No Messing With Finessing

29th August – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.

It takes ages to get people to finesse and even longer to get them not to and the hand below was almost textbook……

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

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

There are probably many ways of getting to 4H and the one I suggest uses a Jacoby 2NT response to show a high card raise to game or better. 3S shows a singleton and 4D is a cue and 4H says that’s enough. Anyway let us suppose South leads the king of spades. How do you proceed? In cases such as these you should assume the adverse cards are lying as badly as possible in which case you might lose one heart, two diamonds and a club. Win the lead and play a low heart aiming to cover whatever card North plays. In this way you can guarantee to have one trump loser at most. When North plays the jack you obviously win with the ace and should now play the king of clubs, the ace of clubs and a low club towards the jack. If South has the queen it is true the finesse would have worked but that doesn’t matter because now the jack will be established as a discard for a diamond. But more importantly on occasion you will drop the doubleton queen from North when a diamond switch from that hand could be worrying. Indeed swap the king and knave of diamonds in the North/South hands and you would be defeated if you hadn’t played the clubs in the prescribed manner. As it happens – as it does so frequently – virtue has to be its own reward.

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. 

A Little Hope

1st November – Board 23: Game All. Dealer South.
It’s always nice to bid to a high-level contract without the associated number of points being present and this is usually achieved with distribution making a significant impact. Any pair who reached a slam on the hand below can consider themselves proud although I think it might be done with a little science and perhaps a little hope.

After the 1S overcall East should bid 2♠ which shows a high-card raise to 3♣ or better. (With a more mundane 8-loser hand East should bid 3♣, which carries no promise of better things to come.) However after the 3♥ bid a retreat to 3NT looks normal which West is likely to remove to 4♣, forcing of course because you never take a game contract out into a part score. East will naturally now cue-bid the spade ace and that should be enough to commit West to the slam. Initially it might look as if declarer might need to ruff out the hearts but the welcome appearance of the king at the earliest possible stage makes the play trivial – the drawing trumps and claiming kind!

Under Control

26th July – Board 5: North/South Vul. Dealer North.

If I had to chose only a few conventions I would always have room for Jacoby 2NT, showing as it does a high card raise to game or better in partner’s major suit opening. Without it the responder is always full of angst, feeling that perhaps he hasn’t shown the true strength of his hand.

East has a choice over 2NT. Should he show a hand with no slam ambitions at all by bidding 4♠, or show mild interest or better with a 3♠ bid, leaving partner to show some control elsewhere? I think it just about qualifies for the latter but after West’s heart cue-bid it would be prudent to sign off in game and West should be happy to concur. The duplication of values in the club suit is horrendous but that sort of thing does happen when the combined hands have tons of points but are essentially balanced.

Its Own Reward

12th July – Board 21: North/South Vul. Dealer North.

It was disappointing that no pairs – as far as I know – reached the excellent heart grand slam on the deal shown below although the ultimate result would have been a gross injustice.

This really should have been dead easy to bid. 2H shows at least five hearts and 4D is a splinter showing a singleton or void in that suit. With so much more to spare West can hardly do less than cue bid 5C and 5NT asks if West has two of the top three honours – the Josephine convention that we have seen several times before. But after the grand slam has been bid South would/should spring to life by doubling, the so-called Lightner double, asking for an unusual lead and nearly always based on the expectancy of obtaining a first round ruff. North should figure this to be a spade so the contract would die a quick death. Even without the double and with the normal lead of a trump against a grand slam the contract is likely to fail because of the horrific spade break. Sometimes virtue and all that……

Brushed Aside

21st June – Board 6: East/West Vul. Dealer East.

When an opponent overcalls your partner’s opening bid with a two-suited showing convention you have a much larger number of bids at your disposal because as well as any natural response you might make you also have the ability to cue-bid in either of the suits being shown on your right. And you can make them mean whatever you and your partner have agreed! On the hand shown West will undoubtedly wade in with a Michael’s 2♦ after a 1♦ opening by partner, showing 5-5 in the majors and a reasonable hand because of the vulnerability. Without going into detail can you see that as North you now have the option of bidding 2♥ or 2♠ as responder, not wishing to play there of course because that would be madness, but merely to show whatever you have agreed upon? (I am being deliberately vague here because it is a complex situation, but it is useful to be aware of all the options that are open to you.) In any event North should do little more than double to show values and then when opener bids 3♣ bid 3♥ to show a useful holding there. (Called a ‘fragment’ by those who know these things.) And with a spade stop South is bound to try 3NT.

There is not a great deal to the play but upon receiving the lead of the king of spades declarer would do best to win and play a couple of rounds of clubs first. When West follows he is known to have one diamond at most and the situation in that suit becomes apparent when a low diamond is led to dummy. After the smoke has cleared I would expect declarer to emerge with ten tricks.

