Once again, we are super lucky to have a hand review from one of our own NYC world class pros. For those who played Sunday night, there were quite a few good slams, at least one tempting but very bad slam, and most importantly, some hands misplayed by even top notch declarers.
Review Of Select Hands, by David Gurvich
There were a few hands that were interesting for various reasons and one in particular that might bring back memories of Justin Lall. Bonus points to everyone who either knows or guesses the board.
Board 3:
I like this board because numerous declarers misplayed it. Most pairs either got to 4H or 3NT by East after a 3D preempt was doubled by West. 4H is trivial in the play and merely requires guessing to lead a heart to the K instead of finessing for the Q. 3NT is more interesting and requires some planning.
Most pairs in 3NT received a diamond lead. All the declarers who won this trick should go down 3 when the clubs are unfavorable. Some made with a popular misdefense of not rising with the heart Ace, leaving partner to a guess.
The correct play requires some foresight. With the 3D preempt there is an excellent chance that clubs don’t break and diamonds are 7-2. If clubs don’t break we need 2 more tricks. There are 2 lines which require different plays at trick 1. 1)The heart A is with the preemptor. 2)The heart A is not with the preemptor.
Option 1) Win the opening lead, cash 2 clubs finding the bad news, finesse for the heart Q. That line is fine if your opponents typically preempt with a good suit and side A at favorable vulnerability. Mine don’t, which leaves…
Option 2) Duck the lead, win the diamond continuation (pitching hearts from dummy), cash CK and duck a club when the suit fails to break. On the heart return rise with the K. This combines three separate concepts for declarer. Plan the play before playing to trick 1, scissoring the opponents’ hands, and an avoidance play.
Board 12:
Most pairs reached a 4H which requires careful defense to beat. Many tables received the lead of the SK when partner overcalled or opened spades. To guarantee a set, either a small diamond or 2nd spade followed by a diamond must be played, though there are many landmines available.
A typical defense was SK followed by 2 more rounds of spades ruffed high. After drawing 2 rounds of hearts and stripping spades and clubs, declarer has to decide how to endplay East. The holdings where it is possible to make are KQ, KJ, QJ or singleton honor. Kx when the defense fails to unblock is also possible but usually requires cashing the DA early.
Since I don’t like guessing when deduction is available let’s see what information we have. On the 3rd round of spades West typically pitched a diamond. After drawing trump we know that West started with 22 in the majors and 9 cards in the minors. Psychologically, it’s much easier to pitch from a 5-card holding than a 4-card holding. As a defender with Jxxxx and KJxx would you pitch a diamond or a club? That means we can assume that West is 2254 and East is 5215. Once we make that assumption playing for East to have a singleton honor becomes a certainty.
Board 19:
4S was the normal contract. A few pairs went down immediately when played by North on the lead of the HA followed soon by a heart ruff. Many pairs made when played by South on the lead of the CK. What went wrong?
In our match the C3 was played at one table and the C8 at the other. At both tables declarer ruffed and tried to sneak a spade through with a fake finesse, playing the SJ from hand. At one table West rose with the SA and shifted to a heart while the SJ held the trick at the other. Who misdefended?
The C3 is a clear misdefense, even though partner is expecting an attitude signal there will be no other chance to signal for a heart shift. I would play the C10 but at least give partner a chance with the C8. On the other side, ducking the SA will only gain in 1 case and requires that partner holds the SQ and declarer is 6520 with the HK or HA. With fewer hearts declarer will be able to pitch down to doubleton heart (9xx opposite AKQx drops J10). If declarer doesn’t have HK or HA, winning the SA and getting a ruff is obvious.
Board 20:
7S is excellent, somewhere between 70% and 80%. From the results it’s clear that the grand is difficult to bid with most pairs that bid 7S essentially guessing what to do. There was only 1 pair that didn’t, Warren Chang – Stephen Jansen.
Most tables started with 1D-2C to show the GF and longest suit. Stephen chose 1S and had an easy road to 7S after Warren raised to 3S and exclusion keycard was applied. While 1S might run into difficulties on other hands it made the auction much easier here. A trivial example of a problem with 1S is opener rebidding 2D. 3C is artificial and clubs will frequently not be shown unless getting to a slam.
A simple auction might be 1D-2C-2H-2S-3S, then exclusion and 7S. The problem with that auction is when partner has an inadequate number of keycards and you are forced to play either in 5S (off 3 keycards), 6S on spade finesse (if lucky) or 5NT. A few pairs had an auction where they made a slam try and partner bid keycard. That allowed them to bid 6H but partner still had no clue how high to go.
The main problem is that opener has no way to show some extra values over 2C using standard methods. Here is a reasonable standard auction to 7S: 1D-2C-2H-2S-3S-4C-4D followed by 5H exclusion. If opener takes control with keycard instead of 4D the auction goes off the rails and should stop in 6.