Flying Start

26th January – Board 1: Love All. Dealer North.

The two blog hands today were only played once last Thursday due to the format of the competition, but I had already played them in a match a few days previously and I report here what happened in that match. Here a useful gadget helped N/S off to a flying start.

West	North	East	South
	2S*	3S	4S
5H	End

2S was the so-called Lucas 2, showing five cards in a specified major and four or five cards in a minor, but with a limited hand of 5-9 points. East bid 3S probably intending it to be a Michaels type bid but whatever the reason South had an easy raise to game. With a round or two of bidding taken away E/W subsided in game when the heart slam is a 50% proposition depending as it does on the position of the king of hearts. With no barrage in the replay E/W bid the slam giving his side a useful opening board.

Text Book Technique

26th January – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

What do you make of the bidding on the hand shown below? Lucky or not a good contract was reached, but even so declarer had to show good technique in the play of the hand.

West	North	East	South
	No	No	2C*
No	2D	No	3C
3D	No	No	3S
No	4C	No	5C
End

The bidding may need some explanation. 2C was either a weak two in diamonds or the strongest bid in the system, which might explain West’s reluctance to get involved at the beginning in case South held the former. When it became clear that South was holding the strong variety, game was reached in 5C and West led the king of diamonds. How should declarer proceed? If trumps break 2-2 the contract is trivial so declarer played off two top trumps and discovered the bad news. Instead of drawing the last trump however he led a spade to the king and one back to the queen and ace. West played the queen of diamonds and tried a third but declarer ruffed and now played a winning spade. If that suit had broken 3-3 he would have been able to draw the last trump and claim but as it was the defender with the last trump had four spades so declarer was able to ruff the last spade in dummy after all. It happens in the textbooks all the time but at the table less so. In the reply North/South played in a club partscore.

Too Difficult

19th January – Board 2: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

I think most pairs found themselves in a slam on the featured hand and were probably sorry not to have gone the whole way when the spade finesse works – not that you want to be in a grand slam on a finesse of course. A straightforward approach cuts out any possibility of a misunderstanding I suppose and the auction shown below has the merit of simplicity.

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

Once South shows the two missing aces and the queen of hearts North can ask for any outside kings and the usual arrangement is to respond on a step sequence. However if South had held the king of spades and not clubs the grand would have been laydown but that depends on South holding the queen of diamonds too. Try as I might I cannot find a convincing sequence which would allow the grand to be bid if South had held a more useful king. Somethings are just too difficult.

The Best You Can

19th January – Board 18: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

How would – or did – you defend 4S on the hand shown below from the North position? It might seem that there is little to do, being at the mercy of partner so to speak, but sometimes you have to do the best you can.

West	North	East	South
		1S	No
3S	No	4S	End

West is somewhere between three and four spades at his first call but whatever is chosen East will surely push on to game and equally surely South will start with a top diamond. Now from the North position the best chance of setting declarer lies in the ability of his side to obtain a heart ruff and his sole aim should be to point his partner in that direction. Of course for this plan to work South needs to hold the ace of hearts but getting him to cash it and continue the suit is not easy. But how about this? On the ace and king of diamonds North follows with the nine followed by the ten. This cannot be from a doubleton because they would have been played the other way round but as they are obviously unnecessarily high cards they must mean something. That ‘something’ is a suit preference signal for the higher of the two suits outside trumps, hearts in this case. Obvious, but only once you think of it! What you must not do as North is think for a while and then play to the first two tricks in a meaningful way, something I once saw a famous actor/bridge player do in a big tournament. Not that it did him much good.

Missing Major

12th January – Board 11: Love All. Dealer South.

There was a great deal of muddled thinking on the featured hand when it came to finding the correct opening bid on the South hand, but the reality is that 1S is the standout bid by a million miles. By not bidding the suit now you stand the very real chance of never mentioning the suit at all, something that indeed happened at several tables.

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

As it happened it didn’t matter very much whether South opened 1S or 1D as East is sure to barrage to 4H giving West an easy sacrifice over either 4S or 5D. (Easier over 5D of course, as he might fancy his chances over a spade game.) On a diamond lead and continuation the defence will come to their four tricks for a 300 point penalty, and everyone should be more or less happy!

Under Control

12th January – Board 21: North/South Vul. Dealer North.

Game in a minor is a contract not often seen at the bridge table, especially when the points are more or less evenly divided, so any pair reaching 5C on the deal below can consider they did well. And yet with a controlled auction perhaps it should not be that difficult.

West	North	East	South
	No	No	1D
1H	1S	2D*	3C
No	4C	No	5C
End

There are several things to note during the auction. West is easily worth an overcall of 1H and the 1S bid by North should now promise at least a five-card suit – with only four he should start proceedings with a Sputnik double. Clearly East would like to know how good his partner is for his overcall and the standard way to do this is to make an Unassuming Cue Bid in the opponents’ suit. With his five-loser hand South should not be afraid to introduce his club suit, whereupon West should pass to show he was minimum for his overcall. With a known heart shortage opposite North has an easy raise in clubs although whether that should be to the four or five level is debatable. In any event I cannot see South stopping out of game. There is not much to the play, with declarer losing a heart and a diamond most likely, although you do have to be a little careful in not running out of trumps. (Note that a sacrifice in hearts by East/West would be a costly affair if the opposition get all the ruffs due to them.)

Gone To Waste

5th January – Board 9: East/West Vul. Dealer North.

The results on the following board were feeble I’m afraid, which is a shame when a good hand goes to waste, but to my mind the fault can be laid squarely on the shoulders of West who never realized what a good hand he held.

West	North	East	South
	No	2C/2D	No
2D/2H	No	3NT	No
4H*	No	5NT	No
6S	End

Whether playing Benji Acol or not East will surely show a flat 25/26 point hand, although the sequence to 3NT can hardly be described as dainty. (In fact Eric Kokish from Canada has devised a method round this, but never mind.) Over 3NT surely, surely, West would want to show a six-card spade suit and this should be done via a transfer. Why a six card suit? Well with only five, playing in a possible 5-2 fit might not be so appealing. For the record over 3NT in this auction one should play red suit transfers and a 4C bid as asking for opener to bid four-card suits upwards. Anyway back to East. Even if partner has zero points but with six small spades, even then six spades would just require a 2-2 break. So what is wrong with bidding Josephine, 5NT, asking partner to bid 7S holding both the king and the queen. Only one pair reached a slam and that was 6D!

Unnecessary Risk

5th January – Board 19: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

East took the right view in the bidding but the wrong view in the play leading to a catastrophic result, but as so often happens when under pressure all reasoning goes out the window.

West	North	East	South
			No
No	4H	Dbl	End

To my mind it is clear-cut that East should bid 4S over 4H and not double. Too many times I have seen games making in both directions so if for no other reason I would have taken out insurance. Maybe playing pairs things are different and certainly the winning action here is to defend as neither game should make. However… East started correctly by cashing two top spades and a top club, getting the correct count signal from his partner in both suits. (Hi-Lo = even, Lo-Hi = odd). Now if partner has the ace of diamonds it is not going to run away so a trump exit looks safe but in the heat of battle East switched to a diamond, but unfortunately for him the nine. You can see what happened. With the super diamond impletion declarer covered with the ten and that was that. Even if East had started with more than two diamonds he would have been squeezed in the minors on the run of the hearts. If East had been a little more patient and with careful discarding his side would have come to the setting trick in diamonds in the fullness of time.