Bernie at the Helm
In Denver I had the pleasure of playing with Bernie Miller, now a Floridian and a teammate in some major events over the last few years. Because of Lew Finkel’s commitments and young Bill Wickham’s age, Bernie and I decided to play together in the Senior KO. With a few emails, a little bidding practice, and a couple of online sessions we were ready to go. I wish we could say that it was one of those Bulletin stories where the first-time partnership wins, but we did come pretty close. Bernie is a great partner who works hard on every hand and almost always finds a good answer. Here is an intersting hand where he had the helm.
K 9 2
A 7 6 2
3
K 10 5 4 3
A Q 6
K Q 5 3
A Q 4 2
A Q
Board 8 Dealer E, Neither (reversed for convenience)
| South | North |
| 2 |
2 waiting |
| 2NT | 3 puppet stayman |
| 3 1+ major (DBL) |
3 shows hearts |
| 4 |
4NT |
| 5 1 or 4 KC |
5 queen ask |
| 6 got it |
7 Play well! |
As North, I did not know about the heart jack, so I was risking a 4-1 split for starters. I was using Mr. Chang’s double of 3 to help me place partner’s cards. He had denied the diamond king with the jump to slam, and I thought he probably didn’t have the queen either. Without these diamond honors, he almost had to have the rounded jacks for his 2NT rebid. Wrong again!
So Bernie got to play a grand that probably would not be reached at the other table. Can you match his play and the 11-IMP pickup?
Opening lead: C8.
Update on Saturday, December 31, 2005 at 05:03PM by Jeff Miller
Sorry for omitting the opening lead in the first post. I’ll get better at this. Check out Bernie’s coment for the correct line of play. The player who doubled and made the opening lead held the following hand:
The double may have encouraged us to bid the grand, in a sense, but it laid a trap for Bernie.
I won’t be a hero. Win the lead in hand, draw trumps then unblock clubs and cash top spades from hand entering dummy on spade K. After the 3-2 trump break, this line needs clubs 4-2, singleton J, or 5C+5D or 5C+DK on the left. When clubs break 5+ on the right, I’ll take the diamond hook anyways, unless the S+D pseudo squeeze has worked already and allows me to dro DK on the back.
December 27, 2005 Nik
I think that it is unlikely in the extreme that LHO holds KJ sixth of D and failed to bid over 2C, instead opting to direct his own lead with a x. Instead, he probably has 5 diam or 6 weak and is hoping partner can find the save. That increases the likelihood of shortness elsewhere in the hand. Therefore, I would try A of D and a rough and if no honor appeared, would draw 2 rounds of trump and try a second rough. If an honor did appear, I would switch to clubs.
December 28, 2005 Sam
I’m not sure what is best here:
Line A: Win the (spade?) in hand, play ace and ruff a diamond, now two rounds of trumps ending in hand, then a second diamond ruff. Now back tohand in clubs and claim. This makes as long as diamonds are not 6-2 at my left or, if they are, if LHO has the third trump.
Line B: Win the (spade?) in hand. Cash two high trumps in your hand, unblock the clubs, then over to the ace ofhearts. If clubs are 4-2 you are cold, if they are 5-1, you are probably down right now unless LHO has the five clubs + the third trump. But in that case you probably can’t get back over to dummy for your minor suit squeeze unless he was 2-3-3-5 with the diamond king — an obscure layout.
If clubs are 5-1 but RHO has the five clubs plus the third trump, it’s hard to see how to avoid taking the presumably losing diamond finesse.
I vote for Line A.
December 28, 2005 Jack Oest
Important addendum to Jack’s line B: When you discover that’s righty has five clubs and three trumps, you’re in a position to make it whenever he is 3-3-2-5, by just eloping with your top tricks and all your little trumps. He will follow suit helplessly to all 13 tricks.
On the other hand: if you had cashed one high trump in each hand (B’) it could make it when he is 2-3-3-5: you have just enough entries to take two diamond ruffs and pull his trump before scoring the third spade.
The second distribution is mathematically more likely by 6:5, but I would trust the bidding just enough to prefer Jack’s original line B. I also trust enough to prefer B to A.
December 29, 2005 Jonathan Weinstein
In a situation like this where both 5NT and 6H show the Q of trump, and we believe it likely that we have an 8 card fit, my partner and I use 5NT to show the Q and the J. This is another variation of what I for fun have named ‘the Jackass convention.’
December 29, 2005 Phil Warden
opening lead was C8, very unusual lead on this auction. lead & auction convinced me to take line of ruffing 2d’s in dummy rather than play for clubs no worse than 4-2. fortunately for our side this line worked (c’s were 5-1)
December 31, 2005 bernie miller