THE GOSPORT EAR (Number 26) by LEPUS

The modern disease in Bridge is to open the bidding with any old tat with the intention of getting in the way of the enemy, regardless of the actual merit of the particular hand. So, in an effort to 'test the water', which, if any, of the following examples would you open (at the 1-level, please) when first in hand. If you like to take the vulnerability into your considerations then both sides are RED.

(a) ♠ Q52 ♥ 9845 ♦ AJ765 ♣ A

(b) ♠ Q52 ♥ A985 ♦ AJ765 ♣ 4

(c) ♠ A52 ♥ Q985 ♦ AJ765 ♣ 4

(d) ♠ Q52 ♥ AJ765 ♦ 9854 ♣ A

(e) ♠ Q52 ♥ AJ765 ♦ A985 ♣ 4

(f) ♠ A52 ♥ Aj765 ♦ Q985 ♣ 4

I would suspect that a large number of players would open (b), (c), (e), and (f), that a few would open (d) with [1♥] whether playing 5-card majors, or not, while (a) would see a lesser number opening [1♦].

All the hands are sub-minimum (remember that Culbertson termed an 'opening bid' as a King more than an average hand i.e. 13 HCP!) yet all have two cashing defensive tricks which may enter any equation when, or if, partner were to wield the axe (DOUBLE!) following any intemperate enemy action. The hands that look closest to an opening bid, and might obtain agreement from a majority in any bidding exercise, all have something in common in that the high-card values reside in the long suits, or, to express it another way, there is no wastage of value in the singleton suit.

All that said, at PAIRS, you decide to come out of your shell and open hand (a) [1♦]. Then, almost before you have time to draw breath, you hear around the table, an overcall of [1♠], then [3♥] from partner {[2♥] would have been forcing, so partner must have a 'useful' hand}, and on your right [3♠], and it's back to you.
♠ Q52 ♥ 9854 ♦ AJ765 ♣ A

What now?

If you bid [4♥] then that ends the bidding.

However, if you bid [4♣], then bravo(!), partner bids [4♦]], and over your [4♥] will trust your Qbid in clubs and leap to [6♥]]. Note that although you hardly have an opening bid, the [4♣] move (agreeing hearts) promises nothing extra as you are below a game that you were in any case going to bid.

For his leap to the lay-down Slam, partner holds

♠ T ♥ AKQ632 ♦ KQ2 ♣ 985

Surprisingly only 1 pair (of 14 tables) found the Slam: it may be that more than a few passed in first hand, or having opened later lost their nerve and failed to make the Qbid.

THE GOSPORT EAR (Number 27) by LEPUS

You are playing Variable NoTrump, and 5-card Majors, when, first in hand, you pick up the following 'Bassets' hand...

♠ KJ743 ♥ A9 ♦ AJ73 ♣ QJ

...which definitely qualifies as 'Allsorts'.

One route is to treat the hand as NoTrump as the Spade suit (though of the advertised length) lacks good impletion, and, for suit-play purposes, the doubleton club holding is not really an asset: indeed on another day you might be inclined to treat this hand as a maximum WEAK NoTrump hand, and develop the hand accordingly.

If you decide on [1N] then without the enemy intervening you are simply raised to [3N] and then it will be all down to the play (see later).

However to open [1♠] is certainly "not beyond the pale" (in other words, not outlawed!), and again the enemy maintain a studied silence. You hear [2♣] from partner, which should show, at least, 9 HCP and probably 4, or more, Clubs, though you should be aware that this sequence, on occasion, may show a 3.4.3.3 pattern (or perhaps 3.3.4.3 when the response would save bidding space, but preferring [2♦] whenever the Club suit is of POOR quality, say, less than Q9x).

So after the first two bids you have discovered that you have the weight to support game, so you make your prepared rebid (you did, of course, consider your re-bid BEFORE you opened the bidding, didn't you!) which is [2♦]. You could have elected for [3N] to show the game you might have wanted to play, but the chosen bid suggests not a perfectly balanced hand (with, of course, the 5-card Spade suit). Partner simply returns you to [2♠] so he is definitely not lurking with reserves of strength.

Now what?

