What & Why (12)

This week we have some TEAMS play questions.

1. Teams: Dealer North All vul

52
T52
K7543
Q63

You are SOUTH.
The bidding has been:

SouthWestNorthEast
--11
?

What do you bid and why? Let’s take a look at them now that we have some potential answers.

The votes on this one were about as split as the US Presidential elections, though it wasn’t a TRUMP but a NO TRUMP end result, much like in US. But would our No Trump result have been a success? Let’s look at the bidding first.

Those who would PASS have two reasons to do so: not the required 6 HCP and ‘partner is still there’. We have comments like ‘seriously, fire anyone who does not pass’ from Bob and a similar comment from Ross, but from Dean: “2C. Not completely broke.” and from Elvis: “It’s now or never.” Those who would pass saying that partner can still bid have missed the point that if partner does bid again, how will we ever be able to tell partner that we have some club support as well as something in diamonds despite having passed? Unless partner takes over and keeps forcing, and he can’t have a big enough hand to do that all on his own. Sorry for disagreeing with the majority, but I would always raise to 2C, just so partner knows something about my hand, surely one less club and one less point is not reason enough to say nothing at all, and what possible harm can there be to say something now.

Now for the second part of this, you now have opener’s hand.
2. Teams: Dealer S All Vul
You are South and your hand is:

Q73
AK7
QJ
AKJ84

The bidding has been:
SouthWestNorthEast
112Pass
?

a) would you have opened 1C or 2NT?
Again we have some disagreement. From Peter, who would have raised earlier to 2C, in keeping with this: “I would definitely have opened only 1C. Four tricks does not make the equivalent of a 2NT opening.” Peter also mentions the three points in diamonds, the “QUACKS” (Queen-Jack doubletons) which are a definite liability most of the time when counting points. I couldn’t agree more, but then we have Gerry: “2NT. Never downgrade”. There is a difference between downgrading and realistic evaluation, surely.

b) What do you bid and why? This is after opening 1C, a 1S overcall, and 2C from partner. I would have thought that everyone would now bid 3NT, but still we have different ideas. Those who don’t like the prospect of split spade honours in defenders’ hands would now bid 2S, looking for a spade stopper. Wishful thinking, that is not going to happen and even if partner has Kxx and bids 2NT the contract will be ‘wrong sided’, with the opening lead coming through your Qxx to North’s AJ10xx . Surely more likely that the overcaller actually has AKxxx of spades? At least there is some consistency in our panel, because those who would have opened 1C would also now bid 3NT, whereas those who would have opened 2NT would, given the problem of having opened 1C instead, now seemingly have second thoughts and bid 2S to try and elicit some information from partner. I suppose they can justify that by saying they would have opened 2NT in the first place. And, yes, 2NT would have been raised to 3NT with the end result being exactly the same as if they had opened 1C, though there would not have been a spade overcall. Given that it is teams, I suggest that every pair should be in 3NT and all that remains is to make it!

3. Now for your declarer problem. You are West this time and it is TEAMS

Q73
AK7
QJ
AKJ84
52
T52
K7543
Q63

You open 2NT and partner raises to 3NT. North leads the ace then king of spades and a third spade, South following with the 6,8 and jack. You win the queen. How do you proceed? What is your best chance of making your contract?.

Nearly all of our panelists got this right, unlike those who played in 3NT at our own club as well as all of the X-Clubs sessions. At our club, nearly every one of 12 pairs in a Swiss Pairs contest, played in 3NT and all failed. Admittedly it was a Wednesday night. But even across all “X-Clubs”, the failure rate in 3NT was still about 70%, I suspect that most of our more advanced panelists would have made 3NT had they been in it. I set the problem with North having overcalled 1S and then starting the defence by leading three rounds of spades, and that should make the play very easy because it removes any choice.

No decent defender would start with three rounds of spades if he did not have a certain outside entry. The opening play leaves only one possible chance for declarer, and that is to run off all the clubs. North will make it perfectly clear that he has the ace of diamonds by signalling strongly in the suit and then discarding all of them but the ace. However there will be a time when North has no more diamonds to discard and that is when a sharp eyed declarer will note that North is having difficulty with the discard on the fifth club. If North discards a spade, then it is safe to lose a diamond to North’s ace, and if North discards a heart then declarer will have no option other than to cash the top hearts and hope that North started with QJx in hearts. As you can see, the hand plays itself, there is no subtle or clever way of playing it. Would there have been any difference to the play if North had started proceedings with the lead of a low spade? Not really, because declarer’s spade trick would have come earlier rather than at trick three, and then declarer would be down the moment he loses the first trick.