The First Winter Transnational Championship - Alpe d'Huez 2024
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Thanks go to Joan Dziekanski (BBO: Perkie88) for sending in this hand.
East opens 1♣ with her two four card majors and 11HCP and two 10’s. South passes and West bids 1♠.
North makes a takeout double with 13HCP and four cards in the two unbid suits: hearts and diamonds.
East raises her partner’s bid to 2♠.
West’s 3♦ is a help suit game try, asking partner to bid a game in spades if she has fewer than 3 losers in diamonds. East has only one diamond loser so she bids 4♠.
Declarer is missing the Q♠, the K and J of hearts, the K, Q and J of diamonds, and the K, Q and J of clubs.
North leads her Q♣, and declarer wins her A♣. With this lead, declarer should know every single card in North’s hand.
Since North leads her Q♣, South has the K♣ and the Q♦ (or else North would have led the K♦ from the KQ of diamonds or the K♣ from the KQ of club. An opponent will lead their highest sequence especially in an unbid suit). Therefore, North has the Q♠, the KJ of hearts, the KJ of diamonds, and QJ of club for her 13 HCP takeout double with at least four cards in the two unbid suits.
Now the hand is easy to play. At trick two, play the AK of spades (Q falls), then a spade to your J♠. Then play a heart to your A♥ and a heart toward the Q, which North wins with the K. North cashes the J♣ and plays another club, which you trump. Then you play a low heart toward dummy and put in the 10 (North is known to have 4 hearts, including the J♥.)
This is how experts think. You too can play like an expert if you just count.
About the Author
Joan has been teaching bridge, playing professionally, and running duplicate events for 40 years in NYC. She won a World Championship Pairs game in Orlando. She's delighted to work in her hobby and to interest so many in the game she loves.
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To come into a live auction, I would prefer not to have a stray Q in their suit. Thus 11 would be better than 13.
While the QS is the only spade honor, the spade suit has not been confirmed yet by East. So why isn't 13HCP better than 11HCP?
Its good and bad-it helps you to think about points in opponents hands-but 2 11 counts without a fivecard suit must nor bid up to 4 spades i thk. Making 140 or 170 is a very good result.
why North need to have SQ?
1-4-4-4 11HCP is obviously a good takeout hand
Or x, KJxx, KJxxx, QJx....or void, KJxx, KJxxxx, QJx...void, KJxx, KJxxx, QJxx....
The 1-4-5-3 hand, alone, seems more likely than the one described. When combined with your other possibilities, the spade finesse looks to be a far better play.
While the QS may not be a 100% absolute holding, North needs a better hand to double over 1S than she would if West had bid 1H, as she is asking her partner to bid at the two level. Counting the QS in the North hand on the opening lead of the QC is a very reasonable way to analyze the hand and play accordingly.
North doesnt need 13 hcp and she certainly doesnt need the queen of spades.
Thanks for That! You make it look so easy!
Apparently North didn't think like an expert with 8 HCP in unbid suits and the worst possible shape
I like North's bid. When your partner is a passed hand it is often very successful to double with such cards as long as you have at least 4-4 in the unbid suits.
I did a class on this yesterday and it is so helpful....the lead can say such a lot about app hands. Thank you.
Thank you for the insight! Clearly written & explained