Slammin' Hand from BCoH
by Thomas Rush
PlayBridgeWithThomas@gmail.com
♠♥♦♣
Here is an interesting hand North/South had on Monday April 21 at the club. It illustrates a few useful slam bidding ideas.
North opened 1♦ and got a 2♠ overcall. South's best bid? I'm a simple man when allowed, so I just bid 3♥, forcing. North made the obvious raise to 4♥, East passed, and South had some thinkin' to do.
1♦ 2♠ 3♥ P
4♥ P ??
My thoughts at the table were along these lines:
- I've got seven sure hearts if partner can raise.
- I have a good diamond fit and attractive shape with the singleton club
- I 'sense' a slam on these hands
- Blackwood (regular or key card) will do me no good unless partner has three aces. He could have two and we lose the first two tricks in spades, or he could have two and slam is cold. Good players don't use Blackwood when one suit might have two quick losers (i.e., my doubleton spade).
There are bids that go waaaaay back in bridge history that allow you to reach the right contract in certain circumstances.
- If you and your partner have trump agreement and if the opponents have bid a suit that your side has not cuebid, freely bidding five of your agreed major asks partner to bid six if he has a first- or second-round control in the opponents' suit. This is our auction on this hand!
- Or (another hand entirely), if there is a suit that you and partner haven't cuebid, a bid of five of your major asks partner to bid slam if they control that suit.
1♦ 2♠ 3♥ P
4♥ P 5♥ P (5♥, "Do you have a spade control?)
6♥ P P P ("Yes, I do")
And as they say, "Bob's your uncle". Well, not quite. How do I play this hand in 6♥? The contract isn't certain by any means; I have a near-certain club loser, and I've got to do something about the second spade in my hand (or the one in dummy, before I draw three rounds of trump), and I have a two-way finesse in diamonds.
This is more work than I signed up for!
I felt fortunate when West led the Ace of clubs and all followed. I had a club loser in any case, but now that the Ace was gone, I could pitch my spade loser on the club King.
West continued with the queen of clubs. What do you do? If you carelessly cover with the King, East ruffs... and your job got harder again. Why play the King at trick two? You can draw trump in two or three rounds at most, and then take your pitch, since your spade Ace provides a sure winner/control. I passed this test, playing dummy's 8 while East ruffed, and I over-ruffed.
I could now draw trump in one round (keeping track of the shape of the heart suit, 7321), and pitch my little spade on the club king afterwards. Then, what do you do about diamonds? In my early days, I'd be likely to finesse for the diamond Queen through West, since "East has long spades". But, older and wiser, I'm also getting a count on East's hand: six spades, two hearts, only one club... where are his other cards? They must be four diamonds if he overcalled a six-card spade suit. If East has four diamonds, his partner has only two, and so it's 2-to-1 odds that East has the diamond Queen. So at the table, I led the diamond Jack from dummy, East plays low, I play low, and... West plays the Queen No -- West plays low! At this point, I face my hand, claiming my 12 tricks: Seven hearts, a spade, a club, and three diamonds (J, A, K).
Advanced Comments: Note that my job is much harder if West starts with a spade. I have to win the Ace, draw two rounds of trump, and I can't afford to lead a club toward the King as the defense will take the club Ace and lead another spade for down one (and I still have to guess diamonds!). Therefore, my only line of play is to win the spade, draw trump, and guess diamonds early... and I'm more likely to play West for the Queen, since East has six spades and only seven "spots", his non-spades, where the diamond Queen can be (five, after I find he's got two hearts!). On the other hand, only four of West's cards are known: three spades and one heart, so nine "spots" or spaces remain in her hand where the diamond Queen can be. Thus, when knowing about only hearts and spades, I would have seen the odds as nine-to-five, or almost 2:1 that West has the key Queen.
For declarer, the important lessons here are:
- Even if you're not counting everything (and you should be trying!) some hands give you an easy count to tell you which way to go. Each of the defenders starts with only thirteen cards in their hand. Use what you know to help you play the hand better.
- The same goes for defenders; declarer and your partner each start with exactly thirteen cards. Declarer's opening bid will tell you about several of his cards, and each call taken tells you more. Use that information when planning your defense!
- Just because the odds were 2:1 that East held the diamond Queen, 1/3 of the time West will hold Qx. When that happens, just congratulate your partner on his nice bidding, and grouse a bit about your bad luck when the round is over. Blame me, if you'd like. :)
- When the diamond suit is a bit different: say dummy has AT9x and you hold KJx in hand -- I always try to be in my hand and lead the Jack through West, going up with the Ace whether they cover or not. Sometimes West will cover with Qx, and I have no further problem!
This hand illustrates some interesting points of slam bidding and advanced thinking, and also highlights the importance of using what you know to count out a hand. I hope it's useful to you, and I hope to see you making more contracts because of these tips.
If you've got an interesting hand that might make for a good article, or just questions on your bidding or play, you're welcome to send them to me. The best answers will come if you can include the auction as it happened at the table.
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