Bidding After a Negative Double

This was a hand I kibitzed from the Reisinger final in Boston:
Both vul:
Kx
KJxx
AT
Txxxx
Partner opens the bidding with 1 Spade and RHO overcalls 2 Clubs. You make a negative double (right?), LHO passes and partner bids 2 Hearts, passed to you. Pretty simple situation--what do you do?

Your Lead

Jason and I defended a hand in Boston that was interesting from the perspective of both defenders. Sadly, it was in one of the regional knockouts and not the Blue Ribbon final. Maybe next year. After polling several people, I decided it is most interesting as a lead problem. Take my cards as West here:
N/S game
KJxxx
xx
Qx
Axxx
South, the dealer, opens 3 Hearts and is raised to 4 by his partner. What is your lead and why?

Hopefully I'll get a few more posts from the tournament up in the coming days and weeks.

Pass or Pull Revisited

In what has become a recurring theme, here's another controversial hand!

2nd seat none vul you hold
Jx
xxxxx
KTxx
Ax
After two passes, the action starts. LHO opens 1 Club, partner overcalls 4 Spades and RHO bids 5 Clubs. This is passed back to your partner who reopens with a double. What range of hands does he have? More importantly, what do you call now?

Is There a Middle Ground?

I held this hand, vul vs not as dealer at rubber bridge tonight:
void
763
AJxxx
QT9xx
After 2 passes my partner opened 1 Heart, RHO overcalled 3 Spades and I didn't think too long before bidding 4 Hearts. My partner played it well and made and we continued playing but for some reason the hand struck me as interesting. Say you held this hand and partner opened 1 Heart, passed to you. What's your approach? What about if RHO overcalls only 1 Spade? What if you make one of your minor suit spot cards another small trump--how does that change things?

Another 6-Level (Mis) Adventure

I just finished playing a full weekend of bridge--so much for one of our last beautiful weekends of summer weather here in Chicago! Here's my favorite hand from today's Swiss, once again more for the humorous side of it than the result (as you will see).
I held 2nd seat favorable:
AJTxx
Ax
AKxxx
9
I opened 1 Spade of course and our unobstructed 2/1 auction continued:
2C-2D-2NT-3D-3S-3NT-4NT-?
I could hardly have a better hand so I was for sure driving to slam...I still didn't know where to play though. How good were partner's spades? And could diamonds still be in the picture? I bid 5NT, accepting the slam push and asking partner to choose. He bid 6 Clubs, which i wasn't expecting... Now, though, I started to envision him with something like AKQJx of clubs and Kxx of hearts...if the opponents didn't lead trump, maybe the heart ruff could be a vital extra trick! Sick, I know, but I passed. Alas we went down because of a 6-1 trump break. And 6 Spades or 6NT would have made. At least it's a story--it isn't often that you voluntarily play a 6 card fit at the slam level. Partner's hand:
Kx
KQxx
xx
AKQxx

Great Hand

Here's an interesting hand from Jason that could lead to some good discussion. you are red vs white in 2nd seat with:
Qxx
AK9xxx
xxx
x
RHO opens 3 clubs, you pass and LHO ups the ante to 5 clubs, which partner doubles. Pass to you.

