No Mystery

22nd July – Board 23: Game all. Dealer South

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

If reversing is possibly the most difficult concept to comprehend it is certainly the most difficult to teach! And yet there is no mystery. A lot of the times when opener has bid two suits responder will give preference to the first, merely because opener will have more cards there. However if both opener and responder have limited hands and responder can only support his partner’s first suit at the three-level then the likelihood is that the contract will founder on insufficient values. That is why we suggest that to reverse the opener should have about sixteen points – or compensating values. And that would mean a hand high in distribution but with a low losing trick count. Such as the hand featured above. The South hand is good enough to reverse because of its shape, and once a fit has been found it should certainly not stop short of game. Once partner responds he should have nine losers or less, so with this five-loser hand game is assured once the fit is found. As it happens there will be intervention but this should have little impact on the final result. I think the bidding should go:

West	North	East	South
			1C
1D	1S	3D	3H
No	4H	All Pass

There are several points of interest. Firstly East should bid 3D NOT 2D! Remember you bid in these situations to the level of the fit and as you have nine trumps between you, you bid to make nine tricks. (You show a strong hand by bidding the opener’s suit first.) The idea is to put pressure on the opponents, and it does. 2H would be quite straightforward over 2D, 3H over 3D less so. But you would still do so because there is now an increased likelihood of partner having a fit with one of your suits. Eleven tricks were trivial with the even break in trumps.