26 September 2011

Too Many Quacks

I got a really good board the other night for recognising a fundamental truth:
Queens and Jacks are worth diddly squat
That's maybe a little general and anyone who's gone down in a slam after miss guessing a two way finesse to a queen might rightly feel aggrieved. Here, I'll show you the hand:

Q J 8 7 6
Q J 6
J 9
Q J 9

Sparkling isn't it. Third round control of all three suits. It's fair to say that you don't have a lot of trick taking potential.

Pretend you're North and the auction starts like this:

WestNorthEastSouth
Pass Pass Pass 1
2 ?

I like opening the bidding a bit light especially with spades but this hand doesn't cut it. Still it's a surprise to see partner with five of them too.

Ever heard of the law of total tricks? This is a great example of when it's going to be horribly wrong. I bid 2 sadly admitting to myself that if partner made a game try I'd probably have to raise.

Q J 8 7 6
Q J 6
J 9
Q J 9
9
A 7 5
K Q 8 7 5 4
8 7 2
4 3
K 8 2
T 6 3
A K T 6 5
A K T 5 2
T 9 4 3
A 2
4 3

That was the end of it. The defence carefully got the five tricks they deserve but it wasn't worth much to them. The field was evenly split down two in game or down one on an invite.


Back to what I said about the law though. Is it really wrong? The best fit of each side sums to 19. Double dummy they have 11 tricks in diamonds and we have 8 in spades. Maybe the law isn't so bad.

5 comments:

  1. East's pass over 2S, as opposed to a 3D raise, seems rather weird to me and might have been a significant cause for your nice result. 5-3-3-2 hands are still balanced hands, and so, while I would have cue bid 3D on your hand, I can see the point about downgrading to 2S. Still, at the club, I bet many would jump to 4S on responder's hand; I agree with you, that would be a serious overbid.

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  2. Swapping the Q and 4 of clubs results in two fewer tricks for them with no change for us. Yay for coinflips!

    Agreed that East should raise to 3D. A 1C opening in 3rd stands out, though.

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  3. The opposition should definitely compete here, no doubt. Either a third seat club opening or a diamond raise will see them go positive on the board. East may have been snoozing, it was late in the night.

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  4. even seeing all 4 hands I think a bid of 3S to cut out the opponents is a good compromise. Perhaps you know your opponents better. East must have been dozing.

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  5. @Mark
    Both opponents are passed hands so it seems unlikely we need to talk them out of a game. If it's simply a partscore battle then delaying 3S to the next round of the auction won't cost much.

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