Gallant Effort

24th March – Board 10: Game All. Dealer East.

Would you bid on that North hand after your partner has passed and the hand on your right has opened with 1H? It’s a close call especially as game is unlikely opposite a passed partner but if you are going to bid then 1NT must be the best of a bad lot. True the heart stop is a little fanciful but the rest of the hand shapes up well. Anyway 1NT was the bid chosen at the table where I watched and partner raised to game and the queen of clubs was led. But how would you proceed from there?

West	North	East	South
		No	No
1H	1NT	No	3NT
End

Declarer won in hand and led a spade to table and boldly led – the Jack of hearts! I really have to admire this gallant effort as with another layout E/W might well have tangled the heart suit or in any event be misdirected from the correct defence. Tragically from declarer’s point of view West knew how to deal with this sudden change in fortune (thank you partner!) and cashed out for two down but the sad truth is that North could have made his contract. If he just cashes his tricks in the black suits West comes under pressure. He cannot afford to let a diamond go so has to discard two hearts. But then declarer can cash the king and queen of diamonds, noting the fall of the ten from East, and simply exit with a heart. Poor West can win four tricks in that suit but then has to lead a diamond away from his jack up to the A9 holding in dummy.

Cat and Mouse

24th March – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

Whose side would you put your money on if East declared a contract of 5D and South decided to lead the ace of spades and follow up with a trump? Winning in hand declarer would lead his singleton heart and South has to pass the test and duck! This may look far-fetched but in reality it is not so hard to find. It is true that South will never make a heart trick but by playing the ace he would give declarer two discards for his losing clubs. So your money is on N/S right? Wrong! Declarer would win the heart and ruff a heart back to hand. The spade queen is ruffed and dummy’s last heart ruffed before a club is led to the ten and North’s queen – who is now hopelessly endplayed. A major suit return would give a ruff and discard while a club would be up to dummy’s tenace. So E/W triumph after all. Of course in reality N/S would almost certainly compete to the five level and the following auction would not be too far-fetched:

West	North	East	South
	No	1D	4D
5D	No	No	5H
Dbl	5S	No	No
Dbl	End

4D might seem a funny bid but is just really a sort of super-Michaels showing the majors and a desire to play at the four-level in either spades or hearts. West will almost certainly support his partner but when South has one more West should get the maximum penalty from the save by doubling. The ensuing reward for all this would be +500 to E/W as opposed to +600 if they were allowed to play peacefully in their game.

Nerves of Steel

17th March – Board 3: East/West Game. Dealer South.

An opportunity to dine out on a perfect defence arose on the deal shown below after East/West refused to be bludgeoned into submission. I don’t know how the actual bidding went but I do know that the final contract was 5HX and I guess it could have gone something like:

West	North	East	South
			No
1H	1S	2H	2S
4H	4S	No	No
5H	No	No	Dbl
End

I think that 2H bid is justified if only because it takes room away from South who is a little on the heavy side for 2S but not strong enough to make an Unassuming Cue Bid of 3H. When one side reaches a high level without a huge amount of points it is more or less mandatory for the opposition to kick off their defence with a trump lead in order to cut down declarer’s cross-ruffing potential, but here that clearly cannot be done. However on the fairly routine lead of the king of spades South should overtake with the ace and lead a trump. Declarer can win and ruff a diamond in dummy and does best to ruff a club back to hand and advance the nine of spades. However North must have nerves of steel and duck, playing his partner for the ten who can win the trick and play another trump. Only by doing this can the defence stop declarer from making two ruffs in dummy.

Faint-Hearted

17h March – Board 24: Love All. Dealer North.

Grand slams are notoriously difficult to bid at the best of times, especially with distributional hands where there might not be an over-abundance of points between the combined hands, but the deal shown below demonstrated a singular amount of faint-heartedness when it arose last Thursday. At the very least it should have gone something like this:

West	North	East	South
	1C	1H	Dbl
No	3S	No	4D
No	4H	No	4NT
No	5S	No	6S
End

Whether East overcalls with 1H or 2H Dble by South should show precisely four spades – you bid them with more – leaving North to raise to the three level with his six-loser hand.

South could now cue in diamonds and after confirming that there are not two immediate heart losers he can wheel out the Old Black. The reply shows the two missing key-cards plus the queen of spades but even so North needs to have a singleton heart to make the grand slam a viable bet and I cannot see how that can be accomplished with any certainty. South knows of course that his partner started with at least five clubs headed by the ace but that would cater for only three heart discards from the South hand. I guess some hands are just too hard.

