The (Doe) Rabbit visits the club (part I)

I had another interesting daytime bridge experience recently.  During a three-board sit-out (when we were bumped), I kibitzed boards that we had already played (I was South) and became increasingly impressed by the player that was sitting in my seat at the next table.  On the first board, a run-of-the-mill 3NT by East, our hand held ♠A432 ♥J942 ♦JT8 ♣Q8.  The auction had proceeded 1NT (12-14) – 2♣ (Stayman) – 2♦ – 2NT (balanced invitation) – 3NT, all pass.  Nothing looked appealing and at my table I lead a prosaic ♥2 chosen in preference to the deuce of spades on the grounds that, in order for my lead not to cost a trick outright, partner will need to contribute the Q, T or 8 whereas a spade lead would typically require partner to have the K or perhaps four small for my lead to give nothing away.  Dummy fielded ♠J6 ♥Q753 ♦K3 ♣AJ952 and, somewhat surprisingly declarer went up with dummy's Q.  Partner took the A and returned the T (a sensible looking play, though not the best in practice as we had two spades to cash) which declarer took with the K.  Declarer then rattled off ten tricks in the minors, everything behaving beautifully and conceded the last trick to partner's K and my A of ♠.  That was good for 3.5 matchpoints out of 11.

In the replay, my counterpart took a different approach to the hand, leading a deceptive ♠3.  North produced the K (note to self!) and RHO won the third spade with the Q (all following except dummy) and then played to make the rest of the tricks.  Five rounds of clubs followed on which our hand pitched a deceptive ♦8 followed by two hearts, declarer pitched the ♥6K and the hand opposite pitched the ♥T8.  Declarer now set about the diamonds starting the K from dummy.  All followed with small cards except our hero who played the J.  The small diamond from dummy was led and second hand played a small card.  Declarer was at the crossroads.  Our hand was now down to ♠2 ♥J9 ♦T ♣–.  From declarer's point of view our hand had come down to two spades, a heart (possibly the A) and one other red card.  RHO reasoned that some other declarers might have received a heart lead instead of a spade and that he was therefore behind the field.  That being the time to take risks, he now finessed into our bare T.  Declarer got one more diamond at the end, but the mystery South's deception had set a cold contract which resulted in 10.5 out of 11 matchpoints.

Who was this South, I wondered?  Was it Zia disguised in drag?  Or perhaps the Doe Rabbit who, with fingers sticky from chocolate almond biscuits, had detached the ♠3 instead of the ♠2 by mistake?  But, in that case, how do we explain the absolutely brazen diamond plays?

To be continued...

Daytime bridge

Gotta love those day-time bridge players!  Warning: the following is likely going to sound mean and snobbish.

Here's a hand from a recent day-time game.  Imagine yourself holding this hand: ♠A986543 ♥–  ♦72 ♣J432.  Nobody is vulnerable and RHO deals and passes.  Do you bid 3♠?  If you do (I wouldn't) you might just escape for -200.  Incidentally, why do I think this is not a good preempt?  Because you don't have the ♠Q!  Your Ace is likely to win a trick whatever contract you're in.  Besides that, partner might have ♠K72 ♥65432  ♦A3 ♣AQ5 and you're odds-on to make 4♠ (you might conceivably take all the tricks on a club lead!) but partner is probably going to pass you out.

So, in any case, you decide to pass.  LHO now starts proceedings with a bid of 1♣ (playing standard American more or less).  Your partner overcalls 1♥, and RHO now bids 2♦ (natural).  Now, do you bid 3♠?  Of course not!!  There are several reasons why your hand is even less suitable for a preempt now:

• RHO has significantly limited her hand (she passed initially but now shows 10+ with a good diamond suit) – this means that LHO has a very good idea what the total assets of their partnership are and whether to bid on or nail you.
• Your partner has shown good values in hearts, the one suit you don't have.  On a bad day (this hand, in fact) you can never even get to dummy to cash partner's two heart tricks)!

Nevertheless, despite your hand going seriously down the toilet since you picked it up, you now venture a 3♠ call.  LHO decides to double and you know that you're in trouble now.  Partner, apparently is catching the spirit of let's make as many mistakes on one hand as possible, and now bids 4♦.  What this means is hard to fathom but naturally, RHO now doubles this.  What now?  Could it be that diamonds is actually our best spot?  We do have two of them!  No, you didn't come here to while away the hours as dummy!  So you bid 4♠ and, predictably, this is doubled on your left.  You take half of the ten tricks you've contracted for and lose 1100 points.  And for what?  LHO wasn't even going to bid 3NT (with 13 hcp, badly placed heart honors and a 4414 pattern, he was thinking that 2NT might be high enough, although it turns out that 9 tricks can be made with careful play in notrump for a score of 400).  Incidentally, 4♦X might have saved a trick (-800 instead of -1100) but double-dummy defense will probably still get 1100.

The dramatis personae?  All I will reveal is that I was "LHO" and my hand was: ♠KQT7 ♥QT97  ♦6 ♣AQ96.  I don't think I've ever felt quite so confident about a penalty double of a 3-level bid.  The fact that they went on to the four level was a case of Christmas come early!