Wrong Rebid

23rd January – Board 18: North/South Game. Dealer East.

Not one pair reached the right contract on the hand shown below and I can only imagine it was because East made the wrong rebid.

	North: S 5 3 H J 8 6 2 D K Q J 7 C K 9 7
West: S A 10 7 6 2 H A 10 7 D A 8 6 C 6 3		East: S Q 9 8 H K 9 5 4 3 D 2 C A Q 5 4
	South: S K J 4 H Q D 10 9 5 4 3 C J 10 8 2

West	North	East	South
		1H	No
1S	No	2S	No
4S

East is quite right to open with the 6.5 loser hand but over a 1S response from partner the correct bid is 2S and not 2C! Why is that? Well if responder had a weakish hand with a doubleton heart and a trebleton club he would bid 2H over 2C because a 5-2 fit plays better than a 4-3 one and it also allows for the auction to continue if opener has a strong hand. It’s fine to bid 2C with a stronger hand because then over the preference to 2H opener can bid 2S showing a strong 3-5-1-4 hand. But that isn’t the case here and with a ruffing value or two it is much better to support partner’s suit. Over 2S West should look no further than bidding game although strangely at least one West passed. That is odd because the hand is a seven-loser – you take a loser off for the three aces – and despite general opinion to the contrary having three aces is a good thing. Eleven tricks are easy in spades assuming declarer doesn’t forget to ruff his losing diamonds and in fact double dummy twelve tricks can be made. Sadly only one pair bid and made game and that was in hearts.