E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: 
A
justinl 7 5 A K 9 8 A 10 7 6 5 2 — |
||
| barbh 9 8 6 4 3 2 5 3 8 3 A 9 6 |
![[W - E]](http://gee.aaronhaspel.com/files/2012/10/t.gif) |
fireant K Q J 7 4 2 K Q J 10 8 5 2 |
| Maestro A 10 Q J 10 6 Q J 9 K 7 4 3 |
| West
Pass |
North 1 3 6 |
East Pass Pass Pass |
South 1 4 Pass |
I’m in a good mood today. I’m going to publish a successful hand. (Courtesy, again, of the indefatigable Alexander Ananin.)
Our hero is South, partnered again by Seaman Lall. The auction has certain points of interest. Justin’s 3S “splinter” with two dead spades is cute, particularly with an actual club void. “Let us experiment a little,” he remarks to the specs as he makes it. (East neglects to double 3S, as she should, for the lead. This will figure prominently in the hand later on.) Gee has extras but not very slammish ones. 4C is tolerable; 3NT, eliciting more description and intending to cue 4S over North’s rebid, is better.
North figures the cue bid shows extras, never mind where they are, and leaps straight to 6H, against which West opens, catastrophically, the club ace.
6H is essentially a 50-50 proposition on a spade lead, but now the hand is cold as long as trump aren’t 5-0. Pull trump, hook the diamond, win any return, and claim.
Back at the table, Gee ruffs the CA in dummy, pulls three rounds of trump, and cashes the club king. Only then does he take the diamond finesse. It loses, and East has a chance to cash two clubs. But East apparently surmises South’s hand as xxx QJ10x QJxx Kx. (For her failure to imagine Gee’s actual hand it is difficult to blame her.) She leads a spade. Making 6.
It’s time for a conversation:
G: I had to bluff… does not work the other way… not enough trumps
justinl: …
justinl: just pull trump and hook the diamond
G: no justin… it does not work
justinl: OK gee
G: and look at results… nobody makes but me
Spec #1: fireant the double goat, did not x 3S and did not cash out
justinl: sorry i almost had a heart attack, have to go now
justinl: GEE
justinl: THEY ALL LED A SPADE
justinl: thanks all
justinl has left the table.
G: ty Justin
G: why does he always know better?
Spec #2: LOLOL
G: ty barb, fire, specs
(In lobby)
justinl: WILL SOMBODY EXPLAIN TO GEE
justinl: HE WILL NOT BELIEVE ME
justinl: SOMEBODY ANYBODY
G: Justin… I made it… right? so… stop that
G: that contract cannot make any other way… I don’t have the stuff
Jtmckee defined this as a grovesner by declarer. I think this is an excellent definition. Also note Zia’s BOLS tip (if they don’t cover they don’t have it) could be applied here. How many people would duck the queen of diamonds looking at ATxxxxx in dummy and Kx in their hand? Serious consideration could be given to dropping the stiff king.
Cashing CK before finessing D? That is truly a brilliant bluff. Instead of making the contract cold after the CA lead, Gee decided to play for the brilliant bluff by cashing his C stopper, and then taking the losing D finesse and allowing himself to go down, but the bluff worked! It is not important that Gee didn’t play the simple cold line, but rather that he successfully played an awful line, and succeeded in bluffing his opps. After all, it is Gee who gets bluffed most of the time, and it probably gives him great pleasure to bluff the defense over a cold contract which he intentionally turned HOT.
Well, I gotta raise a voice on this one. There are a few points worth discussing. The 4C bid is a very sound call, the only bid I can think that is better is 4N. Really, look at that South hand and try to construct a game-forcing splinter for partner that isn’t 100% to be a matter of small or grand slam. 3N is a non-existent call, it is a signoff, warning pard that a) you are not interested in bigger and better things and b) you have wasted spade values that are better suited to NT play (e.g. KJ10 or QJ10, etc). Now the 6H bid is pure insanity. Of course, it is a necessary bid when your pard is a random element and the auction you have perpetrated to this point is meaningless.
Getting on to the play and the G-esque play of fireant.
Gee’s play of the hand is typical for him and I do not want to elaborate (much) as it seems to be self-explanatory. The man does not understand the concept of maintaining control of the suits! Enuff said.
Now let’s get on to fireant. Why did he not overcall 2C in the first place? He had a 7-loser hand and a good club suit (albeit a little light in defensive strength). Why did he not double 3S? Doubling a splinter shows a strong spade combination (there is absolutely no danger of the opponents wanting to play there). It does not demand a spade lead, but rather tells pard that you wont give up a trick by leading the suit. Why did he not cash clubs in the end? Surely on the 3rd heart pard discouraged in spades (I assume). Given this, surely one trusts pard and assumes declarer to be wrong. Why did he not do any of this? Oh … hold on … someone is telling me that fireant is a female player … Never mind.