A Blitz

I played with Sylvia Caley today in a ten board tournament on BBO.  We had a blitz but better than that Sylvia was a pleasure to play with.  After playing some pickup games, it is so nice to play with a good partner with whom you have discussed (at least somewhat) a system.

We won a surprise game swing on this hand and while we had a normal auction, this deal does remind me of one bidding point, keep the auction open if you can when your partner can have a wide range of high cards.

♠ AK874

♥ 72

◊ J5

♣ Q1064

Here is the auction at the other table.  In third chair, all vulnerable, your partner opens 1♥ and you bid 1♠.  Partner bids 2♣.  What do you do?  I think it is clear to bid 3♣ don’t you?  You just have to show some values here and keep the auction open.  Anyway, the lady in my seat passed.  A bid that would not occur to me.  What I really hate about pass is that it ends the auction.  In this auctions partner can still have a very good hand.  At our table the auction was slightly different in that Sylvia rebid 2◊.  I bid 2NT which should show 10-11 since we are playing 12-14 notrump and Sylvia bid a very trusting 3NT.  She held

♠ void

♥ AQJ108

◊ K1063

♣ AK95

I was thinking about other choices Sylvia had.  I think 3♣ is forcing but any other suit bid at the three level is for play.  With a weaker hand and the same pattern I would have responded  2♣ to have the maximum chance of finding a fit.   She could also bid 4♥ because I will almost always have two hearts.  But with such a good hand and such good spots 3NT is a reasonable choice too.  When you look at both hands it seems to me that 3NT is slightly better than 4♥.

Here is an interesting play hand.

Linda

♠ 7653

♥ A9

◊ QJ92

♣ J42

Sylvia

♠ AKQJ8

♥ J10

◊ A543

♣ Q9

All vulnerable

Sylvia	West	Linda	East
1♠	pass	3◊*	3♥
4♠	all pass

3◊ was a constructive 4 card raise.  The opening lead was the ♥5.  How should you play the hand?   It looks like West has a heart honor (from the lead) so East should have most of the other high cards.   Your problem is that you don’t have any way back to dummy after the heart lead.  Sylvia tried the ◊Q and it held, not all that surprising.  All players played their lowest spots.  Diamonds are very likely 3-2 since West would likely have lead a singleton diamond but maybe not.  It seems to me that the best play is to draw trump and then assuming a normal trump break play a heart.  They will have to play diamonds eventually or give you a club winner or ruff-sluff.   So Sylvia played trump but they were 4-0 and the diamond ten was doubleton offside.  Here is the whole hand

	Linda
	♠ 7653
	♥ A9
	◊ QJ92
West	♣ J42	East
♠ 10942		♠ void
♥ Q75		♥ K86432
◊ 106		◊ K87
♣ K763	Sylvia	♣ A1085
	♠ AKQJ8
	♥ J10
	◊ A543
	♣ Q9

After finding out the bad news in trump. I might try a heart  but West can win and get out a trump.  You can play the ♣Q hoping that East has both honors but as it turns out West can win and even lead a club back.  So in the end you just have to draw trump and lay down the ◊A.

I was thinking about the idea of playing a club to your hand at trick three, playing the nine if East ducks.  But the defenders can just cash out their winners ending with West who returns a trump to lock you in your hand.  Unlucky Sylvia, it seems to me you did the right thing.  Anyone see anything better?

At the other table declarer was even more poorly placed since he didn’t try a diamond at trick two.  After getting the bad news in trump he tried all the ways he had to get an entry to dummy but the defender were up to it and in the end declarer had to play the entire diamond suit from his hand.  So Sylvia’s more far sighted play of a diamond at trick two might have won the board on another day.