As mentioned, I like Jack's hands. There is often some uncertainty in them, and that makes them interesting. First one pretty clear cut case:
1
- 3
- 4 -H - Pass
5
-Pass- ?
I was the 4
bidder and I was thinking what on earth is this 5
. It's exclusion key card of course. I do no usually play it and I did not recognize it, but Joe and I had agreed that we were playing IAC std and exclusion key card is what it is. There was some discussion about whether using excl was the best choice, but that's another matter. It was excl and clearly excl.
Now onto another matter. Two hands involved 4th suit forcing, or at least could have.
Uncontested auction:
1
- 1
2
- ?
Responder bid 3NT. How about 2
? Over 2
, opener, with 1=3=5=4 shape, would of course bid 3
. Opener, with 4=4=2=3 shape, could still bid 3NT. So why bother with 2
if over 3
you are going to bid 3NT anyway? Of course partner might not have 3
and maybe you find a minor fit. Maybe so. But I think the 4th suit auction can have another purpose.
Respmer's spades were AJxx and I think even AJ9x. Probably she can handle 3NT on a spade lead. But suppose instead her spades are Axxx. Then, after a spade lead, she had better have 9 tricks or there is a good chance she will go down.
I envision a hand such as
Axxx
AQxx
Kx
Qxx
Now, over a 4th suit forcing 2
, opener will bid 3
with
xxx and also bid 3
with KJx. With the latter, the hand very possibly will lay better in 4
. Say the opening lead is the
K and a stiff
hits in dummy. Duck it. They cannot profitably continue spades, in fact you will probably do so even if they don't. You win at T2, ruff a
. draw trump, you still have the
A guarding that suit, and now you set up tricks in one of the minors.
I have some things to do right now and must go, but I think it is pretty easy to set up many hands where the message of 4th suit and then 3NT over 3
shouold be: Pard, I can play NT maybe, but if your hearts are good I think we might well be better off playing in the moysian 4
contract. Moyse won a lot of matches playing in 4-3 fits.
Anyway, I think we can get a lot out of these hands by continuing discussion after the closing bell.
Added: Here is the sort of thing I have in mind:
x
KJx
Axxxx
QJxx
Axxx
AQxx
Kx
Kxx
Perhaps the auction should begin 1
- 1
- 2
but I think with 5-4 in the minors opener might well choose 2
. Long ago I read the advice "You are allowed to raise responder on a three card holding but you should not go out of your way to do so". Seems right. So suppose it starts 1D - 1
- 2
- 2
- 3H - 3NT. Opener looks at his strong hearts and might well opt for the Moysian 4
.
Against 3NT on a spade lead it's clear you need to develop the clubs to come to 9 tricks. So you hold up until the third round, you tak the ace, you concede a club, you hope the spades are 4-4 or that the person with three spades also has the club Ace. If so, you make. better than an even chance but it could go wrong. How about 4
? The plan for ten tricks is
A, one
ruff, four !h tricks, two !d tricks, two
tricks. Could this go wrong? Yes, it might, But it seems to me that it looks pretty good. On a spade lead you duck. You might well make 5 if the clubs split. On a trump lead (likely since the opponents have heard the auction and so know about the stiff spade on the board, you win on the board and duck a spade,You want to be able to ruff with a spade spot. Maybe 4
goes down, but also 3NT might go down, and I think 4
has the better play.