Working Well

13^th February – Board 24: Love All. Dealer West.

More complicated conventions do come up from time to time and it is nice when they work well. The featured hand was just such a deal and as a consequence a laydown slam was reached on minimal values.

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

West	North	East	South
1S	No	2NT	No
3D	No	4NT	No
5D	No	6S	End

It’s perfectly ok to open that West hand with a 1S bid, with all the points ‘hard’ and with good impletion in the spade suit. Opposite, East will be charmed. 2NT is the Jacoby convention showing as it does a game-going hand (at least) in support of spades but with its full quotient of high cards. West can now bid 3D showing some sort of interest in better things but with a singleton diamond, news that will undoubtedly cause delight in the Eastern quarter. A check up on key-cards would confirm that one major player is absent but even so it would be feeble not to bid a slam. But note that if West had started with two low diamonds and two clubs (say), the slam would have two inescapable losers. I suppose that South might try and spoil the party by bidding 3H. In which case you have to know what any bid by West now shows.