Daisy Picking

24th May – Board 20: Game All.  Dealer West.

It’s nice to have some groovy gadgets for bidding purposes but that doesn’t mean you have to use them come what may and I think the hand below is a case in point. Surely East is worth a shot at game when his partner opens with a weak two regardless of points held or indeed suit quality, which make the Ogust bid of 2NT somewhat unnecessary. We call it daisy picking! Anyway it would be feeble for South not to compete and if West adds one for the road it is hard to see North not doing the same, although 5♥ is defeated on best defence.

Best defence, however, might be quite hard to find. Certainly if North leads a top spade there are twelve easy tricks but even if North leads his singleton diamond and declarer plays the jack things could well go wrong. To start with South might try to cash a spade or might even underlead the spades in order to put his partner in with his putative queen in order to lead another diamond. Remember from South’s point of view North could easily have started with 109x in diamonds. It would certainly be hard to envisage partner with a singleton diamond and for the record no East/West pair made less than twelve tricks when they were the declaring side.

Fielder's Choice

19^th April – Board 9: E/W Game.  Dealer North.

West was faced with a tricky decision on today’s featured hand, but in reality he had fielder’s choice when he could either aim for a large penalty or go for a vulnerable game. And as is so often the case the decision should really be determined by whether the contest is imps (teams) or match-pointed pairs where in the latter case you have to go for the highest score possible.

I’m not a fan of that 3♦ overcall facing a partner who could not even open but it is what people do and I suppose at the prevailing vulnerability it has some merit. Certainly playing teams I would double - for penalties – with that West hand but 3NT is the winner. (If you bid 3♥ you have to make sure you have an agreement with partner whether that bid is forcing or not.) Against 3NT North will probably lead the jack of clubs, ducked round to the queen. A diamond to the king now allows declarer to take a heart finesse and the best move from there is to duck a heart completely, hoping that South started with just Kx or KJx, leaving the clubs safe from attack. But even if North did win the second heart (or third if declarer plays of the ace after taking the queen) and plays another club, declarer can counter by not playing the king whereupon the suit becomes blocked. If South passes the opening I suppose West would make some Ogust enquiry, find out that opener had poor spades but good points, and again settle for the no-trump game.

Strange Happenings

1st December – Board 19: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

Sometimes a result comes along which is just too difficult to explain and the fact that the same thing happened twice last Thursday leaves me to wonder if my analytical powers are waning. Any suggestions – especially from the persons involved – would be greatly appreciated.

West	North	East	South
			2H
End

I can’t see that there is much to the bidding. South will open a weak 2H and North should probably leave alone. Any game enquiry via 2NT (Ogust) would be too pushy and any defensive procedure unnecessary with five cards in the other major and good defensive prospects. At the table where I was watching West tried three rounds of diamonds. Declarer ruffed, took a trump finesse after entering dummy with a club and upon regaining the lead with a club drew the remaining trumps in one round. He then played a spade to the ace and a spade to the queen. Even though that lost West was endplayed having only minor cards to play, and the spade loser in declarer’s hand vanished. All very normal you would think except that two pairs sitting N/S bid and made game. Bidding it I can sort of understand but making it I can’t. Even if West leads the king of spades at some time declarer still has a loser in that suit. I remain, Puzzled, Southampton.

A Different View

24th November – Board 3: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

Just because you have a ‘gadget’ does not mean you have to use it come what may, and that fact is illustrated most clearly in the following hand which arose last Thursday. At the vulnerability South might be tempted to open with a weak 2S, but this six-loser hand is far too good to do that. (The diamond suit is a one-loser suit because of the good impletion.) With his weak no-trump hand North should have no game ambitions and would either pass or at the very most raise to 3S as a defensive measure, not forward going as he would use Ogust if that were the case, and as a result the cold game would be missed. But if South took a different view and imagined that his partner had opened one-no trump then surely he would have a shot at game. The bidding would proceed:

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

The game is a good one and is not particularly lucky to make – the trump finesse is right but the diamond finesse is wrong. Just remember that a weak two is the sort of hand which would make a weakness take-out if partner opened one no-trump.

Way Forward

10th November – Board 11: Love All. Dealer South.

Weak twos in the major are a good idea designed to cause confusion to the opposing side but occasionally partner is caught with the problem rather than the opposition. So it is just as well to have some constructive way forward…..

West	North	East	South
			No
2H	No	2NT	No
3H	No	3NT	End

2NT is the so-called ‘Ogust Convention’, named after its originator, and the responses show the exact nature of the opening two with respect to both points and quality of suit. Here the response of 3H shows a hand within the top-end range of points, 8-9, but lacking two of the top three trumps. Knowing that the opener can have at most five points in hearts it is easy to see that he must have another useful card somewhere, the queen of clubs perhaps, or better still the ace of diamonds. All of this makes 3NT the bid of choice and indeed that contract was reached at several tables but not always made. Nor should it be really due to the hateful diamond layout, but I imagine after a club lead declarer ran the spade suit and a somnolent North threw a diamond or two. Easy to do of course but it can hardly be wrong to pitch a couple of clubs to clear up the position in that suit.

Unchartered Waters

10th March – Board 7: Game All. Dealer South.

It’s all very well having a gadget at one’s disposal intended to wreak havoc upon the opposition but you have to know what to do if the opposition seem strangely detached and it is partner who appears to be troubled. Have a look at the hand shown below and see what happened after a fairly machismo weak two was opened on those West cards.

West	North	East	South
			No
2S	No	3D	No
3S	End

Confusion arose because the meaning of that 3D bid had never been discussed and there was doubt in the West camp as to whether the bid was forcing or not. Certainly it is generally accepted that a new suit at the three level should be forcing but I don’t think that should apply after a weak two. Why is that? Well the responder can always find out more about the nature of the opening bid by bidding 2NT, Ogust as you recall. And if you make a bid in another suit forcing then you can never play in that contract when it might palpably be the right thing to do. As in the hand above. Having said all that and even assuming that the 3D bid was intended as forcing it seems a strange choice to rebid such a ghastly spade suit – surely not what partner wants to hear. What about 3NT? OK it goes four down on a club lead but the reality is that North might well lead a heart and that would lead to a spectacular result for the pair sitting in the other direction. Of course just because you are playing weak two’s it doesn’t mean you are compelled to every time you hold a six card suit…….

A Little Knowledge

11^th November – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

Sometimes it is better not to know too much and that was certainly the case when this deal arose last Thursday. I was West and my partner opened 2S which I knew was weak. The only trouble was that I had no idea how we continued after that! Normally I would enquire with 2NT and the hand opposite would bid 3S showing eight or nine points and the ace and queen of trumps. (Two of the top three honours. I would be able to work out which.)

And then having been given the best answer possible it would be illogical not to bid a slam, which almost certainly requires the club finesse to work. Anyway as I was not in a regular partnership and I had no idea if we were playing Ogust – the clever convention mentioned above - our sequence was rather more curtailed:

West	North	East	South
	No	2S	No
3NT	End

A club seemed - and indeed was – the natural lead, but this gave away a trick and then the run of the spades squeezed South in the red suits. Perhaps I should have bid 6NT!