Vulnerability and The Law
Posted: 30 Oct 2022, 08:21
Playing IMPs with the robots today I picked up this hand as South, both vulnerable.
♠ J64
♥ AK642
♦ 1032
♣ 97
West opened 1♦, partner overcalled 2♥ and East doubled. Your call?
The Law of Total Tricks would suggest that 4♥ is a no-brainer. However with this hand that just didn't feel right and I chose 3♥ instead.
Indeed hearts makes only the six heart tricks on best defense while the opponents' best contract is 5♣, good for 11 tricks. We went for 500 on non-optimal defense while 4♥ at the other table was down 1100.
The full deal:
It seems hard to fault the overcall. When preempting my general rule of thumb is to be within 4 tricks of the contract at favorable vulnerability, 3 tricks at equal, 2 at unfavorable.
I guess laws are sometimes meant to be broken.
♠ J64
♥ AK642
♦ 1032
♣ 97
West opened 1♦, partner overcalled 2♥ and East doubled. Your call?
The Law of Total Tricks would suggest that 4♥ is a no-brainer. However with this hand that just didn't feel right and I chose 3♥ instead.
Indeed hearts makes only the six heart tricks on best defense while the opponents' best contract is 5♣, good for 11 tricks. We went for 500 on non-optimal defense while 4♥ at the other table was down 1100.
The full deal:
♠ K52
♥ QJ10983
♦ 64
♣ 102
♥ QJ10983
♦ 64
♣ 102
♠ Q73
♥ 5
♦ KQ875
♣ AJ43
♥ 5
♦ KQ875
♣ AJ43
♠ A1098
♥ 7
♦ AJ9
♣ KQ865
♥ 7
♦ AJ9
♣ KQ865
♠ J64
♥ AK642
♦ 1032
♣ 97
♥ AK642
♦ 1032
♣ 97
It seems hard to fault the overcall. When preempting my general rule of thumb is to be within 4 tricks of the contract at favorable vulnerability, 3 tricks at equal, 2 at unfavorable.
I guess laws are sometimes meant to be broken.