Not a good day for Weak Two's

Paulo Brum
May 3rd, 2024

The Wilsonovich Team picked up 22 more imps to get to the next stage of the Joust (Check out The Bridge Zone for more info on this online competition). Once again, there were many interesting hands. 

You have KJ5432 / 104 / 1064 / 94, first position, white v. red. I think most people would react to that "white v. red" as a bull to a red flag and open Two Spades. I often would have done the same. But not today; for some reason the horrible suit and shape (not even a side singleton to cheer me up a little bit) inclined me to passivity. 

You can picture how happy I was when my LHO opened the bidding with One Spade. Two hearts from RHO, Three Clubs from LHO (so they not only have spades stacked behind me, but they have extras too). RHO tried to end the proceedings with 3NT, but LHO was not finished and invited a slam with 4NT. (Lots of extras!). RHO was having none of that, so the bidding ended in 4NT. The full auction:

And the full hand at your right. Declarer could have made 12 tricks in notrump by finessing in spades and squeezing my partner in hearts and diamonds, but without any clues from the bidding, she preferred to establish the 5th heart and ended with 11 tricks. 

At the other table, after the Two Spades opening bid from South, our teammates were able to nail them there after a pass from West and a double from East. Declarer made 4 tricks (3 spades and the club Ace), and so went down 800, which was worth 4 imps for us. 

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In a late board in the segment I had the opportunity to show my conservatism again. (Maybe I should not be advertising this). At least now we were red v. white. My cards: Q6 / Q76542 / K8 / 1076.

I am more confident that pass here is correct than in the first board. I passed and so did LHO. Partner, dear partner, opened with One Heart, and East overcalled One Spade. With 6-card support for partner I was no longer cautious on account of the vulnerability and bid the obvious Four Hearts. 

Undeterred, West bid Four Spades. Partner went on to Five Hearts (vul v. not! "I suppose he has the goods", I remember thinking) and was doubled by East, ending the auction.  The full hand:

Our opponents defended well to defeat it; if they try to cash the wrong winners, partner runs home with 11 tricks. It is a good advertisement for a widespread agreement among experts, in which the lead of the King against a five-level (or higher) contract asks for a count signal. East led the King of clubs; playing upside down, West followed suit with the Nine, showing an odd number of clubs, and so East was quite alert to the possibility of North having a singleton club. (That North followed with the Queen is not, of course, conclusive evidence of anything).

East next tried the Ace of spades. The deuce was a fortunate card in West's hand (a very unambiguous positive signal, playing upside down!), and so the defense cashed the 3rd trick in spades. 

Still, the deal garnered 6 imps for us when my counterpart opened Two Hearts and the bidding continued with a pass, Four Hearts from North, Four Spades from East. North decided to take his chances with defending against Four Spades, but it was completely cold, and East even made 11 tricks when the defense did not start with three rounds of diamonds. (Note the symmetry of the problem for both pairs). We had found a very rare vulnerable sacrifice against non-vulnerable opponents. 

Keep checking this page to hear more news and stories from the exploits of the Wilsonovich team!