14th June – Board 13: Game All.
Dealer North.
With so many game contracts
available on the featured hand it is no surprise that the bidding could and
indeed did take many different routes. I have to say that as West I would be
looking for a club slam after partner has bid the suit and that contract is not
so bad in any event although it would be scuppered on the bad trump break.
4
♦ is not an attempt to play in that suit of course because West had two previous chances of bidding diamonds if he was serious about them. Instead it is a cue-bid, agreeing clubs as it happens although East might not know that until the last moment. Several Wests looked no further than 3NT and were probably anxious on a low heart lead. However after running all the clubs, admittedly using up the only diamond entry in the process, South becomes burdened with too many high cards and is subject to an easy end-play if declarer exits with either a heart or a diamond. Of course what South should do is to smoothly reduce himself to the bare king of spades early on to save himself the ignominy of being thrown in to give two spade tricks. West won't know what is happening of course or shouldn’t unless South has made a big deal of it with an Oscar winning performance. Much easier said than done I have to agree.
Is West's 3H bid most likely to be showing a heart suit, or a UCB showing club support, or is it asking partner for a heart stop? I'm guessing its the first, but if so why not just bid 3N? If the second is 3S a cue bid? I am (as you can tell!) confused.
ReplyDeleteThe King of Ignominy.
It can't be a heart suit because South has already bid them. It's quite possible that 3NT might be the right contract but partner needs an independent stop really for that contract to be viable. After East has bid 3C the likely contracts are 3NT, 5C or 6C and West has to do some searching to try and find out which is best. I actually think 6C is a fair slam but the bad trump break makes it unplayable I think. And as I mentioned in the blurb 3NT probably should be defeated if South keeps his nerve and declarer doesn't have second sight. 3S was just showing six spades because he had already shown 5-4 in the black suits. Maybe West should pass 4S because that is an easy make too.
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