I blame Blackwood

I am the non-playing captain of the second Scotland Junior Team. They will compete next month in the Peggy Bayer tournament against the other home nations. We have been doing some practice events, and this Tuesday two of them wanted to play in the New Melville Teams. Anna and I made up the four.

The boys played well. They didn't miss any games, and possibly bid some which they shouldn't have after a couple of lucky misunderstandings worked out well. Anna and I bid our games too, and we were looking good. It was only in the last round that things went awry (for Anna and I, the boys did fine). On the penultimate board I watched in amazement as Anna played a bizarre 3♥. She avoided drawing trumps, then took a strange finesse. As the hand unravelled it became clear she thought she was in 3NT. She would have made 3NT too, but did't make 3♥.

Then on the very last board we had a missed opportunity:

Danny Anna W N E S - - 1♠ - 4♠ - - -

Anna opened 1♠ and I had an automatic raise to 4♠, showing a weak hand with five trumps.

Nearly all of the time, Anna should pass this, as I could be very weak. But actually, almost any hand I have with five Spades is going to have play for 6♠. And if I have the ♠K, which very often do, slam is almost certain. She can count 5 top Spades, 5 Clubs, and a couple of Heart ruffs in hand.

Although in fact I have a pretty unsuitable hand (no ♠K, wasted values in Hearts) all 13 tricks were there when the trump finesse worked (although it looks like my Diamond singleton is necessary it's not, as any other Diamonds I might have could be discarded on Clubs). In fact it's very hard to construct a North layout where you don't want to be in 6♠.

I think counting tricks makes it very favourable to bid 6♠, but the void makes people wary of bidding Blackwood, and they don't want to bid a slam without Blackwood. In 30 tables it was bid just 7 times.

Despite this missed opportunity the team finished 9th out of 30.