A Different View

24th November – Board 3: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

Just because you have a ‘gadget’ does not mean you have to use it come what may, and that fact is illustrated most clearly in the following hand which arose last Thursday. At the vulnerability South might be tempted to open with a weak 2S, but this six-loser hand is far too good to do that. (The diamond suit is a one-loser suit because of the good impletion.) With his weak no-trump hand North should have no game ambitions and would either pass or at the very most raise to 3S as a defensive measure, not forward going as he would use Ogust if that were the case, and as a result the cold game would be missed. But if South took a different view and imagined that his partner had opened one-no trump then surely he would have a shot at game. The bidding would proceed:

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

The game is a good one and is not particularly lucky to make – the trump finesse is right but the diamond finesse is wrong. Just remember that a weak two is the sort of hand which would make a weakness take-out if partner opened one no-trump.