3-Card Major

Since my recent trip to the Las Vegas NABC was not a great success as a whole, and usually I post disaster hands more often than triumphant ones, I figure it is okay to report this small victory, one of my favorite hands from the tournament. I was playing the weekend Swiss with an occasional partner. We play precision with very few agreements, generally trying to keep things simple. Anyway, I was dealt 3rd in hand white v red,
T9x
Ax
AKxx
Txxx
and heard my partner open 1 Diamond--either diamonds or any balanced 13-15 hand. RHO passed and I had to decide quickly so that it didn't look like I had a problem--my choices were a game-forcing 2 Clubs, 2 Diamonds, which showed 5 of them and 11 plus points, and a natural invitational 2NT. Mulling over these quickly, I responded 1 Spade and awaited developments. LHO overcalled 2 Hearts and partner doubled, showing 3 card support (it looked like at least we'd be able to avoid playing a spade contract now). Before I got a chance to choose my next brilliant call, RHO bid 3 Hearts. I felt like a double should just be cards here, showing some good hand, not really penalty-oriented (pretty much what I had). Since I knew that my partner and I were not on firm ground on this auction, though, I decided to pass and await developments (again). Sure enough, LHO bid 4 Hearts, passed back to me. This time I whacked it. We collected 800--the other hands were
-----KJx
-----J
-----JTxx
-----AKQxx
AQxx-------xxx
KTxxxx----Q9xx
xx----------Qxx
x-----------Jxx
We were on for 6 of a minor but at the other table our counterparts bid to 3nt and took 10 tricks--a 9 IMP win for us. The victim declarer, a well-known expert, was mumbling after the hand about the atrocity of bidding 1 Spade on Ten third and then passing 3 Hearts with Ace-King, Ace. I'm sure he was right, none of my actions were a thing of beauty, but having it work on this occasion was satisfaction enough for me. In fact maybe I could have mumbled something about bidding game on that lot!

Bidding after 1NT-X

I think one area that few partnerships have discussed in much detail is bidding after their side has doubled 1 Notrump for penalty--either the opening bid or an overcall. I believe that standard practice says that all subsequent doubles of runouts are for penalties, but usually the discussion ends there. What does a pass show on this auction:

1NT(1)-x-2h(2)-?

(1)-12-14

(2)-to play

Sometimes the right spot will be defending 2 Hearts undoubled, but that seems to be a pretty narrow area to shoot for. Some kind of structure involving forcing passes has to be the right idea. My favorite method involves forcing passes and value showing, optional-type doubles. So the passes are consistent with holding a penalty double of the bid suit, intending to pass partner's double if he produces one. Direct bids at the two-level show a smattering of values and are not forcing. Two Notrump is Lebensohl and 3-level suits are game-forcing. When responder (to the original penalty double, that is) has a bust or near-bust, he passes, bids the next step after the second double, and hopes to land on his feet somewhere. Passing and removing the double to a major at the 2-level (on an auction like 1NT-X-2c-p-p-X-p-?) shows values and a real suit but is not quite game-forcing. If the opps bid to the 3-level, forcing passes are off. I read about this system in Barry Rigal's "Precision in the 90s." I guess the most important thing is to have some kind of discussion as to what bids mean after doubling 1NT--anything is better than guessing.

How Much?

You have
AKxx
9xx
JTx
Kxx
Only you are vulnerable and RHO opens 1D in first position. This is passed around to your partner who reopens with a double. What do you bid?

Watch Your Entries

Take a look at this hand from a tournament I just played in the Chicago area.
AT98
Kxx
Kxxxx
x

KQJ53
QTx
void
9xxxx
I was South and the bidding went 1D-p-1H to me. I bid 1S, opener passed and my partner bid 4S, doubled by RHO. LHO led a small heart to the jack and Queen. LHO won, played a heart to RHO's ace, ruffed the heart return and exited a trump, RHO following. Plan the play from here.

Monster

You pick up this monster hand:
K
AKQJxx
AQTx
Ax
You are in 4th position, vul vs not and while you are admiring your collection, LHO opens 4 Spades which is quickly passed to you. What do you bid?

Act or No?

I've been debating this hand and situation with a few friends--you hold, white v red at matchpoints:
QTxxx
x
Ax
KTxxx

The dealer opens 1 Heart on your left, partner passes and your RHO bids 4 Hearts. Do you bid? If so, what do you bid? What do you do at different vulnerabilities? Change the scoring to IMPs or rubber bridge and does your agenda differ? Similar situation--what if you held this hand and your RHO opened 4 Hearts in from of you? Tough problems, I doubt there is a clearcut right answer but I am interested in opinions!

