Squeezing something out of a poor session

In an otherwise less-than-inspiring club session on January 9 morning at Temple Reyim, (begun with my getting greedy on our first board and going down one trick in a 3NT contract that I could have claimed at Trick 2, later compounded by playing in a part score on a good and making slam when a game forcing bid was passed, never being supported by an invitational-strength hand with no fewer than seven cards in the suit opened by partner, well … you get the picture, as we have all experienced similar sessions), I did, at least, get to execute two squeezes.  One was undefensible; the other needed, and received, help from the defenders.

On the first squeeze, I was faced with an interesting bidding problem.  How often does responder have to determine what to call with 15 HCP opposite a partner who has reversed?  I held

 

Partner opened 1♦ and I responded 1♠.  Partner now reversed 2♥.  What to bid?

We play standard lebensohl.  2♠ would have shown my fifth spade and would be forcing for one round; 2NT would be lebensohl, expecting partner to rebid 3♣, usually preparatory to a signoff by responder in any suit.  All other bids are game forcing.

In my more sophisticated-agreement partnerships, we have some additional agreements in this situation, that apply to responder’s auctions:  2NT, then 3NT shows 8-12 HCP and a strong preference for no trump; 3NT shows 8-12 HCP and a milder preference for no trump; and 4NT shows 12+ HCP and is natural.  Just two problems: (1) those agreements don’t apply to this partnership; and (2) 15 nice HCP is probably even too strong for the 4NT call.

2♠ would not be a misbid, but it was hard to see what it might accomplish, even if partner did show three spades.  I decided to stall with 2NT, just in case partner had an unusually red reverse and would rebid one of his suits.  No luck.  Partner rebid the expected 3♣ – doubled by South – and all that I had accomplished was to delay my problem.  I now bid 4NT.  I don’t think that 4NT can be keycard, when I have foregone an opportunity to establish a trump suit … but then that thinking might not be clear to partner.  Partner now bid 5♥.  Having no idea of what is partner’s hand and fearing he had no idea of my hand, I bid what I thought I can make, 6NT.

The ♣4 was led, and dummy was quite suitable.  (In fact, maybe I should have rebid 2♠, because then partner’s 3♠ third round bid would enable me to have conducted a less-obtuse auction, beginning with 4NT keycard at my third turn.)

 

 

 

North is a pro with 18,000 masterpoints; South is a client, and a reasonable player.  South played the ♣K at Trick 1.  I suspect that clubs are Q third or fourth opposite KJ fifth or fourth.  If spades run, I have twelve top tricks and some good chances for a thirteenth, and so it seemed prudent to win the first trick.

I played a spade to the ace and a spade to my king, North discarding a heart on the second spade.  I led a heart (the ♥9, actually, in case I wanted later to hook the ♥T) to dummy’s king and took the marked spade finesse, to win a third and then a fourth spade.  North pitched a club and another heart, as I then pitched a diamond from dummy.  On the fifth spade, North pitched a diamond.  Noting the absence of diamond discards until after I had discarded a diamond from dummy, I discarded a second diamond from dummy.  South pitched a club.  Not wanting to give the defense an opportunity to signal the count in diamonds, I played the ♥Q before the stiff ♦A.  When everyone followed suit on the second round of hearts, I had accounted for all six hearts of the opponents: each opponent had followed to two rounds of hearts and North had discarded two hearts.  I led my last heart to dummy, claiming the last four tricks with the ♥AT and the ♦KQ.

 

The second squeeze was played against a Flight C pair.  As dealer, North opened 1♠, passed around to my ♠5, ♥KJ8762, ♦76, ♣KQ82.  I balanced with 2♥, and that became the final contract.