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At our regional tournaments, I am sometimes asked to discuss some just played hands with the intermediate/newcomer players. In Cromwell on February 13th there were 3 very interesting hands that came up. Unfortunately time was short so the discussion was hurried. Here I will show each of these hands over the next couple of weeks for your review. These hands were played at 10 AM and the results shown were from the newcomer game. The seniors also played these same hands. Hand 9
North opens 1D and east must decide what to do. You have an 18 count with a singleton heart. A takeout double seems wrong since partner is a strong favorite to bid hearts. What would you bid after that? Is the hand strong enough to double and then bid NT? 1NT is another option. You certainly have a strong enough hand and you do have stoppers everywhere so the singleton heart is of less concern. If you do bid 1NT and partner transfers to hearts will you bid 2H? (You should to preserve partnership confidence.) A 3rd option is to overcall 1S. This is ugly in my opinion. Partner will expect a good 5 card suit and a hand of 10 – 16 points roughly. (yes, I know many of you could be weaker for your overcalls but I don't know how to respond when you might only have 6 points so I will assume my style where an overcall is approximately a minimum opening bid with a good 5 card suit.) Here you would be overstating your spade length and understating your overall strength. A 4th option is to simply pass and expect that you will get another chance to bid. If you pass and south passes, west should at least consider bidding and with 7 high card points, a 6 card suit, and a singleton they should bid! Opener rates to have at most about 19 points (too weak for 2NT and not strong enough for 2C) and responder is broke so partner has to have points. Why didn't they bid? The answer is that they didn't have a good 5 card suit to overcall, had shortness in one of the unbid suits (probably hearts), or had diamond length. Trust your judgment and balance with 1H. When the bidding comes back to east they will have a difficult decision but 3NT seems about right. So what were the results? 1 pair was allowed to play in 1D and went down 3 for -150. 1 pair played the hand in 1S by east. My guess is that east made a takeout double over 1D and after partner bid 1H they tried 1S. VERY UGLY. They were +170 though when everything split favorable and the finesses worked since all the points were marked. Another pair played in 3S. I suspect the auction started as before but west knew east must have a very good hand with 5+ spades for their double followed by a new suit so they raised. East did not continue to game because he only had a 4 card suit. 1 pair reached 4H and made it (you could actually make 5 since you know where everything is) for 620. The others played in NT and made anything from 6 tricks to 10 with 2NT down 2, 3NT down 1 twice, making 3 twice, and making 4 once. Entries to dummy are very limited but the offset is that every time north wins a trick they have to help you!. 2NT
200 How would you and your partner have fared? Horace
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