Transfer Break

9th August – Board 8: Love All. Dealer West.

Although we are supposed to obey partner’s instructions at the bridge table there does occasionally come a time when we feel we can strike out on our own, being at the same time aware of course that if things do not go as planned we will find partner with a less than sympathetic ear. By far the most common of these situations is when we show more enthusiasm than is demanded after a transfer.

When East aims to transfer to 2♥ via 2♦ West should be charmed for the truth is he could hardly be better. A maximum no-trump call allied to four trumps should encourage him to bid one more for the road allowing his partner on this hand to take up the slack, and the virtually lay down game is reached on minimum values. Some pairs play that a transfer break into a new suit shows a worthless doubleton in that suit, an idea I like. So on the hand above if West had a club less and a diamond more he would bid 3♣ over 2♦. Without such a holding just bid one more of the known suit than is necessary.

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.

Impossible Rebid

6^th October – Board 15: North/South Vul. Dealer South.

What would – or did – you respond on that East hand if partner opens with a weak no-trump bid?

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

The above sequence was the one Nick and I had but I have to admit there was a certain amount of guesswork from both sides of the table. 2NT was a transfer to diamonds and 3C showed positive support, usually a top honour to three or better. Now East had an impossible rebid because although 3NT might still be the best game, to bid it with a singleton heart and with a known diamond fit opposite might be a bit risky. On the other hand 3S should show a spade suit…As it happens both games are likely to make but I find it hard to provide a convincing route to either.

Two-Pronged Approach

12th May – Board 7: Game All. Dealer South.

It is often difficult to decide between a softly-softly approach in an effort to discover more about the nature of partner’s opening bid, or a full-bloodied gung-ho launch into suit agreement albeit at the expense of taking up bidding space.

West	North	East	South
			No
1D	No	2C	No
2NT	No	3D	No
3H	No	3S	No
4C	No	4S	No
5H	No	7D	End

7NT is of course laydown but I think any pair would be happy to reach any grand slam. There are several things to note in the sequence given above. The first is that it is important to make a 2NT rebid after partner has bid at the two-level as game-forcing, if for no other reason than that it gives the partnership more room for exploring bigger things. So 3D becomes forcing initiating a sequence of cue-bids. Note that it would be entirely inappropriate for East to ever bid 4NT as there could easily be a grand slam available without the ace of spades. I suppose the other approach might be to bid 3S over 1D. This has the merit of setting diamonds as the trump suit immediately but at the loss of bidding space. Keen readers can work out a realistic sequence after that start! Also if E/W happen to be playing a strong no-trump then they must be up to speed with their minor-suit transfer bids.

Red Suit Mix Up

27th January – Board 4: Game All. Dealer West.

Bridge is a hard enough game at the best of times and part of that is remembering conventions. When that goes astray there is no end to the confusion that might ensue, but sometimes it seems to work out for the best…..

This happened more than once last Thursday and this is the first instance that caught my eye.

West	North	East	South
No	No	No	2D
No	2H	Dbl	2NT
No	3H	No	4S
No	5H	No	6H
End

2D showed 23+ and 2H was a relay, but this had the effect of causing much diversion. East doubled, intending this to be a sort of take-out of hearts but as no suit had actually been bid in earnest this should have shown a good heart suit. (This is quite a common practice. When the opponents bid a suit in a conventional way then you can double to show values there.) So South was put off mentioning hearts and quite correctly bid 2NT, showing a balanced 23/24. Now North bid 3H intending it to be natural but of course transfers apply in this situation even though the suit has already been bid in a conventional way. South broke the ‘transfer’ and leaped to 4S and North who was having none of it bid 5H, which should have shown a big major two-suiter. As it was South had an easy raise in the red suit but it seems to me that if he had had a spade more and a heart less then he would (should) have bid 6S. The fact is that even when it is abundantly clear that a wheel has come off through the body language at the table, you have to pretend that it hasn’t.

If everyone had bid – er – rather more conventionally then it seems to me that the slam might not have been bid at all.

However as an aside if North had opened with a weak 2H (my choice) then South would presumably have employed a well-known convention and arrived at the slam in double quick time.

Hoping for The Best

28th October – Board 15: N/S Vul. Dealer South.

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

Preemptive bids are designed to cause headaches for the opposition and often one has to take a leap in the dark and simply hope for the best when defending against such a bid. Such was the case with the East hand on the deal above when North made things difficult by opening 3H third in hand. As a general rule one should put partner with about a seven or eight count when considering coming in over a preempt and with any balanced hand of about 17 points or more 3NT is often the right answer. I think it should have been on the featured hand when the bidding would proceed as follows: -

West	North	East	South
			No
No	3H	3NT	End

How the play goes would depend a great deal on what South chooses to lead. The singleton heart works best for the defence, but with every finesse in sight working declarer should have no difficulty in coming to at least nine tricks. For the record I play that if my partner overcalls a preempt with 3NT then: -
a) 4C asks for four card suits upwards
b) 4D and 4H are transfers to 4H and 4S
c) 4NT is asking for aces on a sliding scale, and
d) 4S is a quantitative raise to 4NT
This last bid is redundant in a natural sense because spades are shown via a transfer. And as partner might be overcalling with a 17 count or a 23 count it is important to have a limit raise.

Going For Broke

23rd September – Board 10: Game All. Dealer East.

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

I would be interested to know what contract was arrived at on the hand shown above. I can only report the result from the one table where I was watching, where a mixture of aggression and perhaps a bit of luck landed E/W a terrific score.

West	North	East	South
		1NT	No
2NT	No	3C	No
3NT	End

The auction needs to be explained in that E/W were playing a strong no-trump vulnerable showing 15-17 points and 2NT was a transfer to diamonds. However if you play minor suit transfers you always have the ability to break the transfer below the requested spot and if so you are showing a fit with the suit being announced by partner. Here East was showing a top honour to at least three diamonds and West took a punt at the no-trump game. As you can see with the diamond king obligingly falling early on there is no defence and West’s rather gung-ho approach reaped dividends. Playing a weak no-trump I would expect the auction to fizzle out in a heart partscore.

Transfer Break

20th May - Board: 18 N/S Vul. Dealer East

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

When partner transfers after an opening of 1NT by you it is normal to do as you are told and just complete the transfer. However there are situations when it might be right to show that you have a maximum within your no-trump range with good four card support in the transfer suit, and you can do this either by jumping to the three level in the known suit or by bidding a worthless doubleton at the three level if you happen to possess one. (This makes it easier for the responder to know whether the hands are fitting well or not.) The hand above was on the borderline for breaking the transfer but it worked out well in practice, even though perhaps it shouldn’t.

W N E S

1NT No

2H No 3S No

4S All Pass

Can you see that if East had a club less and a red card more, then a bid of 3C – showing a worthless doubleton – would have led to an excellent game. As it was against 4S South led a low diamond and declarer rightly played low from dummy. After all there was no rush to take the finesse, but North fell from grace by playing the queen and not the nine, and ten tricks were now easy. If the nine is played then South can play another diamond when in with the ace of clubs and the game would fail. And if South had failed to lead a diamond initially then declarer always has time to set up the thirteenth club for a diamond discard.