One hand dramatically stood out from the others this week. It showed that when the cards lie correctly, even egregiously poor bidding can produce a good result.
Board #10
East dealer
Both sides vulnerable
| | North
♠ Q x x x
♥ x x
♦ J
♣ A x x x x x
| | West
♠ K x x
♥ A K Q J 10 x
♦ A Q 10 9
♣ ——
| | East
♠ A J 10 9
♥ x
♦ 6 4 3 2
♣ K Q x x
| | | South
♠ x x
♥ x x x x
♦ K 8 7 5
♣ J x x x
| |
|
| | | | |
| South | West | North | East |
| | | P |
| P | 2♣ | P | 2♦ |
| P | 2♥ | P | 2♠ |
| P | 3♦ | P | 4N |
| P | 5♠ | P | 5N |
| P | 6♥ | P | 6N |
| P | P | P | |
I was occupying the East chair. The above auction may not have been the most idiotic bidding of the night,* but it was surely a strong contender. I usurped the captaincy after my partner chose to mention his moth-eaten diamond suit rather than rebid his stellar heart suit. When he bid 5♠ in response to my RKC inquiry, I gulped. I did not want to play 6♦ missing two key cards. I cannot defend my next bid of 5NT. I was hoping that he would pass, but I realized that that was impossible. More about this later.
The lead was the ♦5. I stopped to assess the situation. Aaaargh! We only had 29 points. How did we get to 6NT? It was evident that I had only nine top tricks. Even if I could bring in the spade suit, I would still be one trick short. I needed two diamond tricks or one club trick to make six, and there was no guarantee that that would be enough if the rest of the field was in hearts.
South was not an experienced player. Unless two likely tricks are visible, in most cases the best strategy against a no-trump slam is to make the most passive lead possible. By that standard the low diamond was not a good choice. On the other hand, it made me decide whether to try the diamond finesse immediately with very little information. If I played the wrong card from the dummy at trick one, I would be set.
I decided that the lead must be fourth-best. Was South underleading the king? Well, she apparently had three of the four diamonds that I could not see, so I decided to play her for it. I called for the queen, and North confirmed my analysis by laying the jack on the table.
All of a sudden I had my twelve tricks, but there was one small problem. I needed to finesse diamonds twice, and the only entry to my hand was the ♠A. I still needed to take the spade finesse. Since I desperately needed the spade finesse to work, I decided to improve my odds a smidgeon by leading out the hearts. I discarded one diamond and all of my clubs. I was very happy to see that South discarded the ♠4, and North discarded only clubs.
I started spades by leading low to my jack, and, mirabile dictu, it held. At that point I had fourteen (!) tricks – six hearts, four diamonds, and four spades. Both of the other East-West pairs were in hearts. One of them stopped in game; the other bid six. Both took 13 tricks without worrying about a club lead.
* * *
How should the bidding have gone? Well, partner could have responded 5NT instead of 5♠ when I asked for key cards. That bid shows an even number of key cards and a void. I had no way of determining whether his void was in spades or clubs, but that would have scared me away from my no-trump dreams, and we would have ended up in 6♥ or 6♦ depending on whether I saw Honest Abe's visage or his memorial when I took a penny from my pocket.
* After all, our opponents took seven tricks on hand #3 when we had contracted for twelve.