Vulnerability and The Law

Questions and talk about interesting deals and situations.
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rod
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Vulnerability and The Law

Post by rod »

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:

♠ K52
QJ10983
64
♣ 102

♠ Q73
5
KQ875
♣ AJ43
♠ A1098
7
AJ9
♣ KQ865

♠ J64
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.
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