Don't Ask Sweden About Queen-Jack Doubleton

by Philip Adler

China started the match against Sweden with a 16-IMP carryover. But the Scandinavians won the first session by 63 IMPs to 32 to lead by 15. Would they maintain the momentum in the second sixth? China gained 1 IMP on the first deal when the Swedes let two notrump through in the Closed Room, while the Open Room Chinese pair went down two in two spades. Then came...

Board 18. Dealer East. North-South vul.
	♠ 2 ♥ K 8 2 ♦ Q 6 5 4 ♣ A 8 4 3 2
♠ A K 8 7 6 ♥ A Q 9 7 ♦ 9 ♣ K 10 9		♠ Q J 10 9 5 4 ♥ 6 5 ♦ J 3 ♣ 7 6 5
	♠ 3 ♥ J 10 4 3 ♦ A K 10 8 7 2 ♣ Q J

The contract at both tables was 4♣, by West in the Open Room, by East in the Closed Room.

In the Closed Room, South led the diamond king and shifted to the club queen, covered by the king and ace. Sun Ming (North) returned a club to South's jack. Then South led a heart. Declarer had to finesse, but North won with the king and gave her partner a club ruff for down two.

At the other table, Catarina Midskog (North) led a low diamond to her partner's king. Not seeing the West hand, Kathrine Bertheau (South) tried to cash the diamond ace. Declarer ruffed, drew two rounds of trumps ending in the dummy, and played a heart to her queen. North was in with the king and made the fatal mistake of cashing the club ace. Suddenly, because South had the queen-jack-doubleton, declarer had only one club loser and ten tricks in all. (Any red-card lead by North would have sufficed.)

Minus 100 and plus 420 gave China 11 IMPs.

If you think lightning never strikes twice, look at the very next deal:

Board 19. Dealer South. East-West vul.
	♠ Q J ♥ J 9 8 4 3 2 ♦ 10 7 ♣ K J 7
♠ 10 6 2 ♥ Q ♦ 9 8 3 2 ♣ A 10 8 5 3		♠ A K 8 5 3 ♥ K ♦ A K Q J 6 4 ♣ 6
	♠ 9 7 4 ♥ A 10 7 6 5 ♦ 5 ♣ Q 9 4 2

(a) Leaping Michaels: at least 5-5 in spades and diamonds

(a) Weak two-bid in either major
(b) Pass or correct
(c) Also pass or correct

In the Open Room, Bertheau's leap to five hearts backfired when it pushed Wang Wenfei into bidding six diamonds. True, looking at only the East-West cards, the slam seems to have two losers, one heart and one spade. But then you peek at the North hand and see that queen-jack-doubleton of spades.

Liu Yi Qian did try for king-queen-jack-tripleton in clubs first, then fell back on the spades.

Sitting behind Wang Hongli, I was surprised when she responded three hearts, not three spades. But maybe she did well. If she had bid three spades, North would have rebid four hearts. Then would East have continued with four notrump (when the sequence would probably have gone 5♣-5♦-Pass); or would she have bid five hearts, getting to six diamonds?

Plus 1,370 and minus 620 gave 13 lucky IMPs to China.

One last thought: In the Swedish auction, if five clubs by West is pass or correct, why not use four notrump as asking for the minor and expressing at least mild slam interest? It does not look right for West to do it with that hand, but it would be a useful agreement on the right deal.

Since there were no more queen-jack-doubletons, there was little scoring in the rest of the set, China winning 17 IMPs and Sweden 13. This left the match score at China 90 Sweden 76. China had gone from down 15 to up 14.