Bridge Match 1 - Board 104

Board 104 – Dealer West – No Vul

My hand: ♠ K J 7 ♥ J T ♦ A 7 5 2 ♣ K Q T 6

Partner opens 1 spade in second chair. I don't like doing it, but Jack thinks Jacoby 2NT only shows 3 spades so I go with that. He bids 3 hearts, showing a stiff or void. So the opponents have a huge heart fit. That means we should have one too, or be double fit, so making a slam move seems ok. I bid 4 diamonds, hopefully showing the A. Partner bids 4 hearts, presumably showing stiff A or a void. I might as well bid Blackwood and see what's up. He bids 5 diamonds, showing 3 keycards. So we have all the aces. I think 5 hearts will ask him for the trump queen, so I bid that. He bids 5NT, showing the trump queen but no kings. We have at least 5 spade tricks, 1 heart, at least 3 clubs, and 1 diamond. I have a feeling we have an unavoidable diamond loser though, and hopefully the two extra tricks come from the long club and an extra spade in partner's hand. I bid 6 spades which gets passed out.

East leads the 6 of hearts.

	NORTH ♠ A Q 6 5 3 ♥ A ♦ Q 6 ♣ A J 9 7 3
		EAST ♥ 6
	SOUTH ♠ K J 7 ♥ J T ♦ A 7 5 2 ♣ K Q T 6

West	North	East	South
Pass	1♠	Pass	2NT1
Pass	3♥2	Pass	4♦3
Pass	4♥4	Pass	4NT5
Pass	5♦6	Pass	5♥7
Pass	5NT8	Pass	6♠
Pass	Pass	Pass
1Jacoby 2NT
2Singleton or Void
3Control in Diamonds for Spades
4Control in Clubs for Spades
5Ace Asking for Spades
60 or 3 Aces
7Queen Ask
8Queen of Spades, 0 Kings

So it turns out partner has a hidden 5 card suit which I fill in completely as a source of tricks. So we have 5 spades, 5 clubs, and 2 red aces. I can't see a way to possibly make a 13th trick unless the K of diamonds and the KQ of hearts are all in the same hand and I set up a squeeze.

I end up misplaying trumps (I thought I had 9 until I stopped and counted) and had to ruff a heart to hand to draw the last trump, so even that play disappeared. Making 6.

	NORTH ♠ A Q 6 5 3 ♥ A ♦ Q 6 ♣ A J 9 7 3
WEST ♠ T 9 8 2 ♥ Q 9 5 3 ♦ J 4 3 ♣ 5 2		EAST ♠ 4 ♥ K 8 7 6 4 2 ♦ K T 9 8 ♣ 8 4
	SOUTH ♠ K J 7 ♥ J T ♦ A 7 5 2 ♣ K Q T 6

Professor Jack disagrees with my diamond cuebid. He wants me to just bid 4 spades. He then doesn't want me to ask for aces and again wants me to bid just 4 spades. Finally, and bizarrely, he doesn't like bidding 5 hearts to ask about the Q of trump. His reasoning is this is the wrong time to try for slam. Instead I should just bid 6 hearts. If partner had shown the K of diamonds I would have tried for 7, so I think asking was worthwhile.


The auction is very different at the other table but they end up in 6 spades anyway. They get a different lead and have no chance at a 13th trick so they're just in as well.

Nick: 980
Jack: 980
IMPs: 0 (+17 total)