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- Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
- Path: sparky!uunet!newsflash.concordia.ca!nstn.ns.ca!fox!maceache
- From: maceache@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Tim Maceachern)
- Subject: Re: alerted double; opening lead
- Message-ID: <1992Dec22.020343.8647@nstn.ns.ca>
- Keywords: double, lead
- Sender: usenet@nstn.ns.ca (NNTP Entity)
- Organization: NSTN Network Operations Centre, Nova Scotia, Canada
- References: <21DEC199211131587@mary.fordham.edu>
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 02:03:43 GMT
- Lines: 67
-
- nissim@mary.fordham.edu (Leonard J. Nissim) writes:
-
- >At a 13-table duplicate game in a local club on board 10 (both
- >vulnerable, East dealer) I held as South:
- > S-xx H-Axx D-KJTx C-AKJ9
- >East opened 2H, weak. I bid 2N, which for my partnership shows 15-18hcp
- >and a definite heart stopper. (Qxx would not qualify, QJx would.) West
- >passed, and my partner bid 3N. East doubled, alerted. I asked for an
- >explanation, and got: "*Demands* a heart lead."
-
- >I passed, partly on the assurance of a heart lead. All passed. The ace of
- >spades hit the table as the opening lead (asks for honor to be dropped under
- >it or for count, according to their card). "Director!" by me produced West's
- >assurance that he had no hearts, and so couldn't lead one. Not much to the
- >play; West ran his 7-card spade suit for down 3, doubled:
-
- > North
- > S-Qx
- > H-xxxx
- > D-AQxx
- > C-Qxx
-
- >West East
- >S-AKJTxxx S-xx
- >H- H-KQJTxx
- >D-xx D-9xx
- >C-Txxx C-xx
-
- > South
- > S-xx
- > H-Axx
- > D-KJTx
- > C-AKJ9
-
- >-800 was of course a bottom. With no outside entry, East's double seems
- >really strange. I have two questions:
-
- >1) If West had had a heart and still led the ace of spades, what would the
- >director have ruled?
-
- West can lead anything he or she likes, regardless of the bidding sequence.
- There is no infraction here whether or not West has a heart. BUT West must
- have a reason for leading a spade - a good suit, maybe. West cannot take
- any assurance from your question that you will make the contract on a heart
- lead (i.e. West must behave as if he/she didn't hear your question about
- the bidding).
-
- West did commit an offence by disclosing that he/she had no hearts. I
- doubt that there would be an adjustment for that, though.
-
- >2) Was I a fool, or just fixed?
-
- Depends on whether you had a bidding method to check for a spade (plus
- club and diamond) stopper. Probably just a bad result owing to a pre-empt,
- not a fix.
-
- >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- >Leonard J. Nissim (nissim@mary.fordham.edu)
- >Disclaimer: "I speak only for myself."
- >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- *******************************************************************
- * Tim MacEachern * Tim_MacEachern@hawk.nstn.ns.ca *
- * Software Kinetics Ltd. * or maceache@hawk.nstn.ns.ca *
- * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * *
- * Opinions expressed are the author's only *
- *******************************************************************
-