Playing With Karen

I had a chance to have a game with Karen Cumpstone today. We played a session on BBO with very little discussion. I have found that those are the sessions were you don’t have misunderstandings. You are both being quite careful. Still there were a few auctions to think about. Before any of that I thought this was an interesting position.  Here is the whole hand

 

	Karen
	QJ1098
	98
	752
West	A92	East
AK		76542
AKQ74		10
AJ3		Q1086
K73	Linda	Q106
	3
	J6532
	K94
	J854

The opponents arrived in 3NT after West showed a strong balanced hand with hearts.  Karen led a spade of course.  Declarer tried the J which was ducked.  He conceded a diamond to me and I got out a small heart which declarer won in hand. 

At this point he had to play the club suit.  Our declarer led a club to the 10.  This seems superficially attractive because if he can make two club tricks he doesn’t actually need to reach dummy.  But actually it is still 50-50.  If both are onside all works and if both are offside nothing works.  If the J is onside then the 10 works but if the A is onside then he has to rise with the Q since if he guesses wrong he not only will only have one club trick but he won’t be able to get to dummy.

If either of us has the A doubleton and he puts in the 10  he can still get to dummy true.  But he gets the same result if either of us has the J of clubs and he puts in the Q,

The presence of a ninth trick in dummy changed the odds in the club suit.  Cool.  Of course he might have led the K from his hand first.  We might make a mistake but in addition if Karen had a doubleton club honor even if she ducked he would see it and know what to do.  That is certainly the best play.

Here was a hand where no discussion played a role.  How do you bid this crazy hand:

 

AKQ73 J A AKQJ52

 

Red on white Karen opened 2.  I wanted to bid 3 but people play that as all sorts of things.  Would see take it as natural and forcing?  I thought about 6 which would probably work most days.  Anyway I bid 2.  This bid makes me wince when I look at it again.  Karen bid 3 and RHO decided to come in with 3 no doubt influenced by the vulnerability.  I bid  6.  Now that bid doesn’t make me wince.  Anyway Karen did not have a perfect hand for me and it turned out that both slams needed pretty much the same thing.  Here was her hand:

85
K9
Q1087652
43

Playing in clubs is better because you can try for the remote chance that if spades don’t break that the four spades are with the stiff club.  In any case neither slam was making today.  Thinking about it again I should just have bid 6 right off.  Then I wouldn’t have had to wince and I would have played in the right contract.

It was a lot of fun and Karen was awesome.