A Few Words About Chip Reese

Stepping away from bridge talk for a moment, I'd like to post briefly about poker champion Chip Reese. Somehow I missed the headlines that he passed away last December at the age of 56 and only learned the news today while reading Gus Hansen's new poker book, "Every Hand Revealed," for which Reese wrote the foreword. After learning of his death, I have quickly caught myself up, reading eulogies online.

Reese's career in poker spanned from his college days at Dartmouth through the poker boom which made his and those of many of his fellow professionals' household names. It is now a part of poker lore that during the summer after graduation from college, before proceeding on to business school, he travelled to Las Vegas for a weekend trip and never left. He spent the next 30-plus years playing in the biggest cash games in town, winning millions of dollars, and somehow endearing himself to the very people he was competing against. Poker, like bridge, is a fiercely competitive game...unlike bridge it is often played for large amounts of money, even more reason to bring out negative energy. It is remarkable that a common refrain among people remembering him was--"no one ever had a bad word to say about Chip." Reese was respected as one of the very best players and people around. Barry Greenstein noted that he was always there for his children--he would leave a poker game regardless of how he was doing to attend his son's little league contest.

My favorite Reese stories stem from his being often oblivious to things he cared little about or had no time for, a trait that I share with him. A Alvarez relates it in his book, "The Biggest Game in Town." 'The degree to which Reese fails to think about these things is famous around town. He is rumored to have lost, in his own house, every piece of jewelry he ever owned, and for a period to have paid without question a monthly water bill of over two thousand dollars. After some time, the water company discovered that the pipe supplying his house had broken and was flooding the area for acres around. Reese himself had not noticed.' Some may see in these words the picture of a nut with no regard for money and no understanding of the world around him. I see them as evidence that he had the singular ability to focus on what was important to him and disregard all else. He used this focus to become both a great poker player and a great family man. Good enough for me! RIP Chip.

Fourth Suit After a Reverse

One of my friends recently sent me an email with this hand:
Axxx Kxx 9x Kxxx
His partner opened 1 Diamond, he responded 1 Spade and his partner rebid 2 Hearts. What do you do with this hand? What methods do you like to play in this situation?

My favorite methods after a reverse include the Lebensohl convention where a bid of 2NT is artificial, generally leading to a sign-off in one of opener's suits at the 3-level. A rebid of responder's suit at the 2 level shows at least 5 card length, is ambiguous in strength and forces for one round. Then direct 3-level bids in opener's suits are forward-going, game forcing. A 3NT bid should show a fair hand with no fit--on the given auction, something along the lines of KQTx xxx xx KQTx. I suppose that Lebensohl followed by 3NT should show something as well...maybe a doubtful 3 No bid like KTxx Qxx xx KJxx--I don't think that I've discussed that in any of my partnerships though. Getting even more off of firm ground, what does the 4th suit mean? I guess absent any discussion it is natural--certainly possible. Give responder Qxxx Qx xx AKxxx and that meaning works pretty well. To me that hand is too infrequent--call the 4th suit a game-force not quite fitting with a textbook bid--a hand that needs more information about opener's hand. That seems to fit for the example hand--with two very useful cards for partner (contrast this hand, with the ace of spades and king of hearts, to the example hand which was worth only a direct 3NT) but no known 8 card fit, you can start with 3 Clubs. In this instance you'll get a 3 Diamond rebid from partner and know at a reasonably low level that he is 6-4 and will at least be better placed to evaluate best game/slam prospects. Partner's hand was:
Kx AQxx KQJxxx A

Slams at the Club

Kenny and I played the last couple of weekends at the bridge club on Sheridan Road. We didn't distinguish ourselves that much, but did manage to bid a good grand slam each time, which at least keeps you coming back (kind of like the one decent golf shot you hit every round). Our auctions were pretty decent, so I figured I'd post em.

