Jun 14 2010

The Match

podrey @ 7:10 pm

♠ A
♥ A K Q 7
♦ K Q 6
♣ A K 7 6 5
♠ —
♥ —
♦ —
♣ —
N
W E
S
♠ —
♥ —
♦ —
♣ —
♠ J 5 4
♥ 9 8 6 5 2
♦ A J 10 3
♣ Q

West North East South
2 ♣ Pass 2 ♦
Pass 3 ♣ Pass 3 ♥
Pass 4 N Pass 5 ♣
Pass 7 ♥ All pass
This was one of the swing boards in the semi-final match of the GNTs. Lance was North with the big hand, and after a natural 3♥ call by my hand, he bid the tool, and was able to confidently bid 7♥ after hearing about my one keycard. There are so many possible hands i can have – the grand is money if i can ruff out clubs or finagle two spade ruffs in dummy.

At the other table, North rebid 2NT. Not unreasonable if you don’t have good methods to find a 4-4 heart fit over 3♣. South transferred to hearts and North super-accepted. After hearing about four keycards, South inexplicably signed off in the small.

North is the hand that should be taking control in this auction. Even if South bids on, it’s very hard for him to know he should bid the grand.

I think South has a better bid than Blackwood. After the super-accept, South should bid 5♦. You definitely want to bid a slam here. We should not be “making sure we’re not off two keycards.” We’re not. If you show your strength instead of merely asking what you already know about partner’s hand, you might just be able to get to the grand. Most of the time you’ll just end in the small, but with a hand like this, partner will have enough information to make the correct decision.