Date: Dec 4th 2007, Tuesday.
Venue: TNSC
On the last but one board of the session, (N-S vul) I picked up this:
AJ
Axxxx
xx
Kxxx
RHO was the dealer and he passed. I opened 1H and the auction was uncontested till the end.
This was the auction Vinoth and I (Guthi) had.
1H - 2D*a
3C*b - 3D*c
3NT - 4C*d
4H*e - 6D*f - End.
*a - I remembered that we are playing 2/1. Yay. The first time it happened in over 3 sessions!
*b I confidently bid 3C. Playing SAYC, I might have considered bidding 2NT as 3C needs some extras.
*c - Parnter is confident that I won't pass it. Why? We are playing 2/1. :D
*d- Guthi- Cue bid, obviously. He has lots of diamonds, rich boy.
Vinoth- Gerber, obviously. What is the point showing clubs now?
*e- Showing Ace of Hearts.
*f - Showed only one Ace, I will bid slam anyways!
Mr. Declarer's and dummy's hand is here.
AJ
Axxxx
xx
Kxxx
Kxx
Kx
AKQJxx
xx
Chalo, now children count your tricks. 2+2+4+0 = top tricks. Tricks needed = 12. Tricks to be developed = 4. If diamonds split is friendly - 2 more. If heart suit is super friendly(3-3) - 2 more tricks. We reach home safely.
The lead is a friendly small Spade. Declarer played the Jack and it held. - Good, no need to ruff any spades in dummy. Declarer thinks for a while and plays a low heart to his king, small one to his Ace. Opponents following with LHO playing Q on the second round. This doesn't change declarer's plan. Now played a low heart and ruffed in hand. Voila! all followed. Now declarer played 3 rounds of trumps and claimed. All. Made 13 tricks for 940.
Analysis - Bidding:
Does Gerber 4C Ace asking apply in this situation? I remember reading that on auctions like this, when opener bids two suits and then bids no trumps, it doesn't apply.
Vinoth bid 6D: I do not know if he realized that I meant 4H as cue, if it was Ace showing, then its a wrong bid. He should have signed off in 5D.
Assuming that I take 4C as Gerber and respond 4S and now he bids 6D, I should bidding 6NT, considering it is Match Points. I am glad that I was able to reason out that we may need to ruff hearts in his hand to set up the suit for black suit discards. But clearly a club lead will kill the contract if partner doesn't have either the Ace or the Queen. If I bid 6NT and partner has KQ double ton of hearts, and no club honour, it is safer. Our present bidding sequence did not allow be make any judgment.
Analysis- The play.
I think the line adopted by the declarer was not very safe. There are enough entries to cash the hearts if they split 3-3. After Jack of spade holds, he can afford to pull 3 rounds of trumps, hopefully splitting 3-2, he has to ruff a third heart in hand. If they split 3-3. All is well. If it is 4-2, Then low club to King is the only hope. If the diamond break is 4-1, We can only hope that the defender with 3 or more hearts also holds the 4 carder diamond. 5-0 break is pretty tough to handle.
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Some time earlier I picked up
Txxx
-void-
KJxxx
AKxx
LHO was the dealer and started the auction with 1H. Partner over called 1S, and RHO bids 2H. What is your call? Oh wait, look at the vulnerability. Its both-vul.
There are lot of options to choose from. I remember reading this auction.
1H-1S-3H-4H* - 4H says - Partner I am bidding 4S based on values, not just distribution, thus differentiating it from a direct 4S bid.
I stared blankly at my cards and remembered what Mr.Tota told me once. Just think what partner might interpret. That was some useful advice, but I panicked and called 3H. LHO bid 4H, Partner competes(?) to 4S, goes passed to LHO, who bids 5H, two passes to me and I bid 5S.
Lead was a small heart.
Txxx
-
KJxxx
AKxx
AKJxx
xxx
QT
xxx
After ruffing the heart in the dummy, declarer expertly plays low Spade to Ace and then bangs the king on the table felling the Queen. Just one Diamond conceded and made six. But not bid.
Vinoth was quick to say that I should bid 4S right away. I disagree. Now I feel 4H should have been the call. Shows spades + values + Heart void ( /singleton depending on agreements.) What say people?
