful. Essentially, it's a help-suit slam try.

There is a famous Spingold deal illustrating this point that was played by Phillip Martin and Henry Bethe. Phillip opened two clubs with

♠ A K Q J 4 ♥ A K ♦ A ♣ J 8 7 5 4

Henry bid two diamonds, waiting. Phillip bid two spades, and Henry raised to three. Phillip bid four clubs. Henry jumped to seven spades. "Is this what you're looking for?" he asked, tabling ace-king-queen tight of clubs.

Anyway, for this pair, four clubs is a cue-bid. RHO bids four diamonds. Great! We were hoping for that. A diamond lead may be necessary against a slam. So we double. LHO passes it back to RHO, who redoubles, promising first-round control. LHO cue-bids four hearts, and RHO has had enough. She signs off in four spades.

LHO now bids four notrump, Blackwood. This auction is impossible--or at least inconsistent. All LHO learned after his four-heart bid is that his partner had no further slam interest. If he has a Blackwood bid now, he had one on the previous round.

He might have a slam try after a signoff. There's nothing inconsistent about, say, a five-club cue-bid. But he I can't possibly have a slam drive opposite the right number of keycards, which is what Blackwood shows. Not unless the four-heart bid was simply kicking the can down the road.

Players sometimes do that. "Maybe I should bid Blackwood now. But why should I bother deciding? I have an easy cue bid. Maybe partner will take over and relieve me of my decision. If she signs off, I can always decided then whether to bid Blackwood. No harm in bidding four hearts and delaying my decision."

But there is harm. Potentially quite a bit. We'll talk more about that later.

RHO bids five spades, showing two keycards and the trump queen, and LHO bids six spades. Partner leads the four of diamonds.

	NORTH Desy ♠ Q 10 6 3 ♥ A 9 ♦ A 10 2 ♣ Q 7 5 3
	♦ 4	EAST Jazlene ♠ 4 ♥ K 10 7 6 2 ♦ K Q 9 7 3 ♣ 9 4

West	North	East	South
Gideon	Desy	Jazlene	Paulus
			1 ♠
Pass	2 ♣	Pass	2 ♠
Pass	3 ♠	Pass	4 ♣
Pass	4 ♦	Double	Pass
Pass	Redouble	Pass	4 ♥
Pass	4 ♠	Pass	4 NT
Pass	5 ♠	Pass	6 ♠
(All pass)

Dummy is a good argument for playing that opener's four club bid shows a suit. If it does, this hand is golden: queens in both of partner's suits and aces opposite his shortness. But if declarer has a singleton, you don't even have your game force any more. Do you have a terrific hand, or do you have a signoff in four spades? No way to tell when four clubs is a cue-bid.

What are our prospects to beat this? Pretty good. Partner has a keycard, so this is going down if a diamond cashes. Declarer rises with the diamond ace and takes a losing spade finesse. A diamond cashes. Down one.

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

Six spades is on a finesse. When slam is 50%, we don't much care whether we bid it or not. In deciding whether our auction was reasonable, the question we need to ask is: if we make a minimal change to the layout that makes slam either hopeless or cold on normal breaks, would our auction have gone the same way?

For example. Would the auction have gone the same way if opener didn't have the spade jack? If so, we should count the auction a failure. We were in jeopardy of reaching a poor slam. Would the auction have gone the same way if responder had the spade king instead of the queen? If so, we should count the auction a success. Responder didn't quite have the hand we were hoping for, but slam was still on a hook.

We can't answer that. Only South knows whether he would have bid the same way without the spade jack. And only North knows whether she would have bid the same way with the spade king instead of the queen.

Jaz's teammates also reached six spades. South bid three diamonds over a Jacoby two notrump, showing extra values and shortness somewhere. I'm told they had a misunderstanding in the bidding after that, so there isn't must point in discussing their auction. To get an idea how an expert pair might bid after a Jacoby two-notrump response, I gave the deal to Michael and Gabby Kamil.

Their auction began the same way: Two notrump, then three diamonds, showing extra values with some shortness. Michael relayed with three hearts, and Gabby bid four diamonds to show a singleton heart.

What is Michael's hand worth? All his high cards are working, but the doubleton heart is wasted. If he had a doubleton diamond instead, his hand could be worth a full trick more. To see what difference it makes, imagine partner's holding a hand such as 

♠ K J x x x  ♥ x  ♦ K x x x  ♣ A K x

Give responder a doubleton diamond instead of a doubleton heart, and slam is fine. With the actual hand, slam has no play. Well, almost no play.

