Strangeness in Bridge This Week

Monday and Tuesday nights, I did 3 things that I’m not sure I’ve ever done in bridge.

Monday, Joel and I were playing imp pairs online against Bob Heller and Emory. I held something like ♠xxx, ♥AKQxx, ♦x, ♣Qxxx. The auction was something like 1♣-1♥-X-2♥; 2♠-P-4♠-P; P-P so I was on lead against 4♠ and selected the singleton diamond. Joel dutifully won the ace and led one back for me to ruff. Obviously he didn’t lead a high spot for a heart suit preference, but with a singleton in dummy, I took a chance that he had the ♥J and led low from my heart honors for a second diamond ruff. It worked! Plays like that are so fun when they work, and that’s one of the few things I like about imps. When the opponents are in what seems to be a fairly easy game, you can take risks like this. In matchpoints, I probably would not underlead the hearts because I figure we may already be ahead of the field by getting the ruff.

Tuesday, playing with Emory, I held -, Axx, AKQJxx, AQxx and opened 1♦. Partner not surprisingly bid 1♠ and I jump-shifted to 3♣. Now he bids 4♥. I guess this is a splinter with club support, but wasn’t entirely sure. Not knowing what 4♠ or 4NT would mean here (there’s a reasonable case for both being natural), I tanked for at least a minute to mull over things. 5♠ exclusion to find out about the ♣K might be what I want to bid, but since that’s partner’s long suit, I’m not sure of that one either. Clubs may still not be a great spot if his clubs are only Kxxx as a 4-1 split could cause problems. Eventually I decided to jump to the diamond grand. If p has short hearts, he has to have some diamond support. Worst case scenario for this bid is for p to have ♠KQxxxx, ♥x, ♦xx, ♣Kxxx. With that, a trump lead would leave me needing a ruffing spade finesse and 3-2 clubs, but 7♦ is a cold if p has ♠Axxxx, ♥x, ♦xxx, ♣Kxxx – I can always score 2 heart ruffs and pitch the potential 4^th round club loser on the ♠A. His actual hand included 6 wasted hcp in spades: ♠KQJTx, ♥x, ♦xxx, ♣KJTx.

Later that night, I picked up ♠-, ♥xxxxx, ♦xxxx, ♣ATxx and at favorable vulnerability saw it go 1♣-X to me. Some days I might try 1♠ or 2♠ but Emory doesn’t take such jokes well and settled for 3♣ as my way to preempting. It didn’t work as LHO has a 7 card spade suit (I don’t think anything would have kept him from bidding 4♠), but this is the only time I can remember raising partner’s minor with 4 card support rather than bidding a 5 card major.