If he had a maximum over call with Diamond Ace, there is even a grand slam. Ah!
PS: Ashok or SP, feel free to edit this post. I posted this in a hurry.
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One small obvious thing I missed at the table,
LHO opens 1NT(15-17) and through stayman they reach 4S. Partner leads A of diamond and dummy has JT75 in diamonds. I held Q864. I carefully played the 4, declared playing the 2. Partner casually played diamond 3 now, covered by dummy's Jack. I paused to think. Partner continued the suit in spite of me discouraging. I played the Queen, declarer won it with the King! Aah, it was so simple to count. Partner held 2, dummy has 4, I have 4. This leaves declarer with K92. (Yes I noticed the spots this time!) All I had to do was to play the low diamond, by covering, all I did was enable declarer to discard a club on the established diamond and make an expensive over trick. Hard luck? No! Bad defense.
Zzzz...
Guthi
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6 comments:
Taking the second hand first, the slam is not good, because playing single-dummy, the chances of losing a trump trick are more than 50 %, and you will of course lose the DA. In addition you need the diamonds to be 4-2 (about 80 %). Then you need the clubs not to be 6-0. So the chances are much less than 50 %. As to the bidding, 4H is pretty obvious (singleton or void).
Coming to the first hand,
(i) I think 4C should properly show 6-4 (6-3?) in diamonds and clubs–neither Gerber nor a cue-bid— and opener's 4NT response should show reluctance to play in diamonds or clubs.
(ii) Opener's rebid should be 2NT, not 3C. I suppose 2H is also a possibility. The idea is to conserve space. 3C shows 5-5 or extra strength if 5-4.
Defence: Come on, the play of a small card is glaringly obvious.
Second hand: Yes, 4H is obvious.
Verdict - Guilty.
First hand: Bugger, you tell me all this earlier, about extra strength if its 5-4. What do I do with 1-5-3-4 ? Raise diamonds or bid clubs? With and with out extras.
Defence: Was caught napping.
First one: 4C is not Gerber because NT is not the agreed "suit". Not sure it can be cue either as you haven't actually promised doubleton diamond support. Would have been better if he bid 4D, showing a running D suit and interest in slam. No comments on 3C vis-a-vis 2NT, I prefer playing it as showing extras but some play it differently. As for the play, you are right, trumps should be pulled first.
Second one: With four card support, 4H splinter bid seems clear. With 3 card support you would bid 3H. 4S is defy wrong, it would show a weaker hand.
Third one: Good, you started noticing the spots :) next time do it before playing!
First Hand:
Trumps should be drawn first.
1)If Hearts are 5-1,then u would be going down in the contract which was cold when Club Ace is onside.
2)If Hearts are 4-2 (and 2 sitting over declarer), then there is danger of trump promotion if Diamonds are 4-1 and also Hearts can't be cashed due to shortage of entries.
3)If Hearts are 3-3, then they can be cashed later also after drawing trumps.
There is no advantage playing on Hearts first.So draw trumps and then play Hearts.
Drawing trumps doesn't matter in Hearts play as there is no trump entry in dummy.
Second Hand:
I think 4D bid can be used as Fit Showing Jump and also asking partner to bid slam with some help in Diamonds otherwise sign off in 4S.
If u have no slam interest , u will sign off in 4S.
But (as usual) i am not very sure about that 4D bid. So please comment on it.
Prajwal
Used to play bridge years ago when I was at IITM ... nice to see that bridge is still going strong.
The play on the first hand is pretty dangerous. It's a good plan but a better one would have been to leave open the possibility of a lead towards the K-club. The way it was played, declarer may have gotten over-ruffed, gotten a club lead and ended down 2 (club to ace; heart back; uppercut leading to diamond trick).
3 potential losers on the second hand ... don't think you should be bidding slam. Wouldn't 5H doubled have gone down 3 or 4? I see opponents losing 2 spades, 2 clubs and a diamond or two. No need to hog the hand ... double, sit back and watch the slaughter!
@ Prajwal
Your analysis of the hand is stud. No comments there. :)
Some one here doesn't like fit showing jumps. (read sp) But showing heart stopped is more important than showing long diamonds, I think.
@ Lak
Thank you for visiting our blog and for the encouraging comment (going strong! )
:)
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