Srini bid a psychic 3H (or semi-psychic considering it was 3rd hand) and left me stuck for a bid. Double would be for takeout, and if I pass it is unlikely that partner will balance at this high bidding level and vulnerability. So I looked again at the vulnerability and bid a brave 3NT. Or foolish, depending upon whether it makes or goes down.
"Nice dummy," commented Hamiko.
"I am a World Class dummy," declared Vinoth.
Hamiko led the 9 of hearts covered by the jack and the ace. Srini backed a low diamond, which I ducked around to the jack. A diamond went back to the ace and a low diamond was returned.
Long Pause #1.
Srini has preempted with A8xxxx so I reckon he must have some redeeming distributional feature, like a side 4 carder in diamonds. If that is the case, Hamiko has Jxx or QJx. The former looks more likely on this defense so I insert the 10. It loses and Hamiko exits passively with the final diamond.
Long Pause #2
So he didn't have a side 4 carder after all. Perhaps he did it because of spade shortness, trying to stop us from finding our 4S contract, in which case it worked, but I can still make 3NT by taking the spade finesse. But for now let me bide my time and try to get a better idea of the distribution.
So I play AK of clubs and run the hearts. Srini plays the ten and jack on the clubs. On the hearts Hamiko discards two clubs and a spade. The queen of clubs hasn't shown itself so I pitch the club from dummy arriving at this position:
If Srini had started with JT of clubs and xx of spades, the SQ will pop up from Hamiko's hand (it's a show-up squeeze) so I play SK and a low spade. Unfortunately the SQ doesn't appear.
Long Pause #3
There are now only two possibilities: Srini started with QJT of clubs and a small spade; or JT of clubs and Qx of spades. Which is more likely?
At this point I get reminded of a paragraph I read in Zia's book. Zia suggests that whenever you are considering a semi-psychic weak two or preempt (from lack of high cards in the suit, too few points, too many points, one fewer card, whatever), the scales should tip in favour of making the bid when you hold Qx (or even Qxx) in a key suit. The opponent will invariably finesse into your hand, as opposed to finesse through your hand, or play for a drop if you'd made a simple overcall. Srini is an expert player who knows his Zia-isms; also x A8xxxx Axx QJT has too much offense to be psyching 3H, so I decide to play him for Qx in spades.
I put up the spade ace and sure enough, the queen drops. 3NT made.
"I don't know why you were thinking so much. It was a simple enough show-up squeeze, no problem for a player at your level," commented Vinoth.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The next time I made a tough contract, I threatened him into saying "wdp".
Cheers,
SP.
2 comments:
That would be playing fast and loose with the meaning of “show-up”—you have nothing directly on where the queen of clubs is.
I know! Tell that to Vinoth.
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