Vanderbilt Day 3

 

All matches in the Round of 16 in the Vanderbilt figured to be tough, top players battling it out.  The third quarter match between Nickell and Zimmerman was no exception.

I want to start by highlighting a principle I use when playing lesser events and it appears that it sometimes applies in great events too. 

Don’t bid grand slams that aren’t claimers. 

A reasonable amount of the time the opponents are in game.  Helgemo and Helness found this out on Board 39.  Here are the two hands.  Perhaps they had a tiny warning from the opposition bidding but it was very tiny indeed.

With everybody vulnerable Helgemo was in second chair.  His opponent passed and he opened 1

	Helgemo KQ6 7  AKJ10875 105
	Helness A10754 AJ3 42 A43

Zia	Helgemo	Hamman	Helness
pass	1	1	Dbl
2	DBL	pass	4
pass	?

Hamman overcalled 1 and Helness made a negative double.  I am not sure what their agreement is  the double obviously shows spades.  Zia raised hearts and Helgemo’s double showed three card spade support.  Helness had enough to jump to the spade game and Zia passes.  What now?  You have a lot of playing strength for sure.  If partner has three aces a grand seems possible.  If partner has a two aces and clubs controlled then you are likely to make 6.  Do you like 4NT?  I am not sure – its not a bad bid.  You could be passed the last thing that makes if partner doesn’t have a club control and you are missing the heart ace… Say

AJ1075
K2
Q42
QJ3

but that is a bit unlikely.  Helgemo heard 5 0 or 3 and signed off? in 5 in case partner had zero (avoiding going down more?).  Partner corrected to 6 and now it was up to Helgemo.  Really the only thing likely to beat seven is a bad spades split if partner is missing the jack or an immediate diamond ruff.  But then the little bell goes…. are you SURE they will be in slam at the other table.  And what about the diamond grand? If partner has a diamond or two or three that will definitely be much safer.  Why not bid 7 and let partner pick.

Helgemo bid 7 and I assign him no fault.  It is a very good grand and they did well to get there.  But the spades are 4-1 with Zia holding the J983 and you can’t make it.  You can however make the diamond grand. 

Here is the whole deal

 

	Helgemo KQ6 7  AKJ10875 105
Zia J983 Q52  Q9 Q876		Hamman 2 K109864  64 KJ92
	Helness A10754 AJ3 42 A43

So what happened in the Closed Room.  Meckstroth and Rodwell bid the small slam right?  Wrong.  They bid 3NT.  Here was their auction

M. Nessis	Meckstroth	T. Bessis	Rodwell
pass	1	2	Dbl
3	DBL	3NT	all pass

 

With Meckstroth’s hand limited Rodwell was hardly thinking slam.  The 2 bid disrupted their auction.  I don’t know why Rodwell couldn’t (or wouldn’t) bid the five card spade suit.  Perhaps its not forcing. 

So there you have it another sad story where a good grand fails and the very distinguished opposition doesn’t get to slam at all.

The next deal is one where dummy play wins the board.  This was from the second quarter match between Diamond and Gordon.  Both declarers are excellent players.  But one made 3NT and one went down.  Luck or skill?  With no opposition bidding you arrive in 3NT after you open 1NT and your partner shows five hearts.

	A10 KJ842  KJ5 J52
West		East
	Aa/Greco QJ2 Q9 A10984 KQ8

 

The play to the first few tricks was the same.  Both table got the lead of the 7.  Declarer played the 10 and that lost to the K.  One tiny difference, Greco go the return of the 8 while Aa got the subtle falsecard of the 4 when East returned a spade.  Both declarers after winning the A played the 2 from dummy and in both case East hopped up with the A and returned a spade. clearing the suit.  Both declarers pitched the 2.  So what now?  If spades break you could just give up a club.  You have four heart tricks, two spades and two diamonds.  But if spades are 5-3 then if the long spades has the A you are going down.  Another approach is to try to guess diamonds or even cash the top two diamonds and if the queen does not come down give up the A.  Each approach has some pluses and minuses.

Aa now decided to finesse the diamond into the “safe” hand.  If West had five spades and East had he Q perhaps he also had the A. 

Let’s move to the other table where Greco took a different (and I think better) approach.  He ran the hearts first.  Remember, he only needs one more trick.  He played the Q and when West played the 10 he overtook with the K and cashed the hearts throwing a club and two diamonds from his hand and keeping all his options open. 

This was the ending

	KJ5 J5
West		East
	Aa/Greco     A109  KQ

North who had two hearts had to make three pitches and all of the pitches were clubs including the 10 and the 9.  South had only one pitch to make a club.  What does Greco know?  From the play it seems to me that West is very likely to have the A.  The hint is that East hopped up on the A.  I admit is is a very small hint but it makes it more likely. If so he probably has 5-2-2-4.  If he had five clubs to the A109 he probably would have led that rather than xxxx or xxxxx in spades.  The defender’s carding at Greco’s table suggested that the spades were 5-3.  So West had two diamonds to East’s three.  I suppose even if this was all the information you had it is enough to suggest you take the diamond finesse through East.

But I think there is another subtle thing here. it seems even clearer to rise on the  A when you KNOW you have diamonds stopped.  Maybe that is reading too much into that play.

I don’t know how he figured it out but Greco did finesse that way and it was right.  Great declarers figure these things out.  I am not saying that Aa is not a great declarer just that yesterday Greco played this hand better and he got it right.  Here is the whole deal

	A10 KJ842  KJ5 J52
West 97653 107  73 A1097		East K84 A653  Q62 643
	Aa/Greco QJ2 Q9 A10984 KQ8