Still, all his high cards are working. So his hand is worth a last-train four hearts. Gabby takes over with Blackwood and bids slam. That looks a bit aggressive to me. But I don't think she would have done that without the spade jack. So by my criteria, we have to say the auction is was a moderate success.

Real success would be reaching six clubs. It makes when six spades does and sometimes when it doesn't. If the defense doesn't find a diamond lead, you can afford to lose a spade trick. 

Is it possible to get there? Paulus and Desy would have had some chance if they played four clubs as natural. But playing Jacoby two notrump with standard responses, I don't see how to reach six clubs.

Andrew Gumperz has proposed that, after Jacoby two notrump, opener's jump shift should show ten cards in the two suits rather than a good five-card suit, as most play. The reason for is suggestion isn't to find an alternative fit. It's to help responder evaluate his cards. Still, finding an alternative fit may be a side benefit. I'm not sure how the auction would go after that start. Perhaps you wouldn't reach slam at all. But if you do, responder may bid six clubs on the theory that it probably doesn't matter if opener is five-five but might matter if he's six-four. At least, if you do reach six spades and go down, responder can slap his forehead and say, "I KNEW I should have bid six clubs."

So what's the potential harm of the kick-the-can four heart bid? The risk you take is that partner might break tempo before deciding to sign off in four spades. If so, you can't win. If you bid Blackwood, reach a slam, and go down, you will keep your result. If you bid Blackwood, reach slam, and it makes, the director will revert the auction for four spades. You aren't allowed to take an action suggested by partner's break in tempo unless it's clear-cut. And the auction all by itself is evidence against you. If it were clearcut, why didn't you bid it already?

Even without that evidence, Blackwood is hardly clearcut on this hand. Yes, you have a maximum in high cards. But three of those high cards are jacks, and the diamond jack rates to be useless. Plus you have presumably already shown something above a minimum with your four-club bid. I wasn't at the table, so I don't know if there was a break in tempo or not. But if there was, and if the spade finesse were on, no committee would let the result stand.

Of course, people's judgments do differ. Presumably, Paulus thinks this hand is worth bidding Blackwood. Perhaps he even thinks it's clearcut. But, if so, he should bid it directly over the redouble. Then he would never be in jeopardy. There is no upside to bidding four hearts. All it accomplishes is to risk having his judgment overruled.

The final board was a push so Jazlene's team won the match by six imps. I kept a charge sheet, as Edgar Kaplan used to do when reviewing matches. Award for best performance at this table goes to Gideon. I charged him with only 1 imp--for his decision to ignore his 5-card heart suit on board 9. (That decision cost 2 imps. But the rules say that if the losing action is a matter of judgment, not an error, you get only a 50% charge.)

Next week, we're back to the Free Weekly Instant Tournament format. Be sure to play on BBO by Thursday so we can compare results.

Jaz Hands - Board 15

Board 15
Both sides vulnerable

This week, we take a look at the penultimate board in the Jazlene's match.

♠ 8 5  ♥ J 9 8  ♦ A Q 10 9  ♣ 10 8 6 2

You pass. LHO opens with two hearts, weak, partner passes, and RHO bids two notrump, showing a game-forcing hand with five or more spades. LHO bids three hearts, showing precisely a doubleton spade, and RHO bids four spades. Everyone passes.

RHO was apparently interested in finding the right strain for game. It's very likely she holds a singleton heart, else she might have bid four hearts and not bothered to look for a spade fit. That means declarer might have two fast pitches, so it may be necessary to cash our minor-suit tricks quickly. If so, perhaps we should lead the diamond ace. If partner has the king, maybe we can cash three diamonds and find a fourth trick somewhere. Or maybe declarer has a stiff heart honor and dummy has the diamond king, in which case ace and a diamond may kill the entry before declarer get's a chance to unblock hearts. 

On second thought, I don't think the diamond ace makes much sense. If you lead a diamond, it's probably better to lead low. If the idea is to kill dummy's entry, low will work just as well as the ace. If partner has the king, low will work better if it's doubleton. The usual reason for leading the ace rather than low in a cash-out situation--that you retain the option of shifting--doesn't really apply here. If a diamond lead is wrong, it probably doesn't matter whether you lead the ace or a low one. You've blown the defense either way.

The alternative is to lead a club, hoping partner has the club ace and can lead a diamond through declarer's king. Perhaps he has the diamond jack and we can take three diamond tricks. Or perhaps he has a doubleton and can score a ruff. 

Which is better? A club lead might enable us to take four tricks off the top if partner has as little as the club ace. A diamond lead, even if you do catch partner with the king, yields at most three diamond tricks, so you will still need to find partner with another trick somewhere. A club lead, then, should work more often than a diamond lead.

