While I didn't play last Tuesday an acquaintance pointed out this neat hand from the Woodberry duplicate.
Both sides have a double fit in a major and a minor and a major is usually the place to be at pairs but on best defense you do better in the minor on this hand. Par result is -130 for N/S which I see occurred at one table
If N/S are defending hearts I cannot see anyone finding the DD defense to hold it to 8 tricks (diamond lead, ruff the return, underlead all the club honours to the jack for another ruff with a spade to come). However declarer will likely lose two diamonds and a ruff anyway in the natural order of play.
If E/W are defending spades it should be possible to match the DD result although I see no one did. After a top heart lead East plays the queen showing the jack. Now West can switch to his club. East hops with the ace on the first round of trumps, gives a club ruff and West underleads his hearts to get a second ruff. Is there any alternative defense with those clubs threatening on the table?
The bidding is interesting too. Most North's didn't open which I can understand but now is it practically impossible to get the spades into the auction and being outranked in clubs you will usually defend a heart contract.
If North does open then the spade fit is found after 1C-P-1S-2H-2S. East will bid 3H now and the question is can North/South justify bidding again at this vulnerability? If you play support doubles and a weak NT (not recommended!) then perhaps South can risk it knowing of a likely double fit. Otherwise maybe North can place their partner with only two hearts and not more than 4 diamonds (although playing Walsh style some South's may have longer diamonds than spades) and again bid a third spade based on the double fit.
Might East make a matchpoint double of this thinking 3H is making? As you can see from the traveller this gives you good odds. If it makes you were getting a very poor board anyway and a double and successful defense takes you from an average to an outright top
One final thought. A precision club auction might start 2C-P-3C and now E/W might well get too high. And a canape auction could start 1S-P-2S and have the same effect.
I was criticised for bidding 3S with the South hand after: 1C P 1S 2H, 2S P 3H 3S. It felt like both pairs had a double fit, and I didn't mind playing in a moysian if partner had only 3 Spades; she had 4 Spades. When I made 9 tricks, my decision appeared to be justified, but others don't agree with my 3S bid!
ReplyDeleteI guess we achieved the "par" result. North did open, but after 1C-(P)-1S West doubled, which I think is right and North bid 2S. Leo and I had not discussed support redoubles, so when North raised to 2S I was not certain he had four. And 1C could have been short as well. We went quietly and took our average minus when East bid 3D, although there was no winning action in theory.
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