What, you prefer Symphony 39 to the Sinfonia Concertante?
Here’s a fun hand I played just last night in a KO team match
Vul vs. non-vul, you deal and hold:
AJ9732
J74
(void)
Q865
I decided not to open a “weak 2” 2S in first seat red, because this hand is actually too good (IMHO) in playing strength yet too impure in suit quality for a weak 2, and not good enough to open 1S. Which means I pass and get into the auction later, so that my unpassed partner doesn’t have to guess how good my hand is. (I am aware this is a stylistic thing, and am not preaching that this is the One Right Way To Bid.)
LHO opened 1NT, on a 14-16 HCP range (opponents were playing Precision). Partner passed, and RHO bid 2C Stayman.
Yeah, it could be for spades. Yeah, I was vul vs. not, and RHO is bidding opposite a relatively strong NT. I still felt safe at the 2 level and wanted to disrupt their auction, and bid 2S.
Pass, Pass, and RHO balanced with a double (which I obviously passed). LHO (the 1NT bidder) thought a long time, then passed, and led the Ace of diamonds (Ace from AK) against this dummy, in 2S doubled vulnerable:
84
Q92
98754
AJ7
AJ9732
J74
Q865
The good news is, opponents have 25 HCPs combined. The bad news is, they don’t have a heart fit, and may or may not be able to make 3NT.
In any case, plan the play.
Edit window passed, that was actually board #8 so nobody is vulnerable and my 2S bid over Stayman was NOT done vul vs. not, which would be a bit extreme…
We missed out on 7NT last night. My partner opened 1H (4 card majors). I had 16 points and responded 1S. Partner jumped to 2N, showing 18-19 balanced (he had 19). With 34 or 35 points between us I jumped to 6N. We were beaten by a pair whose bidding went 2N-7N. There were no missing aces and the one missing king was singleton.
2N - 7N looks like horrible bidding. Either the person who opened 2N miscounted his points, or 19 point 2NT was part of their methods. The responder was incredibly aggressive to bid 7N on what could be a 19-16 = 35 points (even if opener miscounted and thought he had 20, responder knows they might have only 36 points. They could be missing a cashable A. And as neither bid a long suit, it’s hard to imagine there was a suit they could run without ever playing the suit with the missing Ace so it wouldn’t matter if leader had it.
Even with all the A’s they could easily be missing a K or Q and a finesse (or two) might be required. Bidding 7 when a finesse is required is bad in the long run.
Some people count 10s as half a point in NTs. There’s also the concept of the ‘least lie’.
I agree, but he’s only 16.
Again I agree. In the long run it’s better to go for the 60% score. But it’s galling when it happens!
ruff the diamond lead and play a club to the Jack. Does it win? Did West play the 9 or ten spot? If it loses, what does East play next?
You can count 10s as 1/2 point, but if you do, then the deck has 42 NT points, and bidding a grand slam with 36 points is even worse.
Holy crap, I had this all typed up and Chrome crashed it all away. Plus there’s no way to format text with whitespaces or tabs to show a four deal diagram, is there?
I’d typed it all up with the names rotated to make declarer South instead of West, but forget it now, I’m not doing that again.
I also see that I’ve mis-typed a rather important spot card in clubs in your hand - you have the Q965, not the Q865. After initially describing the vulnerability wrong, too. This is what happens when I try to type in hands from a cellphone pic of the deal, while switching apps to type in the hand in another app on my phone.
Anyway, let me start over, from a desktop computer with a proper keyboard and multiple open windows visible at the same time.
You are West, dealing on board #8, nobody is vulnerable, holding,
AJ9732
J74
---
Q965
You choose to pass in first seat, and North opens 1NT, a 14-16 HCP range (playing Precision). South bids 2C Stayman, and you decide to interrupt their auction with a delayed 2S. Pass, Pass, and South doubles; you pass, and North thinks a long time before choosing to pass as well (and of course, so does partner).
You get the lead of the Ace of diamonds, Ace from AK, and this dummy:
84
Q92
98754
AJ7
AJ9732
J74
---
Q965
You ruff the diamond lead and play a club to the Jack, which holds. You test spades, leading a low one from dummy, and South follows with the Queen of Spades, which you win the Ace.
The hand starts getting into “it’s all kind of laid out” territory, I think, so I’ll spoiler the rest, with one hint: opponents are an experienced partnership with no evidence of being confused about the meaning of the balancing double by South. If you had asked, the confident reply would have been that it was “for takeout over any interference on the 2 level”.
This may or may not be a hint, but the next trick, you play a low club towards dummy, and LHO plays the King, which you win with the Ace. You’ve taken the first four tricks - diamond ruffed, club to the Jack, spade to the Queen and Ace (LHO following), club to the King and Ace. Now what?
