Playing with Colin

Colin and I had another practice session yesterday on BBO and I thought I would take a quick break from talking about Beijing and writeup a few of our highlights (and lowlights).

I loved Colin’s ingenuity on this hand.  You are in fourth spot vulnerable against not and you have this rather remarkable hand

 

♠ AKJ2

♥ AKQ103

◊ A3

♣ AJ

That is 26 HCP.  I did count it twice.  An opening bid of 2♣ followed by 3NT would show a balanced 25-27 and that is certainly what I might have done.  But Colin had other ideas.  He opened 2♣ and after my response of 2◊ showing some values he decided to bid his shape and responded 2♥.  He heard a natural 3◊ from me and continued with 3♠.  I bid 4♥.  I am quite likely to be 3-2 in the majors for this and Colin knows we don’t have a great fit but he also knows that we have at least about 30 HCP.  He cuebid 5♣.  Now over to me.

♠ 1063

♥ 95

◊ KQJ4

♣ 7543

I knew that Colin had a remarkable hand since I had shown no slam interest and no fit.  Maybe he was 5-6-2  or even 4-6-3 with a club void?  My fear was that he wanted the diamond ace and not the king, queen, jack.  Still he had pushed past game and I felt I had to shown him my diamond feature.  When I bid 5◊ Colin carried on to 6♥ .  6♥  is quite a decent spot although a bit worse on a club lead.  On a trump lead Colin was playing for the overtrick.   At the other table a less imaginative East had the “normal” auction of 2♣ followed by 3NT and played it there.  For a 12 imp win.

Do you think my hand should bid over that?  The only choice would be 4NT.  Possibly but even if you reach 6NT it is not nearly as good a contract.  If the defence starts clubs you need both the heart break and the spade finesse.  On a club lead against 6♥ you will always make it if the hearts break and even if they don’t you still have some chances.

Here is one of the lowlights.  Let’s see if you can find the horrible lead I made against 3NT.  My hand is

♠ 10963

♥ 643

◊ Q92

♣ Q95

This is the auction

Linda	North	Colin	East
		pass	1♣
pass	1♥	pass	1NT
pass	3NT	all pass

What would you lead?

Well I led the ♠10 which gave away the who suit and the contract.  Colin has the ♠K5, dummy the ♠QJ84 and declarer the ♠A72.  In fact the hand can be made after any spade lead.  Any other suit will be the hand.  It was a little easier at the other table where Colin’s hand open 1◊.  He held

♠ K5

♥ 1087

◊ A1076

♣ A1087

It isn’t our style to open this hand.

I rather like our result on the next deal and we got to try out a new toy.  Both red, I held

♠ A

♥ K9865

◊ 1074

♣ AJ108

I opened 1♥ naturally and North overcalled 3♠ crowding our auction.  Colin continued with 4♥ which could be a wide range in this auction and South bid 4♠.  In out new system I can pass to suggest doubling them (usually) bid on showing extra distribution or double indicating that I had a preference to continuing but wasn’t sure.  Colin had a minimum with soft values so he left it in.   What do you think of this approach to forcing pass auctions?

The defence went well.  This is Colin’s hand and he correctly led the ♥A and when I encouraged he continued a heart.

♠ Q5

♥ AQ103

◊ QJ862

♣ Q9

Here is the whole hand:

	North
	♣ KJ98643
	♥J2
	◊ void
Linda	♣ K754	Colin
♠ A		♠ Q5
♥ K9865		♥ AQ103
◊ 1074		◊ QJ862
♣ AJ108	Dummy	♣ Q9
	♣ 1072
	♥ 74
	◊ AK953
	♣632

After playing two hearts.  I cashed the ♣A and continued a club as Colin dropped the ♣Q.  When I got in on the ♠ A we cashed another club.  Declarer did not guess spades but it didn’t really matter because there was a trump promotion anyway.  That was 800 for our side.  At the other table our partner’s erred by bidding on to 5♠ (trust me their was no excuse in their auction) but when Colin’s hand didn’t find the heart lead they got out for 500 and we still won some imps.