Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Late sacrifice

Friday I held the following collection:
QJ98xxx
xxx
xx
J
We were favorable, RHO was dealer. The auction starts with 1. Do you bid anything?

Although I usually preempt with garbage, this particular partner prefers decent action. So I passed, because the hand is just too weak on both offense as defense. Partner may easily double opponents for penalty and then we'll have a real problem. So the auction continues:
1 - pass - 2 - pass
2NT - pass - 3 - pass
3 - ?

Do you double? Since the chance of cashing some tricks is very small, and because it's an automatic lead anyway, I decided to pass.

1 - pass - 2 - pass
2NT - pass - 3 - pass
3 - pass - ...3NT - pass
pass - ?

LHO hesitated for a very short time (playing with screens, you wouldn't even notice the hesitation), and bid 3NT. Do you bid anything now?

From the auction, I thought it was clear that my partner would have some support, probably honour-small, and in case it's Ax we know where the K was. 3NT would probably make (if declarer ducks he'll block the suit), so I bid 4 with confidence it wouldn't go more than 3 down.
LHO definitely wanted to play, and she bid 5 which ended the auction:

1 - pass - 2 - pass
2NT - pass - 3 - pass
3 - pass - 3NT - pass
pass - 4 - 5 - pass
pass - pass

Here's the full deal:

Dealer:East
Vul:EW
Scoring:MP
KT
Jxxx
Kxxx
Kxx
Ax
x
AQJx
Qxxxxx
xx
AKQxx
T9x
ATx
QJ98xxx
xxx
xx
J

4 would've gone for -500 while opps had an easy 620 or 630. My LHO however misplayed the s (she started with the Ace) so they only collected 600.

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