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The Effect of Heart Overcalls

There is a saying that pairs would be a lot better off as far as imps are concerned if they had never bid a slam. That saying was reinforced for the North-South pairs in the second match at Akarana this week.

For those who played the boards in numerical order, they were just about to pack up and go home before the “fun” started. Six of the North/South pairs had seen their opponents bid and make an excellent small and miss a pretty good grand slam a few boards earlier when Board 26 arrived. With North holding:

JT97

AKT

  JT

  A875

it seemed pretty normal to raise clubs, after a natural auction like:                                                                                                                        North                     South      

                                                                                1

                                                1                         3

After that, whichever partner checked for key cards, the news seemed to be OK with all the key cards held but the trump queen missing. 6 seemed like a good spot and if you knew there were no major suit losers, then you would fancy your chances….but

 

 Bad Breaks...

This contract is absolutely cold on standard 3-2 minor breaks and absolutely “cold off” when declarers played a small trump to the ace in case East held 4 trumps to one or two of the top honours. This play seemed absolutely normal at our table when after South had started with a Precision 1, West had produced one of those abominable “far too bad to make a weak jump overcall” 1 bids.

 Normally, I would describe such a bid as having no upside and plenty of downs if one’s partner took the bid seriously. However, it did have a strange up-side here. The chance of that 4-1 club break (we will not even think of a 5-0 break) seemed more likely because of the overcall. However, as you can see, there was just as much chance of West being 6-4 in hearts and diamonds as hearts and clubs. At least by playing a low club to the king, you would not have to suffer a lecture from partner about “vacant spaces”. We all know East was more likely to have four clubs than West!

So, how does one reach the superior 6 contract? It’s superior, if you make it! If West leads a heart, you have to make some good decisions pretty early. If West leads a spade, life is a lot more comfortable. In reality, 8 pairs failed in 6, two in 6 and one in 6NT while the only plus scores were recorded by four pairs in game and one lone 6 South who played K at trick two.

A, AQ are pretty good major suit holds when you are in 6. Yet, on board 27, South’s majors were even better… A, AK. However, as North, would you even be contemplating slam, when holding

  J954

  JT84

  AQJ7

  4 and with no-one vulnerable hear:

West                     North                    East                        South

                                                                                                1 (2/3+)

1                          x                          Pass                             2

Pass                       ?

Whatever partner was up to, whether to emerge later with spade support, it seemed quite normal to head quickly for no-trumps, with what would have been the winning bid, 3, probably not even possible since it may well show a weakish hand with long diamonds. Over half the field languished in 3NT when these were the cards:

 

 

The "cursed heart overcall"...again!

 Look at the effect of that 1 overcall. Without it, North may have called 1, even if there is a tendency to by-pass the minor with a minimum response to the 1 opener. After 1 from North, could South really be blamed if they lurched into minorwood? The discovery of one key-card and the trump queen must surely make 6 a fair prospect. Partner is allowed to hold the jack too!

Our opponent, Kevin Fan, did well. After an overcall showing the majors, he discovered his partner had a positive response to his Precision 1 opening and used 4 ace ask after the attempted 3NT signoff. The presence of the A saw Kevin jump to 6 with the hope that his partner’s remaining 4+ high card points would be useful. They were! At least he would not have more than one trump loser this time!

6 really requires the diamond finesse to work since you almost certainly have a club loser. However, 6 only needs one of the minor kings to be well placed. Oh, trumps broke 3-2 with the king on-side…this time. Most had suffered enough on the previous board with there being only three slam bidders, all in 6.

Had you failed in slam on Board 26 and bid and made slam on Board 27, you would have lost 3 imps (assuming your opponents subscribed to the “best stay out of all slams” theory.) Why is it the vulnerable ones have to fail?! You would, though, have had a lot more excitement.

Oh…board 28? No hat-trick…defending yet again!

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

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