An Interesting Hand
So, my pickup partner from the 4th of July Regional wanted to get in on some other local tournaments, so I agreed to join in some pairs events. In the first such event, we ran into a very interesting situation.
None vulnerable. Dealer, West, passes, and I in the North position hold
♠ K Q J 7 6 3 2 ♥ 6 5 2 ♦ 5 2 ♣ 4
Naturally, my opening bid is 3S. East passes. South, my partner, now has to come up with a bid holding
♠ - ♥ A K 10 ♦ A K Q J 10 ♣ A Q 7 6 3
It's an embarrassment of riches, but seriously, knowing I hold seven spades (unknown quality -- my preempts are garbage), what is she supposed to do? She'd like more than anything to slam on something, but there's no 8-card spade fit, and the odds of any other fit are frighteningly small. (On average my distribution is 7-2-2-2 or 7-3-2-1, as is the case here, but that the tripleton would be in diamonds is still a long shot, and 7-4-x-x probabilities are negligible.) She could just chainsaw diamonds, but that would make life difficult if she needed to get into my hand in the late game (to say, you know, develop spades).
So, suit contracts are ... not ideal, to say the least. But notrump is similarly batty -- since I have a weak hand, and she has zero spades, there's no real way she can possibly expect to get into my hand via high cards, unless the opponents are daft enough to lead out spades.
Bidding 3NT is certainly a safe choice since she has 8 tricks in hand and will eventually develop another club, and if the opponents *do* lead spades, my hand will take one eventually. But if she wants more from this hand, developing that club suit by constantly leading away from it will eventually kill the Queen, which means the opponents will likely score their King *and* Jack. If she could ever get into my hand, she would at least have half a chance of finessing the suit.
The other trouble, of course, is that bidding 3NT effectively ends the auction. What could I do? insist on 4S? In a sense I've already bid my hand the first time around, but a 4S bid would at least confirm that my suit quality is good, at which point she might consider going to Blackwood with the aim of ending in 5S or 6S (likely 5S given the lack of the Ace). It's a hard pill to swallow.
But that wasn't exactly the situation facing our intrepid hero.
You see, my partner, bless her heart, got very excited about her holding, and opened out of turn! So, she bid 2C, but then the director got involved. West, naturally, declined to allow the 2C bid to stand, so, back into Pandora's Bidding Box it went. West passed, and I had to bid as if I didn't hear her holding! Of course, that's not a problem with my hand. Had I opened anything other than 3S, it would have been grossly unethical, and also hard to justify. 4S is unjustifiable since I have a 7-loser hand, and 1S is laughable, even in Magic Diamond, much less SA. There was no way to let my partner bid 2C with the same meaning as before, so any call I make, she could respond, but then I would be barred for the rest of the auction.
Of course I bid 3S, but partner is completely stuck. Whatever bid she makes will end the auction since opponents wouldn't be fool enough to mention anything, so hearing my long 7-card (possibly) garbage spade suit, what should she settle in?
She eventually settled on 6NT, but the above analysis shows why that wouldn't succeed. Given the stress of the hand, one could hardly blame her.
The full deal:
Me
♠ K Q J 7 6 3 2
♥ 6 5 2
♦ 5 2
♣ 4
West
♠ 10 8
♥ Q 9 8 3
♦ 8 6 4 3
♣ 10 9 5
East
♠ A 9 5 4
♥ J 7 4
♦ 9 7
♣ K J 8 2
Pickup Partner
♠ -
♥ A K 10
♦ A K Q J 10
♣ A Q 7 6 3
Notice how that, even in a spade contract, the 9 sets up, so 6S is doomed, and as per the above, 6NT is doomed. 6D is also doomed since partner can only lead one club from my hand, and still loses the King and Jack. She can try to mitigate this by trying to pitch losing clubs on my spades, but she can only get into my hand twice, and one of those times would be to provoke the spade Ace.
3NT, 5S, and 4D are all makeable, but inherently unsatisfying.
