Had a short
set with Jeff yesterday. First time we'd played since he got back from Shanghai and it was nice to get a few reps in. 13 boards and the opponents made almost no mistakes so we ended a very low-scoring set down a couple. I badly misdeclared one partscore, but that only cost an uptrick. Here was our worst result:
I picked up in 4th all red:
3 / QJ63 / KQJ6 / T932
Lefty opened 1 Club. Jeff bid 1 Heart. Righty bid 1 Spade.
Simple enough auction, but I was stumped as to my best way to proceed here.
My choices seem to be 2 Clubs (cuebid) 2 Spades (cuebid) 3 Diamonds (fit bid) 3 Spades (splinter) and 4 Hearts.
If I was 100% sure this was a fit bid situation and was crystal clear on the ramifications of 'fudging' in this situation, I'd probably bid 3 Diamonds in spite of only having a 4 bagger. If I was down 5 or 6 on the last board of a team match I might bid 4 Hearts and then double if the opponents bid on. I'm nowhere near good enough to splinter (and don't really want to give the opps a roadmap if they end up declaring the hand in Spades.) That leaves the 2 cue bids. What's the technical reason to prefer one or the other? What should each bid mean?
I ended up bidding 2 Clubs because it seemed like that sounded a little less natural than 2 Spades. (Without the 1 Heart overcall, 2 Spades would be natural, but then so would 2 Clubs.) Not the best reason, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Lefty doubled (support) and Jeff passed (alerted as extras.) Righty bid 3 Clubs.
Now what?
I felt like 3 Hearts was enough here. I'd already cuebid and now bidding 3 Hearts should just about guarantee the 4th Heart. I also didn't want to push the opponents into a possibly cold 4 Spades that they weren't getting to on their own.
3 Hearts was passed around to Righty who bid 3 Spades. I stuck to my guns and passed. What's your lead?
It didn't seem like we were destined to take too many tricks in Hearts so I made the normal-looking lead of the King of Diamonds.
A74 / AT75 / T32 / KJ8 Dummy (LHO)
3 / QJ63 / KQJ6 / T932
Jeff overtook the Diamond and returned a Heart, ruffed by Declarer, who continued with a low Diamond.
By the end of trick 1 I was pretty sure Declarer was 5-0-5-3. If only I'd led 4th best from my longest and strongest we'd be in better shape. I doubt Declarer has xxx in Clubs or he would have likely taken a pitch already and probably wouldn't have bid Clubs in the auction. I can win the Diamond and try a low Club, hoping he puts in the Jack, but he doesn't have much to lose by trying the 8, so that's unlikely to gain.
I won the Diamond and continued pounding Hearts, trying to get the Ace out of the way and then maybe getting a tap going.
Declarer again declined to play the Ace and took the tap. Now he played a top Spade and another to the Ace before knocking out my last good Diamond.
I played my penultimate Heart, finally forcing him to take the Ace and setting up my Jack. Of course, I'd never get a chance to cash it.
7 / T / - / KJ8 (Dummy)
Q / - / 9 / A75 (Declarer)
Declarer played a Spade to the Queen and then cashed the good 9 of Diamonds. Jeff was down to the last trump and Qxx of Clubs. -140 was lose 6.87 IMPs
http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=4563287&when_played=1191784109Going back to the bidding, passing 3 Clubs would probably have been the winning decision. West MIGHT have passed and ended up in a 3-3 fit. 4 Hearts had no play and would have been doubled, unless East couldn't take the heat and pulled with his Heart void.
