Shirley Sees Red
Shirley Wright sees Red
Jon Shuster
Board 6 at The Town Club, Thursday July 15, saw this cute hand. The performers all had shortcomings.
East deals, EW Vul.
North
S-QJxx
H-xx
D-J10xx
C-KQx
West East
S-Kxxx S-Ax
H-AQJxx H-K108xx
D-x D-xxx
C-xxx C-Axx
South
S-10xx
H-x
D-AKQxx
C-Jxxx
The bidding proceeded as follows:
West North East South
- - 1H 2NT(1)
4D (2) Dble P 5D
5H 6D Dble P
P P
- (1) Unusual NT for the minors
- (2) Splinter bid, shows a singleton Diamond
West led the Heart A, East encouraged with the 8, and West continued with a second Heart. Declarer wound up losing four tricks (-500) for a dead average board. As you will note 4H makes for 620, but 5H goes down. There is nothing to the play of 4H.
Can you detect all of the errors before reading my analysis?
Bidding Analysis:
Both North and South bid poorly. West made an error an judgment that is less clear.
East’s 1H opener is acceptable (11 HCP plus a doubleton=12, and all points are in Aces and Kings), but pass is also acceptable.
Error #1: South’s unusual NT is a very poor choice. An overcall of 2D is vastly superior. Yeast would kick herself if West bids 2S and the final contract is in Spades. North becomed the opening leader, completely in the dark. South strongly prefers Diamonds to Clubs, and does not want to encourage North to compete vigorously in Clubs.
The splinter bid is totally correct. It shows the equivalent of a minimum opening bid, 4+ card trump support, and a singleton Diamond.
Error #2: North’s double of 4D. This bid has disaster written all over it. It is supposed to tell partner that a Diamond lead is safe, and for that call to be correct, should contain one high honor (A or K). Imagine South holding either of this hand: S-x H-xx D-Axxxx C-J9xxx. Against a Heart contract, she leads her Diamond Ace (proper on the bidding), and declarer gets two pitches on the KQ.
North has two reasonable courses of action: (1) Just pass and see where the opponents are heading. North will get another opportunity to bid later. (2) North could bid 5C at this point as a lead directing call, and retreat to 5D when doubled. If everyone passes 5C, so much the better, as it is just 50 points per undertrick. You expect to lose more in 5D doubled. It is a close decision whether to ultimately sacrifice or not, with either acceptable. You do have defensive values, so I would not expect 4H to be a sure thing.
But with the double fit, I lean slightly toward the save, bidding 5C before retreating to 5D whether I do it immediately or at my next chance.
Error #3: South’s 5D bid was undisciplined. She has told her story, and North is the captain. The correct call here is to pass.
Error #4: This is a tough one, but I lean toward a forcing pass over 5D. It is true he has an undisclosed 5th Heart, but the 4D bid described the hand accurately and East is in a better position to decide whether to hid 5H or double.
Error #5: North’s 6D call has all of the markings of snatching defeat from the jaws ov victory. Defensively, you should figure that partner has 2S-1H-5D-5C or perhaps 1S-1H-6D-5C. You can see a Spade trick on defense but not on offense. You can also see a Club trick. All partner needs is one trick on defense in the form of a one of the four missing Aces, the Spade K, (or the HK when the HA is with East, the opening bidder) and the hand is set. If the opponents hold all of the missing Aces and the SK, you are likely heading for -800 against their +650. NS succeeded in pushing EW to the danger zone, but then kindly let them off the hook.
The “Binsky” level is the 5 level and that belongs to the opposition. Let your opponents go down in peace.
Bidding summary.
A general guideline to sacrifice bidding is to go to the level of your combined trump, with some latitude to go one higher with favorable vulnerability or with a double fit, and to go one lower vulnerable against not. South had no knowledge of a double fit, and she should assume North had 4 card support. So 9 trump is short of the 10 needed to go to the 5 level at favorable vulnerability. North would be justified to go to 5D on the basis of a double fit, and a useful lead directing 5C call on the way, which may be essential to defeating 5H. But doubling 4D is ruinous to that plan.
Play Commentary:
East, who is the only player to escape with no bidding error, gets a mild charge. East, looking at the robust defensive hand in dummy, should assume that to go to 5H, partner has a five-card suit. The sacrifice will be unlikely at other tables, and +300 is assured, regardless of what you do. That will beat any EW who wind up in a part-score. All efforts should be directed to getting +800, a four trick set, even if it costs a trick in the process (500 vs. 300 is irrelevant.) The only hope for the magic +800 is that South has 3 Spades, and so East needs to drop the HK under the Ace (a tough but absolutely correct play). This will easily be read by West (unusually high card asks for a shift) and the defense nets 2S, 1H, 1C, and 1 ruff for +800.
As it is, West cannot afford to play a Spade at trick 2, lest partner hold something like this:
S-xxx H-K10xxx D-AQx C-Ax. On a Heart return, declarer, holding
S-Ax H-x D-Kxxxx C-J10xxx cannot get to dummy twice to lead Diamonds through When the HQ was played, 0. Therefore, on the slim hope that the unusual NT bidder has a through East, and loses 1S-1H-2D-1C (-800). With a Spade lead at that point, the hand goes down a mere 300, since this kills your Spade trick and gives declarer the second entry to dummy.