Another Slam

Today, we’ll look at another slam. It makes easily as the cards lie. I only found one obscure way that it goes set. Those are good odds.

	Norm ♠ 6 ♥ AKJ ♦ QT65 ♣ AQJT3
Walt ♠ AT7 ♥ T3 ♦ 92 ♣ K98654		Edie ♠ 8532 ♥ 86 ♦ K8743 ♣ 7
	Sally ♠ KQJ9 ♥ Q97542 ♦ AJ ♣ 2

Edie is the dealer. She has next to nothing and passes. Sally has 13 HCP plus 2 distribution points for the 6-card heart suit and 1 more distribution point for the second 4-card suit. She bids 1 heart. Walt briefly considers interfering with a jump in clubs, but decides against it. He passes. Edie and Walt pass at every opportunity from now on.

Norm has support for his partner’s hearts, but with 17 points in high cards and 2 distribution points, he is too strong for a single raise (6-9) or a limit double raise (10-12). If he had an extra trump, he could count 3 points for the singleton. In any case, he has 19 points. That’s enough for a jump shift. He bids 3 clubs. Edie passes.

A jump shift by responder is an invitation to slam. Thirteen points by opener plus 19 by responder is just one point short of the 33 needed for a small slam. There is no upper limit to the jump shift, so the partners should take their time finding their best contract. They are already forced to game.

Sally doesn’t know that Norm has support for her hearts. She also knows that Norm doesn’t know that she has 6. The club bid might suggest playing in no trump, but transportation might be difficult. Sally decides that the best choice is to show her 6-card heart suit. Norm also doesn’t know that Sally has better than a minimum opening bid, but she doesn’t want to rush the bidding. She is sure to get another chance to bid since the jump shift is a game force. She simply rebids her hearts with a 3H bid. Walt passes.

Norm doesn’t know that Sally has extra strength. For all he knows, Sally has a minimum opening hand. He has shown all of his strength with his original jump-shift response. He just needs to show Sally that he has support for her hearts. She can push farther if she has more than a minimum hand. He bids 4H.

Now, Sally adds her 16 points to her partner’s promised 19 and wants to be in slam. If Norm has just a couple more than his promised 19 points, grand slam could be possible. It might be hard to find the grand slam, but she starts by with the Blackwood convention to make sure that they are not off two aces. It’s hard to imagine how that could be, but the information might help to find the grand slam. She bids 4NT.

Norm shows 2 aces by bidding 5H. Well, there goes the grand slam idea. Small slam missing one ace shouldn’t be a problem. Norm’s points have to be somewhere useful. Sally bids 6H and everyone passes.

Walt is on lead.

Walt
♠ AT7
♥ T3
♦ 92
♣ K98654

Some people like to lead aces against slams, but from Walt’s point of view, it might just make the play easier for Sally. Getting a club ruff in his partner’s hand is a possibility after Norm’s initial club bid, but unless Edie is void in clubs, leading away from that king could help the opponents. Norm decides to try a safe lead of the 9 of diamonds.

	Norm ♠ 6 ♥ AKJ ♦ QT65 ♣ AQJT3
Walt ?		Edie ?
	Sally ♠ KQJ9 ♥ Q97542 ♦ AJ ♣ 2

There really isn’t much that Walt could do. The diamond lead gives Sally a free finesse, but she would have played it that way for herself, anyway. Sally plays small from dummy, and Edie holds on to her king, hoping to make a trick with it later. She plays the 3 and Sally takes with the Jack.

Sally has to lose the ace of spades. She needs to have a plan to not lose a second one. It all depends on how the trumps break.

If the trumps break 2-2 Sally can simply pull trump, force out the ace of spades and ruff the 9 of spades in dummy. But what if they don’t?

If Sally pulls two rounds of trump and one opponent fails to follow suit on the second one, she has a problem. She still needs to force out the ace of spades and regain the lead to ruff the losing spade. If the opponent holding the ace also holds the missing trump, that player will lead back the trump, and there goes her plan for ruffing a spade. There is still a club finesse that could yield a club ace to discard the losing spade. Is there a better way?

How about leading the king of spades on the second trick? Now, the opponent with the ace will take it. That happens to be Walt. Walt looks at his 6 clubs and the 5 clubs on the board, and decides to take a chance on his partner being void in clubs. He doesn’t like leading away from his king with the AQ on the board, but with only 2 clubs out, the only time Sally is going to think about playing the queen will be when she holds two little clubs. That leaves Edie with none. Walt leads a small club. Sally plays the ace from dummy. Edie follows suit.

Sally starts by testing against a 4-0 trump break. She leads the ace of trump from dummy. If the trumps break 4-0, she will need all of her big trumps to avoid a trump loser. Play will be difficult, but not impossible. We’ll look at that possibility a little later. As the cards stand, both players follow to the trump lead. Sally can afford another trump lead. She leads the king. Both players follow. Wow! Now it’s easy. The trumps are gone. Sally leads to the ace of diamonds and ruffs the 9 of spades. She can get to her hand by ruffing either a diamond or a club and her hand is good.

Suppose someone showed out on the second round of trumps. Now, Sally needs to stop pulling trump. She needs to get the spade ruff in first. She will know where the missing trump is. If Edie holds it, there is nothing to worry about. Sally can lead a club from the board, intending to ruff in her hand. If Edie ruffs, Sally can simply over ruff.