Embarass de Richesses

14^th June – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

With so many game contracts available on the featured hand it is no surprise that the bidding could and indeed did take many different routes. I have to say that as West I would be looking for a club slam after partner has bid the suit and that contract is not so bad in any event although it would be scuppered on the bad trump break.

4♦ is not an attempt to play in that suit of course because West had two previous chances of bidding diamonds if he was serious about them. Instead it is a cue-bid, agreeing clubs as it happens although East might not know that until the last moment. Several Wests looked no further than 3NT and were probably anxious on a low heart lead. However after running all the clubs, admittedly using up the only diamond entry in the process, South becomes burdened with too many high cards and is subject to an easy end-play if declarer exits with either a heart or a diamond. Of course what South should do is to smoothly reduce himself to the bare king of spades early on to save himself the ignominy of being thrown in to give two spade tricks. West won't know what is happening of course or shouldn’t unless South has made a big deal of it with an Oscar winning performance. Much easier said than done I have to agree.

Hard To Know

5^th April – Board 2: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

Some hands are impossible to get right with any sense of real conviction and that was certainly the case with the hand featured below. Everybody who bid a slam – and there were lots of those – got away with it even though there were two cashing tricks for the defence.

West	North	East	South
		1H	2D
3D	4D	4H	No
5D	No	5H	End

I submit the above auction with no real conviction but nevertheless there are several points of interest. Firstly, after an overcall, Jacoby 2NT should be dispensed with, for the very good reason that the chances of a slam are now minimised and a natural 2NT might be the only good bid available. To show good support for partner to the three-level or beyond just cue-bid the opponent’s suit, which frees up a direct raise as being largely pre-emptive. So here 3D is forcing to at least 3H. It’s what to do after partner bids 4H that causes the most anguish for it would be feeble to pass, with partner having at most three points in the red suits. What about 4NT? I really hate that because you still have no idea what to do if partner shows two or even three key cards. On the hand above give opener the king of clubs and 6H is lay-down and he won’t tell you that if you bid the Old Black. Or he can have AJxx in both black suits with the king of hearts as well and there would probably be two inescapable losers. So I am drawn to the conclusion that you have to cue-bid 5D, thereby denying first round control in both black suits and hope that partner can act correctly on that information. Of course this would almost certainly lead to the defence getting it right by leading a club but sometimes virtue has to be its own reward. Along with losing a load of imps when they bid and make 6H in the other room, but with less sophistication!

Minor Suit Slams

22nd March – Board 1: Love All. Dealer North.

Bidding minor suit slams after a 2NT opening is notoriously difficult, but the following scheme seems to fit the bill well enough:
a) 3S shows at least 4-4 in the minors and with no interest opener rebids 4NT.
b) 4D shows a six-carder or more and is a single-suited slam try. Again with no interest opener signs off with 4NT.
c) 4C shows a six-carder or more and is a single-suited slam try. Again with no interest opener signs off with 4NT.

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

When North jumps to 4D opener is charmed and shows support by cue-bidding in hearts. With a minimum hand for his jump I dare say North would retreat to 5D but South is clearly determined to bid a small slam at least and paints a further picture by now cue-bidding in spades. This would give North the chance to show second round club control but by now opener has probably done enough and would leave the final decision to partner. The play is trivial and with the king of trumps well-placed thirteen tricks will come rolling in. Again 6NT is the big winner but as South I would be scared that North holds a singleton club.

I’m afraid that with this clever addition to your armoury Gerber must be dispensed with, but no loss there. If, as responder, you want to know immediately how many aces your partner holds bid 4NT. If you have a quantitative raise to 4NT just bid 4S, which is a redundant bid you will have noticed. (You can play these two bids the other way round of course. I just find it easier that 4NT is RKCB.)

Off To The Races

15th March – Board 7: Game All. Dealer South.

The concept of the reverse is not really so difficult to understand yet there still does seem to be some confusion. What must be understood is that while a reverse shows a strong hand you do not go out of your way to bid your suits the wrong way round just so that you have reversed and therefore shown strength, because you can always do that in a more legitimate way. Take the hand below for example:

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

South has a good hand but should not fall into the trap of opening 1C in order to reverse. Just open 1H and failing support from partner make a jump rebid of 3C over 1S or 1NT and a high-card reverse of 3C over 2D. What is more all these bids would be game forcing. However when partner obligingly supports hearts it’s off to the races with a series of cue-bids. Pointless of South to bid 4NT of course after partner has shown diamond control because all that is required is for partner to have the king of clubs and the queen of hearts for the grand slam to be odds on. So give partner the chance to bid 5C over 4S to show second round control and when this is not forthcoming just settle on the small slam. Even though there is a possible trump loser the fact that the king of clubs is onside means that there is very little to the play.