Red Suit Mix Up

27th January – Board 4: Game All. Dealer West.

Bridge is a hard enough game at the best of times and part of that is remembering conventions. When that goes astray there is no end to the confusion that might ensue, but sometimes it seems to work out for the best…..

This happened more than once last Thursday and this is the first instance that caught my eye.

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

2D showed 23+ and 2H was a relay, but this had the effect of causing much diversion. East doubled, intending this to be a sort of take-out of hearts but as no suit had actually been bid in earnest this should have shown a good heart suit. (This is quite a common practice. When the opponents bid a suit in a conventional way then you can double to show values there.) So South was put off mentioning hearts and quite correctly bid 2NT, showing a balanced 23/24. Now North bid 3H intending it to be natural but of course transfers apply in this situation even though the suit has already been bid in a conventional way. South broke the ‘transfer’ and leaped to 4S and North who was having none of it bid 5H, which should have shown a big major two-suiter. As it was South had an easy raise in the red suit but it seems to me that if he had had a spade more and a heart less then he would (should) have bid 6S. The fact is that even when it is abundantly clear that a wheel has come off through the body language at the table, you have to pretend that it hasn’t.

If everyone had bid – er – rather more conventionally then it seems to me that the slam might not have been bid at all.

However as an aside if North had opened with a weak 2H (my choice) then South would presumably have employed a well-known convention and arrived at the slam in double quick time.