If Walt holds the missing trump, it is probably still safer to lead a club and ruff it. The only time this loses is if Walt started with a singleton club and three trumps. It’s possible, but the opening lead of the 9 of diamonds looks more likely to be a singleton than the later lead of a small club.

Let’s say the club lead doesn’t get overruffed by Walt. Now Sally leads the 9 of spades to ruff in dummy. There is no chance of an overruff there. The Jack is high.

Let’s say that Edie followed suit to the second club. Sally is on the board and still needs to pull the last trump. Sally needs to get back to her hand. Leading a club, again has a higher risk of being overruffed by Walt. I like leading to the ace of diamonds at this point. Walt might ruff, but we’ll take that chance. Sally takes the ace, Walt follows suit, and Sally pulls the last trump. Her hand is good.

Suppose Edie showed out on the first round of trump. Grrr. Sally will need to watch her entries to the board, and try a ruffing finesse in one of the minor suits. Walt’s lead of a small club suggest that he does not have the king. Sally leads the queen of clubs from dummy intending to discard the 9 of spades if Edie ducks, and ruffing if she covers with the king.

To her great surprise, Edie discards! That crazy Walt led away from his king into the AQ on the board. Sally has to ruff. Now what? She needs all of the trumps on the board to pull trump. There is a good king of clubs to her left. Walt started with 6 clubs, 4 hearts, and at least 1 diamond and 1 spade. That only leaves one card unaccounted for. A ruffing finesse in diamonds would require two more diamonds in Walt’s hand, so that is guaranteed not to work. There’s no hope. Sally’s goose is cooked.

Two Ways to Bid a Slam

Today’s hand shows how a pair can bid a slam using simple arithmetic. This isn’t the method that was used when the hand was played, but they still found the slam.

	Norm ♠ 95 ♥ J976 ♦ T64 ♣ 9652
Walt ♠ AQT ♥ K853 ♦ AQ32 ♣ A8		Edie ♠ KJ76 ♥ A4 ♦ K85 ♣ KQ74
	Sally ♠ 8432 ♥ QT2 ♦ J97 ♣ JT3

Walt is the dealer. He has 19 points in high cards and no trump distribution. His hand is too strong to open 1NT (15-17 HCP) and too weak to open 2NT (20-21 HCP). He needs to open with 1 of a suit, intending to jump in NT at his next turn. He opens 1 diamond.

Norm and Sally have next to nothing. They will pass at every opportunity.

Edie doesn’t know how strong her partner’s hand is. It might be a minimum 13 point hand, or it could be just short of a strong 2 clubs. She has a strong hand. She’s got 16 points in high cards and can count one for distribution. It’s not strong enough for a jump shift, but she doesn’t have to show her strength, yet. Any new suit bid by responder is forcing for one round, so she will get another chance to bid after responding with 1 spade.

Walt doesn’t know how strong his partner is. Her 1S response could be as weak as 6 points, or just short of the 19 points needed for a jump shift. He doesn’t expect his partner to have 4 hearts, because she skipped over them. His partner is only promising 4 cards in spades and they might be little ones, so he can’t be sure of a spade fit. No problem. He had jumping in NT in mind right from the start. He bids 2NT.

Now, Edie knows precisely how strong Walt is. His opening suit bid followed by a jump in NT shows 18-19 HCP. No trump looks good to her. She adds her 16 HCP to her partner’s 18 and comes up with 34. That should be enough for a small slam. If her partner has 19 points, the 35 point total isn’t enough for grand slam. She just sits right up and bids 6NT. There is no need to ask for aces. Their side can’t be off 2 aces if they have at least 34 HCP. There are only 6 HCP left for the opponents.

Next, suppose we move one card in Walt’s hand. This is actually the way the cards stood when the hand was played.

	Norm ♠ 95 ♥ J976 ♦ T64 ♣ 9652
Walt ♠ AQT8 ♥ K853 ♦ AQ32 ♣ A		Edie ♠ KJ76 ♥ A4 ♦ K85 ♣ KQ74
	Sally ♠ 432 ♥ QT2 ♦ J97 ♣ JT83

Now, Walt’s hand doesn’t look too good for no trump, unless his partner shows some length in clubs. As before, he bids 1 diamond.

Nothing has changed for Edie at this point. She bids 1 spade.

Now, Walt doesn’t want to jump in NT. The clubs could be trouble and he has found a 4-4 spade fit. He wants to support Edie’s spades and show his strength. When supporting partner’s suit or rebidding your own suit, a minimum bid shows a minimum hand. A jump in that suit shows about 3-5 points (about 1 trick) more than the minimum.

Here, Walt has 19 HCP and can count 2 distribution points for the singleton club, now that they have found a suit fit. For all he knows, Edie might have just 6 points. She could pass a jump to 3 spades. Walt knows that they have enough for game, so he just bids it. He bids 4 spades.

Now, Edie shouldn’t just automatically pass because they have reached game. She should stop to reason, “Walt bid game even though I have only promised 6 points. He must have at least 20 points to do that.” She adds her 16 to partner’s 20 and she should be pretty sure that they have enough for a small slam. Grand slam is a possibility. Now, asking for aces is useful. She would be surprised to find that her partner doesn’t have all the missing aces. She is really interested in how many kings he has. She bids 4NT.

Walt responds 5S, showing the 3 aces that she expected. If Walt has the missing king, grand slam looks likely. She bids 5NT. Walt shows the missing king by bidding 6H. Edie bids 7S.