Not Going Quietly

23rd February – Board 9: East/West Vul. Dealer North.

There is a tendency sometimes to just shut up shop when partner has limited his hand, but it is not usually a winning policy to go quietly. Certainly South could have been a little more pro-active on the hand shown below.

West	North	East	South
	1NT	No	No
2H	No	No	Dbl
No	2S	???

The bidding as far as 2H is totally reasonable, the latter bid showing as it does about 11-14 points with a six-card suit or a very good five-card suit. However when the auction comes round to South in the protective position he should certainly re-open with a take-out double. All low level doubles, especially when you are sitting before the overcaller, are for take-out so there should be no confusion in North’s mind, and consequently he has an easy 2S bid. Even with the mirror distribution of the North/South hands 2S will prove an easy make, and while East might compete to the making 3H, he might not. At the very least you should always try to put pressure on the opponents and not go easily.

Avoiding The Trap

23rd February – Board 18: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

Any pair who reached 5C on the featured deal can rightly feel pleased with their effort, with the lure of the no-trump game a trap to be avoided at all cost.

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

There are several things to note in the bidding. First East is worth an opening bid but South is not really worth an overcall. At adverse vulnerability it is fraught with danger and if West ends up as declarer you do not want partner to lead a spade from Ax or Kx. It might also encourage North to get too involved, expecting as he might better values in his partner’s hand. Over 1S West should introduce fourth suit forcing as neither a 2H nor a 3H rebid would be forcing in any way and game certainly needs to be reached once partner has opened. Over 3C it might be tempting to bid 3NT, but that would fail even on a diamond lead if South won and switched to a spade – not so unlikely as it happens, in an attempt to stop declarer from getting at dummy’s club winners. Having introduced 4thSF 4C also becomes forcing and is in effect a slam try, but once partner denies a diamond control West should sign off in game. Essentially the game requires either the ace of diamonds to be well placed, or no diamond lead when a diamond from hand can be thrown on a top heart from dummy.

Asking A Lot

16th February – Board 5: North/South Vul. Dealer North.

The hands were so tedious last Thursday that I could only really find one that warranted any discussion – but what a hand it was! It’s not too often that you pick up a one-loser hand and of course you are not given an easy ride when you do, although I think things could have been even more difficult. The following is what happened when the eventual winners sat North/South:

West	North	East	South
	2D	No	2H
4D	5D	No	5H
No	7H	End

Although it is really easy to sympathise with North’s last bid, things might not have been so rosy if partner had started with four small hearts so I was wondering if perhaps North should not have bid 6D over 5H. Perhaps it’s asking a lot but the only real interpretation of that bid is to suggest a grand slam in hearts and for partner to consider whether she has more than promised so far. As Qxxxxx is so much more than xxxx a case could be made for passing the final decision to partner, something which at least will prove to be of value in any post-mortem if things go wrong! I actually think West should bid 5D at his first turn because as the opposition are going to end up in game and you are going to sacrifice why not do it now and make things really difficult. North could bid 5NT now – pick a slam partner – but over 6H it will be a complete guess whether or not to add one for the road.

Not Enough Trumps

9th February – Board 4: Game All. Dealer West.

Some hands make potentially fascinating problems even though the scenario imagined never actually happened, and that is the case with the hand shown below. So I want you to imagine you are in 4S from the North hand on the lead of the six of hearts.

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

I am prepared to believe the bidding might go like that but it has to for there to be a story!

Suppose you ruff the opening lead and try a top spade. West will win and play another heart and although you can ruff that and draw all the remaining trumps you can be denied a club trick as you will have run out of trumps, so that when West wins the club ace he can continue by playing hearts with declarer powerless to ruff. Declarer will make four spades and five diamonds but that is all. Now suppose declarer leads a low club to the king at trick two. Again West will continue hearts which declarer will ruff to lead trumps. West wins and punches again with a heart, ruffed by declarer who can draw only one more round of trumps – because he has run out! The nine in dummy is a master but dummy has no entries and West will ultimately be able to ruff a diamond and cash a heart.

