29th July – Board 6: E/W Game. Dealer East
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North:
S A Q
H 6 4 2
D K J 6 5
C 9 5 4 2
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West:
S 9 3 2
H Q 10 9 3
D 10 9 4
C J 6 3
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East:
S 7 6 5 4
H A K 8 7 5
D none
C Q 10 8 7
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South:
S K J 10 8
H J
D A Q 8 7 3 2
C A K
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The Losing Trick Count is fun to teach and is easily assimilated by the advancing player, but in many ways it is a bit of a poisoned chalice. It is certainly useful in demonstrating that distribution is everything as important as high-card points, but on occasion it is used to the exclusion of everything else. Points in themselves are an incredibly useful asset and the more points you have the more you should bid. As an example you might make a grand slam in no-trumps missing a king, but not an ace, although the losing trick counts would be the same. So for no other reason than that I would consider raising partner’s 1D to 2D only on the hand shown above to be exceedingly coy. Sure it is a nine-loser hand, but it also has a good ten points and all those points could easily be working. If the queen of spades were replaced by the king then everyone would bid 3D and think nothing of it, yet there is still a good chance of making two tricks in the suit with the AQ. There is no chance of bidding the laydown slam unless North bids 3D first, when I think the bidding should go:
West
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North
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East
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South
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No
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1D
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No
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3D
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No
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4NT
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No
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5H
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No
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6D
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All Pass
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There is no point in South cue-bidding after the jump raise because the only thing of concern is that partner holds the requisite number of key-cards. Everyone’s favourite convention will find that out, the response to the Old Black showing two key-cards without the queen of trumps, and the play could hardly be more trivial.
How exciting for me
ReplyDeletethis is my first comment
Firstly David thanks for this blog
its very informative for us mere plebs and generally provides us with lots of ammunition to blame our partners for any poor bidding
Regarding this hand why should south not open a strong 2 with only 4 losers?
Fish doc
Thanks for the comment. Generally speaking an Acol two should have what we call eight playing tricks, that is to say it should be able to bring in eight tricks on an average sort of day. There is no point count associated with this but it normally works out to be about 19-21. That South hand falls just a bit short but if the diamonds were slightly stronger, say AQJ10xx , it would be nearer the mark. (Five diamond tricks, two clubs and a spade.) However for certain complicated reasons it is generally not a good idea to open any strong two with a two-suiter, and here the hand might play well in spades.
ReplyDeleteI admit it, I was extremely coy! Having bid 2D is there still a way to get to recover to bid the slam? Could South bid 2 or 3S to show a strong hand and then North bid 4NT?
ReplyDeleteI certainly think South should bid 2S over 2D, not looking for a slam of course but hoping that his partner might be able to conjure up a NT bid, or better still show a feature in hearts, whereupon South could bid 3NT. As it happens North is a bit stymied because of his pusillanimity in the first place and would have, I suppose, to sort of emerge from the bushes and bid 4D. It would be hard for South to envisage a slam still, although to be fair I suppose that North could have the same hand minus the queen of spades, when six would still be good. But it's a mistake to put partner mentally with just the right cards and i imagine South would just bid 5D.
ReplyDeleteCould you clarify something for this timorous, yellow-bellied, bush-camouflaged bidder? After 1D-2D-2S, with North's hand isn't 4N a better bid than 4D if 2S is showing a strong hand and N has one Ace?
ReplyDeleteDo you really mean 4NT? 2S by South isn't necessarily a suit because North has denied spades, but is a fragment, showing values in the hope that North can show a feature in hearts. He would bid 2S with a spade less and a heart more when the correct contract would be 5D and not 3NT; but game anyway. 4NT then by North would result in a slam missing the top two hearts. I understand that you are a timorous, yellow-bellied bidder but there is no reason to veer from one extreme to the other with a power surge of testosterone. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think it is becoming clear why, (though we were in 3N making very fortunately) we lost 11 imps on this hand! I just thought that with North's hand (mine) having been phew silly animus that a bid of 3S by South (after my 2D) might then awaken me from my craven gutless bidding into an antonymic, brave 4N, without too much fear of repercussion because the 3S would be likely to indicate a shed and bucket-load of keycards?
ReplyDeleteWell there are several things to say here. Firstly your partner did not know that you had been dozing when you bid 2D and might naively have thought you were trying to describe your hand. And secondly a bid of 3S by him would be a splinter showing a singleton or void because 2S would be forcing. And lastly how on earth did you arrive in 3NT and what is more make it? Do I suspect a heart blockage somewhere along the line? So many questions, so little time.
ReplyDeleteDavy,
ReplyDelete1) Blockage is right. This deduction has been made just in time to watch Sherlock.
2) 1D-2D-2N-3N
Dozy.