3rd February – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.
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A lot of bidding sequences are delicate affairs but every now and again a hand comes along where to some extent everyone is guessing. On the featured hand I suspect few of the protagonists really knew if what they were doing was the right thing, but as usual it was the side that held the spade suit that should have come out on top.
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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4S
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5D
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5S
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6D
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No
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No
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6S
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No
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No
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Dbl
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End
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You may not agree with the 4S opening but it looks about right to me. West has an easy bid of 5D and similarly North is charmed to raise spades but after that nothing is too clear. East should bid 6D, not because he necessarily thinks it is likely to make but because it is to some extent an insurance policy against a possible making game the other way. It would be quite wrong now for South to bid on, on the grounds that he has already said what he has got by his opening bid, and any further action should be left to his partner. As 6S is not going to cost a fortune North should bid just that, again as a sort of insurance policy against losing a possible slam swing. And so par is obtained, with 6S costing 300, but a cheap save against the laydown slam. As a curiosity I see that 7C by East would make unless South leads a heart.
Are there any "guidelines" as to when to open 4S? South is first to bid if E doesn't open and at that stage he doesn't know if partner has any points and if he does how strong he is - so why not open 1S and proceed slowly?
ReplyDeleteGraham and I got to 5d and were allowed to play in it.
I think I would open 4S just because the hand has so little defence against any contract they might care to bid. Also what do you do if you open 1S and partner bids 2C/D/H? 2S is a bit feeble, 3S demands more overall strength and if you bid 4S why not open it in the first place? I think you were lucky to be allowed to play in 5D and perhaps you could say how the bidding went. Remember no names are mentioned to protect the guilty!
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