AJTx
KQxxx
void
KTxx

xx
Axx
Axx
AQJxx
our auction, starting with Kenny as North, 1H-2C-3D(1)-3H-3S-4C-4D-4NT-5NT(2)-6D(3)-7C
1-splinter raise of clubs; 2-2 keycards with a void; 3-grand slam try/queen ask
As you can see, 7 clubs is a great spot-just horrible splits will beat it (incredibly, it is a much more likely make than even 6 Hearts!). Next question-which suit is trump for Keycard Blackwood? I'm open to opinions on this. Anyone? Actually I thought it was clubs and Kenny thought hearts, but fortunately the answer was the same regardless. Six diamonds is the only forcing bid left and kenny and I both agreed that regardless of which suit was trump for Blackwood, it asked about the quality of his hearts (basically I need to find out if the hearts are a source of tricks). Kenny, the good partner he is, put it all together and bid the club grand.

The second one is from today's effort:
AKJTx
KT9
Axx
Ax

x
AJxxxxx
KQT9
x
this auction was simpler and again started with Kenny, North; 2NT(1)-4D(2)-4H-4NT-5C(3)-7NT
1-20-21; 2-Texas; 3-4 keycards for hearts
As long as you have the normal agreement that Texas followed by 4NT is Blackwood (Jacoby followed by 4NT should be quantitative), this hand is pretty easy to bid. When I found out all the keycards were there I was bidding a grand and if he couldnt pick up hearts, 7H would be down as well, so I went for the higher scoring strain. At IMPS you'd have to stick to hearts because of the possible extra undertricks if hearts don't come in. By the way--hearts were 3-0 but Kenny picked them up!

Hanging In

Jason and I had been going through a rough 2nd half of our quarterfinal match when this deal arrived. We had already played a cold grand slam in game, bid to a 30 point no play 6NT and doubled our opponents off in 3 Clubs--just made. Fortunately we weren't rattled into forgetting our carding methods on this hand.
E-W game, W dealer
------KQxx
------xxx
------x
------Axxxx
xx----------xxx
ATxx-------KQxx
AJx---------KTxxxx
Txxx--------void
------AJxx
------Jx
------Qxx
------KQJx
The Bidding was:
P-P-P-1C(1)-P-1D(2)-2D-2S-3D-4S-all Pass
(1)-could be any balanced hand outside the strong NT range
(2)-simply denies a 5 card major
I led the ace of diamonds--on opening lead we have the agreement that a low card asks specifically for a shift to the suit that looks obvious from dummy--often 3 to an honor but here, hearts. A higher spot would suggest a continuation or trump shift and an unusual honor asks for the other suit. Jason duly played the king of diamonds and we got two ruffs to go with the 3 top tricks after my ten of clubs shift. The defense wasn't that hard and of course any pair who has discussed the situation ought to get it right, but it definitely felt good leading the club and knowing the ruff was going to happen. You may have already noticed that our result was not so hot on this hand. In fact, at the other table our opponents made 5 Hearts doubled! Fortunately this hand was the only blemish on our teammates' card for the round and we managed to advance (albeit on kind of a technicality--since there were only two brackets in play our bracket was handicapped and we were getting 11.25 IMPs from our unfortunate opponents who beat us by 11. sorry guys!) . If we'd let our guard down, certainly possible the way things were going for us, we may have let 4 Spades make and wouldn't have moved on.

High Level Disaster

I just got home from 4 days playing with jason at the regional in Lake Geneva. In the final of the Friday Saturday knockout we got the chance to test our skills against one of the world's best pairs, Cezary Balicki and Adam Zmudzimski of Poland. On this swing hand, the last one of the first set, we were playing against their sponsor and Garey Hayden.
EW Game:
--------Axxx
--------x
--------Jxx
--------Axxxx
xx--------------KJx
AQJxxxxxx----Kxx
x---------------Axx
x---------------Jxx
--------QTx
--------void
--------KQTxxx
--------KQxx
I opened the south hand 1 diamond, which was limited and could have been any balanced 13-16 hand. Hayden overcalled 4 Hearts, Jason doubled (cards), the sponsor passed and I removed to 4NT. Jason bid 5 Clubs and the sponsor took 5 Hearts. Now what? At the table I passed (forcing?) and Jason whacked it. Hayden eventually played to the king of spades for +850. Only Ace of diamonds, diamond ruff beats 6 Clubs...the contract at the other table was 5 Clubs making 6 on the same auction minus the 5 Heart bid.

