What to open?

In Thursday night's game on Board 18, with E/W vulnerable, East passed and I held this hand as south:

	♠ A K Q 7 5 4 3 ♥ 4 ♦ 8 ♣ 8 4 3 2

I never quite know what to do with these hands.  I suppose one could argue for 1S, 3S, or 4S.

Why 1S?

• For those who like the rule of 20 (which says to add your HCP to the sum of the lengths of your two longest suits, and if you reach 20, then you can open) or the rule of 15 (which says to add your HCP to your number of spades, and if you reach 15, then you can open), this meets both.   
• You certainly have a comfortable 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rebid, if necessary.   
• It is possible that 1S will serve as a preemptive bid and keep the opponents out of the auction when they have the bulk of the points.  However, given that the opponents will likely be short in spades, they may bid on distribution anyway.  Now, 3S would be more of a preempt, though it would advertise that you are a weaker hand.
• Two singletons and a side 4-card suit are very attractive.
• 1S gives partner more room to describe his hand.  Afterall, preempts can also preempt partner.

Why not 1S?  The biggest reason is that partner may take you for better hand strength, and it is why I didn't open 1S at the table.  In hindsight, though, that isn't much of a reason.  If partner has enough points (i.e. an opening hand) to want to be in game, this hand has enough to comply.  If the opponents jump into the auction and partner doubles, we can always pull to spades, the boss suit.

Why 3S?  Excellent 7-card suit and 5-10 points, just like the card says.

Why 4S?  This really shuts the opponents out if partner is bust.  Plus, it would have a play opposite as little as
xx
Axxx
xxx
KJxx

I chose to open 3S, which was probably the worst choice of the 3 bids.  On some nights it could be right, of course, but not this time.  Partner held

♠ 8 2
♥ K 7 5 2
♦ A K Q 10 6
♣ J 5

but understandably passed, and 4S was cold.  Every other table in the room was in 4S, too!   So, fellow players, please let me know.   Did you open 1S (which will surely get you to 4)?  Did you open 3S and still got to 4S?  Or did you just open 4S?

Opening Lead?

On Board 10, with everyone vulnerable, RHO opened 1NT, 16-18, and I passed holding

♠ Q J 6 5
♥ K 10
♦ 8 4
♣ A 10 9 7 5

Left-hand opponent transferred to hearts and then rebid 3NT, which ended the auction.  So, what is our lead?

The only thing we can really gather from the auction is that LHO has 9-12 points and probably does not hold 4 spades (else he would have used Stayman) , while RHO must hold exactly 2 hearts.

Clubs are the longer and stronger suit, but in order to set up the suit, we'll need entries.  It is possible that the suit could run right off the top, but not likely (would need partner to hold Kx and declarer to have a doubleton).  The heart King is a possible entry, but again is unlikely, since LHO holds 5 hearts and RHO holds 2.

It seems better to lead a 4th-best spade.  If partner has either the Ace or King, then we set up two or three spade tricks in our hand when we get in with our club ace.  Give partner a trick or two and we can set the contract.  So I lead the 5 of spades and here is what I see:

♠ 10 7 2
♥ A Q 8 7 4
♦ Q J 9 5
♣ J
          ♠ Q J 6 5
          ♥ K 10
          ♦ 8 4
          ♣ A 10 9 7 5

Partner wins the Ace of Spades and plays back the  8, declarer winning the King.  It seems declarer must have only 3 spades;  holding K943 she likely would have ducked around to the 10, preserving the K9 to protect against my Q6.  So, either she has made a mistake or she doesn't want to lose the lead and have us switch to another suit (probably clubs! drat!).  She then starts on diamonds, taking five tricks in the suit.  So, declarer holds 5 diamonds, 3 or 4 spades, 2 hearts, and 2 or 3 clubs.  She then plays the Heart Jack.  I must cover this with the King, else she will let it ride and then finess my King to win 3 tricks in the suit to get to 9 tricks.  I am hoping partners 4-card heart holding includes the 9, or the entire suit is running anyway! 

Indeed, partner does hold the 9. As the cards lay, declarer could still make the contract by leading the Club Jack from dummy after taking the top two hearts, eventually coming to 5 diamonds, 2 hearts, 1 spade, and 1 club after forcing out my Ace of Clubs.  However, she continued hearts, and only came to 8 tricks.
 
