Transfer Worries

12th August – Board 6: Game All. Dealer East.

	North: S A Q 9 4 3 H K Q 9 8 2 D Q C J 3
West: S J 8 H 7 6 5 3 D K J 10 C Q 10 6 4		East: S 10 7 6 2 H 4 D A 8 5 3 C K 9 8 5
	South: S K 5 H A J 10 D 9 7 6 4 2 C A 7 2

The hand above didn’t cause any great worries as far as I am aware but it did lead me to wonder how those people sitting North dealt with their hand. At one table the bidding went:

West	North	East	South
		No	1NT
No	2H	No	2S
No	4H	No	4S
End

As it was ‘obvious’ that North had five hearts I was a little surprised that South chose to play in the suit with less trumps until enquiry told me that there was concern that the 4H bid might be a self-agreeing splinter, in other words looking for a spade slam with a singleton heart! After all North could, I suppose, bid 3H and then 4H with the hand in question. This remark caused me to look up my own system notes and in the sequence above I play, apparently, 4H as - a splinter! Oh dear. But then I do have some other sophistication which those system lovers amongst you can adopt, and those system haters can just ignore. This is what we do:
1NT – 4D is a hand which is 5-5 in the majors but with no slam interest.
1NT – 2C – 2D – 4C/D is a hand which is 5-5 in the majors but with one or none in the minor bid, and is looking for a slam in one of the majors. Of course if partner bids one of the majors in response to Stayman then you can splinter anyway.
But if you want to keep it simple I don’t blame you. It’s just that with the proliferation of new ideas even the simplest looking sequences can resemble a trap for the unwary.