COGNITO, ERGO SUM
Deal no. 1:
N E S W
---------------------------
2C - 3D 3S
- (1) - 4C -
4H(2) - ?
You are South, and your hand: 43, - , KJ10843, AQJ52 looks even
more promising after your partner's game forcing 2C opening bid.
So what if North doesn't like your diamonds (1) ? You still have got your
beautiful club suit, and nothing short of brute physical force will stop you
short of a slam! But wait a second, why 4H (2) now and not before? THINK!!!
Your partner's heart suit must be very long and very good, so shouldn't he
have bid it immediately? Why didn't he? What's the message? There are no two
bids with exactly the same meaning, that much you know... Maybe he wanted to
warn you about something that you wouldn't like, maybe some spades in his
hand, but too good hearts to sanction penalty double?
If you trust your partner, you'll grind your teeth and pass.
Here's the full distribution:
KQ82
AKJ9653
A
6
AJ109765 -
Q N 108742
Q976 W E 52
10 S K98743
43
-
KJ10843
AQJ52
Lucky you! No club lead, and he'll make 10 tricks if he finesses the King of clubs...
Deal no. 2:
W N E S
-------------------------
1S x xx 1NT
- ?
You are North and your hand is: 3, AK982, Q953, AQ7.
Do you stop to think, or do you automatically bid 2H?
If you do stop, then your partner's 1NT bid must seem suspiciously out of
place: if you add your 15 points to the 22 or more of the opponents, it'll
leave your partner with not enough strength to utter even a single word!
But why didn't he pass? The 1NT bid must have meant only one thing: short
hearts and both minors, with a heart fit South could have comfortably passed
and let you choose your suit. So say 2D instead of the obvious 2H!
My partner never stopped to think, bid 2H, and after 2S he didn't bid 3D.
They made 2S and we couldn't lose 3D. My hand (South): 642, 43, 10864, K853, and I could have had even more unbalanced hand with even less points.
Deal no. 3:
One of the most difficult decisions on game level is chosing between 3NT and 4 in a major suit. Everybody has his own private set of rules and claims that his rules are the best and only, and most players never admit they only work in some 50% of cases. I am no different - I too have my own rules and believe they are the best and obviously enough I'm not going to share them with you, well, I need some advantage, don't I? This time my rules worked perfectly well and I'm tempted to add "as usual".
The bidding was short and simple:
N E S W
------------------------------
1C p 1S p
1NT p 3NT p
p p
I was South and held AKJxx, Qx, xx, J10xx. As you can see I decided not to search for a spade fit in my partner's hand and went directly for 3NT which, according to my rules, should be better even if there is a spade fit. Let's take a look at what my partner saw after the diamond 2 lead:
10xx
Axx
KJx
KQxx
N
W E
S
AKJxx
Qx
xx
J10xx
Small from dummy, 10 from West, North took with the Jack and played clubs until East took his Ace. East attacked hearts with the Jack, Queen from dummy, King and Ace. Now is the perfect time to stop and think it over.
East showed us 4 points in clubs, 1 in hearts and should have 6 points in diamonds. If he had the spade Queen it would add up to 13 high points and there is a strong probability, surely more than 50%, that with 13 points he would have doubled (take-out) on 1 level. And since he didn't and assuming he was fully awake, he probably didn't have the spade Queen! And if East had Q98x in spades we couldn't make more than 3 spade tricks and would lose the contract anyway. So my partner played percentages: he drew my top two spades, the dubleton Queen dropped and he made10 tricks.
Let's see all the hands and analyze what we see:
10xx
Axx
KJx
KQxx
Qx 98x
K109xx N Jxx
xxxx W E AQxx
xx S Axx
AKJxx
Qx
xx
J10xx
There is a killing lead of course, but there is no reason for leading a heart and not our own good diamonds when judging from the bidding our partner can't have more than 3-4 points. Of course after a heart lead West can't play his third heart and must switch to diamonds in order to defeat us.
Let's consider now the 4S contract. First of all, no sane person would lead a diamond against 4S and there is no way in the world to make this contract! After any lead, diamonds excluded, even if we find the trump Queen which is very improbable, we must give two diamonds, heart and club...
Deal no. 4:
You are South and in accordance with your own slightly unconventional bidding theories ( Qx = 0 points while opening the bidding ) after two passes you open 1D with Qx, AJ10, AJ9xx, A10x. Surprise, surprise! Everyone passes, you are going to play 1D and West promptly leads with SA and then with a small diamond which East covers with the King.
You count your five tricks over and over again, maybe six if there is an end-play or they make a mistake or even seven if you have some lucky distributions, so you take the Ace and with a lightning speed play...
But wait! why three passes? Where are all the outstanding points? Even if you count your ugly hand as 16, your partner has only 3, so someone here must have non-vulnerable 11 points or more!!! Are they mad or chicken? Weird... Unless you stop to think, because there is one very simple and logical explanation but if you are in a hurry you won't guess it. Well, I always try to think a bidding over so I stopped for a moment and then it was crystal clear: East is very weak, but West is strong with long diamonds, quite likely five of them. So in the third trick I played my SQ.
Take a look at all four hands and at what's actually happened:
xx
xxxx
8x
QJxxx
AKx J10xxxx
KQ9x N xx
Q10xx W E Kx
xx S Kxx
Q10
AJ10
AJ97x
A10x
First of all, I'm going to get my sixth trick now, and if West plays his last spade then both sixth and seventh. West played a heart which I took with the 10. After you see all four hands, the best continuation seems to be a diamond, then after the third spade another diamond, drawing the outstanding diamond and finally end-playing West in hearts so that he must bring you two club tricks. It isn't so far-fetched even with closed hands, since so far you know West has SAK?, HKQxx, and DQ10xx?, and assuming Cxx which I prayed he had, it's either 3442 or 2452 and it doesn't really matter which.
And so I did, 1D made, while all the field went down, well, mostly on 1NT... But what if West had a club singleton, can you think of a distribution that lets you make 7 tricks in spite of it?
