1. Transfer to clubs. 2. Accepting clubs as the trump suit. 3. Singleton or void. 4. Roman keycard blackwood. 5. One or four keycards. Opening Lead:
Today's hands are courtesy of Marty Baff of Beachwood. He was a member of the team that finished second in the Senior knockout teams at the 1996 Fall North American Bridge Championships held last November in San Francisco. The event was six full days of competition. Each match was comprised of sixty- four deals in two sessions of about five hours each.
The first hand, shown at the start of the column, was a twenty-five IMP (International Match Point) swing. East-West bid to a small slam in clubs which depended on the location of the king of hearts. When this card was found to be on side, Baff's team lost thirteen IMPs. At the companion table, East-West played three no trump, making nine tricks after a spade opening lead. Had the king of hearts been in the North hand, the club slam would have been defeated and the Baff team would have won twelve IMPS.
In the next hand, Baff was on lead against a grand slam. He held the ten-eight-four-two of spades, the eight-seven-two of hearts, the jack-seven-six of diamonds, and the jack-seven-two of clubs. East was the dealer and the North-South pair were vulnerable. The bidding was: EAST SOUTH WEST NORTH 1D Pass 1S Pass 2C Pass 2NT Pass 3C Pass 3NT Pass 4S Pass 4NT(1) Pass 5S(2) Pass 5NT(3) Pass 6D(4) Pass 7S (All Pass)
1. Roman keycard blackwood. 2. Two keycards plus the queen of spades. 3. Tell me about your kings. 4. I have the king of diamonds but not the king of clubs.
Before you look further, decide what you are going to lead.
East, the hand that will be the dummy, is likely to hold five diamonds, five clubs, and two or three spades. West, declarer, should have five or six spades but the rest of the distribution will have to be worked out during the play. This is not a lot to go on, and when Baff presented the problem to me I decided to lead the two of spades to reduce the potential heart ruffs in the dummy. I was influenced by a friend of mine, Howard Rose of Solon, who is fond of saying "When in doubt, lead trump."
Baff sympathized and told me that he had come to the same conclusion. The unfortunate result was minus 2210. To beat this contract, North has to lead a club. This lead will remove an important entry to the dummy before declarer has the opportunity to set up the fifth diamond. At the companion table, East-West stopped at six spades and made seven for a score of plus 1460. The Baff team lost thirteen IMPs on the deal. A club lead would have resulted in a seventeen IMP win, a swing of thirty IMPs.
These two hands resulted in a fifty-five IMP swing. When you consider that the match (sixty-four deals) was decided by only fifty-six IMPs, it is obvious that they were key results. The full deal was: