Slam makes but Game goes down

[ArtK78]

Bad bidding makes for good stories. The other night in an ACBL matchpoint game on BBO, my partner misbid his hand after I opened 2NT and I wound up in 6NT as opposed to 6S with our diamond suit consisting of the following:

 

[hv=n=sx&w=s&e=s&s=sq9x]399|300|[/hv]

 

Not an ideal holding for 6NT.

 

LHO led the ♦J and RHO won the Ace. Obviously, LHO had led from a holding of KJTx(xx) (pretty impressive lead against 6NT, isn't it?). Just as obviously, my RHO would never work it out. Sure enough, he switched at trick 2, and I had 12 tricks.

 

It turned out that my RHO had Axx and LHO had led from KJTxxx. So, a normal diamond lead and return produces 6 tricks for the defense.

 

So, as I stated in the title to this thread, slam makes but game goes down.

 

(Yes, 6♠ was cold, but that doesn't make for a good story, does it?)

[Trumpace]

LHO led the ♦J and RHO won the Ace. Obviously, LHO had led from a holding of KJTx(xx) (pretty impressive lead against 6NT, isn't it?).

Why is it obviously wrong?

 

What was the bidding? What was the opening leader's hand?

[cherdano]

If I was RHO, you might make 13 tricks, as I might duck the A.

[Guest Jlall]

I bet your RHO should not have switched. Unless he was trying to cash his partners ace which he feared might go away it can't gain to shift (unless it attacks some entry for a squeeze or something strange like that).

 

However I am impressed by your LHOs lead!

[pclayton]

This isn't an uncommon theme. Leads against 6 are frequently a lot different than leads against 3.

 

Of course you never hear the story when 6 goes down...

[ArtK78]

This isn't an uncommon theme. Leads against 6 are frequently a lot different than leads against 3.

 

Of course you never hear the story when 6 goes down...

Sure you would. How often does the defense take the first 6 tricks against a voluntarily bid slam?

 

As for the reason for the switch, suppose you heard this auction:

 

2NT - 3♥*

3♠ - 4NT

6NT

 

Your partner leads the ♦J and the dummy hits with:

 

[hv=s=saq8xxxhkxxxdxcj9]133|100|[/hv]

 

I don't think it is that unreasonable for my RHO to with the ♦A and switch to a club. He did take about 35 or 40 seconds to decide to do that (in a speedball game).

 

My partner forgot that his sequence was a natural and invitation slam invite with a spade suit. He wanted to set spades as trump and then keycard, which is done by transferring at the 4 level and then bidding 4NT. I held:

 

[hv=s=saq8xxxhkxxxdxcj9]133|100|[/hv]

 

My 6NT bid is a little aggressive. I thought we had 5 spade tricks and a reasonable chance for 5 clubs and 2 red tricks. In any event, it made for a good story.

[barmar]

How often does the defense take the first 6 tricks against a voluntarily bid slam?

Probably happens often when someone cue-bids a void and partner thinks he's showing a high-card control.

[ArtK78]

There are some spectacular examples of that. At one of the North American Championships that I attended some years ago, there was a hand in a matchpoint game which had a void and the partnership had all the tricks in the other suits. Several times the player with the void made a cue bid in the void suit and the partnership wound up in 7NTx down 7!

 

But this does not happen very often. When it does, it is a big story.