Gambling at the 4-Level--Updated

I'm not sure what my fascination is with high-level bidding decisions. I guess part of it could be an overall love for excitement, gambling, and adventure, which all play their parts when your bidding space is sparse. I just got back from Lake Geneva--it was a fun weekend and generally successful tournament. I got some solid practice time in with my partners for the upcoming NABC in San Diego. Hopefully this will be the first of a few posts about the tournament.

I'll do this one in the form of a poll...what do you like on this auction?
Love all-
xx
QTxxxx
x
AQxx


Ax
AKxx
xx
KT9xx

The above hands are North and South respectively. West opens 4 Diamonds (natural) in front of the North hand. The scoring is IMPs and here are your options for entering the auction (I'll let you know my own opinions later, which could certainly change...actually i don't think any of these choices are insane, so please don't feel bashful about stating your opinion!)
a) North should overcall 4 Hearts.
b) If North passes, South should balance with 4 Hearts
c) If North passes, South should balance with a double
d) Everyone should pass--the preempt worked this time
Let me know what you think...if you choose a, let me know if you would also agree with b or c! This is fun. I must be sick :).

Thanks for the comments. Situations like this don't pop up all that often, but my general experience has told me that it's right on hands like these to bid aggressively with distribution. That is why, though most of you seem to shudder at the thought of overcalling with the north cards in this example, I personally don't think overcalling is that bad. In fact, throw in the jack of hearts and jack of clubs and I would call the hand a sound minimum 4 heart overcall. The reason I think bidding with distribution is important is that often your partner will have some kind of decent balanced hand, perhaps with 3 of the enemy suit and have no safe-looking action available. Picture Axx Axx Axx Kxxx. I would feel very nervous bidding over a 4 level preempt with this, even in balancing seat...opposite the north hand with the two jacks thrown in, you will be odds on to make 6 hearts, and opposite the actual north hand 4 hearts would be a very resonable contract. The consequence of this line of thinking is that as partner of the overcaller in this type of situation you have to give a lot of leeway. It's a little bit analagous to responding to a 3rd seat opening...be careful not to hang your partner for acting aggressively. If a slam is there, you know that the other table may well face the same difficulty and guesses in the bidding. Indeed on this hand getting to game would have been plenty. At my table I help the 2-4-2-5 hand and faced the auction 4d-p-4s-?. I should probably have doubled, but I passed...we set it 3 for what looked like a horrible result. We gained 3 imps when the auction was 4d-p-p-p at the other table.

Rebid Problem/Possible Solution--Updated

You hold:
AKQJ9
ATxxx
K
xx

You open 1 Spade, partner responds 1NT and you bid?

Well, I bid 2 Hearts as well and we did miss a cold game this time. Partner had: x xx AQJTx J9xxx. One of the biggest problems I've had with standard bidding is this exact situation--opener's simple rebid in a new suit has a very wide range. One possible solution is the Gazzilli convention. Stacy Jacobs has a nice write up on her blog here:http://stacyjacobs.com/system-notes/major-suit-openings/. Basically a 2 Club rebid on this auction could be arificial, encompassing your jumpshift hands but also the problem-range hands. It starts around a good 16 points and responder's 2 Diamonds is a relay, game-forcing if opener has 16+. Our auction on the given hand would go-1S-1NT-2C*-2D**-3H***-3NT
*-Gazzilli--either semi-natural or 16+
**-8+ points any (gameforcing opposite 16+)
***-16+, 5-5 majors

Too Strong?

I kibitzed this hand during the Bermuda Bowl round robin USA2 vs Norway match--dealer held:
Q9x
KQJxx
AQ
KTx

How good is this holding and what's your approach?

Close One?

Vul vs not you hold:
A
Kxxxx
AJx
KQxx
You open 1 Heart in 3rd seat and LHO leaps to 4 Spades, passed back to you. Do you act?

Part 3--Updated

This was my favorite hand of the tournament--it is a great hand on a lot of different levels.
Vul vs not you hold:
Axx
ATx
KJxx
AKx
As you sit counting your points, RHO opens 1 Spade in front of you. You double, LHO passes and partner bids 2 Clubs. RHO rebids 2 Spades and it is your call. A case can be made for 2NT, but I think another double is a standout, and that is what you do :). LHO passes again and partner bids 3 Clubs. This is passed to LHO who looks anguished and eventually bids 3 Spades, which becomes the final contract. This is a multiple-part problem--first, though, what is your opening lead?


I felt like I had some table feel on this one...my LHO had passed all too happily over each of the doubles, but when 3 Clubs was passed back to him, he looked like he had a real problem. I had a strong hunch that he had an awkward hand with modest spade support and club shortness, so I decided to lead a trump. I thought about a small one like some of you suggested, but ended up leading the ace, prepared with apologies if my partner had the stiff king. I knew that I had struck gold when this dummy hit:
32
Kxxxx
Axxxxx
void
I wasn't hard-pressed to get another trump on the table--my partner followed suit both times. Declarer drew the last trump, my partner throwing the six of clubs. Then he led the jack of hearts. Consider what you'd do now.


