|
| More than one way to skin a cat |
|
This week's hand comes from the club teams on 29th December 2011.
Have you ever discussed and agreed with your partner what hand types a take out double could be showing? Far too many players seem to have no agreement, which can often lead to difficulties in the resulting competitive auction.The norm is that a take out double should show one of three hand types:
(a) shortness in the bid suit and ability to support in the other three suits ( the default type), or
(b) a no trump balanced hand which is too strong to just overcall one no trump, or
(c) a strong single suited hand if the partnership is not playing strong jump overcalls.
West decided his hand was too strong for a normal one spade overcall so started with a take out double ready to bid his spades next time around. When his partner correctly assumed he had the default type, he bid 2♦. West's hand was now exceptionally strong, and the 4♠ bid closed the auction. As it turned out North/South would have done well to reach 5♣ or 5♥, but this was difficult to judge.
Not unreasonably North started with the K♣ taken by South's A♣. Now the K♥ from South elicited a count signal showing one or three cards in hearts.South correctly continued with a spade.After drawing trumps declarer was pretty sure of the opponent's distribution and led the club to confirm it. North won and switched to the J♥ and now the contract is cold. Why?
North has shown up with 7 clubs, a single spade and presumably 3 hearts, which just leaves room for two diamonds. South therefore has 3 diamonds and presumably the A♥ and can be squeezed. Declarer correctly ducked the Q♥ and ruffed in hand. He now played out all of his spades , coming down to three cards in dummy consisting of the AJ♦ and the Q♥. East has come down to three diamonds and the A♥, but must find an impossible discard. East discarded a diamond and declarer picked up the remaining diamonds avoiding any finesse.
When scoring up with his team mates and found 4♠ had been made at the other table, declarer wondered if the diamond finesse had been taken. Yes was the reply but only after the 10♦ had been returned during the play. Well the early diamond through the J♦ certainly broke up any squeeze possibilities, but after J♦, Q♦ and K♦, the opposing declarer couldn't go wrong.
|
|
|
|
|
|