Useful Agreement

I am playing in a matchpoint club game. The field is OK, but nothing special. No one is vulnerable, and RHO opens 2

in front of the biggest hand I'll have this session.

—

AKQ94

AJ9

AQJ65 My choices are double and 4

, which we play as clubs and hearts. I really don't want partner passing the double, and I don't see our getting a good grip on the hand if I start with one. Partner will bid 2NT, lebensohl, and now what? 4

, on the other hand, at least gets my suits into play. Partner won't expect quite this good a hand, so if I decide to start with 4

, I think I'll have to bid again. If partner bids 4

, which is far and away most likely, I can bid 4

. If he retreats to 5

, I'll have to hope he can make it. He'll know, however, that one or two useful cards should provide a slam. There is a danger that partner may pass 4

, but we just went over our agreement here; he is not to pass unless he has no cover cards. That gets us too high sometimes, but I feel OK trotting it out with this good a hand. If he passes, 4

may well be high enough.

I try 4, and partner bids 4 as expected. I planned on bidding 4 next, so I do. Partner provides a nice surprise: He bids 5. That is encouraging; his having the K means we don't need much for a slam to be good. We might even have a grand. I'm driving to slam, but just in case there is a grand lurking, I try 5. The auction has been intricate so far, and it isn't about to get any easier, because partner comes up with 5NT! Reviewing:

RHO	Me	LHO	CHO
2	4	Pass	4
Pass	4	Pass	5
Pass	5	Pass	5NT
Pass	?

What do I know? 5NT is a choice of slams, so partner must have equal length in hearts and clubs. If he is 2-2, he might not be so bullish about slam, and if he is 4-4, he'd commit to hearts, the higher-scoring strain. So he must be 3-3. If he had the

J, I think he'd force hearts, so he must have three small hearts and the

K. And another card. I think he is roughly

xxxx

xxx

Kxx

Kxx. He may have the

Q or a spade piece, and he may have the 10 in one of my suits. Obviously, a small slam is enough right now; if partner has more (maybe the

A?), he'll bid again, so I should assume we are choosing between 6

and 6

. 6

looks like a pretty good spot; it'll take either 3-2 hearts or the diamond finesse. The preempt means that neither is as likely as normal, but I estimate that 6

will make about 75% of the time. Partner may have the

10 or

10, either of which will add a few percent. Is 6

better? Yes, I can handle a 4-1 heart break if RHO is 6-1-4-2 by drawing two rounds of trumps and ruffing a heart in dummy. It's hard to estimate how likely that is, but I'll guess in the neighborhood of 5-10%. Some of the time, the

Q will be onside there, so maybe I'm getting 5% extra. But RHO might misdefend with 6-1-3-3 if I cash one heart, cross to dummy, and lead a heart. If he ruffs, I can pitch one or two diamonds from dummy and ruff the third round. That's maybe 5%, something like that. He might not misdefend, but most club players would. Then again, he has to be dealt that. Will the

10 help in 6

? I can try two rounds of hearts, and if they don't break, I can try to play four rounds of clubs to pitch a diamond. No, that won't work---LHO can ruff high and exit with a trump. I'll need him to have four clubs, leaving RHO with two singletons. That seems unlikely, so no, the

10 will only help me pick up stiff

J, unless somehow I know that trumps are 4-1, which I don't think I can.

So 6 is a little more likely to make, but 6 outscores it. Will anyone else be in slam? I don't see how unless partner has real extras. If 2 isn't opened, the auction will start 1-2 or 2-2. If the former, opener will make slam tries, and responder will probably reject them, particularly if he is 4-3-3-3. If the latter, they have no chance to know if slam is any good, and if they play Kokish, they aren't even going to know that they have a real heart fit. Opener won't push, having already opened 2, and a key card-less responder isn't going. All in all, I think we have found one of the very few ways to get to slam, so I'm going to bid the more likely one and not worry that I might be outscored if someone bids 6. Furthermore, if partner were strong enough that he thinks others will reach slam, maybe he'd pick hearts himself. I'm convinced. I bid 6, and all pass. I get the lead of the J, and dummy is almost exactly what I expected,

	Q932 853 K76 K94

	— AKQ94 AJ9 AQJ65

RHO	Me	LHO	CHO
2	4	Pass	4
Pass	4	Pass	5
Pass	5	Pass	5NT
Pass	6	All Pass

That opening lead sure looks like four or five of them. I hope it's only four. I play low from dummy, and RHO follows with the

2. What's the best line? I can try leading hearts towards my hand twice using the

K and the

K as entries. Then I can ruff the fourth heart in dummy if RHO doesn't ruff. No, he can just overruff and play a spade, and I won't even have an entry to try the diamond finesse. I think I shall go with the plan I made during the bidding. I cash the trump ace and cross to the king. They each follow, but the

10 has not appeared. I lead a heart from dummy, hoping that RHO ruffs if he has the remaining trump. After all, he probably has the

A and might see an obvious beat by ruffing. No, he discards a spade. It seems best to try to cash another heart now, and when I do, it holds. It's clear sailing from here; I ruff a heart, ruff a spade, draw trumps, and try the diamond hook for an overtrick. I'm pleased to see it fail; if anyone reaches 6

, they are probably going down.

I check the traveler after the game and am pretty surprised to see that not only did one other pair reach 6 and go down, but another one found 6 and made it! That's pretty surprising; maybe my reasoning wasn't so good and I just got lucky.