The only way to make this - I think – is to play the queen of clubs at trick two. If West wins and play proceeds as above, declarer can enter dummy with the club king to pull the last trump, and if West ducks the club then declarer reverts to drawing trumps but will now make four trumps, five diamonds and a club.

First Things First

9th February – Board 12: North/South Vul. Dealer West.

The necessity for forward thinking could hardly be better illustrated than in the hand shown below where all too often the contract was defeated before it had really got going.

West	North	East	South
1NT	No	3NT	End

The bidding could hardly have been simpler and North made the usual lead of the two of hearts. What now? Assuming North has led away from either the ten or the queen, declarer can count on one spade trick, three hearts, at least four diamonds – unless South has all four outstanding cards - and at least two clubs – but there is a catch! You might as well play the jack of hearts from dummy at trick one and when it holds try a top diamond, noting the fall of the jack from South. It might seem obvious to carry on with diamonds but if you play the king and another, losing to North, that player might switch to a spade and if you duck that trick but take the continuation you will find that you never make a club trick as South will have a million spade winners by then. Now try leading a club after taking the diamond ace. As it happens South will either play the ace or the ten but whatever he does you can establish three club tricks now and consequently need no more than two diamonds. If you are allowed to win the club with South playing a small card you can revert to diamonds and can guarantee four tricks in that suit while the spade ace is still intact. And if North wins the ace of clubs and switches to a spade you have the chance of the clubs being 3-3, or the ten being doubleton and if all that goes wrong making a correct guess in diamonds. As an aside the odds are two to one on North having the diamond queen – the Principle of Restricted Choice – and the spades are blocked if you win the first round. In any event playing in the prescribed manner would give you twelve tricks.

Fatal Illusion

2^nd February – Board 12: North/South Vul. Dealer West.

Several pairs hit the top spot during the bidding on the featured hand but missed out on a play which would have led to a successful conclusion. There are perhaps many routes to the correct slam depending upon one’s system but the one given below couldn’t be criticized.

West	North	East	South
2C	No	2D	No
2H	No	3D	No
3S	No	5S	No
6S	End

I think it is correct to start with 2D over 2C because a jump to 3D initially would lead to an awkward rebid for East after a 3H bid by his partner. However after having started slowly, once his partner bids 3S East must do more than feebly raise to game and a jump to the five-level seems about right. West has an easy raise to the six-level and North will lead the queen of clubs. How should declarer proceed? What happened several times was that declarer played off two top trumps, discovered the bad news and entered dummy with a diamond. Needing the heart finesse to succeed the queen of hearts was led but when South covered, perforce, and the suit broke badly, declarer could not manage to ruff out both heart losers. Leading the queen was a fatal illusion. As it was necessary for South to hold the king of hearts a low heart would have done just as well but the difference now is that when the king appears declarer only needs one ruff to set up the suit. He wins the ace, crosses to the queen, comes back to hand with a club and ruffs a heart in dummy. Now he re-enters his hand with a trump and keeps playing hearts. In the fullness of time North will make his spade jack, but that is all.

Preemptive Power

2^nd February – Board 16: East/West Vul. Dealer West.

The power of preemption could hardly be better exemplified than in the hand shown below where East is faced with an impossible decision right from the start. A million different things might happen I suppose but I expect the top spot would be found only in one’s dreams.

West	North	East	South
1H	4S	5S	No
6C	No	No	????

Opening 1H on that West hand is ok but opening 2H most certainly isn’t! 
With a five-loser hand and playable in two suits it would be a mistake to concentrate on just one, but even opening at the one-level will cause problems after North barrages with 4S. I suppose that East would bid 5S and pass over 6C, thinking of course that there will be a spade loser, and the grand slam would be lost. However if South sacrifices in 6S West should pass, indicating first round spade control, and maybe now East will bid 7C. Of course South would have to bid 7S now, attaining the par result for a loss of 1100 against best defence!