Jazlene opts for a club. She leads the six, third best from even.

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

West	North	East	South
Jazlene	Paulus	Gideon	Desy
Pass	2 ♥	Pass	2 NT
Pass	3 ♥	Pass	4 ♠
(All pass)

Declarer plays low from dummy, partner plays the jack, and declarer wins with the ace. She would have played the queen with ace-small, so she must have either a singleton ace or ace-king. If the latter, winning with the ace was a mistake. Had she won with the king, it would be possible from our perspective that partner held the ace. As it is, we know we have no club tricks coming.

Declarer cashes the ace of hearts. Presumably she is unblocking a stiff ace so she can pitch diamonds on the king and queen. Next she'll play ace of spades and a spade to the queen, then take her pitches. At least, if partner does have the diamond king, only two diamonds were cashing, so a diamond lead would not have helped.

We play the nine; partner plays the four. We play upside-down count and attitude, so partner's four shows an even number. But he knows I can deduce the heart count. No need to help out declarer--especially when she may need to decide how many hearts are cashing.

Declarer doesn't play trumps as expected. She cashes the ace of clubs. There is no reason to do this unless she started with ace-king tight. She is unblocking both suits so she can take pitches from either one.

How many pitches can she take? Let's say this is the layout:

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

After ace and queen of spades, she'll pitch a diamond on the heart king and another on the club queen. We'll now be down to this position:

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

She has two ways to try for six: (A) Cash a heart, pitching another diamond. This requires three-three hearts or the hand with four hearts to hold the last trump. Or (B) lead up to the diamond king. Our goal is to talk her into (B). Partner got us off to a good start with his false count in hearts. If we follow with the jack when declarer cashes the king, it may look as if hearts are four-two, in which case she will lead a diamond to the king.

What should we play on this trick? It's probably best declarer knows we started with four clubs. Since we're representing heart shortness, we want to represent club length. So we follow with the deuce of clubs. Partner plays the three.

Declarer plays the four of spades. Interesting. She must be missing either the ace or king of spades, else she would have played ace and a spade to the queen to draw as many trumps as possible before taking pitches.

Declarer plays the nine from dummy, and partner wins the king. Declarer has ace-jack-ten of spades, so the queen of spades is a dummy entry. Again declarer was careless with her carding. Had she played the queen from dummy, I couldn't be sure that the nine was an entry.

Partner shifts to the deuce of diamonds. Declarer plays the jack and we win with the queen.

If declarer had played the queen of spades, it would be right to return a spade. If partner has a spade higher than the nine, we can keep declarer off dummy and take two more diamond tricks to beat this. Since the nine is an entry, declarer would take the rest.

But we know the spade queen is an entry. So we might as well cash the the diamond ace. No need to lose the overtrick. 

We cash the it, and declarer claims. Making four.

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

A low diamond lead wouldn't have mattered. Declarer would win, cash winners, and exit a diamond. We have no realistic chance to beat this now. But we can win and tap dummy with a third diamond to score partner's spade king and hold it to four.

We've seen a number of good plays and a number of bad plays in the course of reviewing this match. But if I were playing in this match and made every mistake we've encountered so far, playing the spade nine instead of the queen is the error I would be most upset about. It may have cost only an overtrick, but it betrays that you weren't even trying to see the deal from the opponents' perspective.

Mistakes are unavoidable. We miscalculate. We misjudge. We have blind spots. But looking at the deal through your opponents' eyes is something that should always be top of mind. One can never become a top player until that becomes a habit.

And one of the primary goals of Gargoyle Chronicles is to help you get into that habit. You may have noticed we spend a lot of time in these posts asking, "Why is my opponent doing this? What can I deduce about the layout from his actions?" Even when it would seem not to matter. That's because these are the questions you should be asking yourself routinely. And the good news is you can ask these questions on any deal. So every deal you play offers a chance to practice. 

That's why, when covering a match, we never skip over a deal. I'm a firm believer that every deal offers an opportunity to learn something. If you can't find it, you just haven't looked hard enough. (By the way, I first heard this sentiment expressed by Michael Rosenberg. I don't want him saying I didn't give him credit.)

At the other table, Jaz's teammates reached four hearts from the South side after a multi-two diamond opening by North. West led the spade eight, and East made the mistake of covering the queen. Declarer now took all thirteen tricks. If East withholds his king, declarer has no way to take more than eleven tricks.

