Bridge: 7 No Trumps baby!

[Biotop]

I suppose the bidding could have gone differently. But I think the key is that West showed no support for hearts.
Here’s the full deal:

West:

♤: AT76
: J8
♢: AJ9654
♧: Q

++++

North:

♤: K983
: AKQ
♢: QT32
♧: 98

++++

East:

♤: 2
: T765432
♢: 7
♧: AKT7

++++

South:

♤: QJ54
: 9
♢: K8
♧: J65432

++++

As you can see, the lead of the 9 of hearts defeats the game contract in East. North follows with a second round of hearts, and East cannot ruff a club loser. When I declared I got a club lead and making 10 tricks was easy. Take the club queen, cash the spade Ace, ruff a spade, then ruff a club. The opps get only the top 3 trumps.

Of course it is possible that one or both of the unfortunate Easts misplayed the hand. I don’t know for sure they suffered the heart lead and continuation. But I would think the card play for declarer is mostly very easy once the cards come down. After any other opening lead but the 9 of hearts, 10 tricks for East are cold.

[Quartz]

Yes, on that North hand, I’m bidding 1NT, not doubling. It’s the least lie.

[amarone]

@Quartz

On a balanced hand I’d be bidding 1NT with sufficient points or passing otherwise.

Passing is dangerous in the modern world where LHO may jack up the bidding with a preemptive 3D bid. You are in danger of missing your major suit fit. Also, you might have enough points for 1NT but no diamond stop, so you would want to double to avoid getting shut out of the auction.

But then I’d be taking the double as a take-out double and expecting partner to have at least 4 clubs (but maybe 3). It looks like the opponents have a double fit in Hearts and Diamonds.

With your style of bidding, I think South should double, this time showing Spades and Clubs and leaving the choice to partner

If you mean a double of the 1H bid, most people play that as penalties. However, if you play double as responsive, it is a reasonable bid on this hand and would tend to suggest longer clubs than spades.

[amarone]

@Biotop

As you can see, the lead of the 9 of hearts defeats the game contract in East.

Edgar Kaplan once said “there is a special place in hell reserved for partners who lead singleton trumps.”

[Quartz]

@amarone

Edgar Kaplan once said “there is a special place in hell reserved for partners who lead singleton trumps.”

It’s a standard lead against a suit contract, especially one which you suspect will be made on a cross-ruff.

[amarone]

@Quartz

It’s a standard lead against a suit contract, especially one which you suspect will be made on a cross-ruff.

There are certainly situations where a trump lead is called for, and Karen Walker describes them well here. However, read to the bottom where you will come across

A few warnings: When in doubt, avoid leading a trump if you hold:

A singleton trump.

Unless there is specifically a good reason, singleton trump leads are generally not advised, and are certainly not standard. More examples:

Australian expert Ron Klinger:

Do not lead a singleton trump (partner may have three or four, and your lead may destroy a potential trick or two in partner’s hand

Or here:

When none of the above conditions are present, seriously consider NOT leading a trump, especially with a singleton which often costs partner a trump trick.

[Biotop]

Here are two hands from this week where I got it wrong in the bidding. I was partnering with one of the best players in the club. We play together just a few times a year, and our bidding is SA with a few conventions. Matchpoints scoring.

Hand 1: Sitting East, none vulnerable. West dealer. My hand:

♤: AQ987
: QJT976
♢: T
♧: Q

The bidding:

W: P
N: 1NT (15 to 17)
E (me): 2♡ ( Brozel, showing hearts and spades - alerted)
S: 2 NT (this came after a request to explain the alert and then a long pause)
W: P
N: P
E:?

What would you bid?

××××××××

Hand 2: Sitting East. N/S vul. South dealer. I receive this:

♤: AK
: VOID
♢: AJ96432
♧: T765

The bidding:

S: P
W: 1♡
N: P
E (me): 2♢
S: P
W: 6♢!
N: P
E: ?

What would you bid?

