Who Dares Wins

15th July – Board 26: Game all. Dealer East

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

There were a number of results on the hand shown above, and no surprise there looking at all four hands. In fact North must have felt short-changed, possessing as he did the only normal looking hand of the bunch. What do you think is the par contract, and by that I mean what is the contract that should be attained if everyone played perfectly? Hard to believe but it is 7C doubled -2 by N/S giving E/W a score of 500, because E/W are cold for 6D! Of course to arrive at that result would be superhuman and I would have thought that a contract of 5D doubled + 1 by E/W would be more likely as they ‘save’ over 5C. Who knows how the auction might proceed but perhaps the following wouldn’t be too far-fetched:

West	North	East	South
			1C
1H	Dbl*	No	3C
3D	4D**	5D	No
No	Dbl	All Pass

* = sputnik double showing just four spades
** = cue-bid in support of clubs

I know the result is rubbish but sometimes things are just too hard. However there are a number of things to mention in the above auction. First of all I would reject any notion of opening the East hand with a weak two. The suit is too bad and there might be a slam on in diamonds!! Even if West had a two-suited type overcall available I think it should be rejected in favour of bidding the six-card major first. North should double to show a four-card spade suit. Remember that if you are playing Sputnik doubles then a bid of 1S in this situation should show at least a five-carder so that partner can raise on three card support if the next hand prempts in hearts. South is a bit too good just to bid 2C so he makes a jump rebid instead and West introduces his second suit. North has the perfect response by cue-bidding in support of clubs and East completes the barrage by bidding what he eventually would over 5C. From there on it’s pretty much guesswork but I imagine South would make a forcing pass causing his partner to make the final – wrong – decision. Not surprisingly nothing like that ever happened.