Second Best

10th March – Board 2: North/South Game. Dealer East.

Ironically the one pair who arrived in 4S on those East/West cards gained a top score when the reality is that 3NT is a much better contract and should also come to ten tricks after a low diamond lead. 4S depends upon finding the king of hearts in the North hand and then some more, but if the trumps are drawn and clubs eliminated before a heart is played then North will find himself end-played. (Assuming a safe trump lead.) If you are not playing Benji then an opening bid of 1S will be raised to 2S and it is hard to see West doing anything other than bidding game in that suit. However if you are allowed to open 2C to show a balanced 19/20 points inter alia then I think the bidding might go:

West	North	East	South
		No	No
2C	No	2D	No
2NT	No	3NT	End

I am a great fan of Stayman usually but that East hand is just a little to flat to warrant using it. In 3NT a diamond will surely be led and there seems to be only nine tricks available. However observe what happens if West runs all his black suit winners. With five cards remaining North cannot keep all his diamonds and the heart suit guarded so a clever declarer would exit with a diamond and wait for North to lead away from his king of hearts in the end game.

Unchartered Waters

10th March – Board 7: Game All. Dealer South.

It’s all very well having a gadget at one’s disposal intended to wreak havoc upon the opposition but you have to know what to do if the opposition seem strangely detached and it is partner who appears to be troubled. Have a look at the hand shown below and see what happened after a fairly machismo weak two was opened on those West cards.

West	North	East	South
			No
2S	No	3D	No
3S	End

Confusion arose because the meaning of that 3D bid had never been discussed and there was doubt in the West camp as to whether the bid was forcing or not. Certainly it is generally accepted that a new suit at the three level should be forcing but I don’t think that should apply after a weak two. Why is that? Well the responder can always find out more about the nature of the opening bid by bidding 2NT, Ogust as you recall. And if you make a bid in another suit forcing then you can never play in that contract when it might palpably be the right thing to do. As in the hand above. Having said all that and even assuming that the 3D bid was intended as forcing it seems a strange choice to rebid such a ghastly spade suit – surely not what partner wants to hear. What about 3NT? OK it goes four down on a club lead but the reality is that North might well lead a heart and that would lead to a spectacular result for the pair sitting in the other direction. Of course just because you are playing weak two’s it doesn’t mean you are compelled to every time you hold a six card suit…….

Textbook Technique

3rd March – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

There were loads of different contracts and results on the featured hand but for once I am not interested in the bidding but the play in 6D from the North hand, as it should feature a smart play straight from the textbooks. Superficially it looks as though the contract depends upon the heart finesse, for if that works declarer has one spade, two hearts, six diamonds and three clubs. With the king badly placed you might think that declarer would lose two heart tricks but that needn’t be the case. Here is what should happen: Declarer wins the spade lead (say), draws trumps in two rounds and cashes the ace of hearts. He then crosses to the South hand with a club to ruff the remaining spade, cashes the remaining two clubs ending in dummy and leads a heart to the queen. If the king is well placed there is no problem, but if East holds that card doubleton then he will find himself endplayed. With only black cards left he will be forced to give declarer a ruff and discard and his twelfth trick in the process. It’s the same old story: so many times when a finesse is working you just don’t have to take it.

Thank You Partner

3rd March – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

Sometimes things are just too good to be true, and indeed East must have thought Christmas had come early when his partner made just the bid he wanted to hear.

West	North	East	South
	2H	No	No
Dbl	End

North opened with a weak 2H, perfectly reasonable even if the trump intermediates are a little on the thin side, and this was passed round to West who had a moment of inspiration and doubled – for take-out of course, but East was charmed and was in the unique position of having six trump tricks before the defence even started on anything else. After the smoke had cleared declarer was six down, or -1400 as East/West preferred to call it, but my sympathies are with North. I would not double on that West hand because I would be afraid that partner would leave it in and the subsequent penalty not be adequate compensation for the almost certain slam. Shows what I know. What would I bid? How about 5H! showing a big two-suiter. If partner, after having recovered, bids 6C you simply bid 6D knowing that partner would convert to 6S if his holding in that suit were better. You would know that, wouldn’t you? As an aside one pair bid and made 6H on the E/W cards. You can think about it all day and won’t be able to see how.