Trusting Partner

27^th March – Board 6: East/West Game. Dealer East.

Disappointingly no pair managed to reach the excellent grand slam on the hand shown but as long as you trust partner – sometimes a big ask! – it really should not have been too difficult.

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

West	North	East	South
		1H	No
2D	No	3S	No
4S	No	5C	No
5H	No	7D	End

3S is a splinter agreeing diamonds and is game forcing and 4S and 5C show first round controls. 5H shows second round control and is clearly looking for the grand because his side are already committed to playing in at least 6D. Now East with his fantastic trump support and the ace of hearts, which as yet he hasn’t shown, can hardly do less than bid the grand. On a neutral lead declarer should set up the fifth heart in dummy for a club discard.

So Unfair

24th October – Board 21: North/South Vul. Dealer North.

Of all the innovations over the last few years I think Splinter bids would rank very near the top of any must-have list. The hand below is a case in point where responder can give a no-cost message on the way to a fine slam.

	North: S 10 5 2 H A J 6 D K 10 C 10 8 7 5 2
West: S A J 9 8 H K 10 9 8 7 D A C K 9 3		East: S K H Q 5 4 3 2 D J 7 6 3 C A J 6
	South: S Q 7 6 4 3 H none D Q 9 8 5 4 2 C Q 4

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

That 3S bid shows the values for 4H with a singleton spade and West should be charmed. A check up ensures that there are not two top losers and a slam on minimal values is reached although you do have to be careful. On the likely small club lead declarer should play low from dummy because the rule of 11 shows that South only has one card higher than the five. (By playing the jack prematurely you might set up a club loser for yourself.)

Even so it looks as though there are no worries – nor would there be if trumps broke 2-1 – but as it happens you have to play the king of hearts from hand first when you can hold your trump losers to one. Having bid such a fine slam it would be so unfair to fail because of a bad break.

Faint Heart

18th July – Board 6: East/West Vul. Dealer East.

There were several points of interest about the following hand although I think things might have got a little confused at the table and I’m not sure whether any E/W pair actually bid the really good 6H or 6D. If they did I apologize and perhaps they would let me know how.

	North: S K J 10 9 8 H Q 4 D 10 6 4 C Q J 6
West: S none H J 8 3 2 D A K J 7 5 2 C A K 7		East: S 7 6 5 4 H A K 9 7 D Q 9 C 10 9 4
	South: S A Q 3 2 H 10 6 5 D 8 3 C 8 5 3 2

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

Sadly some Easts forget to make a Sputnik double over 1S, saying they would have responded 1H without the interruption, and straightaway the heart slam went begging. However with or without the double South is dead right to bid 3S, not a strong bid or he would have bid 2D, but merely pre-empting to the level of the fit. Quite right too, for even with accurate defence this only goes for 500 – less than the vulnerable game the other way, let alone the slam. 3S poses a problem for West and he is too good to bid 4H which sounds just as though he is competing without thoughts of anything better. If this seems strange imagine the opposition had remained silent, then over his partner’s 1H response he would have rebid 3S, a splinter, and looking for a heart slam. So don’t be faint hearted now but bid 5H! Staring at the top two trumps East would have no difficulty bidding the slam and in fact thirteen tricks come rolling in when the queen of trumps obligingly falls in two rounds.

Wishful Thinking

4th October – Board 4: Game All. Dealer West.

I don’t know how many pairs reached the good 6♠ on the hand shown below but I believe the bidding set out to be not unreasonable. I just wished that West held the diamond king in addition to all his goodies because then his first response would be 4♥ – a splinter in agreement of spades of course – and then RKCB would establish that all the main players were present and 5♦ would enquire about the trump queen. West would reply with 6♦ showing both the queen of trumps and the diamond king by which time he would have shown all his high cards plus a singleton heart, leaving East to bid the cold grand slam.

There should be no real problem in the play of 6♠ with trumps behaving nicely and you do not even need the king of diamonds to be well placed. On a trump lead, say, you would win in dummy, play ace of hearts and ruff a heart, enter the closed hand with the king of clubs and ruff another heart. Trumps could then be drawn followed by the ace of clubs and the ten, throwing a low diamond from hand. South would win but now you have twelve tricks via five trumps, one heart plus two heart ruffs, the ace of diamonds and three clubs.

Giving Count

2^nd August – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

Signaling can take one of several forms but maybe the most important of all is the count signal whereby you tell partner the parity you have in a certain holding, that is to say whether you have an even or an odd number of cards in a suit. Traditionally, playing high-low shows an even number and vice-versa (although some players do play reverse count.)

The auction may take different turns but to my mind the one given above is not unreasonable. The 4♣ bid by East is a splinter in agreement of diamonds and South would be extremely wet if he didn’t join in at that stage. 5♣ can be defeated but probably won’t be as East is likely to kick off with the ace of diamonds leaving declarer an easy task of drawing trumps and setting up the heart suit and making all thirteen tricks! Against 5♦ North should lead the club king which specifically asks for a count signal and South must be careful to play a high card to indicate an even number of cards in the suit. Without that knowledge North might try to cash the ace, but declarer would ruff and set up the spades via a ruff for an unlikely overtrick. With the knowledge that his partner has an even number of clubs North should switch to the king of hearts at trick two with South playing the ten. As South could hardly have four card heart support North knows he can cash a second heart for sure. Just remember that when you have the ace and king in a suit you can lead either, so why not have leading the Ace to ask for Attitude and the King to ask for Kount.

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……

Protection Racket

3rd November – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.

It’s all to easy to go quietly at times when really one should be more pro-active, and if you are in the ‘pass out’ or protective position you should be really sure that you are not being bludgeoned into submission. That was the case for North on the featured hand when in fact he had a sound alternative to staying quiet.

West	North	East	South
		1H	No
4H	Dbl	No	4S
5H	5S	Dbl	End

West might have considered a splinter bid of 3S at his first go but it does tend to give a blue-print of the hand if you are not the declaring side and maybe a simple raise to game is enough. (Not showing many points of course because there are so many other options available if that is the case.) Instead of going quietly North should double, essentially for take-out but with high-card points should his partner choose to pass for penalties. South would be charmed to bid 4S and I dare say but West would surely up the ante. At equal vulnerability North is also likely to have one more go and East would close proceedings with a double. OK, I know that E/W can make 6H if they are in it but it is anti-percentage and they won’t bid it anyway! 5S will go one or two off depending how declarer views the club suit, but even two down doubled would show a profit.

Faint Hearted

18th August – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.

You cannot afford to just sit there at the bridge table and assume the worst when in fact a more pro-active approach can reap dividends – especially in the pairs game when you sometimes have to move Heaven and Earth to get a good score. Take the hand shown below for example where at a number of tables South was strangely silent, although I think the bidding should go something like the following:

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

3S is a splinter of course showing a limited raise to 4H with a singleton or void spade. (I’m not totally convinced that it wouldn’t be better to bid 2C instead, as splintering with an ace is not usually a good thing.) However after the splinter South has an easy bid, I think, of 4D with a view to bidding 4S later. Why? Well partner is going to be really short in hearts and therefore extremely likely to have a fit in one of South’s main suits. What happens after 4S is a little speculative, but even if North passes 5H he will now surely lead a diamond and hold declarer to eleven tricks when at the table most made twelve. Several North’s led a trump but I am not a fan of leading a singleton trump as it usually carves up partner’s holding of Qxx. It is worth noting that even 5H fails on a club lead and a diamond switch while at the very worst 5S is only down two. And even vulnerable 500 is less than 620.