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.