Third Overall in Fall National LM Pairs – Denver, 11/19/05

Playing with Ed Schulte of Tampa, we scored a 69% game in the final session of the 2-day national championship Life Master Pairs in Denver, to rise from deep in the pack to third overall.  The following hand contributed to our excellent score.

I held ªKJ97653 ©A7 ¨J §K104.  In second position I opened the bidding with 1ª, partner replied 2© (game-forcing), I rebid 2ª, and he rebid 2NT.  Now what?

Although I usually have a 6-card suit for my 2ª rebid, I could have a 5-card spade suit when rebidding 2NT may be unappealing and I don't have enough extra strength or extra length for a rebid at the 3-level.  It is used as a catch-all rebid on weak hands such as:  ªAQJ75 ©754 ¨KQ5 §74 or ªAQ976 ©AQ ¨9764 §J4.

But, before I rebid my spades again, I should consider that the auction is reaching high levels quickly.  If I rebid 3ª, it can be very hard to agree upon a heart fit and have room for slam investigation.  My spade suit is missing 3 honors, and it might be right to play in hearts.  Is this a good time to bid 3©?  I don’t think so – I think it would be a major distortion of my major suit distributions and might put us into the wrong major suit.  Should I bid 3§ to save bidding space, therefore allow partner to either repeat the hearts or show spade support?  That is much more appealing than bidding 3©.  Saving bidding space in auctions like this can be very helpful in reaching the best trump fit.  Still, if I rebid 3§ partner may not let me play in a 7-1 spade fit, when he has 4-card club support.  It would not be a bad risk to bid 3§, but I felt it was more important to mention my good 7-card suit again.  I bid 3ª.

Partner now cue bid 4§ which is a cue bid supporting spades.  The cue bid shows slam interest and the club ace-- it can’t be a shortness cue bid due to his 2NT rebid.  That is very good news.  What is your next bid?

You could cue bid 4¨ which guarantees either 1^st or 2^nd round control (ace, king, void or singleton), or you could bid 4NT (1430 Key Card Blackwood).  This is matchpoints, and overtricks are very important.  I had hopes of discarding my losing diamond on partner’s long hearts, and I figured that a cue bid of 4¨ would discourage a diamond lead.  When making a bid like this, you also need to consider the likelihood of losing the ability to bid 4NT on your next bid.  I judged that partner was very likely to rebid 4 of a major suit, so I would not lose my ability to bid 4NT, and that even if he continued bidding at the 5-level, that I would probably be able to handle the auction with cue-bids.  I considered the lead-inhibiting value of a 4¨ bid worth the risk of not being able to bid 4NT on my next turn.

Over my 4¨ cue bid, partner cue bid 4© and I bid 4NT.  Partner bid 5ª showing 2 key cards with the spade queen, and I signed off in 6ª.  The opening lead was the ©2.  How do you plan the play?

You count 7 spade tricks, 2 hearts, and 2 clubs.  If hearts break 3-2, then you can draw trump and set up the long hearts, using the club ace as an entry to the good hearts to take all 13 tricks.  But that ©2 opening lead looks very menacing.   If the hearts are breaking 4-1, then you cannot  draw trump and set up the heart suit--you lack entries and will end up with 2 losers.  You can ruff a club in dummy to set up a 12^th trick, but after trumping in dummy you will still have trouble getting off dummy to draw the trumps, and may still lose a heart ruff and a diamond trick.  What is your best line of play?

Based upon the opening lead, I decided that it was very likely that hearts were dividing 4-1, so I took the only line of play that should make the contract.  I trumped the third club with the spade ace, and I overtook the spade queen with the king.  For my line of play to work, I needed the spades to either divide 2-2 (42%) or for them to be 3-1 with the 10 being singleton (an additional 12%). 

 Normally a 3-2 heart break (68%) would be a better line of play than my 54% play in the spade suit, but considering the opening lead, my line of play was much more likely.  And I was right.

 And, I got a bonus.  After I drew trump, I kept leading trump and squeezed my RHO, who couldn't protect both the ©QJ and ¨AK.   This was the end position:

On the lead of the ª3, dummy discarded a small heart, and East had no winning option.  If he discarded a heart, I would take the last 2 tricks with dummy's hearts.  In fact, East discarded the diamond ace, hoping that his partner held the diamond jack.  I then cashed the diamond jack and heart king, to score all 13 tricks.  We got 72 ½ matchpoints on the board, out of  a maximum of 77.

 I don’t think this hand is anything spectacular, but it is a good example of good solid bidding and play.  You have to make good plays like this to have a chance to place high in major national championships.  We won 70.31 masterpoints for finishing third overall.  I won over 116 masterpoints in the tournament.

 This was the entire hand: