Too Hasty

5th September – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.

Did anyone bid the laydown slam on board 14 last night? I think it’s easily possible with just a little bit of planning.

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

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

It’s easy to be too hasty with that North hand and just bash 4S or transfer and then bash it. But one of the beauties of playing transfers is that you can use a jump shift in a suit over 1NT as a single suited slam try. Usually opener will make a cue-bid somewhere unless he has a small doubleton in responder’s suit when he will retreat to 3NT. Here the North hand has an easy continuation with 4C, insisting on spades and cue-bidding the ace of clubs on the way. Now South should be charmed. A popular convention finds responder has three key-cards and the 5H continuation asks about the queen of trumps. Holding that lady North is honour-bound to bid the slam. Not so difficult after all.

Same Wavelength

23rd May – Board 23: Game All. Dealer South.

The following hand should be easy to bid to (almost) the right contract but you have to be careful that you and your partner are both on the same wavelength.

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

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

The grand slam is just about worth being in although hard to bid with any degree of certainty but its younger brother should not prove too difficult to aspire to. 2NT is Jacoby, agreeing spades and game forcing. 3S denies a hand in excess of about 15 points but is stronger than 4S and it also denies a singleton or void. Then after the mandatory cue-bid or two Roman Keycard confirms that all the main players are present leading to the obvious slam. So was I part of this glorious bidding sequence when I held the West cards? Not all. North made a cheeky double of the 1S opening bid and although partner did bid 2NT it was not clear whether we were playing system on or not. Partner was but I wasn’t. 

All The Way

2nd May – Board 16: East/West Vul. Dealer West.

Did you all bid the grand slam on board 16? I know Tony and Chris did and thought they had a good sequence.

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

West	North	East	South
No	1H	No	1S
No	3C	No	4NT
No	5S	No	5NT
No	6H	No	7NT
End

South did well not to force with 2S originally because you should never force with a two-suiter, but North is just about worth a game force of 3C. 4NT ostensibly agrees clubs and the response shows the top three honours. 5NT asks for any extra kings and 6H shows both red kings. All those known points just comes to 15 and North must hold two or three more for his 3C bid so South could bid 7NT with a fair degree of confidence. Grand slams are seldom easy to bid because there is so much at stake if they go wrong so full marks if you went all the way.

Dead Easy

28^th March – Board 10: Game All. Dealer East.

If I could pick only a handful of conventions then Splinter Bids would most certainly feature along with Stayman and Transfers. What is more they are dead easy to use and recognize.

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

West	North	East	South
		No	1S
No	4C	No	4D
No	4H	No	4NT
No	5D	No	6S
End

I give the bidding as I think it should proceed after South elects to open 1S. Of course many would show a balanced 20 pointer according to their methods and then I daresay the 5-4 spade fit would come to light via puppet Stayman and in due course the slam would be bid. However after a 1S opening North, with his seven loser distributional hand, should splinter with 4C and then a simple exchange of cue-bids and RKCB should be enough to get to the six-level. Easy enough you might think, but the slam would still be good if South were to be deprived of the club king and then without this modern-ish gadget perhaps things would not be quite so straightforward.