Board 12 last Monday was challenging.
At my table, West passed and in the north seat, I opened 1 heart. East passed and my partner bid 2NT (Jacoby…showing 4 card support for the hearts and 13 plus points). I couldn’t think what to do….I knew there might be a slam on, but didn’t know how to get there, especially given I was Jack high in hearts. So I reluctantly bid just a game, 4 hearts.
When Helena’s hand went down I reassessed. I had a certain diamond loser and probably a club loser as well. Maybe I was in the right place.
Despite the fact I only needed 10 tricks to make my contract, I felt I had to try to make 12 tricks if I wanted a half decent score, as I expected a few norths would have bid the slam. A diamond was led which I won with the Ace. One round of trumps drew the hearts. I now had to give up a club, before the Ace of spades and especially the King of diamonds were gone. With the jack doubleton in my hand and Ace, 10, x in dummy, losing only 1 club trick was a possibility. Furthermore the clubs might allow me to pitch my losing diamond. And so it proved. 12 tricks.
On my side 2 Norths had bid 6 hearts, one making it and one going down. Curious to know how 6 hearts was bid, I was discussing it with the guys who were their opposition on the board and the lads admitted they had pushed them into it, by bidding 5 spades. With the vulnerability and a fistful of spades, I might well have done the same thing. It backfired on Tony and Noel on this occasion, though in fact one E/W did bid 5 spades, got doubled, went down 3, but still got a good score of 86%.
Nobody on the B side bid 6 hearts, though interestingly more of them made 12 tricks.
Looking back at the hand again, I think after Helena bids 2 NT, I should bid 3 spades, which is showing a control in spades, Helena should bid 4 clubs (not Gerber here, but showing club control). My next bid is 4 diamonds, again showing control in diamonds and now Helena should bid 4NT. I show 2 keycards and she now knows we have all 5 of them plus the queen. 6 hearts is now an easy bid. But once I get my bid wrong (my 4 heart sign off) Helena can’t rescue the situation.
However this board is also a lesson in not settling on just enough tricks to make your contract. Always strive for an overtrick (or 2) so long as it doesn’t put the contract in jeopardy. On this board there was nothing to be lost by eking out a 12th trick and it was worth it as those making 11 tricks got 43% whereas those making 12 got 79%.
Note: When playing teams making your contract is enough. An extra trick might secure you1 insignificant IMP, but an extra trick in pairs can often give you 100%
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