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.

Using All the Information Available

Today we look at a 1 NT hand. We will see how declarer uses all the information that is available to make a brilliant choice for a play at the end of the hand.

Norm is the dealer and bids 1 diamond with this hand:

Norm
♠ J8
♥ T986
♦ AT74
♣ AK8

He has 12 points in high cards and can count one distribution point for the second suit. He has no 5-card major, so he bids his better minor suit.

Edie is sitting to Norm’s left and was surprised that Norm opened the bidding. She holds:

Edie
♠ AK6
♥ A75
♦ KQJ85
♣ 64

Without Norm’s opening bid, she was trying to decide whether to open 1NT or 1 diamond. She has the balanced distribution and the required 15-17 HCP to open 1NT, but she was worried about the worthless doubleton. One diamond is a safer opening bid, and she could jump in diamonds at her next turn to show her strength. Then, Norm goofed up her plan with his opening 1 diamond bid. Now, bidding diamonds is out of the question. Her only alternative to bidding 1NT is to pass. She decides to risk the club trouble and overcall 1NT.

Sally happily passes with this hand:

Sally
♠ Q954
♥ QJ3
♦ 9
♣ QT753

Had there not been the 1NT overcall, Sally would have a demand bid with 6 points opposite her partner’s opening bid. She doesn’t have the required 10 points to show her club suit, therefore she would have responded with 1 spade. The overcall, however, relieves her of her obligation to keep the bidding open for her partner. A free bid over the 15-17 points shown by Edie would need to guarantee that her side had the balance of the strength in the hand. She should probably pass any hand weaker than 10 points. She does.

Walt holds

Walt
♠ T732
♥ K42
♦ 632
♣ J92

With 8 or more points, Walt might look for a 4-4 spade fit with the Stayman convention, but he has only 4 points. He passes.

Norm has just a minimum opening hand and no help from his partner. He passes also.

Sally is on lead against 1NT. She wants to find the strongest combined holding for her side. He first consideration is the suit that her partner bid, but his 1 diamond opening might be based on a 3-card suit, Sally holds only one card there, and the 1NT overcall should have the opener’s suit stopped at least once, preferably twice. Sally needs to look elsewhere for an opening lead.

Sally
♠ Q954
♥ QJ3
♦ 9
♣ QT753

The clubs are longer than the spades, however, Norm indicated that his diamonds were better than his clubs. A spade lead is worth considering, but Sally decides to go with clubs. Having just two honors at the top of the suit, she leads her 4^th highest—the 5.

Now, Edie pauses to make a plan for the hand before playing to the first trick.

Dummy ♠ T732 ♥ K42 ♦ 632 ♣ J92

Declarer ♠ AK6 ♥ A75 ♦ KQJ85 ♣ 64

In no trump, Edie starts by counting how many tricks she can take off the top. Well, with the club lead, that number is zero. She can use the rule of 11 to reason that there are 6 cards outside of Sally’s hand that are bigger than the 5 of clubs. Edie can see 3 of them, so Norm must have 3 clubs bigger than the 5. That’s good. It means that the opponents can run at most 5 tricks in clubs. Let’s suppose that happens and the 6^th trick is either a spade or a heart. Now, Edie can take 4 tricks in spades and hearts. She will need to take 3 more tricks to make the contract. The diamonds look like a good choice. Edie will need to force out the ace of diamonds, probably losing one of her top honors in the process. Then, she will have two good honor cards to cash. If the diamonds break 3-2, her two small diamonds will be set up, and she’ll make an over trick. If they break 4-1, the 4 cards will certainly be in the hand that opened 1 diamond. She might be able to win a trick with a deep finesse. She might not have the luxury of just losing the 4^th diamond trick to set up the little one. If the opponents lead hearts at every opportunity, Edie will be out of heart winners after losing the 4^th heart, and she will lose a bunch of hearts before she can cash her little diamond. Still, it looks like she has a solid plan.

Edie decides to play a small club from dummy. Norm wins with the ace, cashes the King of clubs and returns a small club.  Edie discards a small heart. Sally takes with the Queen and continues to cash her small clubs. Now Edie needs to be careful with her discards. She needs to preserve two small diamonds in dummy in case she needs to try a fancy finesse if there is a bad diamond break. She discards a small heart from dummy. Norm plays a small heart and Edie finds herself in a tight spot. She discards a spade, and plans to discard a small diamond on the next club. There goes one chance for an extra trick in diamonds.

Sally leads her last club. Edie discards a spade. Norm plays a heart, and Edie plays a diamond as planned.

Here is what is left for Edie before Sally leads. Edie hasn’t taken any tricks, yet.

Dummy ♠ T73 ♥ K4 ♦ 632 ♣

Declarer ♠ AK ♥ A7 ♦ KQJ8 ♣

Sally continues with the Queen of hearts. Edie needs to preserve the entry to the board, so she takes with the ace in her hand. Now, she needs to force out the ace of diamonds. She leads the King. Sally follows with her 9. Dummy plays small, and Norm takes the ace. He hopes that he can eventually take the ten of diamonds after the Queen and Jack are played. He decides to take out declarer’s only entry to the board by leading a heart.

The King wins on the board. Now, Edie leads a small diamond from the board and Norm plays the 7. If the diamonds break 3-2, Edie can take the Q and J of diamonds and cash the last diamond. However, if they break 4-1, this play will set up the ten for the opponents. She could, instead, decide to finesse the 8. That play works against a 4-1 break, but loses if Sally started out with the T9 of diamonds. Edie knows that Norm started with at least 3 diamonds based on his opening bid. The only way that the finesse fails is if Norm opened 1 diamond with the A74 of diamonds and the AK8 of clubs. Since Edie was paying such careful attention to the cards that Norm had played and could visualize the hand he started with, she bravely plays the 8 of diamonds on this trick.

The 8 holds. Edie breathes a sigh of relief, and she cashes the rest of her tricks to make 1 NT.

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.