Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Lead directing psych

Yesterday I was playing with some friends and at one point I got the following hand:
A97
Q987653
-
J52
We're NV vs V, RHO opens in 1st seat with 2NT (20-21). What do you bid and why?

I thought opponents might have 4 or a slam in , so why not mess up their auction. If they bid to 4, the contract will be wrongsided and partner can immediately give me a ruff. Perhaps I can even reach his hand for another ruff for -1. So I bid 4 which turned out to be a success. If opponents don't double (unlikely) I'll be happy to go -9, otherwise I can safely return to 4H. It's always exciting to bid natural with a void, especially if you expect partner to have lots of support and he should have the discipline not to raise...

The entire auction went:
2NT - 4! - Dbl - pass
pass - 4 - Dbl - pass
pass - pass

Now the psych has been exposed, but opponents can't make things right. South did a great job not to bid 4 at any time, and take his money on 4x down as much as possible.

The full hand:

Dealer:North
Vul:NS
Scoring:imps
85
AK
AQT9
AK973
KJ
J2
J654
QT864
A97
Q987653
-
J52
QT6432
T4
K8732

As you can see, when is played by South a lead will defeat the contract if I can manage to play low when declarer plays (I should be able to find that, but we'll never know for sure). 4 by North is laydown. 4x-2 cost us 300, which is way better than 4=. Some however got to 6 or 6, I've even seen a 6NT!

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