Opponents convention card: Dutch Doubleton
Opponents playing strength: Advanced
My hand: ♠ J T ♥ A Q J 9 8 ♦ A T 2 ♣ T 7 6
Partner opens a weak NT. I also have a weak NT so we might well have a game here. I'm not playing transfers so I can't transfer to hearts and then invite to game. I could start with stayman I guess? Or maybe I should bid 3 hearts as an invite with hearts? But that's still forcing to at least the 3 level which sucks. My heart suit is really, really good so I may just want to bid 4 hearts. Well, let's start with stayman. I bid 2 clubs. Partner responds 3 spades. I don't know what that means. I assume 5 spades and a maximum. So game should be fine, but I am worried about the minors now. So let's just play 4 hearts. Partner pulls to 4 spades. Ok, you're the boss man partner. Looking at the alerts after the hand my 4 heart bid was interpreted as control in hearts for spades. How in the world is that possible? Stayman doesn't promise both majors! I could easily have 0 spades and 5 hearts! Wow... Partner's lucky I have 2 of them.
East leads the 3 of diamonds.
| NORTH ♠ A K 8 5 4 ♥ T 4 3 ♦ Q 9 ♣ K J 2 | ||
| EAST ♦ 3 | ||
| SOUTH ♠ J T ♥ A Q J 9 8 ♦ A T 2 ♣ T 7 6 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1NT | Pass | 2♣1 | |
| Pass | 3♠2 | Pass | 4♥3 |
| Pass | 4♠ | Pass | Pass |
| Pass | |||
| 1Stayman | |||
| 2Five card, maximum | |||
| 3Control in hearts for spades | |||
I have 4 hearts, a club, a diamond, and 3 spades for sure. I have finesses to earn extra tricks in every suit. As far as losers I should lose a trick in each minor for sure and might well lose one in each major along with an extra club loser. So there's a lot of work here. Can I afford to duck the diamond? I'm guaranteed an extra diamond trick if I do, and I have a diamond loser for sure if I hop. Ducking is scary if they play clubs back through my strong holding? But if West has the K of diamonds they get to use it as an entry to his hand later anyway. So I duck. 3-2-K-9. West fires back a diamond. 8-Q-6-T. I now have a diamond set up to pitch a round card, except all my late round cards are high so who cares.
I'm missing 6 spades so I don't know that I can afford to finesse. I may well set up their 9 if I do. I'm also in the wrong hand to finesse and I don't know that I want to play hearts right now. On the down side it's obvious where they can get tricks so if West has the Q of spades I'm letting him in to lead a club. The other option is to let him in with the heart K if he has it which doesn't appeal much either. Playing hearts is bad when there's a 4-1 split and I let them start ruffing. I don't think I really have a good play, so I'm going to hope East has the Q of spades and just play low now. 4-2-J-Q. West fires back trump. 6-5-3-T.
Ok, now I don't have an entry back to hand in order to finesse hearts or draw trump. Unless I ruff my A of diamonds. I'm down if West has the K of hearts so I guess I should just assert he doesn't have it and take my only line to make. I ruff my A of diamonds, draw 2 rounds of trump, lead the T of hearts and cross my fingers. It holds! I play another heart to the Q. It wins too! My A of hearts drops the K and I win all the tricks except the A of clubs at the end. Making 4.
| NORTH ♠ A K 8 5 4 ♥ T 4 3 ♦ Q 9 ♣ K J 2 | ||
| WEST ♠ Q 9 7 6 ♥ 7 2 ♦ K 8 4 ♣ Q 9 8 5 | EAST ♠ 3 2 ♥ K 6 5 ♦ J 7 6 5 3 ♣ A 4 3 | |
| SOUTH ♠ J T ♥ A Q J 9 8 ♦ A T 2 ♣ T 7 6 |
Jack disagrees with my 2 club bid. He doesn't think it's good for Stayman and just wants me to start with 3 hearts. I guess that makes sense. I will point out that when I click on my 2 clubs bid one of the potential hands it lists is '11+ points, 5 hearts'... He then disagrees with my 4 heart bid, obviously because I meant it to play and he meant it as a cuebid. I really don't understand how it could be a cuebid. Anyway, he wants me to bid 3NT instead. Finally he doesn't want me to draw trump while playing the hand. He wants me to just bite the bullet and finesse hearts. It does let me finesse spades back when they both work, though since West had Q9xx it wouldn't have saved a trick.
Ranking after board 17/60: 4/16 with 55.04%
You have the initial lead listed as the T of diamonds, not the 3.
ReplyDeleteFixed, thanks! Ten and three both start with the same letter... I'm going to assume that's what happened!
ReplyDelete