TRUST YOUR PARTNER III
Deal no. 1:
Imagine you are North and your hand is: AQJxxx, Q, Kxx, 109x. West opens 1H (both vulnerable), you bid 1S, and then quite unexpectedly your next chance to bid is on 5 level... You have nothing better to do but pass but your problems are not over yet, you are supposed to find the best possible lead...
W N E S
----------------------------
1H 1S p 4S
5C p 5H p
p p
My partner decided to trust me blindly and led a club, which was the only killing lead.
Why? His reasoning was quite simple:
(1) I must have at least 4 spades so we can't take two spade tricks even if I've got the King.
(2) I wouldn't have jumped to vulnerable 4S without a singleton or void! It obviously can't be in spades, it's not in diamonds (who's got all the diamonds if nobody bid them?), if it is a singleton heart then we have no chance of beating the contract, so it must be a singleton or void in clubs. Then all he needs is a heart honor in my hand, and none of the opponents having spade void so that he can enter his hand in order to give me (South) a club ruffer. Ingenious but simple, and what counts most, how very true:
AQJxxx
Q
Kxx
109x
xx x
AJ10xx N xxxx
J W E AQxx
AKQxx S xxxx
Kxxx
Kxx
10xxxx
J
It would have been much easier on him if East negatively doubled in the first round but he didn't, maybe because he counted only 6 points and thought it wasn't enough, maybe because he was daydreaming, and maybe he simply wanted me to have something to write about. Thank you my friend, whatever your reasons might have been!
Deal no. 2:
I was South and had one of my average hands: K2, K864, 8653, 863. The bidding that unfolded was quite boring until the end of its second round:
W N E S
------------------------------
1NT x 2S p
p 3C p ?
Something rather unexpected happened - my partner decided to bid once more, after he had specified his strength in the first round! It definitely made me think: well he had his 14-18 points, but now he said he had also six quick club tricks in his hand. I decided to trust my partner and bid 3NT.
I would have hardly any story to write if this was the end of it. So I bid correctly, so what? At least 5% of bridge players would! But here comes the tough one: West was no dummy, knew me well, valued me and trusted my judgement so he bid 4S.
A5
532
K4
AKQ1052
Q1098 J7643
AJ10 N Q97
AQJ9 W E 1072
J9 S 74
K2
K864
8653
863
You are North for a change, let's say you don't see your partner's hand, what do you do now? Do you trust your South enough to double 4S? Well, South had told you before he had a good spade stopper for 3NT plus another King or so, that's what his 3NT meant. If you trust him, double them! They'll go down for sure. But there is another reason to double 4S: if you don't, your partner will be positive you have nothing in spades and with two kings in his hand and long clubs he may - or rather should - defend the unbeatable from his point of view 4S by bidding 4NT! Why? Because in his mind the spade King is worthless and East should be very short in clubs, short meaning a singleton or even void! Your double isn't a penalty one at all, it's 100% informative! They call it sometimes - partnership.
Deal no. 3:
How often do you bid a grand slam? Not very often, I'd say. Now let's assume you are a pathological underbidder, you know your combined hands can't have more than 29 high card points and on the top of it you are completely sober, what would you say the odds of you bidding a grand slam are? Zilch?
In the following deal my dear underbidder was South and held: AKxx, xxx, Jxx, AKx. I was North and opened 1D, he bid 1S, and now he saw me put 4S on the table. Well, I don't know what your system is but in our book 4S strictly promises six good diamonds and four spades with some 11-14 high card playing points. Now you know almost everything you should in order to follow our bidding:
QJxx
-
AKQxxx N E S W
xxx ------------------------------
1D p 1S p
N 4S(1) p 5C(2) p
W E 5D(3) p 5S(4) p
S 6H(5) p 7S(6) all pass
AKxx
xxx
Jxx
AKx
(1) As I said it means 6-4 in diamonds and spades, but we use very strict Splinter bids - our Splinters promise exactly a singleton with at least one Ace in our hand, so if I didn't use Splinter it could have meant only one of the following three cases: either I didn't have a singleton in my hand (mind you, with 6-4 no singleton means a void!!!), or I had no Aces, or I simply forgot about Splinter.
(2) My partner smartly dismissed the third option, decided to be optimistic (did I tell you it was Good Friday and his spirits were high?) and showed me his Ace.
(3) So I showed him mine.
(4) By now he knew I just had to have a void, but he didn't know which one. Club void was no good, heart void closed his hand, he knew I would't pass before 6 so he allowed himself to bid 5S. Mind you, if I had something like QJxx, xxx, AKQxxx we were overboard even on 5 level, but why not 4360 with Qxxx, Kxx, AQ10xxx, - or Qxxx, Kxx, AK10xxx,- or even Qxxx, Kxx, AKQxxx, -, not to mention 4063 at all!
(5) My 6H was music in his ears! Now he counted my high card points: no more than 3 points in spades, 9 in diamonds and 3 in clubs which made 15, but knowing my style he correctly assumed I wouldn't have counted QJx in a side suit as 3 points (which I indeed wouldn't), and without 11-12 points (my minimum) in my two long suits I would have downgraded my hand and wouldn't have shown my void but bid only 6S. So I just had to have Qxxx, -, AKQxxx, ??? with unknown club values! Assuming normal distributions he counted 5 spade tricks, 6 diamond tricks and 2 club tricks, so he really had no choice but to bid 7S...