[merrick]

I’ll take a shot at this:

Hand 1 - My read of South’s 2NT is that he has Heart strength (with a shortage in Hearts he could double, so maybe something like a 3-4-3-3 9-count). So you have a minority of the points and no Heart fit. Pass. 2NT may well be making, but 3S* is unlikely to be a good save.

Hand 2 - Even if he has a 22-count, partner can’t be sure you have DA. And he’s prepared to play 6D without it, so the choice is between 7D and 7NT. You have SA to cover his Spade void (if he had Spade and Diamond losers, he would have asked for aces), but he may well be relying on your trumps to ruff his Hearts good, so 7NT is too risky. Possible hand for partner is S - H AKxxxxx D KQxxx C A

What happened at the table?

[amarone]

@Biotop

Here are two hands from this week where I got it wrong in the bidding. I was partnering with one of the best players in the club. We play together just a few times a year, and our bidding is SA with a few conventions. Matchpoints scoring.

Hand 1: Sitting East, none vulnerable. West dealer. My hand:

♤: AQ987
: QJT976
♢: T
♧: Q

The bidding:

W: P
N: 1NT (15 to 17)
E (me): 2♡ ( Brozel, showing hearts and spades - alerted)
S: 2 NT (this came after a request to explain the alert and then a long pause)
W: P
N: P
E:?

What would you bid?

3H. It could make with very little from partner and at worst will not go far down.

Hand 2: Sitting East. N/S vul. South dealer. I receive this:

♤: AK
: VOID
♢: AJ96432
♧: T765

The bidding:

S: P
W: 1♡
N: P
E (me): 2♢
S: P
W: 6♢!
N: P
E: ?

What would you bid?

8D. Partner has bid 6 missing two aces, so I can add two tricks. More seriously, it is likely that partner is void in spades but even so, I think I have enough to bid 7D. Partner could have solid hearts, in which case 7NT will make, but they might need ruffing good. Making any grand slam in a club game will be good, even if there is a higher-scoring slam making.

[amarone]

@amarone

Making any grand slam in a club game will be good, even if there is a higher-scoring slam making.

Quoting myself. This is a lesson that was reinforced painfully yesterday. x AKJx AKQTxxx A. Three passes to me. I am strong enough to open 2C but it can be tough to find a 4-4 heart fit after the bidding starts 2C - 2D - 3D. Holding a singleton spade, there is little danger of 1D being passed out, so that is what I opened. Bingo - partner responded 1H. Now 4NT (RKCB) - 5C (1 or 4) - 5D (have you QH?) - 5S (yes, and KS). I bid 7NT. Partner had a singleton diamond and they broke 4-1. 7H is cold. 7H would have scored 92% 7NT scored 8% (we were the only ones in it). So I threw away 84% trying to gain another 8% 7NT needs to be 92% or better to be worth bidding, not the 73% it was.

[Quartz]

Huh? 7NT always scores more than 7H. Unless you went one off.

[amarone]

@Quartz

Huh? 7NT always scores more than 7H. Unless you went one off.

I did. That was the implication of my saying that diamonds broke 4-1. Playing in hearts, you ruff the diamonds good.

[Quartz]

I’ve been taking lessons from someone who played for Scotland recently. One of the things he said is that in pairs you should be happy with a 60% contract. Going for a top - 100% - risks getting a bottom and if you look at the results tables you’ll see that the winning pairs are usually in the 60%-70% range.

[amarone]

@Quartz

I’ve been taking lessons from someone who played for Scotland recently. One of the things he said is that in pairs you should be happy with a 60% contract. Going for a top - 100% - risks getting a bottom and if you look at the results tables you’ll see that the winning pairs are usually in the 60%-70% range.

Exactly. That’s why I was dumb to bid 7NT. In a club game any grand is likely to score you more than 70% In the unlikely event I was playing in the Cavendish pairs, then I would expect pretty much every pair to get to a grand, and bidding 7NT now becomes a worthwhile shot. In our club game, if I had bid 7H on this hand, we would have won.

