Charlotte, North Carolina

The October, 2007 regional in Charlotte, NC provided several tough slam decisions. First, I held this unusual hand:

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4
J 10 9 7 6 5 4
K 8 6 4 3

We were at favorable vulnerability and my LHO dealt and opened 2. Partner doubled and RHO passed. Now what?

We were playing a popular treatment whereby 2NT would show any weak hand (requesting 3 from partner). Direct bids (without going through 2NT) would should values.

From RHO's failure to raise, it seemed partner had some spade length. Accordingly, he probably had a strong balanced hand, as opposed to support for all the unbid suits.

Rather than encourage him with 3 (showing values), I bid 2NT to show some weak hand. He now bid 3 (not the requested 3) to say he had a hand too strong to overcall 3 the first time.

Now what? I bid only 4--maybe another underbid. I was now afraid he held something like:

A Q x x
A K J 9 x x
A
x x

 

Partner raised to 5 and again I took the low road and passed. I suppose I was too conservative, because his actual hand was:

8 7 5 4
A K Q J
A Q 3
A 7

 

That's quite a strange auction he took (double followed by 3), but I can't say that I'm able to think of anything much better.

The K was wrong, but we still made 12 tricks and lost a swing when the other table played in 6 making. Next time, I'll bid more.

I got my chance later in the same match when I held:

5 2
J 10 7 6
J 5 4
A Q J 3

 

Partner opened a strong 1 and I bid 1NT to show 8-13 balanced. He asked with 2 and I showed 8-10 HCP and 4. He now bid 3, forcing to game.

I had 9 HCP (right in the middle of my range), but surely enough to make a control-bid of 4. Over that he bid 4. He was still interested in slam. Should I make another move?

Yes! Here is why. Surely he must have spades controlled (he knows I don't, since I bypassed 3 to bid 4). Even though I don't have 10 HCP, I have one very important feature -- the J10 of trumps. Those have to be huge cards for partner. Picture him with, say, KQxx of trumps. If I held xxxx, slam would be terrible. With my actual J10xx, I wanted to make another move.

I invented a bid. I bid clubs again. Normally, this would show the ace-king, but this seemed close enough.

Partner jumped to 6, ending the auction. He held:

A 8 6 4
A K Q 4 2
K Q 2
K

 

I'm not sure we knew what we were doing, but this slam with 30 HCP was "laydown." We lost only the A (all the spade losers go on the clubs--nice J!)

This one wasn't bid at the other table, so we won back the slam swing. One out of two ain't bad.

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To read about two play deals from Charlotte, click here.