Fire With Fire

25th August – Board 10: Game All. Dealer East.

There is certainly nothing predictable about bridge as the hand shown below will give testament to, where a contract of 6S can be made – easily – even with a 5 - 0 trump break, while the equally obvious 6H might be defeated by four tricks although here the trumps break 3 - 2!

West	North	East	South
		1S	2NT
3C	5C	5S	No
6S	End

The bidding might well require some explanation but most of it can be explained away by South’s 2NT, the so-called unusual no-trump showing both minors in a limited hand. In such circumstances it is good policy to fight fire with fire because West, in this example, can use both cue-bids in the minors to have a special meaning. So 3D shows a high card raise to 3S or more with at least four card support, 3C shows a good hand with three card support and at least four cards in the other major, while 3S is a weak raise. (If, after the 3C bid the opener wishes to know how many hearts partner has he bids 3D to enquire.) I know it’s complicated but it’s beautiful at the same time. Anyway here North should barrage with 5C and from then on it’s all a bit of a guessing game but I think none of the bids shown are unreasonable. If mistakenly East chose to double 5C he would have to lead a trump to defeat it and that would be the right thing to do because when the opposition have bid to a high-level with scarce values they can only make loads of tricks by cross-ruffing, and that is the case here. As an aside then the par contract is 7C doubled! For a loss of 800.

Moysian Fit

7^th July – Board 21: North/South Game. Dealer North.

Although it is something we usually strive to avoid, now and again we have to be content to play in what might be a Moysian fit, that is to say with just a 4-3 fit in the trump suit. The hand shown below is a case in point but when you come to think of it how else can the bidding go but as shown?

West	North	East	South
	No	1D	No
1S	No	2S	End

West is not good enough in high-card strength to bid his clubs at the two-level and East is certainly not good enough to reverse into 2H. Rebidding that ghastly diamond suit just cannot be right so the only alternative is to support partner. In any event East does not know that his partner only has a four-card suit so should not be feeling any pangs of guilt or doubt. Even on a trump lead it is easy to come to eight tricks via a cross-ruff and any slight slip from the defence will lead to an overtrick.

Something In Reserve

30th June – Board 22: Game All. Dealer East.

If as responder you intend to make more than one bid then it is correct to bid your suits in the normal way, that is to say you should bid your longest suit first. It is only when you intend to pass if your partner makes a minimum rebid in his suit that you should prefer bidding a four card major to a five card minor.

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

It is perfectly in order to respond 2C on the hand shown above because as responder you aim to bid again. East is close to reversing with 2S but is not quite good enough since a reverse after a two-level response is forcing to game. Sometimes it is better to have something in reserve. However that East hand becomes enormous when partner shows the other major and a splinter bid of 4D looks appropriate, showing a raise to game in spades with a singleton or void diamond. West might be tempted to bid on but the queen of diamonds looks wasted and the trump suit is too fragile to suggest further action other than a bid of 4S. South should lead a trump as both East and West have shown distributional hands but declarer can easily prevail by cross-ruffing his way to ten tricks.

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?

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.

Perfect Timing

19th August – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

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

Everyone likes to crossruff but sometimes you have to be a bit careful about what to ruff first, because danger might come from an unexpected source.

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

The above sequence would seem to be about right, with West having a reasonable fourth in hand double. (Remember in this ‘protective’ position you need only have about nine points or so.) South is likely to lead a low spade and at a couple of tables at least declarer ruffed a spade in dummy before ruffing diamonds in hand. The upshot of all this was that when declarer ruffed the fourth spade South had a chance to discard a diamond and could overruff the next diamond. However if declarer plays the ace of diamonds followed by a diamond ruff immediately then game will be easy with three ruffs in each hand, the ace of spades and the ace of diamonds and the top two trumps.