Bidding Over a Weak Two

Today, we’ll look at a hand where a weak two spade opening bid makes it difficult for the opposing side to find their best contract. Well, that’s part of the reason for bidding a weak two, isn’t it?

Edie picks up this nice hand. She has 16 HCP and 5-3-3-2 distribution. She intends to open 1NT, but Norm, sitting to Edie’s left, thwarts her plan by opening 2 spades.

Edie
♠ A2
♥ K42
♦ KJ3
♣ AJ962

Edie could bid 2NT over 2 spades, but she is worried about the weak spade holding, now. Still, with 16 points (17 with distribution) she would like to bid. She chooses to bid 3 clubs. Making an overcall at the 3 level requires a strong hand. She has that.

Sally is next and considers competing with 3 spades, but decides to pass, hoping that her partner’s opening bid will keep the opponents from finding their best contract.

Sally
♠ 864
♥ JT
♦ AQ952
♣ 843

Walt is delighted to hear about his partner’s strong hand and 5-card club suit. His void is more valuable with his extra length in his partner’s suit. He counts his points as 7 in high cards, 5 for the void with extra trump support and one for the doubleton. That’s 13 points, and he expects his partner to better than an opening hand to be able to make an overcall at the 3 level. He wants to be in game, for certain. He thinks that slam might be possible. After all, his partner might have 20 points. On the other hand, how does he find it? Blackwood is no use. If Edie responds with 5 diamonds, showing just one ace, they are committed to going to slam—off 3 aces.

Walt
♠ J3
♥ Q98763
♦ -
♣ KQT75

Walt just silently curses Norm’s weak 2 bid, and bids 5 clubs. Norm has said all he is allowed to say with his opening bid, so he passes. Edie decides that she has already shown the full strength of her hand with her 3-level overcall and passes, also. Sally passes.

Sally is on lead.

Sally
♠ 864
♥ JT
♦ AQ952
♣ 843

There is hardly anything to think about. She leads the 8 of spades as a “top of nothing” lead to her partner’s suit.

Edie makes a plan for the hand.

	Dummy ♠ J3 ♥ Q98763 ♦ - ♣ KQT75
	Edie ♠ A2 ♥ K42 ♦ KJ3 ♣ AJ962

She sees no losers in clubs even if they break 3-0. There is a loser in spades and at least one in hearts. From the point of view of her hand, she would like to ruff three diamonds in dummy. The AJ9 of clubs in her hand will be able to pull the trumps, so she can use the big trumps in dummy to do the ruffing before pulling trumps. She will need transportation to her hand. That shouldn’t be a problem. She can get there with the A of spades and two rounds of trump.

She still needs to hold heart losers to one. She can try a heart finesse through the opponent of her choice. If that fails, there is the possibility of a 2-2 heart break. If that also fails, there might be a chance for a second finesse toward the Q98 in hearts. We’ll see how that works out. Let’s play.

Edie plays small from dummy, Norm plays “third hand high” with the Q. Edie takes the A in her hand and immediately starts to ruff diamonds. She leads the 3. Sally plays small. Edie ruffs with the K. Norm follows with the 4.

Edie returns to her hand by leading the 5 of clubs to the A. Norm discards the 6 of diamonds. Sally follows with the 3. The 3-0 break is no problem.

Edie continues by ruffing a second diamond with the Q and returns a small club to the J. Edie still has a diamond to ruff and another trump to pull. Then, she needs to tackle the hearts.

	Dummy ♠ J ♥ Q98763 ♦ - ♣ T
	Edie ♠ 2 ♥ K42 ♦ K ♣ 962

Edie stops to worry a little. She still needs to ruff the diamond in dummy but won’t be able to immediately pull the last trump. Her plan is to lead a small heart toward the K, hoping that Norm jumps up with the A. That would solve her heart loser problem, but might Sally have started with a doubleton spade or singleton heart and be poised to ruff Norm’s return? Norm probably started with exactly 6 spades. That leaves 3 for Sally. They might have started 7-2, but probably not. How about a singleton heart? That’s a distinct possibility. If Sally started with a singleton heart, and Norm has the A, and Norm returns a heart after taking the A, Sally will win a trick with her last trump. Well, hardly any hand is sure thing. There isn’t any way to avoid this risk after the 3-0 trump break.

