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Good Judgment … and Flair!

“Lost Heart”

Yesterday, we saw some enterprising bidding from Leon Meier which paid off. Today, we see another young player demonstrate some inspired bidding, indeed not just one but two young players. His play was pretty good, too. 

 

What would your bid be here? 2NT is 20-22 balanced.

The Auckland Regional Teams was won by a team mixed with youth and experience. Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin and Kevin Hu with Michael Cornell and Hugh McGann won all 6 of their 11 board matches in the 32 team field and won by 5.13 vps from Clair Miao- Wayne Burrows and Steph and Tom Jacob, with Diana and Hugh McAlister and Steve Boughey- Carol Richardson a further 2.47 vps back in third place.

While you muse over the above bid, watch this board played where Jeremy was declarer in 6NT after the following sequence:

 

3 was a major suit enquiry with 3NT denying a 4 or longer major. 5 was artificial, “pick a slam” and Jeremy, South, did just that.

10 was led with the ace won in dummy, with East contributing 2, reverse count or attitude. 10 was run to West’s J. West returned 6, with K winning in dummy, East following  with J. A spade went to Jeremy’s Q to be followed by A bringing down K from East.

Jeremy played A from hand throwing 9 in dummy and then played AK and a small diamond to K in dummy, East playing J on the second round. On the 13^th spade, East discarded a club and Jeremy J. As West, what would you discard?

Jeremy had shown up with 3 spades, 3 diamonds and 3 clubs. The discard of J made no sense unless Jeremy had only 3 clubs. So, the bidding suggested he held 4 diamonds or maybe 5 diamonds and only 2 hearts. His only entry to hand was a red suit queen (He needed at least one to come to 20hcp) and his shape seemed to be 3343. If he had 5 diamonds, he might have bid 6 rather than 6NT.

It thus seemed logical for West to discard a heart to keep their 2 remaining diamonds but that discard produced a claim from Jeremy as these were the four hands, Jeremy having a rather unexpected shape.

 

 

The last 3 tricks were taken by Q and two high hearts in Jeremy’s hand. Jeremy had won the slam by his 3NT bid denying a 4-card major, backed up by his club discard on the long spade. If Jeremy had left Q and Qx or x and Qx as the bidding indicated, then West had to keep both diamonds and just one heart.

Were there any clues which could have helped West? The play to trick 1 is interesting. Against 3NT, East could perhaps play J, a standard unblocking card from a doubleton. Yet, defenders need any honours they have against a slam. J at trick 1 would surely have denied Q. From an original QJx holding, East would play Q. As it was, West presumed South held Q or certainly still held Qx. The J discard on the long spade was a clever smokescreen hiding for one trick what Jeremy would indeed need to throw on Q (his diamond loser).

It is certainly hard for West to discern the true position when Jeremy denied more than 3 hearts in the bidding.

That South hand looks like no-trumps. That was why Jeremy simply rebid 3NT.

Of course, so does that North hand. That was why at another table after the 2NT opening from his partner, Jan Cormack, Leon Meier bid 4NT quantitative, ignoring any possible spade fit. With a bare 20 hcp, and a poor one at that (yes, bad 20 counts do exist!), Jan passed and played in comfort at the 4 level.

We have quoted here before that with no long suit, and no fit, you need a combined minimum 33 hcp to make 6NT a decent contract. North-South here had 32 and without Jeremy’s thoughtful 3NT bid, that was not enough.

Exactly half the 32 North-South pairs bid 6NT with only 5 being successful. Jeremy’s opponents had wisely stopped in 4NT. Thus, this board swung 26 imps in a key match.

Nice bidding from Leon and Jeremy and thoughtful play from Jeremy, too.

Richard Solomon

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