Trial Bid Substitute

3rd October – Board 15: North/South Vul. Dealer South.

Trial bids as mentioned before are a very useful tool to have in one’s bidding armoury but sometimes the opposition gets in the way. When that happens you have to try and find another way to express a better than minimum opener.

	North: S A 2 H 10 9 8 6 4 D 10 4 3 C 7 5 4
West: S 10 7 6 5 H A J 5 D K 8 C Q 8 3 2		East: S 9 8 3 H none D A Q J 6 5 2 C A J 10 9
	South: S K Q J 4 H K Q 7 3 2 D 9 7 C K 6

West	North	East	South
			1H
No	2H	3D	Dbl
No	3H	End

If the opposition had remained silent South could have bid 2S over 2H giving the message that game couldn’t be ruled out but that idea is thwarted once East introduces his diamond suit. You might think that South could simply bid 3H as an encouraging noise but that is not the most efficient way to bid the hand. 3H should be reserved for a hand that is just competing the partscore and is not looking for game, so if you want to make a more encouraging noise you double – effectively asking partner to reassess his holding. Here of course North would simply retreat to 3H which would fail by one trick after normal defence, but as East/West can make 3D that is hardly a serious matter. As an aside I have to say I would be strongly tempted – wrongly – to compete to 4D with that West hand.