Perfect Michaels

24th Jan – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.
Textbook hands do come along from time to time as was demonstrated in the deal shown below when a popular convention came into its own.

As long as you have a clear understanding as to the strength of any two-suited overcall convention then that is something that should definitely have a place in your bidding armoury. When vulnerable it is advisable to have an opening or near opening hand so North is well worth his bid of 2♦, showing as it does both the majors. With trump length, an honour in partner’s second suit and an outside ace to boot South is clearly worth a jump to game, giving West a headache. 5♣ is only two down but in my opinion too dangerous at that vulnerability, although at favourable colours I would have no hesitation in bidding on.

Asking Too Much

18th October – Board 9: East/West Vul. Dealer North.

One of the biggest appeals of bridge to my mind is the fact that what might be right today could be totally wrong tomorrow, with luck playing a far more important role than we are sometimes prepared to admit. Just take a look at the hand shown below:

The outcome on this hand depends to a large extent as to what action South decides to take after the hand on his right has opened 1♠. Many people play Michael’s, but they usually have the restriction that the bid should be limited in high-card points, making a bid of 2♠ on the hand above a non-starter. Whatever the case it doesn’t look as though starting with a take-out double can come to much harm, but see what happens when the opponents then pre-empt to game. (3♠ by West is of course a weakish bid. With a full-blooded raise he should start with 2NT.) Now when South doubles again it is merely saying that he has a really strong hand but even so it is surely asking too much for North to bid 5♥, the winning option as it happens. Not only that but the defence against 4♠ must be very careful. South will surely lead the ace of clubs but must resist the temptation to switch to the king of diamonds. If he does that declarer will only lose one heart, one diamond and one club – assuming of course that he plays a low spade to the king first.

A Michaels' Moment

5th July – Board 18: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

I wonder if any North/South pairs bid and made game on the featured hand? Both 4S and 5C are available with the latter being the easier to play, and I don’t think I am being too fanciful with the auction shown below.

Undoubtedly South has a choice of bids over 1H, and the one I like least is ‘double’. You would hate it if partner bid 2D because you are hardly strong enough to now bid 2S, and even over 1NT you would be unsure what, if anything, you should do. A simple overcall of 1S is much better to my mind, but what is wrong with bidding 2H, Michaels, showing five cards in spades and five cards in a minor and about opening points at the prevailing vulnerability? It would be better if the spade suit were slightly stronger it is true but at least by bidding 2H you get to show the distributional nature of the hand. The North hand might look poor but it could be so much worse and with three spades and a singleton outside it is just about worth a jump to 3S, which South would happily raise to game. East has been brushed aside and might double but that would only make the play easier. After a top heart is led declarer must be careful not to try and draw trumps because he will be forced if he does so. Much better to play for the clubs to be kind and to aim to ruff two diamonds in the closed hand, losing in all just three trump tricks.

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.

Flying Start

26th January – Board 1: Love All. Dealer North.

The two blog hands today were only played once last Thursday due to the format of the competition, but I had already played them in a match a few days previously and I report here what happened in that match. Here a useful gadget helped N/S off to a flying start.

West	North	East	South
	2S*	3S	4S
5H	End

2S was the so-called Lucas 2, showing five cards in a specified major and four or five cards in a minor, but with a limited hand of 5-9 points. East bid 3S probably intending it to be a Michaels type bid but whatever the reason South had an easy raise to game. With a round or two of bidding taken away E/W subsided in game when the heart slam is a 50% proposition depending as it does on the position of the king of hearts. With no barrage in the replay E/W bid the slam giving his side a useful opening board.

Icy Calm

4th August – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.

South was probably more than a little surprised when he heard the hand on his right open 1S on the hand shown below, but at these times it is best to remain icy calm and concentrate best on how to help partner if he bids. In fact North has a mild problem as several candidates could be considered but I think a full-value 2H is the best bet. (It might look as though a double would bring home the bacon as South would surely pass but of course West should redouble to demand his partner thinks again and the club fit would come to light.) I think the bidding should go as shown:

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

I do not think South’s raise on a doubleton is merely hindsight as there is a strong possibility that his partner holds a six-card suit. Why? Because he is known to be very short in spades and with a 1-5-4-3 distribution he might well have doubled in preference to bidding 2H. And with two five-card suits he would probably have used Michaels. 4H should be easy even if East finds the best defence of ace and a low spade with West uppercutting with the jack of hearts. Playing on diamonds at an early stage should restrict declarer’s losers to just two trumps and a spade.

Dead Giveaway

9th June – Board 16: E/W Game. Dealer West.

Sometimes our sophisticated bidding can turn round and bite us and that might well have happened on the featured hand although I have a suspicion that it didn’t.