North’s hand was pretty clear once South followed with the spade Queen: he has the AK of diamonds, the KTxx of spades (you’re already lucky it wasn’t KQTx or, shudder, KQTxx), and the King of clubs, for 13 of his 14-16 HCPs.
He either has the Jack of diamonds and no top heart honors (as adding either Ace or King would put him past 16 HCPs), or more likely, not the Jack of diamonds but the King of hearts (not the Ace, that would give him 17 HCPs).
He probably doesn’t have a four card heart suit in this auction, as that would give the balancing doubler a 3 card heart suit, so his most likely shape is either 4342 or 4243.
After the second club trick popped the King from his hand, it seems he was 4342. Perfect.
To make the hand now, all you need to do is to find him also with the Ten of hearts. Then you can cross to hand with a diamond ruff, play a heart to the 9 to force out the Ace, then force out the King with the Jack, ruffing any diamonds they play. Eventually you would only lose five tricks: three spades and two hearts, since they have to follow suit to the third round of hearts.
But, can you do slightly better? What if LHO doesn’t have the Ten of hearts?
At trick five, I played a club to the my 9, letting North ruff low. If he played a trump, he’d be giving away a trump trick; if he played a diamond, I’d ruff in hand and play a heart to the 9 as before. But if the defense plays on hearts for you here, you always get a heart trick regardless of where the Ten is. So, give them the chance to do it!
This was the North hand, who opened 1NT:
KT65
K85
AK32
K4
And the South hand:
Q
AT63
QJT6
T832
At the table, North ruffed the 9 of clubs with the spade 6, then shifted to hearts - to the King of hearts and another heart. On the second round I unblocked dummy’s Queen so I could win the third round of hearts in my hand with the Jack, then played the 8 of clubs.
North could either let me ruff with the 8 of spades in dummy by pitching a diamond or ruffing low, or by ruffing high, consign himself to getting no more than the other high trump for a fifth trick.
I don’t know why he didn’t play another diamond for me to ruff, but I’m glad he did, the heart finesse was going to fail!
This literally had me laughing for almost a full minute. I am going to have to remember this line, it’s bound to come in handy some day.
robardin Fun story, and a lesson in not giving up and taking every chance, even if it’s only a chance for your opponents to go wrong.
My take on the hand was “You have two trump losers for sure, plus H AK, plus there’s no Club distribution where you can avoid losing either CK or a Club ruff.
Opponents will lead Diamonds every time they get in, so at best it comes down to a guess in the Hearts (and more likely 2 off when CK is wrong).”
Your story gets a bit confused towards the end - after ruffing C9, North has only SKT left, so ruffing low is not an option, and presumably it was South who led C8 after taking his AH
Here’s a recent story from me:
Fourth in hand, no-one vulnerable, you pick up:
S A
H AQx
D Jxx
C QJxxxx
LHO opens the bidding with 3S. Two passes to you. What now?
Stand up hand hand to kibitzer “Excuse me, but I need to go to the men’s room.”
Doubling with only 3 Hs could be dangerous particularly as if partner has 4, he’s likely to bid 4H and you could be facing a 4-2 or 5-1 split. And if you double, you just know partner is bidding a red suit; diamonds is not better – probably worse as partner might jump to 5.
Not strong enough to double then bid 5C especially not knowing if partner has a fit. Best bets are pass or 4C hoping against hope that partner might have support and bid 5 and you make it.
Partner might have 5S or 4 good ones and leave in takeout double, but that is a real long shot.
OldGuy has it correct. I also prefer pass or 4 clubs. Partner might bid 4 hearts on the way to 5 clubs and we’ll likely be in a decent contract.
[spoiler]North started with KTxx, played low spade to the first spade trick (to the South’s Queen and Ace). It was West, that is to say, declarer (did I write South? - a vestige of when I was trying to rotate the hand to make declarer South “for column purposes”) who led the club 9 (not 8) at the end. That was because at the table, South for some reason played his high club (the Ten) on the third round, making me play the Queen, which is kind of immaterial.
T1: Diamond Ace, low, low, ruff low in West’s hand
T2: low club, low, Jack in dummy (East), low
T3: low spade, Queen from South, Ace, low
T4: low club, King, Ace, low
T5: low club, South went up with the Ten(?), Queen, ruff low by North
T6: heart King from North, all following low
T7: low heart, Queen, Ace, low
T8: Ten of hearts (pinning dummy’s 9), I won the Jack, North following
T9: I play my last club (the 9); North can only score his KT of trumps behind my J973 with the 8 in dummy
[/spoiler]
Ooh, that’s a good one. What’s the form of scoring?
