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……

Gone To Waste

5th January – Board 9: East/West Vul. Dealer North.

The results on the following board were feeble I’m afraid, which is a shame when a good hand goes to waste, but to my mind the fault can be laid squarely on the shoulders of West who never realized what a good hand he held.

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

Whether playing Benji Acol or not East will surely show a flat 25/26 point hand, although the sequence to 3NT can hardly be described as dainty. (In fact Eric Kokish from Canada has devised a method round this, but never mind.) Over 3NT surely, surely, West would want to show a six-card spade suit and this should be done via a transfer. Why a six card suit? Well with only five, playing in a possible 5-2 fit might not be so appealing. For the record over 3NT in this auction one should play red suit transfers and a 4C bid as asking for opener to bid four-card suits upwards. Anyway back to East. Even if partner has zero points but with six small spades, even then six spades would just require a 2-2 break. So what is wrong with bidding Josephine, 5NT, asking partner to bid 7S holding both the king and the queen. Only one pair reached a slam and that was 6D!

The Old And The New

10th June - Board: 3 E/W Vul. Dealer South

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

There were loads of exciting hands again this week but this one caught my imagination because to bid it well you really needed a mixture of old and new ideas. As you can see 7H is laydown but to bid it you need to establish the perfect heart fit at a low level so that you have plenty of room to show controls. Jacoby 2NT as a response to an opening bid of 1S/H does just that, showing as it does a high card raise to game or better in the opener’s suit. There are many ways to proceed after that but a popular method is to use a 3C rebid by opener to show an above average hand – say 15 points or more – with a reciprocal 3D rebid by responder going along with any slam aspirations. A sensible auction might be the following:

West East

1H 2NT

3C 3D

3S 5NT

7H

So 2NT is Jacoby, agreeing hearts and game-forcing, 3C shows slam interest while 3D goes along with that notion. 3S shows first round control and 5NT is – Josephine! Amazing to have this little used convention come up two weeks running. With two of the top three heart honours West bids the grand.

If anyone would like more extensive knowledge of Jacoby feel free to send me an e-mail and I will attach some notes.

Josephine

3^rd June - Board: 8 Love All. Dealer West

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

A grand slam is available in three different denominations and yet nobody managed to get beyond game on this exciting hand. At the table where I was watching North/South endeavoured to make things harder by entering the bidding but in actual fact I think their very interference should have paved the way to a successful auction for East/West. So West opened 1D and North boldly bid 3C. East bid 3H and South competed with 4C, so what should West be thinking and what should he do? Well one thing is certain – the East hand holds at least a five-card suit – and if it is headed by the two top honours then there must be a play for the grand slam! (West can probably count on one spade, five hearts, six diamonds and a club ruff in the short hand. Note that the ace of clubs in the East hand could be thrown out the window if the grand slam was bid in hearts.) How does West find out about the ace and king of hearts? By bidding 5NT, Josephine, named after the wife of 1950’s bridge guru Ely Culbertson. Basically it asks partner to bid the grand slam if he holds two of the top three honours.

Without the intervention West can never be sure that his partner is holding a five-card heart suit, but I think the following auction might just about do it:

West North East South

1D No 1H No

1S No 2C* No

3H No 4NT No

5S No 5NT No

7H All Pass

*2C is fourth-suit forcing, and the 3H response is game forcing, showing a strong hand with three-card support and by elimination at most a singleton club. Roman Key-Card Blackwood determines there are no trump losers or indeed any top loser, and 5NT is a general grand slam try. With a solid diamond suit West should go all the way. Easier in hindsight than at the table I dare say. It gets even more difficult if South bids 1S along the way – but I am not going there!

Josephine is not used so much these days because with the arrival of Roman Keycard Blackwood both the king and queen of trumps can be shown by the various responses. However on the featured hand it would be essential and RKB would be no use because the ace of clubs would feature as a keycard and is of no use to West.