Double, double, toil, and trouble
As promised, here is a hand we played this evening at bridge club, as copied down by Andrew’s computer. Andrew was North, Kai was East, I was South, and Carrie was West. Kai opens with 1D, and I double (a classic example of a Takeout Double). Carrie passes and Andrew bids 1S. Undeterred, Kai bids 2H, which I double (this time it’s a Penalty Double). Carrie passes, and after a pause, Andrew passes as well. Kai gets scared and runs to 2NT, which I am happy to double (penalty again), and then Kai continues to 3D. At this point, I lose my confidence, and pass. Andrew, however, does a Penalty Double of his own before everyone passes. In the end, we took 1 spade trick, 2 diamonds, 1 club, and 3 hearts (one of which is a ruff), and another trick somewhere (I don’t remember if it was another heart ruff or another spade, but there was something else in there) for a total score of 800. Had we bid more and doubled less, we probably could not have made game, let alone grabbed 800 points. It was a lot of fun to bid – I’ve never made 3 doubles in a row before.
At least it was a 9-card fit… :p
Oops…
Looking at the hand again, I think Andrew and I could have made 6 clubs. When north cashes the top diamonds, discard two spades from south. After that, draw trump. Then cross-ruff the hearts until the last two are good. The only trick you lose is the ace of trump.
I don’t see any way to bid this, but it looks like the slam was cold. Damn!
Re: Oops…
Andrew writes in an email:
I think the slam can be found, but it’s tough. If East opens 1D, and South overcalls 1H, West passes. North has no support, but he has diamonds stopped cold and has a choice between 1S and 2C. The clubs are longer, but the spades are lower. Still, North needs a forcing bid, so he bids 2C. East has no second bid and passes, forcing South to make a choice between supporting a minor and showing the hearts. His better play is 2H (with club support he can always correct, and he the bidding low when a minor is in play). Here’s where it gets sticky. E-W are out of the auction, and that’s fine, but North has a choice between showing his club length and revealing a 4-card spade suit. The latter is preferable, so he bids 2S.
Now comes the critical bid. South can see 5 clubs and 4 spades in North’s hand. He also knows that North has fewer than 2 hearts, leaving a freak two-suiter (which could have been bid better by North) or either 3 or 4 diamonds in North. The latter is the likely situation, so South can try an imperfect but effective 4D bid (skipping a level and asking for non-diamond aces), and North responds 4H, showing 0.
South then knows that the AC is missing. He also knows that North’s HCP are somewhere, and they aren’t in Hearts. The AD is almost certainly there (otherwise, he would have been too weak to push the bidding so far), as is either the KD or KS, though probably not much else (East did open, after all). If with either of the kings in question, the contract is cold because the AD will give a spade discard, and then he gets either a spade discard on the KD or doesn’t need it because of the KS. Furthermore, he is guaranteed one discard on a heart, possibly two, and with ruffs he will establish at least one more heart by the end (possibly 2).
Bidding 6C then looks like a good bet unless West has the jack and two or three missing clubs.
OK, that would have to be a slow auction, and there would have to be an agreement to play Exclusion Blackwood in this situation. Yes, it would take a lot of thinking, but it could be reached, and not many directors would fault South for taking a minute or two when working out everything.
There is more help, too. North was willing to bid 2S when there was a chance for a misfit in spades, so he is prepared to go to the 3 level. This makes some sense with 10-ish HCP, so South can look at his 16 and know game is secure, allowing him to proceed with little fear, especially since he has the best hand at the table (West can’t have much more than 2 or 3 HCP since East opened), and he has that strength behind the stronger defender.