It was great to be back in what has been my Wednesday evening home for the last fifteen years. The fireworks were on hand #17, but for me the most provocative hand was #14.
Board #14
East dealer
Neither side vulnerable
| | North
♠ J 10 7
♥ K 7 3 2
♦ K J 10 4
♣ 10 5
| | West
♠ A 5
♥ J 9 8
♦ A 7 5
♣ A K 9 4 3
| | East
♠ K 6
♥ A 10 6 4
♦ Q 8 2
♣ Q J 8 6
| | | South
♠ Q 9 8 4 3 2
♥ Q 5
♦ 9 6 3
♣ 7 2
| |
|
| | | | |
| South | West | North | East |
| | | 1NT |
| P | 3NT | P | P |
| | | |
| P | | | |
I was sitting East. Our opponents were Felix and Trevor. Ken and I were playing 12-14 1NT, and so our auction was cut and dried. I had a textbook weak notrump hand. Felix chose not to make a nuisance of his six-card spade suit. Ken bid 3NT, and then everyone passed.
Felix led a low spade, which was the obvious choice. I counted nine top tricks. So, the contract was safe, but that is not the goal in matchpoints. The goal is to do better than or at least as well as the other pairs. In this case the heart suit promised the best posssibility of overtricks. If I finessed the KQ twice, and it worked once, I would score three heart tricks.
So, I won the first trick on the board and immediately called for the ♥J. If Trevor had covered with the king, this would have been an enjoyable hand, but he was too clever to do that. I also played low from my hand. Felix won with the queen and led another spade.
I won in my hand and returned to the board with a club. I still had nine certain tricks, but if the second finesse also failed, the opponents still had five spades between them. I could go down in a contract that was as stone cold as Steve Austin's finishing move.
I led out all my clubs and examined the discards carefully, but I did not learn anything useful. It was time for me to choose "the Lady or the Tiger". I called for a heart, and Trevor ducked smoothly again I chickened out and played the ace from the board. I only took nine tricks.
What I should have done before playing to trick one was to replay the bidding in my head from the perspective of the other pairs holding our cards. Everyone else in the room was playing strong notrumps. What would they bid? How would the hand play for them?
All of the other Easts probably opened 1♣. The only other conceivable choice is passing. West's highest priority would be to make sure that his side reaches a final contract that is game-level or better. The second responsibility is to deny a four-card major. Pairs playing inverted minors would clearly bid 2♣. Without that bid, West might just jump to 2NT (if that is forcing) or invoke Hamman's law* by closing out the auction with a 3NT bid.
Let's assume that West made a forcing bid in clubs. East's responsibility at that point would be to show the "cheapest" stopper by bidding hearts. That is just what West was hoping for. He/she can now bid the notrump game.
So, I should have realized that all of the other West players were probably declaring 3NT on this hand. Maybe someone was overly enamored with the club fit, but the best assumption was that West was playing the hand at the other tables, and North was leading.
Would North have found the spade lead? Usually the best lead against a notrump contract is from a long or very short major suit. North-South had nine spades, but I already knew from the opening lead that South had at least four. So, North might have five, but he might have fewer. It was therefore quite conceivable that North would have better hearts than spades and lead a heart—especially if hearts were never bid. A heart lead would make eleven tricks easy to obtain no matter how the cards lay. So the hand probably plays better from the other side. It could not be worse.
Another consideration is the experience of the opponents. Less experienced players might cover the jack on the first finesse. Some might be persuaded by the popular aphorism, "Cover an honor with an honor." In that case, too, eleven tricks are easy.
So, in retrospect I think that I made a mistake not to take the second finesse. Our bidding system and the opponents that we drew put us at a disadvantage on this hand. To regain parity I needed to take some risks.
Besides, as the saying goes, fortune favors the bold (except when it doesn't).
* The great Bob Hamman is famous for saying, "If you have a choice of reasonable bids and one of them is 3NT, then bid it."