Too hard for the Camrose

E-W Game
Dealer South

• KQ
• KJ43
• AK106
• AQ6

• 4
• 10986
• QJ98432
• 7

N

W

E

S

• J762
• AQ72
• 7
• 9432

• A109853
• 5
• 5
• KJ1085

West

North

East

South

-

-

-

2^{6 ,8-11}

Pass

2NT^enquiry

Pass

3^natural

Pass

4NT^RKCB

Pass

5^{1 ace}

Pass

6

All pass

A hand very similar to this came up in the Camrose: I've taken it from Andy Robson's column in today's Times. South's 2 opening was more constructive than a traditional weak two, so when he next showed a non-minimum hand with a club feature, North had no difficulty bidding 6

West found the heart lead against 6, to the jack and queen. East switched to a club, won in dummy. Declarer, Tom Townsend, must not have fancied his chances when West discarded on the second spade, but surprisingly West had a singleton club too, so declarer could ruff two hearts and take four rounds of clubs before crossing to the ace and king of diamonds for the trump coup.

I'm surprised by East's club switch at trick two - Robson comments that East sensed "a lack of concern in declarer's manner". Fair enough, but then why switch to a club? If the ace of hearts isn't a winner, the only other way to beat the contract will be with a trump trick, so East should switch to a diamond to take out a late entry to dummy. To play the trump coup, declarer needs to take four rounds of clubs, ruffing two hearts along the way, before entering dummy. After a diamond switch, the only late entry to dummy is the second round of trumps, so declarer would have to play on clubs before discovering the bad trump break. Since this is a good idea only if West has two black singletons, and goes off any other time clubs are 4-1, it would be a remarkable view - East's diamond switch is suspicious, but could just as well be a bluff.

But it does take some imagination to place declarer with the 6-5 hand where the diamond switch may gain.  And it needs West to have the QJ of diamonds too, or the switch sets up two diamond discards, so declarer no longer needs to take four clubs tricks and the trump coup operates routinely.  East may have supposed that in that case West would have preferred a diamond lead.  It's time to confess that I've swapped the five and jack of diamonds from the actual deal.

Incidentally, in the other room South opened 1, West made a (very) weak jump overcall in diamonds, and North bid 6NT.  East led a diamond, and with eleven top tricks declarer chose to play East for the ace of hearts, making the contract on a strip squeeze.

Update: I checked with Tom, who points out that on the actual deal, rather than my invention, he could make 6S with East holding 3 clubs and no Q, by taking a diamond finesse so as to be able to discard two clubs on dummy's diamonds.  And also that the play in 6NT described by Robson was dreamt up for the entertainment of his readers.  The truth is recorded under Match Five, Stanza 2, board 28, here.

An unusual squeeze

Game all
Dealer East

• AK
• 743
• AJ9
• AK1083

• J105
• AQ92
• KQ82
• 42

N

W

E

S

• Q9743
• J10
• 107654
• Q

• 862
• K865
• 3
• J9765

West

North

East

South

Peter

Paul

Carole

Jon

-

-

Pass

Pass

1NT^12-14

X

2^transfer

X

2

Pass

Pass

3

Pass

3NT

All pass

Jon's double of East's conventional 2 bid showed values, which he was rather short of, and switched us from take-out to penalty doubles - he would be happy to defend two spades doubled, but unwilling to double for penalties himself.  When he next bid 3, I counted five club, two spade and (wrongly) two diamond tricks, and bid a confident 3NT.  I suppose West could have passed the doubled transfer bid to show heart values, but East chose to lead the jack of hearts anyway.  At first sight, this looks like a hit.

East won the first two tricks with the jack and ten of hearts, then, still reluctant to lead away from the queen of spades, switched to the queen of clubs.  The hand plays itself from here - West is a strong favourite to have all the missing high cards in the red suits, so I just ran the clubs ending in dummy, and watched the discards.  West could afford one diamond discard, but needed the rest of his red cards, so he threw two spades.  Now the two top spades confirmed West's exact hand, and forced him finally to discard a heart.  I exited in hearts, ducked the king of diamonds, and took the last two tricks with the jack and ace.

East's opening lead looked good, but in fact it gives the contract, which has no chance on a spade lead (if declarer runs the clubs the defence must keep three diamonds each and all their spades).  After the heart lead, switching to spades at trick two wouldn't help: once one round of hearts has been played declarer can lose a heart to West in the end game.  Nor is a diamond switch any good - unusually this squeeze works with no winner in the threat suits.