I have talked to a number of players and have heard differing opinions on who should have done what. Was I to blame for not bidding over 5 Hearts with my void? Or ought North to bid again? Or was it all just bad luck?

Anyway, we lost the match but Jason and I gained some good experience playing against the Poles in the second half. We were hoping to get one more shot at them in the Swiss today but things never came together for us and we wallowed below average (they won it going away). There were some other interesting deals--I'll get a few more up in the next couple of days. On the bright side we only bid 1 slam missing 2 cashing aces this tournament. Improvement!

Another Precision 2 Club Auction

I had this auction today with Jason Rosenfeld--
Axxx
Ax
x
Axxxxx

KTx
KQxxx
Axx
xx
Our auction, starting with Jason's (North's) hand was:
2C (1)-2D(2)-2S(3)-2NT(4)-3C-P
(1) Precision
(2) Relay
(3) 4 Spades, could have only 5 good Clubs
(4) Non-forcing. I could (should?) have bid 3 Hearts, game-forcing

It turned out that there wasn't much to the play--hearts makes with overtricks, 5 clubs makes and even 3nt makes because hearts were 3-3. I think that with my good spades and reasonable club fit that my last pass was a mistake, but I also didn't figure I would be facing 3 aces. I know that some people play that the precision 2 club opening promises 6 of them--that could maybe have made this auction easier. After partner bids 2 Spades I know he is 6-4 and may feel more comfortable forcing game with my partial fits. On the actual auction I did find out that he was 6-4 but also got the message that he had minimal high-cards, which influenced me staying low. Moral I guess is that if you can make a descriptive bid that may cause you to overreach, go ahead and do it in the interest of having a good constructive auction. Next time I'll go ahead and force with 3 hearts with this hand--i'll want partner declaring notrump anyway if his diamonds are something like Qx.

Appreciating Your Values

My dad and I had this (almost) good auction to 5 Clubs today. The only problem was that I forgot to bid 5 Clubs at the end of it.
Kxxx
void
Axx
KQxxxx

AQx
T9xx
Q9
Jxxx
2 C(1)-2D(2)-2S(3)-3C(4)-3D-3S-4C-P
1-precision
2-relay
3-4 spades, could have only 5 clubs (albeit a good suit)
4-non-forcing

By the end of the auction I should know that my values are all working and that 5 Clubs will have a good play. Partner's 4 Club bid was conservative but it gave me a chance to get out with heart wastage. I guess I need to make mistakes like this one every now and then to keep myself on my toes for the future.

Side Game Backwash

Undaunted by relegation to the side one day bracketed KO after missing the IMP Pair final, Jason and I took on a team of friends from Chicago in the first round. This hand came up early on in the match:

KJTx

AQJx

A

J9xx



xx

xxx

K98xx

T6xx

we reached 3 clubs played by Jason (South) via Precision 2 Diamonds-3 Clubs. West got off to the unfortunate lead of the club ace crashing his partner's queen. A trump continuation went to the king and East switched to a diamond. Jason won in dummy and played the king of spades. East won the ace and returned another diamond. Jason won the king pitching a heart and played another spade to the jack. East won again and continued diamonds, Jason ruffing with the jack. he cashed his spade ten pitching a heart and led the last spade in this position:
-----8
-----AQJ
-----none
-----9
none
Kxx
Q
7
-----none
-----x
-----98
-----T6
He ruffed with the ten and West had no good discard! A heart would allow Jason to finesse in hearts, draw trump and enjoy the last two hearts. A diamond would let him play winners through West, and an underruff lets him take the heart finesse and crossruff. I think that this ending is called a backwash squeeze, so-named in the Ottlik/Kelsey classic "Adventures in Cardplay." If Jason had taken a heart finesse before establishing his spade trick, it looks like he would have made 3 with less fanfare since the eventual spade ruff provides the entry to take a second heart finesse, but then there would be no story.
West's full hand was:
xxx
Kxx
Qxxxx
A7x