Despite this, we managed to keep our cool for the session, beating up on the 299ers for some nice silver points. :)
None vulnerable. Dealer, West, passes, and I in the North position hold
♠ K Q J 7 6 3 2 ♥ 6 5 2 ♦ 5 2 ♣ 4
Naturally, my opening bid is 3S. East passes. South, my partner, now has to come up with a bid holding
♠ - ♥ A K 10 ♦ A K Q J 10 ♣ A Q 7 6 3
It's an embarrassment of riches, but seriously, knowing I hold seven spades (unknown quality -- my preempts are garbage), what is she supposed to do? She'd like more than anything to slam on something, but there's no 8-card spade fit, and the odds of any other fit are frighteningly small. (On average my distribution is 7-2-2-2 or 7-3-2-1, as is the case here, but that the tripleton would be in diamonds is still a long shot, and 7-4-x-x probabilities are negligible.) She could just chainsaw diamonds, but that would make life difficult if she needed to get into my hand in the late game (to say, you know, develop spades).
So, suit contracts are ... not ideal, to say the least. But notrump is similarly batty -- since I have a weak hand, and she has zero spades, there's no real way she can possibly expect to get into my hand via high cards, unless the opponents are daft enough to lead out spades.
Bidding 3NT is certainly a safe choice since she has 8 tricks in hand and will eventually develop another club, and if the opponents *do* lead spades, my hand will take one eventually. But if she wants more from this hand, developing that club suit by constantly leading away from it will eventually kill the Queen, which means the opponents will likely score their King *and* Jack. If she could ever get into my hand, she would at least have half a chance of finessing the suit.
The other trouble, of course, is that bidding 3NT effectively ends the auction. What could I do? insist on 4S? In a sense I've already bid my hand the first time around, but a 4S bid would at least confirm that my suit quality is good, at which point she might consider going to Blackwood with the aim of ending in 5S or 6S (likely 5S given the lack of the Ace). It's a hard pill to swallow.
But that wasn't exactly the situation facing our intrepid hero.
You see, my partner, bless her heart, got very excited about her holding, and opened out of turn! So, she bid 2C, but then the director got involved. West, naturally, declined to allow the 2C bid to stand, so, back into Pandora's Bidding Box it went. West passed, and I had to bid as if I didn't hear her holding! Of course, that's not a problem with my hand. Had I opened anything other than 3S, it would have been grossly unethical, and also hard to justify. 4S is unjustifiable since I have a 7-loser hand, and 1S is laughable, even in Magic Diamond, much less SA. There was no way to let my partner bid 2C with the same meaning as before, so any call I make, she could respond, but then I would be barred for the rest of the auction.
Of course I bid 3S, but partner is completely stuck. Whatever bid she makes will end the auction since opponents wouldn't be fool enough to mention anything, so hearing my long 7-card (possibly) garbage spade suit, what should she settle in?
She eventually settled on 6NT, but the above analysis shows why that wouldn't succeed. Given the stress of the hand, one could hardly blame her.
The full deal:
Me
♠ K Q J 7 6 3 2
♥ 6 5 2
♦ 5 2
♣ 4
West
♠ 10 8
♥ Q 9 8 3
♦ 8 6 4 3
♣ 10 9 5
East
♠ A 9 5 4
♥ J 7 4
♦ 9 7
♣ K J 8 2
Pickup Partner
♠ -
♥ A K 10
♦ A K Q J 10
♣ A Q 7 6 3
Notice how that, even in a spade contract, the 9 sets up, so 6S is doomed, and as per the above, 6NT is doomed. 6D is also doomed since partner can only lead one club from my hand, and still loses the King and Jack. She can try to mitigate this by trying to pitch losing clubs on my spades, but she can only get into my hand twice, and one of those times would be to provoke the spade Ace.
3NT, 5S, and 4D are all makeable, but inherently unsatisfying.
Despite this, we managed to keep our cool for the session, beating up on the 299ers for some nice silver points. :)