TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the November 2018 duplicates

1       Lack of imagination

Board 15 Monday 12 November– Vulnerability North South – Dealer South

The North South bidding on this hand was absolutely woeful.  With a Grand Slam available in either Clubs or Hearts only one pair out of eight managed to get to even a small slam.  The suggested auction to a small slam would be:-

When North bids Hearts freely at the four level almost certainly showing a six card suit it is actually quite difficult to construct a hand where 6 Hearts would go down unless the opening lead is ruffed.  As little as Queen to six Hearts and the King of Diamonds would make it a near certainty to succeed.

If South wishes to invite a Grand Slam then instead of punting 6 Hearts he should instead bid 5 Spades which as it commits the partnership to the six level is a Grand Slam try in Hearts.  North should accept this holding six Hearts with two of the top three honours together with the secondary honours in the minor suits.

2       Don’t be wasteful of entries

Board 16 Monday 12 November – Vulnerability East West – Dealer West

Four of the eight North South pairs played in 2 Hearts after a strong no trump opening from North and a transfer by South.  However in each case they only made 9 tricks instead of the 10 which are available with careful play.

East will lead the King of Clubs.  West will signal with the Jack and a second Club follows to the Ace.  West now switches to a low Spade.  It is good technique to duck the first round of Spades.  East wins with the Queen of Spades and returns a second Spade at trick four.  Declarer now starts on the trumps by cashing the Ace of Hearts at trick five and playing a low Heart to the Jack at trick six which wins.  The key point of the hand has now been reached. DECLARER SHOULD NOT DRAW THE LAST TRUMP AT THIS STAGE.  Instead Declarer takes the Diamond finesse by playing a low Diamond to the 10 at trick seven.  The finesse wins and only now does Declarer draw the last trump at trick eight.  The  Diamond finesse is now repeated at trick nine followed by the Ace of Diamonds at trick ten and the King of Diamonds at trick eleven on which the losing Spade is discarded.

The reason why it is good technique to duck the first round of Spades is that supposing the Diamond finesse loses but that the Spades break 4-2.  On this lie of the cards Declarer will still make nine tricks because East will not have a third Spade to return when he wins the Queen of Diamonds.  The moral of the hand is that Declarer must make the maximum use of entries.  By drawing the last trump prematurely then Declarer needed West to have only three Diamonds with the Queen whereas by finessing twice he was able to deal with an original four card holding.

3       Reaching slam after pre-emptive opening by opposition

Board 8 Thursday 15 November – Vulnerability White – Dealer West

In a similar vein to Tip 1 with a Grand Slam available not a single one of the seven East West pairs managed to reach even 6 Spades.  While I do consider that it is impossible to reach the Grand Slam after the pre-emptive opening from North a Small Slam is achievable with the following auction:

West is close to bidding 4 Spades opposite the takeout double of 3 Clubs but by bidding freely over South’s 3 Heart bid he is showing fair values.  East holding five card trump support and all the Aces then cue-bids 4 Clubs which agrees Spades.  West now cue-bids 4 Diamonds.  East then cue-bids in Hearts and now West has a further decision to make.  Holding five trumps together with his chunky Diamond holding the most constructive bid for him to make is to make a further cue-bid in Diamonds.  While it is unusual to make two cue-bids holding KQx in a suit this is the most constructive bid which he can make to encourage East to then jump to 6 Spades.

One reason why it is impossible to bid the Grand Slam is that if West’s distribution were 5=3=3=2 instead of 5=2=3=3 there would be an inevitable Heart loser.