Edie continues with her plan. She plays the K of diamonds, Sally covers with the A, and dummy ruffs with the ten. Now, Edie leads a small heart toward the K. Norm jumps up with the A, cashes his K of spades, and returns a heart. Edie plays the K, and Sally follows suit. Thanks, Sally.

Now, Edie pulls the last trump with the 9, and leads the 4 of hearts to the Q. All the opposing hearts are gone, but Edie is left with nothing but trumps in her hand. She claims the rest.

Hand of the week

 

Today, we’ll look at the bidding and play of an entire hand.

	Norm ♠ Q98 ♥ Q983 ♦ KJ64 ♣ 62
Walt ♠ 542 ♥ J6542 ♦ T2 ♣ J98	Dealer: West W N E S Pass Pass 1D 1NT Pass 2C Pass 2D Pass 2NT Pass 3NT Pass Pass Pass	Edie ♠ KJ73 ♥ A ♦ 9853 ♣ AQ73
	Sally ♠ AT6 ♥ KT7 ♦ AQ7 ♣ KT54

 

The Bidding

Walt and Norm pass.

Edie has 14 HCP plus one distribution point for the second suit. She has a demand opening. She doesn’t have a 5-card suit and her hand doesn’t qualify for a no trump opener, so she needs to bid her better minor suit. If the diamonds were stronger, opening 1 diamond would be a good choice. If Edie later needed to bid the clubs, bidding the diamonds first would give her partner a choice of those suits at the two level. As it stands, the diamonds will probably never be mentioned. Opening 1 club is a better choice here.

Sally was planning to open 1NT, and was surprised to hear Edie open the bidding. A 1NT overcall shows the same sort of hand as a 1NT opening with the provision that there is extra strength in the suit that was bid. Sally’s clubs should be strong enough to stop the clubs once or twice. She goes ahead with the 1NT overcall.

Walt wasn’t planning on bidding even if Sally passed.

Norm has 8 HCP. He adds that to Sally’s 15-17 and decides that they might have enough strength for game if Sally has a maximum 1NT hand. It will be a bit of a stretch in NT, but should be easier in hearts if Sally has 4 of them. With no intervening bid after the 1NT call, the Stayman convention is still on. Norm bids 2C, asking Sally if she has a 4-card major.

Edie is not interested in bidding further, given the enthusiasm of the opponents. She passes.

Sally’s responses to Stayman are automatic. She doesn’t have a 4-card major, so she bids 2D to show that.

Walt passes.

Now, Norm needs to take his team back to no trump. He doesn’t know if there is enough strength for game, so he invites with 2NT.

Edie passes.

If Sally had 17 HCP, she would bid 3NT without hesitation. With 15, she would pass without hesitation. With 16, she needs to make a judgement call. Her strength is mostly in aces and kings, and she sits behind the strength in the opposing hands. She decides to go to game by bidding 3NT.

Everyone passes.

The Play

Walt ♠ 542 ♥ J6542 ♦ T2 ♣ J98

Walt is on lead. Against a no trump contract, he wants to figure out which suit is longest in the combined holdings of his partner and him. He first considers clubs, because his partner bid them. He knows that his partner might have opened a 3-card club suit, so he isn’t too excited about clubs. He doesn’t rule them out, though.

Next, he considers his heart suit. From the Stayman sequence, he knows that the opponents hold, at most, 4 and 3 cards in hearts. A heart lead looks better. He leads his 4^th highest heart.