Simple, pointless, but fun

Love all
Dealer North

• Q1054
• 6
• A1097653
• K

• AJ76
• Q873
• Q2
• 874

N

W

E

S

• K832
• AK94
• KJ4
• A10

• 9
• J1052
• 8
• QJ96532

West

North

East

South

Jon

Ann

Paul

Richard

-

3

3NT

All pass

North's slightly off-centre 3 opening pushed us into the best contract - normally one would want to play in four of a major, but when all the suits are breaking badly, no trumps plays better.  For what it's worth, I wouldn't open 3 on the North cards, but might well open 3 given a chance with the South hand.

South led the queen of clubs, North overtook, and I ducked, hoping to find North with a doubleton club.  A singleton was even better for me.  North switched to ace and another diamond, South discarding a club.  I cashed the ace and king of hearts, North discarding a diamond.  This showed up an obvious flaw in my vague plan to take a spade finesse through South's presumed length: North was now known to have started with seven diamonds, one heart, and presumably one club, so four spades.  Instead, I played a spade to the ace, noting South's nine, and successfully ran the six.  I could then duck a spade to North, win the diamond exit discarding dummy's last spade, then cash the ace of clubs and the king of spades to squeeze South, making the last trick with dummy's eight of clubs.

If South has a small singleton spade, I can make only nine tricks.  After winning the ace of spades, I cash the queen of hearts, the ace of clubs, and, if North has kept all her spades, the jack of diamonds.  Then I duck a spade to her.  She has one diamond left to cash, then has to lead into the split tenace in spades.  (If North unexpectedly follows to the ace of clubs, play king and another spade next instead.)

The overtrick was pointless, alas.  We were playing Butler (i.e. imped) pairs, and it was worth nary an imp.  It's not my favourite form of the game.

Difficult and lucky

N-S Game
Dealer North

• K10987
• KQ5
• none
• K10763

• AJ6
• 1092
• K75
• AQ98

N

W

E

S

• 5432
• J76
• QJ32
• 54

• Q
• A843
• A109864
• J2

West

North

East

South

Simon

Paul

Roger

Jon

 

1

Pass

1NT

Pass

2

Pass

3

Pass

3

Pass

3NT

Pass

4

Pass

4

All pass

This hand doesn't show our system to best advantage. Jon was maximum for his 1NT response, so he jumped to 3 in case we had enough for game.  We didn't have enough for game, but we didn't have enough diamonds for 3 either, so I tried 3, and chose to remove 3NT; perhaps it's better to take my chances there.  By the end of the auction I had systemically shown four spades, three hearts, five clubs, and one other card which ought systemically to be in a spade or diamond (unlikely to be a diamond as a matter of bridge logic).

Against 4, East sensibly led a trump, which went to the nine and king.  I tried a spade to the four, queen and ace.  West, who knew a lot about the hand, now went subtly wrong by switching to a diamond - a simple trump continuation is good.  I discarded a club from hand, and won with South's ace.  The best play now is to ruff a diamond, cash the queen of hearts, and lead the ten of spades, choosing between running it and trying to ruff down the jack of spades, in both cases needing the diamonds blocked.

However, I went wrong myself by leading the jack of clubs from dummy at trick four, giving West another chance to beat the contract by putting in the queen, leaving me in the wrong hand to take the diamond ruff I needed to block the suit.  Instead he took the ace and forced my hand with a diamond, getting me back on the winning line.  I needed to guess the spades, and got it right, thinking that East might well not have petered with jack to four - I was lucky about this too, while I was dithering about it, I cashed the king of spades, and only then noticed that the ruffing finesse would no longer help.

Luck and judgment

Game all
Dealer South

• AQ84
• 976
• 632
• 732

• KJ3
• AKQ83
• K4
• J94

N

W

E

S

• 762
• J10
• AJ87
• AKQ8

• 1095
• 542
• Q1095
• 1065

West

North

East

South

Paul

 

Jon

 

 

 

 

Pass

1¹⁶⁺

Pass

1^{GF bal.}

Pass

1NT

Pass

2NT

Pass

3NT^{to play}

Pass

4

Pass

4

Pass

5NT

Pass

6

All pass

Jon has presented me with a Blueish Club bidding system, which I'm gradually getting to grips with.  At matchpoints, and single dummy, you might be happy to reach 6NT on this deal and guess which finesse to take, but on the actual lie 6 by West is the only making slam.  4 in our auction showed a good 4-card suit and 14+ high-card points: when Jon invited me to pick a slam I thought that with my minimum values a diamond ruff might well be needed.

We were lucky that the conventional 1 opening right-sided the contract, that I stumbled upon sensible calls despite being a lot less certain of the meaning of the auction than I've made out, and that 6NT couldn't be made.  But still, it's satisfying to make a Moysian slam.

However, one West had bid and made 6NT, presumably on the ace of spades lead.  That would be the best lead if East rather than South held the queen of diamonds.