3N vs 4M

[Andy]

Franco has graciously granted me access to post myself (Andy), which will presumably make sense for some of the hands. Not sure if it will be obvious when I'm writing, so I'll try to remember to prefix my posts.

Here is a hand from the first qualifier that I like a lot, as it involves interest in both the bidding and the play.

		♠ K Q 8 4
		♥ A 9 7
		♦ Q 8
		♣ Q 8 5 2
♠	10 7 5			♠	A J 6 3 2
♥	K 6 5 3			♥	10
♦	A 7 6 4 2			♦	5 3
♣	J			♣	K 10 7 6 3
		♠ 9
		♥ Q J 8 4 2
		♦ K J 10 9
		♣ A 9 5

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1♥
Pass	2NT	Pass	3♦
Pass	3♠	Pass	3NT
All Pass

We play a 2NT response as old-fashioned balanced GF, and can include 4-card spades. At the point at which Franco bid 3♦, I had to bid at the 4-level to show heart support. (We use 3♥ as a proxy for club values.) I wasn't sure I wanted to do that, so I concealed my support and showed spade values, then passed when partner bid 3N. This feels a bit unsatisfactory, but there just isn't enough room to show support as well as pinpoint values and offer a choice of games. It's not like one would be better off after the standard start to the auction of 1♥-1♠-2♦-3♣.

It's only one hand, but note that 4♥ has virtually no play on this layout.

The opening lead was a spade. I won in hand and immediately played a diamond to dummy. RHO won and played back the spade 7, which I covered with the 8, LHO winning the J. Look at what happens when LHO tries to exit passively -- I have 3 heart tricks, and when I cash all my winners ending in hand, LHO is endplay squeezed, force to give me a 9th trick in either of the black suits.

It seems that I would be virtually guaranteed to find that play, so LHO actually made a very good play at the table. Upon winning the spade J, he tabled the club 7. This presented me with a losing option -- it would appear that if I ducked the club to RHO's K I would be down 2 immediately, whereas flying would leave open the possibility of bringing in hearts for 5 tricks. If I did fly, it breaks up the strip squeeze.

At the table though LHO took like two minutes to find this play, so I just ducked the club, making 3 the "easy" way.