Tricky Answers (05)

Thanks for your input to the tricky questions and answers. Maybe we will do this again next year if there are any interesting ones, maybe you will have some to add from your own experiences, please do send me anything of interest. In the meantime, here is the result, in Tricky Answers No.5

1. Match Points

Dealer S Nil Vul

Q4

2

AQJT4

AKJ63

The bidding has been:

South	West	North	East
1	21	3	Pass
?

What would you bid?

As one panelist said: weak jump overcalls are seldom that strong, and another consideration: West might well underlead AKxxxx against 3NT. One of our more colourful internationals has been know to comment that at match points Qx is a stopper after a weak jump overcall. He would have been right this time, as partner had Ax. Those who bid 3S would have got 3NT from partner, not that great on a spade lead, but ten tricks in 3NT were there. But those who tried 4C may have reached a good slam, as partner would no doubt have cued 4S and West would have been on lead against 6C. Unsurprisingly, 5C making 6 was the common result in this match point session, and 3NT would have scored about 85%. Are such risks worth taking at match points?

2. Match Points

Dealer W NS Vul

QJ92

Q2

T985

AK8

The bidding has been:

South	West	North	East
-	1	1	1NT
Pass	2NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

Your lead?

OK OK no one was impressed by South’s passes and there were also disbelieving comments about North’s 1H vulnerable overcall, comments about what sort of partners do you have and could opponents be lunatics or half wits, etc but this sort of thing does happen, and happen quite regularly, in the normal club match point environment, and you have to learn to cope with it. For your information I am reproducing the actual deal here:

Dealer W NS Vul

	65 AJT74 4 QT932
A84 64 AKQJ72 J7		K753 K982 63 654
	QJ92 Q2 T985 AK8

Can you seriously argue with North’s overcall? Would YOU have overcalled 1H or bid the unusual 2NT at that vulnerability? Yes, East’s 1NT can be questioned, with a four card spade suit, but not that unusual is it? As for South’s pass maybe he didn’t want to either double 1NT or raise hearts? Who knows, that also happens.
West’s 2NT is admittedly a bit eccentric, more reasonable at teams. Whatever the case, I can’t see why we should let West get away with it by leading a heart. Surely the ace of clubs (did not some world authority say God didn’t deal you AK in one suit for you to lead another?) is a standout, but not one panelist in agreement with that. And as for those who tried the spade queen, that hardly makes any sense, does it? Admittedly, it is not too late if South starts with the HQ as long as North can pick South to also have the ace and king of clubs, but why would North do that when South has led a heart? What actually happened when this deal arose in a match point session? Most Wests played in 3D and made, the Norths who played in 3H struggled and went down, though DF would no doubt have made, and 2NT by West down one would have scored about 80% whereas our particular NS pair managed to allow declarer to make an overtrick in 2NT for zero to NS. Who was to blame do you think?

Now for our tricky defensive problem. Let me now show you the full deal.
3. Teams
Dealer E All Vul

	J842 A865 QT93 4
T 4 AKJ65 KQJT75		KQ753 QJT2 7 A92
	A96 K973 842 863

The South hand is the partner of a hand that was set as a lead problem earlier. Everyone led their singleton trump.
East opens 1S, 2C from West, 2H from East, 3D West, 3NT East, 4D West, 5C East. A sigh from West followed by pass. Partner leads the C4, 2 from dummy, 8 from you, jack from declarer. Then S10 from declarer, S8 from North, SK from dummy, you win SA. Your next move?

If you decided that the bidding made sense, then West was either 6-5 (most likely) or 5-5 and keen on a slam. Look at the West hand, does that not make sense? Declarer’s play has made it perfectly clear how he intends to play the hand. One panelist asked why declarer did not ruff the diamonds instead of playing a spade. The answer should be self evident: he could not ruff more than ONE diamond, hence did not have a quick entry to hand, and hence obviously did not have the ace of hearts. And if he did have it, then South’s king was well and truly dead anyway. Given that South has worked out that declarer must be 6511 and partner has led their singleton trump, South must lead a second trump, but AFTER a heart is taken, and North won’t have a trump to lead if South switches to a low heart to North’s ace.

And a Merry Christmas to all!
Vil