Too Difficult

19th January – Board 2: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

I think most pairs found themselves in a slam on the featured hand and were probably sorry not to have gone the whole way when the spade finesse works – not that you want to be in a grand slam on a finesse of course. A straightforward approach cuts out any possibility of a misunderstanding I suppose and the auction shown below has the merit of simplicity.

West	North	East	South
		No	1H
No	4NT	No	5S
No	5NT	No	6D
No	6H	End

Once South shows the two missing aces and the queen of hearts North can ask for any outside kings and the usual arrangement is to respond on a step sequence. However if South had held the king of spades and not clubs the grand would have been laydown but that depends on South holding the queen of diamonds too. Try as I might I cannot find a convincing sequence which would allow the grand to be bid if South had held a more useful king. Somethings are just too difficult.

The Best You Can

19th January – Board 18: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

How would – or did – you defend 4S on the hand shown below from the North position? It might seem that there is little to do, being at the mercy of partner so to speak, but sometimes you have to do the best you can.

West	North	East	South
		1S	No
3S	No	4S	End

West is somewhere between three and four spades at his first call but whatever is chosen East will surely push on to game and equally surely South will start with a top diamond. Now from the North position the best chance of setting declarer lies in the ability of his side to obtain a heart ruff and his sole aim should be to point his partner in that direction. Of course for this plan to work South needs to hold the ace of hearts but getting him to cash it and continue the suit is not easy. But how about this? On the ace and king of diamonds North follows with the nine followed by the ten. This cannot be from a doubleton because they would have been played the other way round but as they are obviously unnecessarily high cards they must mean something. That ‘something’ is a suit preference signal for the higher of the two suits outside trumps, hearts in this case. Obvious, but only once you think of it! What you must not do as North is think for a while and then play to the first two tricks in a meaningful way, something I once saw a famous actor/bridge player do in a big tournament. Not that it did him much good.

Missing Major

12th January – Board 11: Love All. Dealer South.

There was a great deal of muddled thinking on the featured hand when it came to finding the correct opening bid on the South hand, but the reality is that 1S is the standout bid by a million miles. By not bidding the suit now you stand the very real chance of never mentioning the suit at all, something that indeed happened at several tables.

West	North	East	South
			1S
No	2C	4H	No
No	4S	No	No
5H	Dbl	End

As it happened it didn’t matter very much whether South opened 1S or 1D as East is sure to barrage to 4H giving West an easy sacrifice over either 4S or 5D. (Easier over 5D of course, as he might fancy his chances over a spade game.) On a diamond lead and continuation the defence will come to their four tricks for a 300 point penalty, and everyone should be more or less happy!

Under Control

12th January – Board 21: North/South Vul. Dealer North.

Game in a minor is a contract not often seen at the bridge table, especially when the points are more or less evenly divided, so any pair reaching 5C on the deal below can consider they did well. And yet with a controlled auction perhaps it should not be that difficult.

West	North	East	South
	No	No	1D
1H	1S	2D*	3C
No	4C	No	5C
End

There are several things to note during the auction. West is easily worth an overcall of 1H and the 1S bid by North should now promise at least a five-card suit – with only four he should start proceedings with a Sputnik double. Clearly East would like to know how good his partner is for his overcall and the standard way to do this is to make an Unassuming Cue Bid in the opponents’ suit. With his five-loser hand South should not be afraid to introduce his club suit, whereupon West should pass to show he was minimum for his overcall. With a known heart shortage opposite North has an easy raise in clubs although whether that should be to the four or five level is debatable. In any event I cannot see South stopping out of game. There is not much to the play, with declarer losing a heart and a diamond most likely, although you do have to be a little careful in not running out of trumps. (Note that a sacrifice in hearts by East/West would be a costly affair if the opposition get all the ruffs due to them.)

Gone To Waste

5th January – Board 9: East/West Vul. Dealer North.

The results on the following board were feeble I’m afraid, which is a shame when a good hand goes to waste, but to my mind the fault can be laid squarely on the shoulders of West who never realized what a good hand he held.

West	North	East	South
	No	2C/2D	No
2D/2H	No	3NT	No
4H*	No	5NT	No
6S	End

Whether playing Benji Acol or not East will surely show a flat 25/26 point hand, although the sequence to 3NT can hardly be described as dainty. (In fact Eric Kokish from Canada has devised a method round this, but never mind.) Over 3NT surely, surely, West would want to show a six-card spade suit and this should be done via a transfer. Why a six card suit? Well with only five, playing in a possible 5-2 fit might not be so appealing. For the record over 3NT in this auction one should play red suit transfers and a 4C bid as asking for opener to bid four-card suits upwards. Anyway back to East. Even if partner has zero points but with six small spades, even then six spades would just require a 2-2 break. So what is wrong with bidding Josephine, 5NT, asking partner to bid 7S holding both the king and the queen. Only one pair reached a slam and that was 6D!