Back From Nationals

I just got back from the NABC in Detroit. It was a good time, but not a rousing success from a bridge standpoint. My partner Jason Rosenfeld and I arrived with high aspirations to play the IMP Pair and the Weekend Open Swiss but didn't qualify for the second day of either. We started out rusty--we play a strong club system that we used to be able to work on a lot when we were both in the Chicago area--Jason is another Northwestern guy but has since moved back home to Boston. Maybe some of the strain of remembering our old stuff caused some of our defensive mishaps in the early going that really cost us. I have a number of interesting hands to write up...here is one based mostly on being opportunistic at IMPs and taking inferences from the bidding. Second in hand I held:
AQ9
987
QJxx
ATx
Neither vul, RHO opened a precision 1 Diamond which was passed around to Jason who reopened with one heart. RHO bid 1 Notrump, which showed a balanced 16 points or so in their methods (supposedly the initial pass by responder denied a bust and showed diamond tolerance). Anyway i could contest this and doubled, which must show a hand like this. LHO bid a very slow 2 Clubs which was passed back to me. I bid 2 Hearts passed back to the opener who bid 3 Clubs! This i could barely believe, but I knew I had to act in tempo and, feeling i had already shown my hand, I passed. Three Clubs undoubled became the final contract and we beat it two tricks after a small slip in defense...(the opponents had only a 4-4 fit). The +100 was a small loss on the board as we could have made 140 or 170 in hearts. Moral of the story to me is this: when an opp0rtunity arises and the conditions look right, be ready to pounce. If I had doubled and we had defended correctly we would have scored 500 and eventually made the IMP Pair final after all. In this case there was a great argument for the double...I had a good hand with both the ace and ten of clubs, partner had reopend, our fit was not outstanding and the opponents didn't appear to be on firm ground with their bids. Hopefully I'll be ready next time! More hands to come.

GNT Weekend

Qualifying for our district in the GNTs was this past weekend and my team of underdogs created a bit of a stir by making the final of the championship bracket. We finally ran out of steam and lost in the final. Congratulations to Jeff Miller, Doc Mohan, David Yang, and Xiaodong Shi, who played fantastically throughout the event and will be great reps for our district at nationals.

It was an enjoyable run for our squad...while it was a little disappointing to come close and not win, it was great experience and a neat opportunity to play against the best competition in the area. Thanks go out to my partner Jonathan Weinstein and our teammates Kenny Zuckerberg and Bill Drewett. Here are two of my favorite hands--both were slams that my partner and I bid that were not reached at the other table.

x
Qxx
AKQxx
KJxx

KJx
AKxx
Jxxx
Ax
On this one I opened the South hand with 1 Notrump and Jonathan bid 2 Notrump, a diamond transfer. Since I didn't have a top honor in diamonds I just accepted the transfer with 3 Diamonds (I had the option of bidding 3 Clubs showing good diamonds). Jonathan bid 3 Spades promising shortness. At this point I felt that my hand was worth a move despite the spade wastage because I had 4 trump and 3 great cards in the round suits. I bid 4 Clubs hoping it would be a cue-bid for diamonds...Jonathan may not have been sure what I meant by this because he jumped to 6 Clubs. Fortunately the diamonds are higher ranking, so I could bid them at the 6 level and close out the auction. There were no problems in the play when West led the ace of spades, so we chalked up our slam.

