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 It’s Jan’s Day, a day for Imagination!

Yesterday, we left you with four hands from a deal and asked you to guess (maybe you knew and no guess is required!) the contract and the result. You might have gathered it was not a normal contract and nor indeed was the result normal.

Here then is today’s “Jan’s Day” article:

Jan Cormack

Luck Looked After Comedian’s Overcall

“Santa Claus arrived early for South on the following deal. The deal comes from a New Zealand Teams of Four championship held in Wellington which was won by the team from Canterbury.

The comedian in the South seat was Auckland’s John Evitt who was substituting in the Waikato Bays team.

 

No doubt, you find the bidding somewhat strange. East’s 1 was a systemic Precision opening not necessarily indicating diamonds. South was rather peeved that his magnificent suit had been opened by the opposition and decided therefore to overcall his singleton!

Of course, the inevitable (a pun of the best kind!) happened as South heard his partner leap to game in his singleton. With the old philosophy of “no double, no trouble”, South passed and waited apprehensively for dummy to appear.

West led his singleton 2 and South received his first gift when East played his K. Q followed, taken by East’s king. I do not think we can really criticise East for not realising his partner held a singleton diamond. He returned 4 to South’s 10.

It was now West’s turn to give declarer an early Christmas present. All West had to do was to play J over the 10 and declarer would never get to his hand to enjoy the lovely diamond suit.

Not having a crystal ball to divine the situation and still under the illusion that South must have initially held four spades for his overcall, West was fearful that the 10 was a singleton and therefore played his A. West continued with a trump and this was the position.

 

Our comedian gleefully drew trumps and came to hand with the K, to cash all the diamond winners, adding insult to injury by making an overtrick!”

Great result!

The art of psyching seems largely to have left our game. This is a pity. While you should not and indeed are not allowed to psyche often, the occasionally gross description of one’s hand adds colour and excitement to our game.

Do not, though, go rushing off and start psyching randomly. There is the right time and place and hand and opponents for a psyche. Also, the psycher must be prepared for a very poor result. Before you psyche, be sure your partner will understand if the end result is not quite the best. Your partner must have no idea what you are up to, before or during the auction, at least until the penalty doubles start coming!

On the above deal, neither opponent had any idea of John’s hand and thus had no cause to double. John would never have played the 4 contract doubled but would have retreated to 5 which looks like down 2 on best defence. In such situations, as the above defence to 4 demonstrated, you rarely get “best defence!”

If you are the victim of a successful psyche, do not go rushing for the director. An out-of-the-blue one-off psyche is perfectly legal. Smile. Give the psycher their moment of sweet success and tell them to choose a different opponent next time!

For Less Experienced Players

Lucky Lead?

 

1NT is 12-14 with 2 showing spades and a minor. North tries for 9 quick tricks though is playing a convention called Lebensohl, where 3NT in the above auction shows the values for game but denies a spade hold. South would remove to a suit without a spade hold though not this time.

Lead Q

It seems like you just received a lucky lead though on any lead, you might be able to count at least 10 tricks.

At trick 1, East plays a rather discouraging 8. It seems right to win this trick and attack clubs. On the first round of clubs, West plays 4. Plan the play.

Richard Solomon

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