[Biotop]

@merrick

I’ll take a shot at this:

Hand 1 - My read of South’s 2NT is that he has Heart strength (with a shortage in Hearts he could double, so maybe something like a 3-4-3-3 9-count). So you have a minority of the points and no Heart fit. Pass. 2NT may well be making, but 3S* is unlikely to be a good save.

Hand 2 - Even if he has a 22-count, partner can’t be sure you have DA. And he’s prepared to play 6D without it, so the choice is between 7D and 7NT. You have SA to cover his Spade void (if he had Spade and Diamond losers, he would have asked for aces), but he may well be relying on your trumps to ruff his Hearts good, so 7NT is too risky. Possible hand for partner is S - H AKxxxxx D KQxxx C A

What happened at the table?

Hand 1: I fell in love with my hand. I figured I had both majors, with my AQ of spades sitting over the King. I also liked my intermediary 987 of spades. My hearts were not bad either, missing the top two, but nothing else. So I bid 3 hearts, thinking partner might correct to 3 spades. Partner, and everyone else passed.

South:

♤: T6543
: A53
♢: K2
♧: JT4

West (partner)
♤: 2
: VOID
♢: QJ7653
♧: K97652

North:
♤: KJ
: K842
♢: A984
♧: A83

I kept it somehow to only down 1, but most Norths were held to 6 or 7 tricks total in No trump.

I should have passed.

---

Hand 2:

I stewed a bit and passed.Wrong. **merrick ** has analyzed it correctly.

Partner had:

♤: VOID
: AQ643
♢: KQT8
♧: AKJ2

7 diamonds is cold. I should have figured on partner’s spade void. Some teams found the grand. I did not.

[merrick]

Trying not to be too rude about your partner, but if he’s going to jump to 6D on hands like that, I can understand your hesitation. Sure, he can see 12 tricks if you have either AD or KH, but the 6D bid is telling you that AD is the only card he cares about.
On another day you’d raise to 7D on S KQx H Jx D AJxxx C xxx and it would not end well.
Given that opponents were silent, surely it would have been better to take a few rounds to find out more about the hand?

[Biotop]

@merrick

Trying not to be too rude about your partner, but if he’s going to jump to 6D on hands like that, I can understand your hesitation. Sure, he can see 12 tricks if you have either AD or KH, but the 6D bid is telling you that AD is the only card he cares about.
On another day you’d raise to 7D on S KQx H Jx D AJxxx C xxx and it would not end well.
Given that opponents were silent, surely it would have been better to take a few rounds to find out more about the hand?

I agree slam exploration could probably do no harm and might have made it clearer. If In this particular case my hand was strong enough to go on to 7 after the bidding sequence that occurred I think.

[K364]

@Biotop

I agree slam exploration could probably do no harm and might have made it clearer. If In this particular case my hand was strong enough to go on to 7 after the bidding sequence that occurred I think.

Yes. Partner is showing (but doesn’t have) a one loser hand: Amarone’s analysis in post 189 is spot on.

And the other hand is partner’s fault too. Having one card in the majors… what a bad partner!

[Quartz]

Here’s a hand I got badly wrong. I held S- HAKQxxx DAKQxx CAx. I opened 2C and over partner’s 2D response bid 4H, which partner passed. Partner held no points but had HTxxxxx and 7H was cold, being able to ruff my losing club in dummy.

[amarone]

@Quartz

Here’s a hand I got badly wrong. I held S- HAKQxxx DAKQxx CAx. I opened 2C and over partner’s 2D response bid 4H, which partner passed. Partner held no points but had HTxxxxx and 7H was cold, being able to ruff my losing club in dummy.

There doesn’t seem to be any rush to jump to game. If you are playing traditional Acol, 2H is forcing to game, so I would start with that, planning to bid diamonds twice if I don’t get support in order to show the two-suiter. I suspect you will never get to 7H, but 6H looks achievable. If you bid 2H and partner raises, slam now looks good opposite zero points, just needing diamonds to come in or be able to ruff them good in dummy.