	Dummy ♠ Q98 ♥ Q983 ♦ KJ64 ♣ 62
	Sally ♠ AT6 ♥ KT7 ♦ AQ7 ♣ KT54

 

Now, Sally makes a plan to take 9 tricks to make her contract. She starts by counting how many tricks she can take off the top. She’ll be able to take 4 diamonds and 1 spade. She needs a plan to take 4 more. She starts by thinking about the heart suit. Walt’s lead looks like a 4^th highest. She uses the rule of 11 and finds that there are 7 cards higher than the 4 outside of Walt’s hand. She holds 6 of them. With this knowledge she should be able to take at least 2 heart tricks, maybe 3.

Next, she considers the point count from the bidding. Her side holds 24 HCP, and Edie should have 13 points for her opening bid. Some of those points could have come from distribution, but still, there isn’t much strength left for Walt. That helps to mark some finesses. She should be able to take a trick with the king of clubs using a finesse, and she might be able to take an extra trick in spades by finessing twice.

That sounds like a plan. Sally will need to be careful to preserve entries to the board to make these finesses.

Sally plays a small heart from the board, and to her delight, Edie plays the ace. Now Sally has two sure tricks in hearts with the K and Q. Not only that, the rule of 11 tells her that Walt holds the J. She should be able to take 3 heart tricks.

	Dummy ♠ Q98 ♥ Q98 ♦ KJ64 ♣ 62
Walt ♠ 542 ♥ J652 ♦ T2 ♣ J98		Edie ♠ KJ73 ♥ ♦ 9853 ♣ AQ73
	Sally ♠ AT6 ♥ KT ♦ AQ7 ♣ KT54

Edie is on lead. Edie can make the same calculation about the points and doesn’t expect Walt to have much strength. Therefore, a club lead or a spade lead will probably help declarer. A diamond probably won’t do any damage. Declarer probably has those all sewn up without any help from the defense. Edie chooses to lead the 9 of diamonds, a top-of-nothing lead.

Sally recalculates the tricks she can take off the top. There are 4 diamonds, 2 hearts, and 1 spade. She needs 2 more. She is confident in the club finesse and expects Walt to hold the J of hearts. She decides to start with the hearts. She wants to be in her hand, so she takes Edie’s diamond lead with the A.

	Dummy ♠ Q98 ♥ Q98 ♦ KJ6 ♣ 62
Walt ♠ 542 ♥ J652 ♦ T ♣ J98		Edie ♠ KJ73 ♥ ♦ 853 ♣ AQ73
	Sally ♠ AT6 ♥ KT ♦ Q7 ♣ KT54

Sally starts her plan for the heart finesse by cashing the king. Edie discards a small diamond. That removes all doubt about the heart finesse. Sally leads the 10 and Walt decides to duck, giving Sally a chance to make a mistake with the Q. No such luck. Sally ducks on the board. Edie discards another diamond.

	Dummy ♠ Q98 ♥ Q ♦ KJ6 ♣ 62
Walt ♠ 542 ♥ J6 ♦ T ♣ J98		Edie ♠ KJ73 ♥ ♦ 8 ♣ AQ73
	Sally ♠ AT6 ♥ ♦ Q7 ♣ KT54

Now, the only task left is the club finesse. She wants to make sure that she has transportation to cash all her winners, so she starts by cashing the Q of diamonds. Then, she leads a small diamond to the K. Worried that this will be her last visit to the board, she cashes her winning heart and diamonds. Edie is starting to get squeezed for her discards, but it doesn’t matter.

	Dummy ♠ Q98 ♥ ♦ ♣ 62
Walt ♠ 5 ♥ J ♦ ♣ J98		Edie ♠ KJ ♥ ♦ ♣ AQ7
	Sally ♠ AT6 ♥ ♦ ♣ KT

Finally, Sally leads a small club from the board. Edie plays “second hand low” with the 7. Sally plays the K and that holds the trick. She cashes the A of spades to make her contract. She leads a small spade, playing the Q from dummy and West takes the remainder of the tricks. Contract made.