Off To The Races

15th March – Board 7: Game All. Dealer South.

The concept of the reverse is not really so difficult to understand yet there still does seem to be some confusion. What must be understood is that while a reverse shows a strong hand you do not go out of your way to bid your suits the wrong way round just so that you have reversed and therefore shown strength, because you can always do that in a more legitimate way. Take the hand below for example:

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

South has a good hand but should not fall into the trap of opening 1C in order to reverse. Just open 1H and failing support from partner make a jump rebid of 3C over 1S or 1NT and a high-card reverse of 3C over 2D. What is more all these bids would be game forcing. However when partner obligingly supports hearts it’s off to the races with a series of cue-bids. Pointless of South to bid 4NT of course after partner has shown diamond control because all that is required is for partner to have the king of clubs and the queen of hearts for the grand slam to be odds on. So give partner the chance to bid 5C over 4S to show second round control and when this is not forthcoming just settle on the small slam. Even though there is a possible trump loser the fact that the king of clubs is onside means that there is very little to the play.