Sour Grapes

15th March – Board 2: North/South Vul. Dealer East.
Any pair who bid to game on the East/West cards on the deal shown below can consider themselves to have done well, with both 4S and 5D making on minimum values. The auction might take many turns but the one featured seems to be about right.


West
North
East
South
1D
No
1S
No
2D
No
2H
No
3D
No
4D
No
5D
End
At adverse vulnerability I do not think North should get involved so the likelihood is that East will bid diamonds three times – to show seven – whereupon with a potential ruffing value in clubs West should try for game. Game is not a gimmee by any means of course and if you swap the North and South hands around would not make, but as it is with the gentle distribution declarer should come to twelve tricks in comfort. As an aside we lost eleven imps for bidding 5D when our teammates were unlucky enough to have a slam bid against them. I make 6D a 10% prospect. Not that I’m bitter.
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7 comments:

  1. Robin18 March 2012 at 17:38

    I foolishly bid to 4S, overriding partner's plea to play in diamonds. Worse, I was one down, when it looks easy to make with the distribution. Minus 6 imps. Wish I could remember the play!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dave18 March 2012 at 17:48

    I don't think it's so foolish to bid 4S but I suppose it is lucky that dummy provides some support. It is hard to see where it went wrong because all the finesses are right and the trumps break. Still it's always easier seeing all four hands.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous18 March 2012 at 19:21

    Robin - can't remember all the play either but I do recall that you didn't try the D finese and as such I won an easy trick! Stewart

    ReplyDelete
  4. Robin18 March 2012 at 20:42

    Stewart,

    I have a phobia against finesses. I feel I get the 50% that don't work. I am undergoing treatment and trying hard to overcome it, but it's really not that easy. 30% of the time I forget to try to take one and the other half of the time I keep thinking about my Maths 'o' level. Anyway, at the moment I only try them at weekends; thursday evenings is a little too much this early on in my rehab I fear. Please don't tell everyone, though I think I'm pretty safe on this blog.

    R.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dave18 March 2012 at 22:26

    This is a reply to Peter who, I'm sure, inadvertently left his comment in the wrong box!
    You have to be careful when applying the LTC if you are short of trumps. For example, if you make the two small diamonds small clubs instead, you still have a six-loser hand but now you would not even be able to make game.Or you could make a low heart a diamond, clearly a better hand because more trumps, but now you have a seven-loser. So no high fives from me!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous25 March 2012 at 19:11

    Well Robin, I'm not sure how to reply to that! From my point of view a finese is the only thing I really understand.

    .....I guess somewhere there must be an e-bride book or phamplet about how to conquor your finessing phobia. Perhaps lay of trying to conquor the multi 2d until you do! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Robin25 March 2012 at 22:04

    Eye will if ewe go on a spilling coarse

    ReplyDelete

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