Club game yesterday, I found this one too interesting to just let it slide by without comment. A bad result for us.
Mps, red against white, Lho deals and passes, partner bids 1NT (15-17), Rho passes, you hold
654
A6
KJT9763
5
As 8 counts go, it's a pretty decent hand. Suppose that you are playing with your clone, meaning that you are playing whatever system you like best and partner is playing the same system, what's the plan? Depending on partner's holdings the right contract could be 3NT, 5D or 6D, or so it seems. Even 3D or 6Nt are possibilities I suppose, but I think most would want to be on a game here and 6NT seems like a serious stretch. It seems possible that the opponents could run five club tricks in NT while 5D or even 6D is on ice.
So what's the plan, Stan?
I presented just the one hand first. Now here are both of them.
Partner:
AK8
KT93
A42
QJ9
You:
654
A6
KJT9763
5
Where do you want to be and how do you get there?
Suppose that you reach 6D with you as declarer. Our opponents did reach 6D on these cards, mostly they just blasted. Suppose that the opening lead is the
A (neither promising nor denying the K, an unsupported A is often led against a slam, especially at mps) and then Lho switches to the
J. Rho played the
8 at trick 1 and the
2 at trick 2. Standard carding, whatever that means.
How do you play, Ray?
At the table, T1 went as mentioned, at T2 Lho laid down the
K and now, after trumps come in, you are home.The
8, my play at trick 1, was intended as a count card to warn partner off of trying to cash the second club (if he held it) but alas, this did not come across. Maybe the T would have worked.
Double dummy analysis, provided with the hand records, notes that 6D always makes regardless of the lead at trick 1. Seeing how is still another challenge. Here are the hands:
Partner:
AK8
KT93
A42
QJ9
Lho: Rho:
JT973 Q2
Q842 J75
Q 85
AK4 T87632
You:
654
A6
KJT9763
5
Suppose the opening lead is a spade and you can see all of the cards. How do you bring in the slam, Sam?
Despite the miserable score for 6
, by them, making, I found the hand interesting. Declarer had bid 6
with three small spades and one small club without showing the club singleton or learning of the
A. Thus she could just as well have had three small clubs and one small spade. So if my club holding was four cards instead of six, giving declarer three small clubs, presumably she would still have blasted to 6
, and now partner's
K would have cashed. Oh well.
Added: Partner and I were playing that 1NT-3
is strong and natural, so if the hand came up with us we could make an effort to get to 6 but even then I am not so sure we want to. Since clubs are stopped we probably want to get to 3NT at matchpoints. Once we get past that, if we do, we would probably go to 6
simply because there will be few mps for 5
whether it makes 5 or 6.