Easy Peasy Squeezy

1st July - Board: 3 Love All. Dealer South

	North: S 6 H K 10 D J 9 8 2 C K Q 10 6 5 2
West: S A K Q 10 9 8 7 5 H Q 4 D 7 5 3 C none		East: S 4 2 H A 9 7 D A K 4 C A J 7 4 3
	South: S J 3 H J 8 6 5 3 2 D Q 10 6 C 9 8

By far and away the most exciting hand from last Thursday was the one shown above, and I was impressed by the bidding from Guy and Steve who were able to demonstrate bidding in the 21st Century.

South West North East

No 1S 2C No!

No 4S No 4NT

No 5S No 7S

All Pass

West has a difficult hand in some ways but it is a bit too good to open 4S and nowhere near good enough to open with a strong 2S, or 2C if you are playing Benji. (An Acol ‘two’ should not only have eight playing tricks but defence to a contract by the opponents. While the West hand has the former it certainly does not have the latter.) So it looks right to open at the one-level with the intention of bidding game next time round. North has a sound 2C overcall and now perhaps East’s pass looks a little strange to the uninitiated. In the old days he would make a penalty double, but those days are long since gone, as a double now would be for take-out. You deal with this sort of hand by passing and waiting for partner to re-open with a double if the hand on your left also passes. And you aim to convert this take-out double to a penalty double by passing. West was a long way from doing that of course and just made the rebid he was going to make if his partner had bid in the first place. East was naturally charmed and when Roman Keycard located the top three spade honours he was able to drive all the way to the grand slam.

This contract was made, perhaps not in the best way possible, but it is in fact unbeatable and is virtually laydown after North’s overcall. Suppose you get a trump lead – usually the best lead against a grand slam. You aim to reach the following end position:

S none

H K 10

D none

C K

S 5 S none

H Q 4 H A 9

D none D none

C none C J

S none

H J 9

D Q

C none

When West plays his last trump North cannot go; he either has to give up his club guard or bare his king of hearts.