I won the ace of hearts (partner played small) and cashed the king of clubs, my partner following with the jack and declarer with the deuce. Now I tried to imagine declarer's distribution. It seemed consistent with everything that had happened for declarer to have 6-2-1-4 shape and if that was the case, I could beat the contract for sure by playing back the king of diamonds. After one final re-count, I decided this was definitely the best move, and gave it a shot, hoping for down 1, but really hoping to see declarer's stiff queen fall on this trick. I got one out of two--partner followed with the ten and declarer with his small singleton. When the dust settled the contract was down 1 and I felt like Garozzo, even if only for a few moments :). Declarer's hand: KQJTxx QJ x Qxxx

So, on this one--if you led the ace of trump and shifted to diamonds after winning the first heart, you get +50 and 90%. Sorry--I know how unlikely that is, but I have to trumpet an occasional success story. Any other defense is -140 but you still get an above average score because many bought the contract your way in notrump and went down multiple tricks.

Part 2--Updated

At game all you hold:
KQJ2
875
QJx
xxx
The auction begins with a pass on your right, you pass, and LHO opens 2NT (20-21). RHO transfers to spades and bids 3NT, which becomes the final contract. Your parner leads the queen of hearts and this is what you see:
98754
9
T9x
KJxx
------KQJ2
------875
------QJx
------xxx
Declarer wins the lead with the ace and thinks for about 2 minutes. Hopefully you were thinking too, because next declarer plays the ace of diamonds and a small one. You are in with the jack--what do you return?

Thanks for the comments, guys. Perhaps thg is right about this being a suit-preference situation, but it may be a little obscure, especially in a new partnership or one that doesn't play regularly. Absent that agreement, we are left to our own devices to figure the hand out, and I think Weinstein hit the nail on the head. Assuming partner's hearts are Q-J-Ten, a low spade return is only wrong when declarer has both the ace and ten of spades. So, in my best Kelsey impersonation, if you returned a low spade, you achieve a satisfying down one and 90% of the matchpoints. If you did anything else, you are -600 for a 30% board. At the table I got this one right though I admit that I didn't have all of the reasons worked out. It took me a long time to find the play, so it was nice when the hand was over 2 seconds after :).

Declarer's hand: Tx AKxx AKxx AQ9

The Tough Game: Part 1--Updated

I just returned from a full week at nationals. The tournament continues through the weekend...my college buddy committed the indiscretion of scheduling his wedding this Saturday so I had to come back and fulfill my role as groomsman. I feel like the guy doesn't even know me :)... In all seriousness, I got enough bridge in and got to play some incredibly interesting hands. I'll share three of them in succession here and will use Hugh Kelsey's framework from his fantastic series of books on matchplay--first I'll leave the problem for you and then later I'll post the results (matcpoints) depending on how you bid, played, or defended. Good luck!

Hand 1, love all
You hold:
x
AJT9x
Kxxx
QTx
and choose to open a frisky 1 Heart. Your partner responds 1NT, semi-forcing, you bid 2 Diamonds and he bids 3 Hearts...do you bid game?

Whatever you do is passed out.

JT7x
653
Axx
AKx

x
AJT9x
Kxxx
QTx

West leads a 4th best deuce of spades, you play the seven from dummy and East wins the ace. He returns the 3 of spades. Plan the play.


I don't have a lot of insight about the bidding, except to say that what started as a very borderline opening hand has grown in the presence of a fit. Opposite a 4-trump invitational raise I would consider it a mistake not to bid game. Opposite this 3 card raise, passing seems normal, but if your game needs some momentum, this may be the time to take a shot. On to the play!

If you are in game, you can make against a diamond or club lead with a normal 3-2 trump break and the honors split as long as diamonds are 3-3. Eventually you will duck a diamond and the long diamond becomes your 10th trick. This spade lead upsets your timing--you are about to be forced and will need to lose the lead twice more before your tricks are established--once by losing a trump and again when you duck a diamond. That's once more than you can afford and you'll end up getting tapped and losing a spade trick. On the bright side, the early play suggests a different line--it looks as if spades are 4-4 with LHO starting with Kxxx and RHO AQxx. If this is the case, you can pitch a diamond on this spade and then use your established ruffing finesse to dispose of your other diamond loser. You have just enough entries to pull all of this off--so you'll end up with 1 spade trick, 4 hearts, 2 diamonds and 3 clubs.

The matchpoints were particularly unkind on this hand because the diamonds were 3-3 all along and the spade lead put you to the test. If you bid game and made it, you earned a 90% score and your game got the shot in the arm it needed. No matchpoints if you went down. If you stayed in the partial, you needed to take 10 tricks to earn slightly above average--9 tricks are worth only a 15% score. At the table I was in 3 hearts and missed this line completely--in fact I wasted the ten of spades at trick one and had no chance for 10 tricks. I'm guessing diamond and club leads were common at other tables...I am glad it happened because otherwise I never would have noticed how interesting the hand is.