20th October – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.
Being old and set in my ways I have never been a fan of inverted minor suit raises but I have to confess it would have made West’s task somewhat easier on the hand shown below. Nevertheless a little ingenuity might have saved the day.
West
|
North
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East
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South
|
|
No
|
1D
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No
|
1H
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No
|
2C
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No
|
2S
|
No
|
3S
|
No
|
4D
|
No
|
4S
|
No
|
6D
|
End
|
|
|
If an initial 2D response by West is not forcing then he has to invent a bid and I would try 1H and hope for the best! 2S becomes fourth-suit forcing prior to raising diamonds and the 3S bid by East shows a good hand for the bidding so far. Of course it denies a four-card spade holding or he would have bid that suit over 1H but it does show values there and a hand too good to bid a stultifying 3NT. 4D is game forcing and looking for more which in turn poses a problem for East who can hardly bid RKCB because a response of 5H would push you to 6D with two key cards missing. A well-thought out 4S should allow West to make a sound judgement with his three big cards, and indeed he would bid the same holding the ace of clubs and not the ace of spades. I know it’s not easy, but it’s not supposed to be.
Don't quite understand what the bid of 4s signifies? It may be well thought out to some but it remains unclear to me! (:
ReplyDeleteStewart
Hmmm. I think I'd wonder what my partner had been smoking if he bid like East. But perhaps I should get out more.
ReplyDeleteChris A.
Shouldn't East reverse to 3C for his second bid?
ReplyDeleteEast's hand looks pretty good after some enthusiastic noises from his partner but after 4D he can hardly bid Blackwood because the response might get him too high with a couple of key-cards missing. So 4S is forward going - obviously - since both sides have denied a spade suit. in effect it is asking partner to make a value judgement and with two aces and king to five diamonds West can hardly bid less than 6D.
ReplyDeleteRobin, 3C isn't a reverse but it is game -forcing and you have no reason to think initially that game is on. Just give partner something like S Jxx H KQxxx D xx Cxxx and you will see what I mean. With that hand you wouldn't want to be higher than 2D and even that might fail on a bad day. A jump shift by opener shows about 19+ points with a 5-4-2-2 distribution say, or slightly less with more distribution. I would bid 3C over 1H with S x H Ax D AKJxx C KQJxx but it would have to be about that good. One of the reasons why the responder should always give 'false preference' with 2 and 3 in partner's suits is that it gives the opener another bid.
ReplyDeleteDave, I understand your reasoning for not bidding 3C. But I really don't understand why 1D-1H-3C is not a reverse. Help.
ReplyDeleteOK. A 'normal' reverse is when the bidding goes something like 1D - 1S - 2H. This latter is a reverse because responder can only go back to opener's first suit at the three level. Something like 1S - 2H - 3C is called a high-card reverse and is game-forcing because partner has bid at the two level. When opener makes a jump shift in a new suit it is not called reverse but merely game-forcing. Having said all that I do understand your logic - but it is just not called a reverse. A reverse sequence, by definition, contains nobody jumping or leaping about. How about that?
ReplyDelete