Supporting Partner

1^st August – Board 1: Love All. Dealer North.

Sometimes no rebid seems to exactly fit the bill and the hand shown below was a case in point. When in doubt though I try to follow the principle of ‘bid what you think your partner wants to hear’ and that is usually agreeing his trump suit! So although in many ways the hand is a bit good for raising to 2S I think that is far superior to reversing with 2H or rebidding 2D. (You never get a good score at pairs playing in 2C/D!)

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

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

3C is a trial bid looking for game and seeking club support if opener is in doubt whether to go to 4S or not. However this gives the opener a heaven-sent opportunity to introduce his four-card heart suit and, by inference, only three spades. East happily can raise to the heart game, much easier than playing in spades, although both contracts can result in eleven tricks due to the nice distribution of the outstanding cards.

Trial Bids

11th July – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.

When one of a major is raised to two you have to know what the introduction of a second suit by opener means. It cannot be a cue-bid because they only become operational when you are in a game-forcing situation and that certainly isn’t the case. No, they are called Trial Bids and essentially are saying to responder, ‘I still think we might have game here. If you are maximum for your raise bid four, if minimum bid three, and if you are in doubt look at your holding in the trial bid suit and if you can help there, bid game.’

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

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

When East decides to raise the opening 1S to 2S West cannot rule out game but equally there could easily be four top losers so he enlists partner’s help by making a Trial Bid of 3C. Here East is maximum on all counts and has an easy raise to game but imagine he held something like SJxxx HQJx DQxxx Cxx. Now he would just bid 3S and hope for the best.

Quick Off The Mark

19th July – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

It’s not often that three viable games each depend on the same distribution in a particular suit, but such was the case on the featured hand shown below.

It might seem that West should bid 1NT rather than 2♥ at his first bid but it is usually right to support the major with only three cards in the suit but with a doubleton elsewhere. This would enable East to make a trial bid of 3♣, looking for game and incidentally showing at least five hearts, and West should have no hesitation in going all the way with the double fit. Now South has to be quick off the mark. A spade lead will lead to a one trick defeat when the clubs fail to break but if South tries for a diamond ruff by playing ace and another, declarer must not fall into the trap of discarding a spade on the third round. Instead he must ruff high, draw trumps and later concede a club but making in all five trumps, four clubs and the ace of spades. Strangely 3NT and 5♣ would both make if the clubs had split evenly and it is not often that we as bidders are so spoilt for choice.

Matters Of Judgement

3rd November – Board 5: N/S Vul. Dealer North.

Sometimes a hand low in point-count can suddenly seem so much better when a fit with partner comes to light and such was the case with the hand shown below:

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

Even though that North hand is low in points it is high in potential and at any rate an ace and a king is so much better than an assortment of queens and jacks – or ‘quacks’ in bridge parlance. Once South has raised spades it is worth a game try and a long suit trial bid of 3H seems the best way forward. In effect it is asking opener to reconsider his 2S bid and whether he considers himself to be good or bad for the bid, and if in doubt to consider the trial bid suit. Here South would have no hesitation in going straight to game and with the nice lie of the cards should come to an easy eleven tricks.

Difficult Choice

25th August – Board 6: East/West Game. Dealer North.

I wonder how many pairs got too high on the hand shown below? What is sure is that East will open the bidding with 1S and that South will overcall with 2H. But what next? I have to say that if I were at the table I would have ended up with a minus score but, honest as the day is long, this is how I believe the auction would go.

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

I certainly think that West should compete with 2S and at first glance and with an eye to the Losing Trick Count East might just go all the way. But I think caution should be applied a little because quite often partner will raise spades with just a trebleton and it is quite likely that there will be some wasted values in hearts. So I would bid on and the most flexible way is to make a trial bid of 3C, saying in effect that game might be on if West has either a decent raise or has good help in clubs. With such a feeble hand West would surely sign off and best defence would defeat this contract by a trick. But it strikes me that if partner held a fourth spade then game would not be such a bad bet.

Compensating Values

22nd July – Board 21: N/S Game. Dealer North

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

What would you do on that West hand after your partner has opened 1H and the next hand has passed? It might look obvious to bid 1NT but I think that is wrong, and whenever I have three-card support for partner’s major in a weak hand containing a doubleton somewhere I tend to make a simple raise in partner’s suit instead. The reason is founded on logic because whenever partner opens 1S he will either have a five-card suit or at least fifteen points. In other words he will have compensating values one way or the other. Why? Because with a balanced hand of 12-14 points and a four-card spade suit you open 1NT and you never open 1S with a 4-4-4-1 hand. So if you do have four spades only, you must be outside your no-trump range. Admittedly it’s a bit different when partner opens 1H, as is the case here. Nevertheless unless partner has a weak 4-4-4-1 hand with a singleton spade or club – when he would open 1H – the argument remains.

I think the bidding should go:

West	North	East	South
	No	1H	No
2H	No	3D*	No
4H	All Pass

* 3D is a Trial Bid, asking partner to re-assess his hand, and if he has any doubt as to whether he is top weight or not for his simple raise, to look at the Trial Bid suit – diamonds here – and if he can offer any help there, to bid game. See how well the hands fit even though the final contract would be unlikely to make. Nevertheless game is assured if the trump finesse works or if you should get a spade lead away from the king – and you only need to have about a 40% chance of making your game contract for it to be worth bidding.

At one table N/S got very gung-ho and bid to 4S. I won’t tell you what happened after that to protect the innocent.