xxx
Kxx
KT9xx
JT

AKQxxx
x
AJx
AQx
This one I had to open the bidding as South and could decide between 1 Spade and 2 Clubs, our forcing opening. I felt that the controls justified the 2 Club opening and went with that. Jonathan responded 2 Hearts, which shows 2 controls (ace=2, king=1) in our system. RHO doubled this bid as a lead director and I showed my spades. Jonathan raised, I bid 4 Clubs and he bid 4 Diamonds. At this point I actually figured that his controls were the king of clubs and king of diamonds, so slam was at worst on the diamond finesse. With just the king of diamonds and king of hearts and little distribution he may not have cue-bid because he would have already shown his hand with the two heart bid. Anyway, I bid 6 Spades straight away and bought this dummy. Trump were 2-2 and I played West successfully for the queen of diamonds to make 6. Thinking further about partner's 4 Diamond bid, the hand he held (with a nice diamond suit along with the king) or one with the king of hearts and king-queen of diamonds would also be good 4 Diamond bids, and any of those hands make the slam little or no worse than an even money proposition. Nice bid partner!

Two From the Home Game

I haven't posted in quite a while, partly because I haven't been playing much so nothing very new has come up. That should be changing over the next couple of months with another NABC right around the corner. A few bridge players braved the cold yesterday to travel out to the Chicago suburbs for the latest edition of the home game. Here are a couple of deals that I found interesting:
The first is a bidding problem. You are fourth in hand vul vs not with:
KJxx
xx
KJ87
KQx
LHO opens 1 Spades and partner bids 2 Spades (Michaels) and RHO passes. What do you do now and what is your plan for the rest of the auction? You can suggest whatever methods you like.

The second is a play problem--

AK2
K84
AKT92
93

986
AQ63
96
AKJ5
you bid to 6 Notrump--something like 1c-1d-1nt-4nt-5h-6nt and get the 7 of hearts lead from West. Suppose you win in hand and run the 9 of diamonds and it holds. What is your plan from here? Alternatively, what if the 9 of diamonds is covered by an honor on your left?

Defending Against the Best

My friend Jason recently witnessed this hand played on BBO--South was none other than the Italian maestro Benito Garozzo...his opponents were on their toes during this hand and deserve some props!

-------J85

-------9

-------K43

-------T98762

AT73-----------42

A7--------------QT8652

T8765----------92

KQ-------------A54

--------KQ96

--------KJ43

--------AQJ

--------J7

West dealt and opened 1 Diamond, East responded 1 Heart, and South (Garozzo) overcalled 1 Spade. This was passed back to East who bid 2 Hearts and North accepted the push to 2 Spades, which became the final contract.



The defense started with the king and queen of clubs followed by a diamond shift. Garozzo won in dummy and played a heart to the jack and ace. West continued diamonds and declarer won, cashed the king of hearts and ruffed a heart low, West pitching a diamond. Next came a club ruffed with the queen, West shedding another diamond. Another heart ruff was declarer's 6th trick and led to this 4 card ending:

------J

------none

------none

------986

AT73-------42

none--------Q8

none--------none

none--------none

------K96

------none

------Q

------none

Garozzo led the jack of spades from dummy. East followed with the deuce and West carefully unblocked the 7! Now when declarer continued with a club, East could ruff with the 4, letting west underruff with the 3 and win the last 2 tricks with a defensive trump coup. Well done! East had to preserve his 4 spot of trumps and West his 3--otherwise West would be hopelessly endplayed.



By the way, I just started reading Pietro Forquet's classic "Bridge With the Blue Team" and I highly recommend it. It features many more Garozzo hands, most of which feature a more satisfying conclusion for him :).

What does this double show?

Playing IMPs with a random partner and random opponents (online) I held 2nd seat red/white:
Q87x
9x
KTx
AJxx
RHO passed, I passed and the auction continued 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 2 Spades to me. Do you bid? I wanted to bid but couldn't think of anything that appealed, so I passed. The auction continued Pass, Double, Pass back to me. Question--what hand do you expect from partner for reopening here, and what is your action?