I had another bad night on Wednesday. I was still somewhat frazzled from having to scramble to avoid the dreaded two and a half tables with the last-minute miraculous addition of Lucie Fradet and Renee Janow and reshuffling of partners for Maria Van Der Ree. At any rate I picked the last hand, #25, because I suspected that we had been done in by our use of the weak notrump, but I was wrong.
You should know two things:
- In 2019 I gave a series of very learned, if not prize-worthy, lectures at the SBC on interfering against the weak notrump. I emphasized that every pair needed a tool that allowed them to double for penalty and to bid constructively when the intervener had two suits. I reported that most people in this area played the Cappelletti convention, which meets both criteria.
- For the last few days I have not been able to keep the Hoagy Carmichael song "How Little We Know" out of my head.
Hand #25: I was sitting South all night. I opened 1NT in the first seat. West overcalled 2♣. My partner, who is the nicest guy in the world, asked what that meant. He was told that it showed clubs. I snickered to myself because it showed that either West had not attended my lectures, or he had ignored my time-tested advice. All of the methods that I had recommended prohibited the bidding of a long club suit at the two level. That bid was used for something else. Besides, West had a balanced hand, and I opened a notrump. Why would he want to interfere?
I won't go into the rest of the auction; I ended up down one in 3♥. I could have made it, but I made a mistake at the end. The other two North-South pairs played in spades. In theory, East-West can do just as well against spades, but if East does not put the ♥J on the table before relinquishing the lead, North-South can take ten tricks. At one of the other tables that happened. At the other one spectacularly bad defense allowed declarer to score eleven tricks.
I wondered how everyone else had ended up in spades. Presumably my counterparts at the other tables opened 1♦. If South had opened a diamond, and West had overcalled 2♣, I could not see how North-South could find the spade fit. So, apparently West passed at the other tables. With West's hand I would be much more likely to bid 2♣ over 1♦ than after a weak 1NT. This revelation made me look at the other two hands on which we opened 1NT and did badly.
Hand #19: I opened 1NT on this one, and West doubled. This was an "uh-oh" moment for us. My partner asked what the bid meant. East said "It's Cappelletti. She wants me to bid 2♣." The second sentence assured my partner that it was all right to pass, and, sure enough, the 2♣ card was played by East.
My attention focused on the first sentence. A Cappelletti double shows a hand that is equal to or better than the opener's hand. Again I smirked behind my N95 mask and passed.
To my surprise West passed. It turned out that they were playing DONT, not Cappelletti. The double showed a long suit, which turned out to be clubs. So, they got to play 2♣. We set the contract two tricks, but that only got us an average score. If East-West had been playing one of the systems that I had officially sanctioned, they would probably have ended up in 3♣, and we would have had a top.
Hand #25: This was the very next hand against the same team. This time North opened 1NT. Because no DONT bid described her hand, East had to pass. Same story for West.
So, with my three points and his twelve, my partner tried to take as many tricks as he could. Deep Finesse says that he can only take three, but he found five. Since we were vulnerable, we lost 200 points.
At the other two tables the East-West pairs played in notrump, but despite holding twenty-five points they did not bid game. One made nine tricks, the other only eight. So, we scored a zero despite the fact that the par score was -630.
If I had been sitting East, and North opened a weak 1NT, I would certainly have doubled. West should use Stayman first and then rebid 3NT after East denies a four-card major. The play does not appear very tricky.
Reliving these three hands was a humbling experience, but I am not ready to give up on playing the weak notrump. However, I might give up on lecturing on weak notrump defenses.
Maybe it happens this way.
Maybe we really belong together,
But after all, how little we know.