TRUST YOUR PARTNER II
Deal no. 1:
When you know your partner's distribution, it may be possible either to upgrade or to downgrade your hand, but under one condition only: that you trust your partner with your life. I played this hand some time ago with someone I could trust, and he knew he could trust me.
Both vulnerable, dealer West: W N E S
---------------------------
7 9632 1H 1S 2C p
AKJ62 Q9743 2D 2S 4H p
A8643 W E 7 4NT p 5D p
83 AKQ 6H p p p
My 2C was essentially natural and forcing. I saw a chance of a slam and didn't want to miss it, but I didn't want to bid negative double which would have distorted my distribution, so I chose the second lowest and nearly natural forcing bid.
After West showed 54 in hearts and diamonds, and North bid at least six card spades, there was an excellent chance West had a singleton or void in spades! I sensed a crossruff in the making, so I jumped to 4H showing a very good hand with a perfect fit in hearts.
My partner (Shaya Levitt) understood me perfectly well. He knew spades weren't my shortest suit (no negative double), so I had to be short in diamonds, with no wasted spade values. I suspect he imagined I rather had the diamond King and Qxxx in hearts, but does it make any difference? With his singleton spade he took full control of the remainder of the bidding and reached the slam with only 23 high card points.
Deal no. 2:
Once upon a time, when the word "sponsor" was just another word in the dictionary, all our best partnerships participated in the National Pairs Championship, and only the best twelve pairs used to reach the finals. The following hand was played there and then.
AKQ962 North South
AQ6 --------------------
3 1S 2C
J64 3S 4NT
3 J754 5S 5NT
10842 N 975 6H 7NT
J9754 W E Q1086
952 S Q8
108
KJ3
AK2
AK1073
My reasons for bidding 7NT were as follows:
(1) North should have six spades to the AKQ (conventional), and I blindly trusted he strictly followed our agreements. His 5S indicated two aces and a king. His 6H indicated two queens.
(2) If 7S makes so does 7NT, the latter requiring the extra queen he already promised, and it was completely unimportant which queen it was.
(3) If 7S fails because an opponent has four spades to the Jack, there is an additional possibility of establishing the club suit. Because of this additional chance the slam was bid in no trump and not in spades. But we played 7 and not 6 only because I never doubted accuracy of my partner's bids.
The deal was played six times. Four times out of six the contract was either 6S or 6NT for either 1430 or 1470 points. One pair played 7S for minus 100 points. Why?
As far as I remember, all the other pairs were at least as accomplished as we were, each partnership had played together many serious competitions here and abroad, there is no doubt in my mind they had more than enough tools for reaching 7NT in this particular deal. So was it because one member of each partnership considered his partner a lesser player than himself and didn't trust him 100%? Can you think of another reason, bare a serious mental aberration? I can't.
Deal no. 3:
The following slam is another example of this kind of trust:
xxx
AJ9x
AKxx N E S W
Jx ------------------------------
1D 2H x p
N 2NT p 3C p
W E 3D p 4C p
S 4H p 4NT p
5S p 6C all pass
AQJ10
-
xxx
AK108xx
1D promised at least 3 diamonds, 2H was weak, 2NT described a balanced hand with 12-14 points and a likely heart stopper, 3C after negative double was natural and strong (conventional).
The first key bid was 3D promising very good diamond values. 4C fixed the trump suit (mind you, North promised two or three clubs).
My partner's 4H was fearless and brilliant: he decided on showing his first round control in hearts, since repeating diamonds would have been a waste, who needed to show the same values twice! 5S showed 2 Aces and a King, clearly A,AK in hearts and diamonds.
What could I say after the dummy opened? That the club Queen would have been better than Jack? True, but as it was, Jack of clubs was priceless, six made since the spade King was off side.