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

West cannot be blamed for wanting to get into the action and while ‘double’ might have some appeal after South has bid 2D it seems to me that that bid should be reserved for a flatter hand with 4-4 or 4-5 in the black suits. By bidding 2H you are merely showing a Michaels type hand, with 5-5 in spades and clubs. Nothing wrong with that except it warns N/S about the bad spade break! In any eventuality a bid of that suit by either North or South would not be natural, as who in their right mind would want to play in the suit best held by the opposition? North should double to show a good heart suit and East will doubtless find it easy to give preference to clubs! But with the weight of high cards behind them South should double and lead a trump. Leading a trump is in fact mandatory whenever the opposition have outbid you but hold considerably less in the way of high cards. Obvious really, because how else will they make tricks other than by cross-ruffing?

Matters of Judgement

2nd June – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

There were all sorts of strange results on the featured deal but in fact none of them came close to achieving par – that is to say the very best result from both sides point of view. Of course those hands where the points are fairly evenly divided and yet high-level contracts can be obtained are notoriously difficult to bid and that is where not only judgement but experience too come into play. A little sophistication in the bidding helps too……

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

West’s 2NT is the Unusual No-Trump – part of Michaels – and shows both minors and an agreed point count range with partner. (This sadly is often lacking, but should be on the weakish side when not vulnerable and about an opening bid if vulnerable. But it is open to partnership discussion.) However the very use of that convention does give the opposition more ‘free’ bids and a generally accepted method is to raise to the three-level in partner’s suit on a weak but distributional hand and to bid 3D with a sound raise with some high card defensive points. South should therefore have no qualms about bidding game and West would clearly bid 5D as a two-way bet – it might make or failing that be a very cheap sacrifice. What happens after that is hard to say. Too hard for me anyway. So what is the par contract? Well N/S can make 5H and E/W should only be one down in 6D, so 6D doubled minus one is par. Some people lost their way playing in a diamond contract, but all that is required is to set up a long club in the West hand by ruffing out the suit. Then all that will be lost are the ace of spades and a club.

Cat and Mouse

24th March – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

Whose side would you put your money on if East declared a contract of 5D and South decided to lead the ace of spades and follow up with a trump? Winning in hand declarer would lead his singleton heart and South has to pass the test and duck! This may look far-fetched but in reality it is not so hard to find. It is true that South will never make a heart trick but by playing the ace he would give declarer two discards for his losing clubs. So your money is on N/S right? Wrong! Declarer would win the heart and ruff a heart back to hand. The spade queen is ruffed and dummy’s last heart ruffed before a club is led to the ten and North’s queen – who is now hopelessly endplayed. A major suit return would give a ruff and discard while a club would be up to dummy’s tenace. So E/W triumph after all. Of course in reality N/S would almost certainly compete to the five level and the following auction would not be too far-fetched:

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

4D might seem a funny bid but is just really a sort of super-Michaels showing the majors and a desire to play at the four-level in either spades or hearts. West will almost certainly support his partner but when South has one more West should get the maximum penalty from the save by doubling. The ensuing reward for all this would be +500 to E/W as opposed to +600 if they were allowed to play peacefully in their game.

Simple Approach

29th July – Board 19: E/W Game. Dealer South

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

There were many approaches taken by the North hand on this deal from last Thursday, but as is often the case the simple approach was by far and away the best. One of the habits that many players adopt is to take up a new convention and then fall in love with it, to the extent that it ends up being used in the most inappropriate places, and this hand is a case in point. The Michaels convention is popular and extremely useful and is designed to show a two-suited hand after the opposition have opened. It has a dual purpose, namely to try and deflect the opponents’ bidding rhythm while at the same time introducing a measure of safety because of the comfort of letting partner have two suits to choose from. But the parameters that set the standard for making such a bid have to be rigidly adhered to, and most tournament players would expect a non-vulnerable Michaels to consist of little more than 5-9 points albeit with those points being associated with the two suits. And that North hand is a million miles away from that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with North bidding both his suits, and he would be unlucky not to find a fit somewhere with partner. I think the bidding should go as shown:

West	North	East	South
			No
1H	2C	2H	Dbl
3H	4S	All Pass

The double by South might seem strange at first but it is yet another use for this most popular bid. It is called a ‘competitive double’ and shows the two unbid suits with tolerance for partner’s suit. Whether West decides to bid 3H or 4H is immaterial because North is charmed by the way things have proceeded, and with his five-loser hand has an easy bid of 4S. As a matter of fact North should be happy to compete in spades whether his partner bids or not. A fact I am uncomfortably aware of. Those people who chose to double the opening bid, or bid Michaels, ended up in a partscore. Those who bid 2C didn’t.