March 31, 2011

Board 17, North deals, None vulnerable (I am South, with the following hand.) A 5 3 2 Q T 9 8 4 A 8 9 8 Partner (Rob) opens 1 diamond and RHO overcalls 2 Clubs. I have both majors, so I consider a negative double. But I have five hearts, and since it is more likely that partner has at least three hearts than that he has at least four spades, I bid 2 Hearts. Fortunately, with Rob this is a forcing bid for at least one round. If I were playing with Leah, I would need to double here, since we play negative free bids (which would mean that 2-level bids would be non-forcing, showing at most 9 HCP). Partner gives a gentle raise to 3 Hearts and I need to decide whether to go on to game. Right or wrong, I bid 4 Hearts; while my high card points are a minimum for my bid, I have two aces, good texture in the heart suit (which will help if trumps don't split), and two doubletons. LHO leads the ace of clubs and I am looking at J T 9 A K J 2 Q J T 4 6 5 A 5 3 2 Q T 9 8 4 A 8 9 8 Despite the shortage of high-card points, I like my chances. Partner's spades should be very helpful, and given that LHO has already shown the club ace, the diamond king rates to be onside. LHO continues clubs, RHO winning the second trick and shifting to a spade, which I duck: 7-2-Q-9. LHO continues spades: 6-T-K-A. Well, I have lost three tricks, but things look good now since partner's hearts are so strong. I draw trump in three rounds, go over to the good spade jack and try the diamond finesse. It wins, as expected, which gives me ten tricks. J 10 9 A K J 2 Q J 10 4 6 5 Q 6 4 K 8 7 7 6 3 5 9 6 3 2 K 7 5 A 7 4 K Q J 10 3 2 A 5 3 2 Q 10 9 8 4 A 8 9 8 At the time, I thought I benefited from RHO leading a spade at trick 3, but I guess I could always do that myself. I would have drawn just two rounds of trumps, ending in dummy, and then led the top spade. As long as RHO held at least one of the spade honors (and the diamond king), I was in good shape. If the spade finesse lost, I would return to dummy with a trump to repeat the spade finesse and the play would continue as before. This turns out to be a top, since no other pairs bid the game. Three other pairs scored 170 and another scored 140, all in 3 Hearts. One E/W pair scored 110 in 3 clubs. More Post Mortem: The strong feedback I received on this deal from other members of the club (when I sent these out as emails, before posting them all to this blog) was that I was a bit too aggressive in bidding game. Many also thought I should have made a negative double instead of bidding my five-card suit. I agree with the former statement, but not with the latter.