Say declarer repeats the finesse, cashes the heart ace, and leads the ace of spades. West ruffs, declarer overruffs and cashes the trump king, leaving East with a high trump. He then plays a club to his hand and cashes a spade, pitching a diamond from dummy. East ruffs and plays a diamond to his partner's ace, scoring two tricks for the defense.

East's error, along with South's error at our table, resulted in a three-imp pickup for Jazlene. So her team is up six imps going into the last board.

Be sure to come back next week for the conclusion of the match. Spoiler alert: we face a slam decision, so the match is still up for grabs.

Jaz Hands - Board 14

Board 14
Opponents vulnerable

This week, we continue with Jazlene's Mixed Team match. Here is Hope's discussion of today's deal on YouTube:

♠ 7 4  ♥ 6 5 4  ♦ A 10 5 2  ♣ K Q J 3

We'll start the board in Jazlene's seat. RHO opens one diamond. You pass. LHO bids one spade, partner overcalls with two hearts, and RHO passes. You bid two spades to show your limit raise, and LHO bids three clubs. Partner bids three notrump, which RHO doubles. You have a source of tricks in clubs and bad trumps. And your only ruffing value is suspect, since partner probably has secondary spade values, so you opt to play three notrump. LHO has other ideas, however. He pulls to four clubs. Partner bids four hearts, and RHO doubles again. Everyone passes. RHO leads the eight of clubs.

Now we switch over to Gideon's seat for the play.

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

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

The opponents have done a lot of bidding and doubled you twice with a mere 17 HCP. Obviously East has a lot shape, at least six-five in the black suits. But what is West doubling on? She must have all three heart honors, probably fourth. So we've got three heart losers for starters. To make this, we need to pitch both of our spade losers on clubs. Three notrump was the right idea. In that contract, we can duck one spade and hold our losses to one spade and three hearts.

Unfortunately, this contract is problematic. Let's give West

♠ x x  ♥ A K J x  ♦ Q J x x x  ♣ x x

Upon winning the first heart, West will shift to a spade. Now we can't avoid a spade loser. But she doesn't know we have six hearts, so maybe we can sneak a heart through. If we lead a low heart and she ducks, we can cash two clubs and pitch a spade. She ruffs and switches to spades. Now we win and play a diamond to dummy to pitch our last spade on the fourth club. All she gets are her three trump tricks.

East plays the ten of clubs. We take take ace and lead the deuce of hearts. No good. West hops with the jack, and East pitches the deuce of spades. West shifts to the ten of spades, and East overtakes with the king. We can't avoid a spade loser, so might as well duck this. Could West have a stiff spade? No. She would have led it in preference to a club. And East wouldn't have bothered bidding clubs with king-queen-jack seventh of spades.

We duck. East plays the queen of spades. We take the ace and ruff a spade in dummy. Down one.

The full deal:

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

Surprisingly, that was a stiff club. Why didn't East play a club back for down two? I could understand a diamond shift, playing declarer for

♠ A x x  ♥ A 10 9 x x x  ♦ Q x   ♣ A x

After a club return, West ruffs with a natural trump trick and can't stop us from pitch our diamond loser, so we're down only one. A diamond shift sets up a diamond trick for down two. But I don't see how a spade continuation can ever be right.

At the other table, the auction began the same way, but over North's cue-bid, East chose to rebid three spades rather than show his club suit. South bid four hearts, and West doubled.

West then tried a sneak attack. Instead of leading her stiff club, she led her doubleton spade. Ostensibly, this lead is a mistake, since it allows South to duck, then ruff his spade in dummy, getting out for down one. But it had the effect of misleading South about the layout. With East never bidding clubs, South never envisioned a stiff club on his left. It was a stiff spade he was worried about. East had bid three spades with no high cards other than the king-queen-jack of spades. Would he do that with only six spades? Further, wouldn't a stiff spade make West's double of four hearts more attractive? If East ducked the spade, then West ruffed out his ace, he would be down two in a cold contract. If West did have a stiff spade, he could make this by winning the first trick and driving the heart honors, eventually pitching both his spades on dummy's clubs.

He went for it. He won the first spade. Then he did something foolish. He crossed to dummy with a club to lead a heart, eventually losing three hearts, two spades, and a club ruff for down three. Even forgetting about the double, declarer knows West has the ace and king of hearts for her opening bid. So it never gains to lead hearts from the table. He should have just played the queen of hearts from his hand at trick two. But it made no difference. Had he done that, West could draw dummy's trumps, lead a spade to partner, pitch her stiff club on the third round of spades, then get a club ruff. Still down three. The sneak attack worked.

Jaz's team thus picked up nine imps and found themselves in the lead by two.