Mixing It Up

22nd January – Board 12. North/South Game. Dealer North.

It might seem difficult to know how to proceed on the South hand after partner supports your suit but there is a way.

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

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

That 2S bid might be made on a variety of hands including some with only three trumps, in a 3-5-3-2 hand say, and accordingly South desperately needs to find out more information. 3D might not seem to be a forcing bid but it is, for logic alone dictates that it can hardly be right to pull a major suit part score into a minor suit one. However the sequence that starts 1S-2D-3D-3S is not forcing but merely an attempt to reach game. (Generally speaking in these mixed sequences only the one that goes from major to minor to minor to major is non-forcing.) After 3D North will surely leap to game in spades having as he does such robust four-card support and if I were South I would just punt the slam. You can fiddle about with Blackers I suppose to find out about the king of trumps and maybe that is best, but in any event the slam will be bid. Of course 7S is makeable as the cards lie but that really is too difficult!