Saturday, November 6, 2010

Slams in Lake Geneva Part 2

Buoyed by the success of the previous hand, Dan and I faced another slam opportunity. I picked up: KTx Tx AT9 AKxxx and heard him open a 15-17 1NT.

Using standard methods, you have 3 main options. The simplest is a direct 3NT--pessimistic, but nothing is perfect. Also you could try an invitational 4NT. Finally you can take the scientific route, starting with a club transfer. If your partner doesn't super-accept, you can bid 3NT, which should show a mild slam invite, albeit usually with 6 clubs (with less you wouldn't bother with the transfer). Over the super-acceptance you have to bid 4NT--a 3NT bid here would be based on good clubs and invitational values...something like xx xxx Jx KQTxxx.

Our pre-game discussions gave me a fourth option here. I could bid 4 Spades as a lighter balanced slam invitation (4NT would be more encouraging). Since my hand provides help in all the suits, I decided to choose this course rather than showing clubs. Dan jumped to 6 Hearts and I corrected to 6NT. This worked out well...partner had:
A9x AQ9xx Kx QJx
He made all the tricks on a friendly layout, which gave us a slam swing.

Slams in Lake Geneva Part 1

I spent last weekend at the regional in Lake Geneva, WI. It was my first time off from work since the summer national and the more relaxed bridge setting provided some much needed r&r. I played the Thursday-Friday knockout with Dan Zagorin, Joe Stokes and Cheri Bjerken. Dan and I had a couple of interesting slam-type hands come up. On the first I held:
x AQxx Jxxx Axxx

I heard Dan open 1 Club--I responded 1 Heart and was raised to 4. How do you approach the bidding from here?

It seems that slam will usually be pretty good. Opposite the wrong hand, we could suffer a diamond ruff and go down in 5...on balance I figured that this hand was at least worth one move so I cuebid 5 Clubs. Partner cooperated with 5 Diamonds and I bid the slam. Actually the play was much more amusing.

LHO led a low trump and I saw:
Kxxx KJxx AK KQ9

There are a few options but it seems right to win in hand to lead a spade up--with the ace onside we can make 12 tricks with the help of 2 spade ruffs in hand. I tried this line but RHO won the king of spades with the ace and returned a spade after some consideration. This presented the extra option of trying to ruff 3 spades in my hand after which I wouldn't have to rely on 3-3 clubs. I decided to trust my opponent to have played back a trump if it was necessary, so I ruffed, crossed to dummy with a diamond and ruffed another spade. When I cashed the queen of hearts, both followed and I winced slightly. Fortunately all was still well--I returned to dummy with a club, drew the last trump, cashed the other high diamond and then the final trump--this would catch RHO in a minor suit squeeze if she happened to hold the queen of diamonds along with club length (remember to play the high diamond first, though, so that you can see your opponent's discard before you have to make a critical one of your own). Clubs were 3-3 all along so we chalked up our slam.