In my previous article, “Bids and Pieces”, ESRA 176, we discussed the bidding and play of a hand that had arisen in a family bridge game in which a player found himself with a very strong hand opposite his partner’s 1NT opening bid. Hands like this are not common, so I was surprised to come across a similar situation in an on-line tournament less than a week after completing the article. I dealt and opened the bidding 1NT. My partner, a lady from Texas, Dene, holding ♠ Q,♥A K 10 8 5, ¨J 7 4 2, ♣ A Q 3, made the Jacoby transfer bid of 2¨, showing at least 5 cards in the heart suit and, incidentally, not more than 3 spades – with both majors she would rather have bid 2♣, Stayman. After I duly responded 2♥, Dene bid 3¨, showing her second suit and game-going values. The full bidding was as follows:
South |
West |
North |
East |
1 NT |
Pass |
2 ¨ |
Pass |
2 ♥ |
Pass |
3 ¨ |
Pass |
3 ♠ |
Pass |
4 NT |
Pass |
5 ♠ |
Pass |
6 ♥ |
Pass |
Dene’s 3¨ bid suited my hand very well. I held ♠ A 5 3 2, ♥Q 7 3, ¨A K 6, § K 6 4. With a heart fit, 3 to an honor, the top cards in diamonds and controls in the black suits, I made the encouraging cue bid of 3♠. Dene now bid 4NT, Roman Key-Card Blackwood (RKCB), to which I responded 5♠, showing two Aces and the heart Queen. The final contract was 6©, with me as declarer in the South seat.
|
North |
|
|
♠ Q |
|
|
© A K 10 8 5 |
|
|
¨ J 7 4 2 |
|
|
♣ A Q 3 |
|
|
South |
|
|
♠ A 5 3 2 |
|
|
© Q 7 3 |
|
|
¨ A K 6 |
|
|
♣K 6 4 |
|
West led the ♣J and I won the trick with the ♣A in dummy. I saw that if I could pick up the heart suit without loss, I would have 11 tricks on top – 5 hearts, 3 clubs, 2 diamonds and the spade Ace.. The twelfth trick could come from dummy’s ¨J if the suit broke 3-3, or if West held the ¨Q or East held that card singleton or doubleton, so I had around a 75% chance of bringing home the slam. I started drawing trumps immediately by playing the ©K from dummy. Both opponents followed suit but when I played the next round of hearts, leading from dummy towards my ©Q, East discarded a small spade. No problem. I could now lead my third heart towards dummy’s ©K, 10 and take the marked finesse against West’s ©J. On the fourth round of hearts, I discarded a small spade. I cashed 2 further club tricks and played ¨A and ¨K. Alas, East held ¨Q, 9, 8, 3 so I couldn’t come to a twelfth trick – one down.
We got a very poor score on the hand. When I checked the scoring after the tournament, I saw that most North-South pairs had stayed out of slam but one pair had brought home the 6© slam. Was it miss-defense? On further examination I saw that the slam could be made. I decided to ask what one of my bridge buddies, Harold, could make of the hand.
First the bidding: The bidding started the same way, 1NT – 2¨, but after my 2©, Harold, having read my ESRA 176 article, jumped to 3♠ to show a strong hand shortage in spades – a singleton or void. This, of course, suited my hand so I cue-bid 4¨, showing the Ace and we reached the heart slam. I now gave him the challenge of making the contract without showing him the East-West hands. He was adequate to the task.
The full hand is given below. Can you see how to make the slam?
|
North |
|
|
♠ Q |
|
|
© A K 10 8 5 |
|
West |
¨ J 7 4 2 |
East |
♠ K J 10 7 |
♣ A Q 3 |
♠ 9 8 6 4 |
© J 9 4 2 |
|
© 6 |
¨ 10 5 |
South |
¨ Q 9 8 3 |
♣ J 10 9 |
♠ A 5 3 2 |
♣8 7 5 2 |
|
© Q 7 3 |
|
|
¨ A K 6 |
|
|
♣K 6 4 |
|
Well, Harold remembered that in “Bids and Pieces” the extra trick came from trumping a looser, so he set about making 6 rather than 5 tricks in hearts. He determined that he could do this by trumping his 3 small spades with dummy’s small trumps. He won the first trick with the ♣A in dummy and then, in rapid succession, ♠Q to the ♠K in his hand, spade ruff, back to his hand with the ¨K, spade ruff, back again with the ¨A, ruff his last small spade. With 7 tricks won, this was the position:
|
North |
|
|
♠ - |
|
|
© A K |
|
West |
¨ J 7 |
East |
♠ - |
♣ Q 3 |
♠ - |
© J 9 4 2 |
|
© 6 |
¨ - |
South |
¨ Q 9 |
♣ 10 9 |
♠ - |
♣8 7 5 |
|
© Q 7 3 |
|
|
¨ 6 |
|
|
♣K 6 |
|
He now played dummy’s ♠A and ♠K for tricks 8 and 9. Unfazed by the bad break in hearts – he now had seemingly to lose a diamond and a trump – he crossed to his hand with the ♣K and cashed the heart Queen for a total of 11 tricks. A club to dummy’s ♣Q gave him his twelfth trick and the contract. The opponents’ ©J and ¨Q winners collided. A case of the disappearing trick.