Hand of the Week, 4/25/96

This week's hand comes from the 1996 National College Team Championships, held this past weekend in the unlikely location of Olive Branch, Mississippi.

An unheralded team from Texas A&M upset a veteran team from Toronto's York University to capture the collegiate title. The eventual victors came very close to not reaching the final, however. The following hand, taken from a round-robin match between Texas A&M and Chicago, propelled the Aggies into the final -- with a little help from Lady Luck.

Nobody vulnerable, North dealer.

                               North
                             S KJ92
                             H K96
                             D Q984
                             C 43
            West                                East
          S AQ                                S 876543
          H 84                                H AJ732
          D A2                                D K
          C AQ98752                           C T
                               South
                             S T
                             H QT5
                             D JT7653
                             C KJ6

At the table where Chicago held the East-West cards, the auction proceeded as follows:

                   A&M       CHI      A&M    CHI
                  North     East     South   West
                  --------------------------------
                  pass      pass       2D     3C
                   3D       pass      pass   pass

Over South's weak 2D opener, West's hand is almost good enough to double and then bid clubs, but West (Sandy) chose to play it safe with a simple overcall. From East's perspective, the hand looks like a misfit -- it might not be safe to mention either major. The Chicago East (Karen) thus decided to play it safe by passing. Having been conservative once, Sandy decided to stay the course by passing out 3D instead of taking a stab at 4C. 3D by South, down one. Plus 50 to Chicago.

[Note: at the table, I didn't consider 4C--in retrospect, it's probably a good bid. What I was thinking about was bidding 3N, which is insane--you expect to win the second diamond trick, lose a club, and then watch them set you. Nothing about the auction made me want to reevaluate my hand upward. So I passed. As it turns out (see below), things would have been about the same if I'd bid and made 4C. If I'd doubled to start, or if Karen had bid, we would probably have gotten too high and done even worse on the hand. - Sandy]

When Texas A&M held the East-West cards, the auction was much more raucous:

                   CHI      A&M       CHI    A&M
                  North     East     South   West
                  --------------------------------
                  pass      pass       3D     4C
                   4D        4S       pass    4NT
                  pass      pass!     pass

The Chicago South (Tom) didn't have a weak two in diamonds available to him, so he decided to open 3D in third seat at even vulnerability. Over West's 4C call, North (Rowen) elected to bid 4D in the hopes of pushing Texas A&M to four-of-a-major -- hopes which were granted when East decided to show his spade suit. At this point, West suddenly became excited and bid 4NT, intending it as Blackwood. The Aggie East didn't take it as Blackwood and passed! Anticipating a huge set, North led the queen of diamonds.

[For the record, I agree with East. 4N should be natural. It's hard to come up with good rules about when 4N should be Blackwood--talk to your partner--but you can at least clear up situations like this: if your side hasn't yet agreed on a suit, and the last bid was at the four level, then 4N is the only way to try to play NT, so it should usually be natural. As always, the most important thing is not that you have the "right" interpretation of an auction--there usually isn't one--but that you and your partner agree. - Sandy]

[Rebuttal....I disagree with Sandy and believe that 4NT should be Blackwood. With a hand appropriate for notrump, West would have bid NT at his first opportunity instead of making a club overcall. - Rowen]

The play turned out to be very disappointing -- for Chicago. The singleton king held the trick, and declarer then played dummy's singleton club to his queen, followed by the ace of clubs and a club to South's king. Declarer now claimed his contract -- six clubs, two diamonds, and the major suit aces. 4NT by West, making four. Plus 430 to Texas A&M.

Observe that Texas A&M reached the last making contract. Four spades would be down at least one, and the hands are good for only ten tricks in clubs. It is also worth noting that if the king and queen of diamonds were reversed in the layout, so that East has the singleton queen and North has K984, then 4NT will be defeated by 3 tricks on the king of diamonds lead.

Texas A&M gained 9 IMPS on this board and went on to defeat Chicago 24-18 in their 8-board match. Even if the Aggie East-West pair had stayed in 4C and made it, they would have gained only 2 IMPS on the board and would have lost the match by 1 IMP; had this happened, Penn would have advanced to the collegiate final instead of Texas A&M.

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