These are hands from a Star Challenge. I thought they posed interesting decisions for both the South player (the star and I) and our bot partners.
Bd 1 None vulYou hold
KT
32
J932
AKJ62 and it goes two passes to you. 12 HCPs and 2 spades, so only 14 Casino points; do you bid? And if so what?
At one point, I would have opened 1
so that I would retain the easy rebid of 2
after 1
. The lack of a heart stop can be of real concern, but I have come around, particularly when the choice of suits is Jxxx vs. AKJxx. I now feel it is less of a lie to rebid the clubs or bid NT than it is to bid both minors.
So at my table, it continued with a 1
overcall, 2
cue-bid showing club support, the heart game bid by East and I carried on to game. Should the South hand bid or defend against 4
? This is one of those gray areas where it is not entirely clear whose hand this is. One rule of thumb says that the five-level belong to the opponents. With partner showing a club fit, I felt we must have 9-11 clubs, and therefore most of my defense may easily disappear quickly. To me, it felt like we have a better chance trying to make our game than trying to set theirs. So I bid. As it turns out, we have a 23 point sacrifice for their 17 point unbiddable slam.
The final result was a four IMP gain when the star decided to begin with 1
, and then the auction was identical except substituting diamonds for clubs. The problem, though, was more luck than skill. I only had to contend with a 4-0 trump break on a 5-4 fit; the star had a 5-0 break with a 4-4 fit. The contract went down five tricks, compared to the two I went down.`
The full hand can be seen by clicking this link:
https://tinyurl.com/yk5cdkeu Bd 4 All vulOn this board, you could say that the star and I made the same bids, just in a different order.
The auction began with two passes to 1
, you hold
T9
AK2
A72
KQJT8. Your choices are essentially double and an overcall. If you had a spade stop, there would be a third choice of 1NT, but with doubleton T9 it is better to remain among the mundane. I chose to overcall. To me, the suit was excellent, and with 3-3 in the reds, I preferred to back into those suits with a double later. Little did I realize how the auction would progress. West bid the spade game, and this was passed back to me. Now I felt that 5
would be too unilateral, and that double would bring everything into view; my defense, that my suit was good, and I could reasonably support either red suit.
So let's now move to the other side of the table. You hold
6
Q7654
Q3
97532, partner has overcalled in one of your five-card suits, and suggests support for your other five-card suit, and the only defense you have are two queens. Should you pass and defend, or bid one of your suits? Personally, I would run to clubs where we have a 10-card or better fit; I just cannot imagine a hand where it would make more sense to pass than play when a double comes around to me. What did the bot do? It passed. And the opponents wrapped up the double with an overtrick.
The star began with a double, West bid 4
, and this was passed back to the star. What do you do? Personally, I probably pass, but I can understand the decision to bid on. The worst you can normally expect to lose is five tricks; if the opponents have a game, that is not much of a loss doubled, and they may not double having shown weakness. Moreover, if partner has a cover card, even doubled it becomes a small potential win. So bidding 5
is reasonable, even if it is not my cup of tea. It might have been more interesting if the vulnerability had been white vs. red. Then with many partners, I would be willing to bid 4NT saying I have at least two places to play opposite the takeout double. That would easily get us to 5
, though it might draw a double, as it sounds weak.
I can't say that the overcall is definitively better than the double, but I think it will pay more dividends in the long run than the double. It helps set the defense by providing a great lead director. It helps keep your side from finding a 4-3 fit (whether it is right or wrong); certainly there are a lot of declarers that hate not having an eight-card fit. And it may make it easier to find a fit-based sacrifice.
Nonetheless, it is also important to remember who is sitting across the table from you. While a human being is unlikely to sit for the double, taking it for cooperative with takeout tolerances, the bot is much more likely to sit with a big fit and nothing to speak of in defensive values.
A link to the full hand follows:
https://tinyurl.com/yf3rxetqBd 6 E-W vulYou hold
A8
A2
K9875
AK74, and the auction goes one pass to you. Too strong for 1NT and not strong enough for 2NT, you open 1
. Partner raises to 2
, inverted, showing 10+ with diamond support. West jump overcalls with 3
, and it is now your bid again. Your room to explore has suddenly disappeared, what do you bid?
Personally, I would love to pass if I was certain that partner would treat that as forcing. It has the potential to obtain the most information about partner's hand while conserving the most space. But, would the bot pass 3
? The middle of an auction is not the time to experiment.
With great controls and partner raising my five-card suit that could have been as short as three are pluses. We are looking at a minimum of 29 HCPs a nine-card fit and first-round control of all of the side suits. The question is how much of partner's hand is wasted in the trump suit, and how much might be useful cover cards in the other suits. The problem is, you really only have RKC available, and it is of limited usefulness.
To buy time let's say you bid 4NT and partner responds 5
, showing 1 or four keycards. Now what? 5
would ask about the queen and responses could tell you about the first-held king. But what does that tell you? The queen is actually a bad value if you have a 5-5 fit, because it is not helping in a side suit. Ideally, you would like to see both major-suit kings, the diamond ace and either the club queen or a doubleton club. Is there a way to ask all of that? No! So at some point you have to guess where to place the contract.
I decided to play partner for a minimum with substantial wastage in the diamond suit. I made this decision partly on the fact that East bounced in red at the three-level, so I felt there should be some values outstanding to take that risk - that turned out to be a faulty assumption. Partly on the fact that partner should have 4-6 diamonds, and that increased the chances that a substantial portion of the hand was in the diamond suit - which turned out to be a good assumption. And partly on the fact that I needed five cover cards for a grand slam - that seemed a bit much, but if I make a slam move, and partner has that sort of hand, there should be no way we stop short of the grand - this may not have been a fully thought-out assumption, that is, I may need to ask about the queen to get partner to feel certain that we have all of the keycards.
Anyway, I chose to bid six, while the star chose to bid seven. I happened to be right, and the star wrong, but it could have easily be reversed. Swap the red queens (keeping the jacks), I would have liked my chances until East did not really have it's bid.
The full hand can be seen by clicking on this link:
https://tinyurl.com/yf9p4n9t