Hidden Danger

14th May – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.

It proved easy to get carried away with the East/West hands on the deal shown below but a far greater danger was just around the corner.

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

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

Of course I don’t suppose the bidding went anything like that at any table but I don’t think the auction shown is in any way unreasonable. Note in particular North’s use of the 2H cue bid to show a high card raise in spades. If East/West press on to a hopeless game they will be disappointed to fail by two tricks but not as disappointed if North/South choose to ‘save’ in 4S. Unable to lead a heart East never gains the lead and declarer romps home with five spades (via a finesse), one diamond, two clubs and two club ruffs!

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!

Brushed Aside

5^th April – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

Distribution is everything as the featured hand shows and yet one has to have sympathy for the North/South pair who had the bread taken out of their mouths.

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

The auction as relayed above is how I think it should have gone, with the most noteworthy bid being the Unassuming Cue Bid of 2D by North. It might seem more natural to bid 2H but that is flawed by the knowledge that West’s double is showing hearts, and in any event 2H is not forcing and would usually deny three card support for partner (who of course is showing at least a five-carder.) Maybe it’s a bit of a push but you can upgrade the AQ of hearts. In any event E/W should “sacrifice” in 5C, which turns out to be extremely profitable bringing in a score of +550. Several pairs were allowed to make game in four spades the other way when East/West failed to get their heart ruff and maybe that’s not so easy to find. At least to my knowledge no-one did.

Under Control

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

Game in a minor is a contract not often seen at the bridge table, especially when the points are more or less evenly divided, so any pair reaching 5C on the deal below can consider they did well. And yet with a controlled auction perhaps it should not be that difficult.

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

There are several things to note during the auction. West is easily worth an overcall of 1H and the 1S bid by North should now promise at least a five-card suit – with only four he should start proceedings with a Sputnik double. Clearly East would like to know how good his partner is for his overcall and the standard way to do this is to make an Unassuming Cue Bid in the opponents’ suit. With his five-loser hand South should not be afraid to introduce his club suit, whereupon West should pass to show he was minimum for his overcall. With a known heart shortage opposite North has an easy raise in clubs although whether that should be to the four or five level is debatable. In any event I cannot see South stopping out of game. There is not much to the play, with declarer losing a heart and a diamond most likely, although you do have to be a little careful in not running out of trumps. (Note that a sacrifice in hearts by East/West would be a costly affair if the opposition get all the ruffs due to them.)

Good Judgement

20^th October – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

Both East and West showed good judgement when they bid to the five-level on fairly minimum values but the contract they reached was a sound one.

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

I report the auction as it actually happened although I think it was faulty in one respect. North should really have made an Unassuming Cue Bid of 2D in response to his partner’s one-level overcall, for the latter bid could have been made for a variety of reasons and with a hand ranging from about eight points upwards. The corollary to all this is that any immediate raise of the suit by the responder to the overcaller is NOT showing a good hand in terms of high card points but a more distributional one – and it is fairly common practise to bid to the same level as the number of trumps are held. So North was right to have four trumps but perhaps wrong in that he held too many points. Nevertheless it posed a problem for East who solved it admirably by introducing his second suit and finding his partner well at home. The play in 5C was trivial with declarer able to set up the diamond suit with a couple of ruffs.

Nerves of Steel

17th March – Board 3: East/West Game. Dealer South.

An opportunity to dine out on a perfect defence arose on the deal shown below after East/West refused to be bludgeoned into submission. I don’t know how the actual bidding went but I do know that the final contract was 5HX and I guess it could have gone something like:

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

I think that 2H bid is justified if only because it takes room away from South who is a little on the heavy side for 2S but not strong enough to make an Unassuming Cue Bid of 3H. When one side reaches a high level without a huge amount of points it is more or less mandatory for the opposition to kick off their defence with a trump lead in order to cut down declarer’s cross-ruffing potential, but here that clearly cannot be done. However on the fairly routine lead of the king of spades South should overtake with the ace and lead a trump. Declarer can win and ruff a diamond in dummy and does best to ruff a club back to hand and advance the nine of spades. However North must have nerves of steel and duck, playing his partner for the ten who can win the trick and play another trump. Only by doing this can the defence stop declarer from making two ruffs in dummy.