10th July – Board 4: Game All. Dealer West.
This board intrigued me so
much because a (safe) way forward is really difficult to find although the
following might just be the answer. If anyone has any other ideas I’d be
pleased to hear!
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North:
S K 6 5
H K Q 2
D A K Q
C K J 9 5
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West:
S A 10 9 2
H A 3
D 6 5 3 2
C 4 3 2
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East:
S J 8 7 4 3
H 5
D J 10 8
C Q 10 7 6
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South:
S Q
H J 10 9 8
7 6 4
D 9 7 4
C A 8
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West
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North
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East
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South
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No
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2NT
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No
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3D
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No
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3H
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No
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4S
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No
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5D
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No
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5H
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End
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Once
North has shown 21/22 points South must be thinking in terms of a slam but
short of wheeling out the Old Black after transferring to hearts it is hard to
see how to proceed. (As an aside have you and partner discussed whether the
sequence 2NT-3D-3H-4NT is Blackwood or quantitative with five hearts? Thought
not.) In the sequence proffered above 4S is a self-agreeing splinter, setting
hearts as the suit and showing a singleton spade. North is happy and sad at the
same time. His trump holding is good but his spade holding is terrible but
nevertheless he is worth a cue-bid of 5D although without such a potent trump
holding he would retreat to 5H. South can now bid 5H, comforted no doubt by the
fact that he has at least made an effort to get to a slam, for indeed if North
had the spade ace and not the club jack (say) he would have the same number of
points and yet the slam would be cold. And with that extra ace he would surely
bid it.
After 2NT, 3D and 3H could South call 4 clubs, cue bidding his ace. North calls 4 diamonds and South retreats to 4 hearts. North can see that a slam is not on and stops there??? Peter F
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter for the suggestion but the trouble is that there is no reason why 4C shouldn't be a suit. After all South could have something like Sx HAxxxx Dxx CAQxxx. So there is the worry that doing it with Ax i.e. as a cue-bid, might result in opener going back to 5C or even 6C with a poor heart holding but good clubs.
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