Well if you are fairly certain the partner holds THREE Spades then you might well simply bid [4♠], but if you would like more information then you could try [3♥](FSF) since over that bid you might get the information you seek. Say you hear [3♠] then you would be 'tired but happy' (Terence Reece used this phrase to express his opinion, following a long and perhaps meandering sequence that had finally reached the optimum contract) to bid [4♠]. However in the real world you hear [3N] End.

So all routes should end in the NoTrump game. It must be said that it is somewhat better from the bigger hand as partner holds: -

♠ 85 ♥ T862 ♦ K54 ♣ AK72

but the simplest route to 9 tricks might well be to cash the Clubs (using ♦ K as the stepping stone) then finesse the ♦ J. If the Diamonds fail to break the you will only make 8 tricks, but on this occasion, that suit is 3:3.

[4♠] will fail by a trick as trumps are not kind, but you can take both the Diamond finesse and the trump finesse with so few entries to dummy after an initial heart lead. Win ♥ A, play ♣ Q, overtake ♣ J, and pitch your Heart on the top Club. Now ♦ J, ♦ Q, ♦ K, gets you back to dummy, and the Spades then go ♠ 8,♠ T,♠ J ♠ small. You can ruff the last Diamond, over-ruffed with ♠ Q, but then lose 3 more trump tricks, as the spade intermediates sit badly for declarer...so a brave effort.

THE GOSPORT EAR (Number 28) by LEPUS

Here's a hand for you to play, at PAIRS and ALL RED.

♠ QJ ♥ Jxx ♦ KJ9xxxx ♣ A

♠ AT9 ♥ Ax ♦ Ax ♣ K9xxxxx

[1♣] [P] [1♦] [2N] (a) /
[3♣] [P] [3♦] (b) [P] /
[3N] End.

(a) showed the Majors, at least 5:5.
(b) Forcing. Responder would pass with a weaker hand.

Opening Lead: ♥ 8.

In TEAMS with Hearts ♥ Jx : ♥ Axx it would be good technique to hold up the ♥ A until the third round to break communication between the enemy hands. Here there is little percentage in holding up, unless you believe that Hearts are 2:6, in which case LHO might have been more inclined to lead from his 3-card Spade suit. There is a slight presumption that LHO holds more Hearts than Spades.

If RHO is 6.6.1.0, or 6.6.0.1, then you will have a certain 9 tricks after making the second assumption that for his bidding RED he holds ♠ K, and that additionally he should hold some suitable cards in Hearts (the lead certainly marks him with, at least, ♥ KQ109x).

You may well have appreciated that the key to the whole hand is in fact the Diamond suit, but if you simply said, "Oh, as RHO is marked with the majors, then LHO has minor suit length, and is odds-on to hold ♦ Q" and blithely cashed some side winners, and finesse the ♦ J then I will tell you that you have gone down whenever RHO is 5.5.2.1 pattern.

You can defer the main decision by playing some side-suit tricks based upon the second assumption.

So, after ♥ A, ♣ A, then ♠ Q and follow with ♠ J (if ♠ Q is covered simply win, and return the suit). Come to hand with ♦ A, noting that so far everybody has followed suit (so that blows any hope of making the contract by an established revoke!). Now cash ♠ A (pitching a Heart), and if LHO follows then RHO is 5.5.2.1, or 5.5.1.2. However LHO fails so RHO is marked as 6.5.1.1. Finally cash ♣ K (throwing the last Heart), and RHO fails. Now you have PROVED that LHO holds ♦ Q and the play of the ♦ J is marked, and you claim 13 tricks.

Of course I lied about simply closing your eyes after playing Diamonds early (on this particular hand): I hope that you appreciate the point of the discovery play, that enabled you to determine the full pattern of the RHO bidder.

Finally in the position where LHO follows to the third Spade then the later play is simply to cash the ♦ K!

For the record the bidding enemy hand held: - ♠ K8xxxx ♥ KQ109x ♦ x ♣ x.

THE GOSPORT EAR (Number 29) by LEPUS

One of the simplest conventions is Fourth Suit Forcing (FSF) which in the parlance of a well-known TV advert "does what it says on the tin!" e.g. [1♥] [1♠] / [2♣] [2♦](FSF) in that the bid of the FOURTH SUIT (here Diamonds) is ...FORCING(!)