Unnecessary Risk

5th January – Board 19: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

East took the right view in the bidding but the wrong view in the play leading to a catastrophic result, but as so often happens when under pressure all reasoning goes out the window.

West	North	East	South
			No
No	4H	Dbl	End

To my mind it is clear-cut that East should bid 4S over 4H and not double. Too many times I have seen games making in both directions so if for no other reason I would have taken out insurance. Maybe playing pairs things are different and certainly the winning action here is to defend as neither game should make. However… East started correctly by cashing two top spades and a top club, getting the correct count signal from his partner in both suits. (Hi-Lo = even, Lo-Hi = odd). Now if partner has the ace of diamonds it is not going to run away so a trump exit looks safe but in the heat of battle East switched to a diamond, but unfortunately for him the nine. You can see what happened. With the super diamond impletion declarer covered with the ten and that was that. Even if East had started with more than two diamonds he would have been squeezed in the minors on the run of the hearts. If East had been a little more patient and with careful discarding his side would have come to the setting trick in diamonds in the fullness of time.

One Way Or Another

8th December – Board 8: Love All. Dealer West.

This board proved to be frustrating for those holding the East hand as their four-loser collection of cards was cruelly ignored. What is more whichever minor they decided to attack after cashing two spades, declarer could turn to his advantage.

West	North	East	South
No	1H	Dbl	3H
No	4H	End

After a double on the right South is entitled to add one for the road and North is just about worth a raise to game. East will surely cash two top spades but if he now switches to a top diamond declarer can win, draw trumps and use the ten of diamonds to force out the other high card in that suit, establishing a parking place for the jack of clubs in the process. And if East is inspired enough to have lead a low spade to his partner at trick two, a club return from that quarter fares no better. Declarer simply wins with the ace, draws trumps and uses the jack of clubs to force out the king. Then the queen of that suit will enable the losing diamond to fly away.

Heavy Weather

8th December – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.

A lot of pairs made heavy weather of the featured hand but maybe that was because some basic bidding theory was missing – namely that when partner has responded to your opening bid of one in a major by responding at the two-level in a minor (as here) a jump to four in that minor by opener is game forcing. The reason for that is clear, because it enables responder either to start a cue-bidding sequence at a low level if appropriate or to give delayed support for opener’s major.

West	North	East	South
No	No	1S	No
2C	No	4C	No
4S	End

With such a poor club suit and with wasted values likely in hearts West should have no ambitions beyond game and I imagine that South would lead the jack of hearts, whereupon declarer has an easy route to at least twelve tricks, but even if South is inspired enough to lead a diamond the defence are only likely to make three tricks at most. Looking at the two hands you can see that four spades is easily the best contract, needing as it does just for the club finesse to work or for the trumps to be 3-3 or for a non-diamond lead.

No Problem

1^st December – Board 16: East/West Vul. Dealer West.

There were a trillion different results on the following board but I’m not exactly sure why. Playing teams North might be tempted to retreat to 2C over 1NT. The downside to doing that however is that it gives both East and West the chance to compete when the strength of the opposing pair is shown to be limited. (Over South’s 1NT it would be harder for West to enter the bidding as North could have a powerhouse.) In any event at pairs the lure of having six potential tricks in that North hand dictates a pass, which I imagine would end the bidding.

West	North	East	South
No	1C	No	1D
No	1S	No	1NT
End

A heart is the likely lead against 1NT, which does declarer no real harm. Even the bad club break is only mildly inconvenient, as declarer would be forced to duck the first round, but would still have seven easy tricks. I know it is tempting to want to bid over 1C on that East hand but as all the options are flawed it must be better to keep quiet.

Strange Happenings

1st December – Board 19: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

Sometimes a result comes along which is just too difficult to explain and the fact that the same thing happened twice last Thursday leaves me to wonder if my analytical powers are waning. Any suggestions – especially from the persons involved – would be greatly appreciated.

West	North	East	South
			2H
End

I can’t see that there is much to the bidding. South will open a weak 2H and North should probably leave alone. Any game enquiry via 2NT (Ogust) would be too pushy and any defensive procedure unnecessary with five cards in the other major and good defensive prospects. At the table where I was watching West tried three rounds of diamonds. Declarer ruffed, took a trump finesse after entering dummy with a club and upon regaining the lead with a club drew the remaining trumps in one round. He then played a spade to the ace and a spade to the queen. Even though that lost West was endplayed having only minor cards to play, and the spade loser in declarer’s hand vanished. All very normal you would think except that two pairs sitting N/S bid and made game. Bidding it I can sort of understand but making it I can’t. Even if West leads the king of spades at some time declarer still has a loser in that suit. I remain, Puzzled, Southampton.