Doubling here could land us in many a bad contract - 4 of a red suit in a 4-3 fit is obviously terrible, but even a 5-3 fit. The singleton Ace of spades can’t be an effective entry (it’s probably gone at trick one), and if you draw trump, you don’t have enough length in either red suit to then be able to ruff spades - and Lord knows your minor suits can’t stand on their own.
So, hard though it may feel to do, I pass. Hopefully, “Pass and Go Plus.”
Consider, even if partner has a near-ideal hand like an 11 count with five hearts:
xxx
KTxxx
Ax
ATx
On a spade lead, 4H is… Not really happening, since if you draw trump, you’ll need to lose a club to be able to run the rest, and then they’ll cash spades.
And that’s one of the BEST hands you can catch partner with.
Agree with the others, think I’d go 4C with that, although I certainly wouldn’t argue with pass. Anything else seems like a gamble, which is not the game for matchpoints (assuming it was duplicate).
This is why I feel privileged to learn from you guys - my first thought was that this looked like just the hand for a takeout double, but as your analysis shows, this is unlikely to work out well. The general lesson, of course, is to think about your partner, what they may bid, and your rebid, before speaking.
This hand looks like a deliberate trap - in duplicate competitions, are hands ‘set’ by someone or just dealt randomly all the time (either by computer or by hand)?
I don’t think 4C is a good bid after 3S, pass, pass, on
A
AQx
Jxx
QJxxxx
Though it’s the only reasonable alternative to passing (doubling is out), because the suit is so bad, and only six at that. You have too much defense (A of spades, AQ of hearts) and not enough offense other than length in clubs, which to be effective needs not to be missing the AKT9.
Remember, you do have a partner with a mind of his own, not a wall across from you :). With a good hand, especially with any kind of shape, partner would have taken action over 3S.
Where exactly are you planning to go with 4C? To make 4C for +130? What hands will partner have to let 4C make that doesn’t beat 3S, versus what hands can partner have where you go down in massive flames in 4C?
I mean, what’s the absolute best hand partner is likely to have for you?
xxx
xx
Axxx
AKxx
Even then, you have two diamond losers and are on a heart finesse to make 11 tricks… And your best game was 3NT, which you just can’t reasonably find after a 3S opening preempt.
You know, sometimes preempts do their job, and you fall back on field protection in a duplicate game to make your result reasonable.
Finally, who says partner even HAS “about a 10 count.” Your RHO could easily be holding more cards than partner, and is passing due to spade shortness.
Here’s a “14 count with stiff Ace of spades” I’d bid 4C on after 3S and two passes:
A
Axx
xx
KQJxxxx
Because now my SEVEN clubs have little expected defensive value against 3S, and massive offensive value, ON THEIR OWN. QJ-empty-sixth needs help from partner - IN THAT SUIT. In other words, it’s a self-sufficient suit and I can say “this hand is a five loser hand”.
I hope it’s not bad form to be quoting my own post, but that advice is an exact quote that I got from an expert player when I was an “aspiring intermediate player”.
On hands like this, when you’re a new player, you’re just kind of confused. What’s going on?!
Play a little more, and you get the distinct idea that Opponents Are Trying To Steal From You. Which is certainly true.
Sometimes you need to “strike back” and sometimes to “sit back”, but how to tell the difference?
You learn that you can’t just pass all the time like a wimp; you need to picture partner’s likely strength (warning: do not read into partner’s shape based on the defenders bidding, especially their NOT bidding - trust partner to bid his shape opposite your card-showing bids), and get in that auction!
But on hands like this, where instinct says “I think they’re trying to steal from us” conflicts with the logical picturing of partner’s likely hands as “I don’t see where we can go from here”, stick with the latter.
Because in the end, it’s NOT about your opponents on this deal, who are “trying to steal from you”. You are being scored against the FIELD, and as long as opening 3S is a field action, THAT’S your best protection from a bad result - taking an aggresive action like freely balancing on the four level is the ANTI-field action that maybe could work in your favor, but has a lot more downside than upside.
A question for you guys:
You are playing a standard ACOL game with 2C, 3x Weak 2s, Stayman, and Transfers. You open 2C. Partner responds 2D. You rebid 2N, showing a balanced 23-24. Partner bids 3D. Is that a transfer to Hearts? One of us said it was, there having been no natural bid prior to the 2N bid, the other said it wasn’t. Who was correct?
While of course you can agree differently, the norm is to play “systems on”, just as if you had opened 2NT, so it is a transfer.
I also play systems on in situations such as opponents opening a weak 2H/S and partner bidding a natural 2NT.