An amusing hand

[kenberg]

Matchpoints, everyone white, dealer on your right passes, you hold:

AJ7653
QJ
Q
9652

I have never been a fan of "The hand is too strong for 2 and too weak for 1 so I pass". I will open 1 or 2 .
I chose 2 . That stiff Q doesn't seem to be worth much and I am not so fond of QJ tight either.
Anyway, I chose 2
Lho comes in with 3 , partner raises me to 3 , Rho bid 4 and now? I pass and so does everyone else.
This all seems reasonable enough.
We could have set it 3, but our defense allowed declarer the possibility of down 2 but it ended up down 3. So great, +150 beats +140  if by any chance 3 makes.

So I  thought. Now for all hands. Declarer is placed S, my hand is E.

                        K2
                        T863
                        AJ9
                        T873

984                                  AJ7653
A754                                QJ
832                                  Q
AQ4                                  9652


                      QT
                      K92
                      KT7654
                      KJ


Partner led a spade, of course. Declarer went up with the K, I tool the A. Who has the Q? Unfortunately, we were playing that we lead second highest from spots so the lead was the 8. Partner would lead thus the 8 from 984, which he had, and from Q98, which he didn't have. So I continued a spade. Declarer now has six tricks and a and can but didn't develop a trick from the - layout.

What I needed to do to guarantee a 3 trick set was to shift to a at T2. The plan would be to take two and two , ending in parnter's hand, and then a third allows me to sore my Q.

But no matter, since 4 is on ice. The are 2-2, the finesse works, the !c finesse works, and thanks to the trump split I can ruff a in dummy if needed.

Feel free to draw any conclusion you wish. I think I still open 2 the next time I get this hand. If I open 1 we would not get to 4 , that would be too optimistic, but partner would hit 4 .

As to leads, I think that once partner raises spades he should be allowed to lead the 9 rather than the 8. That would have clearly been the top of nothing. Maybe 8 from 984 is right in an unbid suit, I can see arguments for and against, but once he supports, I think the 9 is better, reserving the 8 for a lead from Q98.



 

[wackojack]

If partner raises it is highly unlikely to be done with a doubleton  especially a spot card doubleton.  When you support partner's suit that you have supported with 3 you should lead the top card.  Thus the 8 lead is incorrect whether or not your default from 3 small is 2nd highest. Nevertheless, I would believe that partner was leading from 842 and would switch.   

A personal view on weak 2M.  The object of a pre-empt is to use up opponents bidding room when the hand is more likely to be theirs than ours.  Thus 2M should be 5-9.  However, in this case I think Ken's reservations apply and a 2 open is acceptable.