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Strong Preference…and Restricted Choice!

Maybe you rather regret your opening bid after partner’s quadruple jump. They certainly had a fine hand and perhaps did not expect you to have problems with the suit which became trumps. Yet, you have and East gave you those problems at trick 2….

 

 

West led 6 with 9 in dummy winning the first trick. You lay down A at trick 2. All your worries would be over if neither the Q nor the J appeared. You would then play K and cheer or concede down 1!

Alas, East played Q on the first round. Decisions….

Did they have to? That is the question you would like to ask. They would play that queen whether they had doubleton QJ or if it was the only club they held. A sadist would play the queen from QJx! Ignore that kind of person! With three spades able to be discarded on heart and diamond winners, your only worry is in the trump suit.

What you can say about the final contract is that it is has more to gain than 6NT, though you might still make 6NT even with a club loser, if the J appears in three rounds. While partner might have checked for key-cards en route (though the presence of one key card would not be conclusive), they could hardly be blamed for going grand after your 1 opening. It seems reasonable to open 1 with the above shape and a decent club suit. You would not use that word to describe the above holding. North would expect you to hold Q or if not have 6 clubs.

Leading to a "grand?"

So, stalling for time. A standard lead against a suit grand slam is a trump…and West chose not to do that. One reason why not is that they held three of them, including the jack. Few questions were asked in the bidding…and the Q was missing. West could have been wary of leading away from Jxx.

Restricted Choice... was there?

Add that to the old chestnut, Restricted Choice. Did East have a choice in which card to play? If declarer crosses back to the A (no swearing if that got ruffed!) and plays a second club, the chances of a 3-1 break are stronger as if East had a choice of which card to play under the ace, some of the time they may have chosen the jack. The only two relevant holdings are West holding Jxx or East QJ doubleton.

So, coupled with an argument about a non-trump lead, indeed a potentially dangerous diamond lead from West's point of view, South elected to take a second- round finesse:

 

So much for theories. Credit to East for playing the queen. Perhaps South paid the price for their 1 opening.

6NT was the popular contract. East has an ugly choice of leads, especially where North had bid hearts. Several chose the Q which did not seem to cause the declarers many problems. After a diamond lead and two top clubs, North has 12 top tricks..but not so after the Q lead. Strangely, only one declarer took the 100% line after playing two top clubs, that of giving up one spade trick. Next time, the 10 will not fall so obligingly.

Where a club was not led, there was a mixture of plays from East when it came to the first round of clubs…which rather proves that the line taken by our declarer in 7 was right because of those declarers who had the choice and played the jack. South was unlucky they were faced with one who did not.

Your Preference..and then your choice?

 

2 questions on which to ponder.

Do you agree with South’s 2 overcall? If not, what would you have bid?

What do you bid now in the above sequence?

(Actually, that may be three questions…but who’s counting!?)

Richard Solomon

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