One For The Road

8th March – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

Nobody likes to be forced to make crucial decisions at the five-level and in any event sometimes the difference between two choices turns out to be a bit arbitrary.

West	North	East	South
	No	1H	4S
5H	No	No	???

The winning action for South would be to go quietly over 5H on the basis that the five-level belongs to the opposition, but even so the defence has to be careful. On the lead of the king of diamonds declarer can almost make his contract but will only fail because ironically his trumps are too good. Suppose he wins the diamond in dummy and ruffs a diamond high, enters dummy with the nine of trumps and ruffs another diamond. With the queen falling dummy now has two winners in the suit – but no means of getting there! Now swap the ten of hearts with the nine and dummy would have two entries in trumps. I know that at some tables the ace of spades was led followed by the ace of clubs but I am not crazy about that. Much more likely I would have thought to be giving away a trick in the suit. Of course some Souths added one for the road and bid five spades and I can understand why. After ruffing the heart lead declarer should play ace and another spade and will succeed in making eleven tricks if the trumps are 2-2 or either defender holds a singleton king or jack. This time he will be unlucky.

Guessing Games

27^th October – Board 5: N/S Vul. Dealer North.

Some hands are just so difficult to bid with any degree of certainty. All kinds of things might have happened – and indeed did – on the featured hand, but who was right and who was wrong is hard to say.

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

South might conceivably have bid 1NT at his first turn, lest partner got too excited, but I can’t see that 2D can come to too much harm, and 1NT seems just a bit too off-centre for my liking. West is bound to compete giving North a tough decision, but with the good diamond fit a direct bid of 4H does not look unreasonable. Of course East should not be silenced at that vulnerability but with no wasted values in spades opposite North should probably have one more go with 5D. In truth nobody really knows who can make what and 6D is on the (failing) diamond finesse. And if West decides to compete at the five-level then he will find that to be a cheap save against the vulnerable game.

Taking Out Insurance

29th September – Board 11: Love All. Dealer South.

Bidding decisions at the five-level are notoriously hard to get right on a consistent basis and the hand shown below was no exception. I have to say that I would have made the wrong decision, taking out insurance on the East hand to safeguard against a potential catastrophe.

West	North	East	South
			1H
1S	2C	4S	5C
Dbl	No	????

I think it is right to double 5C on the West hand because there are likely to be two quick winners in diamonds but I’m not at all sure that I would have left the double in with the East hand. There is unlikely to be a trick in spades and while there may well be a trump trick in the offing the risks of them making a doubled contract are too high. Certainly in teams I would have no hesitation in bidding 5S, in pairs it is less clear-cut. But without partner’s double bidding 5S would be automatic.