Often many players who use FSF, when asked about the bid, do not know what is promised by their own use of the convention. The main point is that FSF should, as a minimum, show that the partnership have sufficient HCP to underwrite the same level of NoTrump, so in the example sequence FSF should show that the combined hands contain at least 23 HCP. Clearly in this sequence we would deduce that responder does not necessarily hold great stopping power in the FOURTH SUIT as he could have elected to take the NoTrump position himself. If opener is agreeable to playing the NoTump strain then whenever he knows that their side have game values then he must bid the game as [2N] would not be forcing.

More importantly is how to proceed after FSF and my solution to this dilemma is that if opener does not bid NoTrump then he must not pass responder's next bid (unless it is simply a game bid) e.g. [1♥] [1♠] / [2♣] [2♦] / [3♣] [3♥] / the Heart bid is FORCING. It follows that [1♥] [1♠] / [2♣] [2♦] / [3♣] [4♥] is not forcing: Opener should pass unless he has a really suitable hand that would (here) certainly require (at least) control in the FOURTH SUIT before contemplating any further move.

♠ Q         ♥ KJT863   ♦ K      ♣ AQJT5

♠ KJ753   ♥ AQ9       ♦ J84   ♣ 73

[1♥] [1♠] / [2♣] [2♦] / [3♣] [4♥] End. If opener asks for Aces then in [5♥] the Club finesse must be right(!)

Note that FSF allows for a variety of contracts to be explored, so that if opener holds, say: -

♠ AQ8  ♥ K8632 ♦ 7       ♣ AQJ5 he can jump to [3♠] (Slam in Spades requires the Club finesse), or with

♠ Q      ♥ K8632 ♦ KT7   ♣ AQJ5 he can jump to [3N] (passed out), while with

♠ A863 ♥ AQ9   ♦ AT75 ♣ 73 the Slam can be explored (and reached) in the following way...

[1♥]                                                     [1♠] /
[2♣]                                                    [2♦] /
[3♣]                                                    [3♥](!!) /
[4♦](Qbid)                                           [4♥](2 losing Clubs) /
[4♠](Qbid, and not 2 losing Clubs!)       [6♥]         End.

Treating a bid of [3♠] as a "fitting" Qbid, to show ♠ Ax, ♠ Kx, or ♠ Qx, hence the later [4♠] will show a singleton, or void.

THE GOSPORT EAR (Number 30) by LEPUS

This should perhaps be entitled (as my Mum used to say) "If you don't bid, you ain't got!" which although not grammatically correct had the merit of encapsulating a truism of our game of Bridge.

Let's assume that (playing Weak Twos) these are the two hands up for discussion: -


♠ KQJ762  ♥ T72         ♦ 86   ♣ 53
♠ A83        ♥ AKQ854  ♦ T3  ♣ K6

[2♠]  (3♣)  [3♥](!)  (P) /
[4♥]  End

You should examine Lepus 22 for a fuller discussion of responses to Weak Twos, but, in essence, [3♥] is natural and forcing for one round, and opener with a fit (three small, or high honour doubleton) simply raises responder's suit.

This looks too trivial for words, but remembering the adage, responder should be aware that his partner has little by way of good news for him, especially in Diamonds. So, on this hand, there will be (perhaps I should say, may be) 3 certain losers, and perhaps 4, if the enemy bidder doesn't hold the ♣ A. However defences have been known to go awry (sorry, partner, I was playing for a Spade ruff) and there would sometimes be four of a major making 12 tricks appearing on the traveller.

Now let me change the North hand slightly.

♠ KQJ762  ♥ T72          ♦ A6  ♣ 53
♠ A83        ♥ AKQ854   ♦ T3  ♣ K6

[2♠]       (3♣)  [3♥](!)   (P) /
[4♦](!!)  (P)    [6♥]       End

"I do bid, and I have got!" the Diamond Ace (or a void), and this bid must say almost everything about the opening hand: a Heart fit, good Spades, and "what it says on the tin!" - the Diamond control.

So if instead you woodenly raise to [4♥] would you crime partner for passing?

Of course not, for he also knows that...

"If you don't bid, you ain't got!"