Misadventures In Manhattan

Friday nights tend to be small at the Manhattan, and with the Spring Nationals in progress in Memphis, this past Friday's evening game was really small, just five tables. But Agent 99 and I had a pleasant evening anyway, clocking a 60% game that turned out to be enough to win.

The hands seemed to include an unusual number of possible slams and/or sacrifices. This was the second hand of the evening.



I have a nice hand, but with all this bidding it doesn't seem likely that Agent 99 spoke because of high cards. Most probably she has shape. In that case, is it safe to pass 6S? Or am I worth a double? Would that induce a heart lead (which is what I want, I think), or would it ask for a (probably disastrous) club? 7D isn't going to make, but will it be cheap or just a phantom?

I wriggled for a while, and eventually decided that first, there was definitely no diamond trick in defence (east was way too confident), second, I couldn't count on any black suit tricks either, since even if a card or two was missing they might well be dropping or finessable. So that meant item third, beating 6S might need Agent 99 to find a heart lead, and might not be possible even then. At teams, I think bidding 7D is pretty much a no-brainer. At matchpoints, it isn't quite so easy, but I bid it anyway. It cost 500, and a heart lead would indeed have beaten their slam. But it turned out well when 6S made three times, on two occasions doubled (remember the board was only played five times).

The next set included this offering.


After a diamond lead, I returned a small heart (nice and smooth) to get a club through the king and so beat the contract. But 200 is small compensation for the heart game, and we actually can make 6H.

Here's a part-score, for a change.



For some unknown reason, Agent 99 opened 1C instead of 1D. Then when the auction was set to die in 1NT, I decided that my stellar four-card club support was enough to justify competing. When Agent 99 ran to 2H, I inferred she was 4-4 in the majors and corrected to 2S. That worked out well when E-W didn't realize what was going on and let me scramble eight tricks. (I won the club lead and played AH, H. Subsequently I got two H ruffs.)