                   ♠ A 8
                   ♥ 9 6 5 3
                   ♦ 7 6
                  ♣ 8 6 4 3 2

♠ 10 7 2                            ♠ K 9 4 3
♥ A Q 8 7 4                     ♥ J 2
♦ Q J 9 5                          ♦ A K 10 3 2
♣ J                                   ♣ K Q

                  ♠ Q J 6 5
                  ♥ K 10
                  ♦ 8 4
                 ♣ A 10 9 7 5

We ended up getting a top board for setting this one trick.  Deep Finesse says that with perfect play, only 8 tricks are all that is possible.  It seems my spade lead was ill-advised afterall.  If I had led a club, any club, at trick one, then declarer can only get 8 tricks: 1 Club, 5 Diamonds, and 2 Hearts.  The old maxim of leading from your strongest and longest suit works pretty well.  We were lucky here...I should have followed it.

Second hand low?

One of my weaknesses as defender is that I often play low too quickly in second hand, relying on the maxim "Second hand low."  However, there are cases where this isn't the right play.  One instance is that it is usually right to cover an honor with an honor.  Another instance is when there is a singleton in dummy.

My partner faced this situation the other night.  Declarer was in 3NT and led a small club towards the singleton 9 on the board.  My partner held Jxx, and without much thought played small.  Unfortunately, I held A8x.  Declarer had made an unusual play, holding KQTxxx in his hand, and ultimately scored five tricks in the suit.

The reason it is often right to cover (at least with a low honor like the jack, probably not with the Ace in this case) is to protect against what happened.  Even if I had held Kxx, he needed to rise with the Jack.  Because there was a singleton in dummy, declarer would not be able to subsequently finesse my King.  Similarly, if I held Qxxx, he needed to rise with the Jack in order for us to score two tricks in the suit.   In fact, I can't think of a single holding I could have had (not even AK tight) where ducking the Jack gains us a trick.

Questionable Slam

I am in Colorado Springs, playing in a Swiss game with a partner I just met.  We took about 20 minutes filling out a card, and agreed to play 1430 Keycard.  We were not playing Kickback (bidding the suit above trump as Ace Asking once a fit was established), per se, but he did say that he sometimes would use it when obvious (whatever that means!).  We also agreed to play Exclusion Keycard (jumps to 5-level ask for keycards in suit other than the one bid.) We were scrambling around, trying to find a fourth player for our team, so we never quite finished the conversation.  This came back to get us.

Vulnerable, partner and RHO passed and I opened 2NT with

♠ K J 3
♥ A K 6 5 2
♦ A 7 4
♣ K Q

Partner bid 3C, Puppet Stayman, asking for a 4- or 5-card suit.  I bid 3H, showing my 5-card suit, and he went in the tank and pulled out the 4S bid.  Clearly it would not be natural (he would have transferred me to spaded over 2NT if he had spades).  Exclusion?  Seems doubtful, since not at the 5-level.  It seems that 3S would be a cuebid, but maybe my partner wasn't sure it would be forcing, so I decided 4S must be a cue-bid, showing interest in slam.  I bid 4NT to ask about keycards. He bid 5C, showing one.  I bid 5D to ask about the trump Queen, and he jumped to 6H.

My partner meant 4S as Keycard!  He thought 4NT showed 4 keycards, and he meant 5C as the Queen Ask.  My 5D evidently said I had it, so he jumped to 6H, believing we had all 5 keycards and the trump queen (but evidently thinking that we shouldn't be in 7H with only 31-32 HCP). 

I got a small club lead, and here is what I saw:

♠ Q 8
♥ 7 4 3
♦ K J T 8 2
♣ A J 5

♠ K J 3
♥ A K 6 5 2
♦ A 7 4
♣ K Q

I must lose a trump trick on any layout, so how do I avoid losing the spade Ace?  I need some luck.  I need to conceal my club King, so that the person who wins the trump trick will continue clubs (assuming they don't have the Spade Ace).   I can't give up the first heart trick, though, because I run the risk of the the person with the Ace overtaking partner to cash that Ace).  My hope is to throw all three spades away, two on the diamonds and one on the long club.

So, I win the first club in dummy with the Ace and then drop the Queen from my hand.  Now, this suggests I have a singleton at first glance.  But, it would also be a reasonable false-card if I held Qx.  Then I play the Ace of Hearts and a small heart.  LHO plays small and Ten, while RHO plays small and then overtakes with the Jack.  So far so good!  She exits with a club!  So, I win with my King and draw the last trump.  Now all I need is the diamond finesse.  It works, and diamonds split 3-2, so I can throw my three spades away on dummy's long diamonds and Club Jack.  Making Six.

P.S.  This story is a bit of a fabrication.  In fact, I didn't play it as above.  I didn't cash the Heart Ace first; rather I just played out a small heart at trick two.  LHO won with his Ten  and cashed the Spade Ace.  If I had played Ace and then a small one, RHO would have been on lead...we'll never know if she had found the spade switch.   [It wasn't clear to the opponents how many keycards we had, since there was clearly confusion in the auction about who was asking and who was telling in terms of number of aces.]