Guessing Games

25^th November – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

What would you – or did you – open on that North hand? I know some people opened 3C but that is really feeble. It is an old maxim that you should preempt to the right level at the beginning and having done that leave everything up to your partner, and for that reason alone I would be happy to open 4C. Indeed if the vulnerability were in my favour I would consider opening 5C and let the rest of the people at the table sort it out. If you opened 4C I imagine the auction would go as shown below, but in truth there is a lot of guesswork involved in these situations. How about? :

West	North	East	South
	4C	4S	5C
Dbl	End

West’s double is a bit speculative and he might leave well alone, but in any event the contract should only fail by one trick as long as East does not try to cash too many spades. (If he does so the ten of spades in dummy becomes a winner and a place for declarer to park his losing heart.) Four spades will make as long as declarer finds the jack of diamonds so five clubs would be a good save. Interestingly nothing can stop South making 3NT! Hard to play in of course if the bidding starts at the four-level.

Who Dares Wins

25^th November – Board 5: N/S Vul. Dealer North.

The definition of a good slam is one that makes and if that is the case then several pairs did well to reach six spades on the featured hand. I am not convinced however that it is a good proposition, needing as it does trumps to break 2-2 and for something nice to happen in either clubs or hearts as well. On a trump lead declarer has little choice but to try and set up a long club for an eventual diamond discard from dummy, with the losing diamond in hand then being ruffed. On the king of hearts lead declarer has another option, namely trying to establish a long heart in dummy for the eventual discard of a diamond from hand. He could win the ace of hearts, ruff a heart, enter dummy with a trump and ruff another heart. Dummy is reached once again with a trump – pulling all outstanding enemy trumps in the process – and another heart ruffed, leaving a winner in dummy. Finally dummy will be reached one way or another via the club suit and the winning heart played allowing declarer to jettison the three of diamonds. All lines work as it happens but my feeling is that the odds are way short of the requirements for the slam to be considered a good one. Nevertheless the following auction does not look unreasonable I have to confess:

West	North	East	South
	2C*	No	2D**
No	2S	No	3S
No	4NT	No	5D
No	5H***	No	6S
End

* Playing weak 2’s this shows an Acol 2 in any suit or 19-20 balanced.
** Relay.
*** Asking about the queen of trumps. The answer shows that card but denies holding another king.

Onwards and Upwards

11^th November – Board 9: E/W Vul. Dealer North.

The theory behind reversing is undoubtedly a puzzle for most people. But think of it this way: A lot of the time when opener bids two suits their partner will give preference to the first on the grounds that the opener will probably have more of the first suit bid than the second but in any event will certainly not have less. So that if the responder has made a minimum response in a new suit with about six or seven points only, and they are subsequently forced to give preference to opener’s first suit at the three level, then it makes sense that the opener should be about a trick better than a minimum opener – say sixteen points or more. A corollary to this is that if responder is strong enough to bid his suit at the two level and opener reverses then game must ultimately be reached. The hand above should really be bid as follows:

West	North	East	South
	No	1S	No
2D	No	2S	No
2NT	End

If East reverses by rebidding 3C, then the auction will continue onwards and upwards and subsequently get too high with insufficient values.

A Little Knowledge

11^th November – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

Sometimes it is better not to know too much and that was certainly the case when this deal arose last Thursday. I was West and my partner opened 2S which I knew was weak. The only trouble was that I had no idea how we continued after that! Normally I would enquire with 2NT and the hand opposite would bid 3S showing eight or nine points and the ace and queen of trumps. (Two of the top three honours. I would be able to work out which.)

And then having been given the best answer possible it would be illogical not to bid a slam, which almost certainly requires the club finesse to work. Anyway as I was not in a regular partnership and I had no idea if we were playing Ogust – the clever convention mentioned above - our sequence was rather more curtailed:

West	North	East	South
	No	2S	No
3NT	End

A club seemed - and indeed was – the natural lead, but this gave away a trick and then the run of the spades squeezed South in the red suits. Perhaps I should have bid 6NT!

Not The Best

4th November – Board 4: Game-All. Dealer West.

It’s not often that you fail by six tricks, vulnerable, in a freely bid game and still show a profit, but that’s exactly what happened on the deal shown above. The bidding was far from being the best but it did lead to an interesting contract….

West	North	East	South
2H	Dbl	3H	4C
No	4S	End

East was charmed of course by the turn of events because it is not often you have five trump tricks against a freely bid game. North made three trump tricks and the ace of hearts and gained an imp for his troubles when his teammates made 4H as East/West. Really South should have been more insistent with his clubs and 5C is cold, with the slam making with a right view in the diamond suit. (I know West can lead a diamond and get a spade ruff in return, but that just won’t happen.) Interestingly enough West will probably make 5H on the likely lead of the ace of spades. West ruffs the lead and in turn ruffs a club in dummy before playing another top spade, intending to throw a diamond unless South ruffs. The only defence, (I think), is for South to ruff with the ace of hearts and play a diamond. However whether or not 5H makes it would be at the very least a profitable sacrifice.

Playing The Odds

4th November – Board 3: E/W Vul. Dealer South.

I wonder how many pairs reached 6NT on the hand shown above, and if any of those who did made it. The key card in the West hand is the king of spades because it solidifies the suit, but that is hard for East to assess especially when it is known to be a singleton. We bid it as follows:-

West	North	East	South
			No
1C	No	1D	No
1H	No	1S	No
2D	No	3NT	End

1S was fourth suit and West completed a picture of his hand by showing delayed diamond support, indicating almost certainly a singleton spade. Maybe 3NT was a bit agricultural but the hands did not seem to be fitting well although in fact all of West’s cards were pulling their weight. On a small spade lead declarer should play a low club from dummy. North should refuse the king of course but now declarer ducks a club completely and in the fullness of time will come to four spades, two hearts, two diamonds and four clubs. It is better to play clubs this way rather than take a more conventional finesse because North might have started with king doubleton. That holding in the South hand would do declarer no good at all.