TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the January 2018 duplicates

1       Elementary Grand Slam

Board 3 Thursday 11 January – Vulnerability East West – Dealer South

Only one pair out of eight managed to reach what is really a very easy Grand Slam to bid. 

After East responds 1 Spade to the West’s opening 1 Club bid West should make a mini-splinter of 3 Diamonds.  As previously explained in June 2015 Tip No 1 this shows the values for at least 3 Spades with a singleton in Diamonds.  East how cue-bids 4 Diamonds which shows the Ace as there would be little point in cue-bidding the King opposite shortage.  Now West can bid RKCB.  East responds 5 Spades to the RCKB bid.  This is not a misprint.  When you know that the partnership possesses a 10 card trump fit you respond to Keycard as if you have the Queen of trumps.  West can now count 13 tricks as long as East has three cards in Diamonds (six Spades, two Clubs, two Hearts, the Ace of Diamonds and two Diamond ruffs).  Only if East had started off with precisely Ax of Diamonds would West need either the Club finesse or for East to have the Queen of Clubs or the Queen of Hearts.

2       Minor suit game missed

Board 19 Monday 15 January – Vulnerability East West – Dealer South

Only one pair out of eleven managed to reach the excellent 5 Club contract on this hand.

After a 2 Heart overcall from North East has a perfect hand to make a negative double which implies at least four cards in each minor suit and approximately 8 plus points.  When South raises to 3 Hearts it would be very timid for West to only bid 4 Clubs with a very attractive 5-5 distribution, three Aces and only five losers.  Accordingly he should jump to 5 Clubs.

While it is possible to make 12 tricks in Clubs by finessing in Diamonds it is safest to play the hand on a cross ruff and make just 11 tricks for +600 to East West.

3       Poor Judgment by East

Board 19 Monday 22 January – Vulnerability East West – Dealer South

This hand caught my eye because at eight of the twelve tables East showed extremely poor judgment by choosing to defend 5 Clubs instead of bidding 5 Diamonds.

South should open just 1 Club because if he opens 5 Clubs first or second in hand there is too great a risk of missing a slam.  West does best to make a weak jump overcall of 2 Diamonds.  While he does have a seven card suit the Red vulnerability makes the suit quality too poor to jump to the three level.  North passes and the spotlight turns to East.  First of all there is a high likelihood that West has a seven card Diamond suit given that East has AQ10x in support and the vulnerability is red.  Secondly whenever West has a singleton Spade it is almost certain that the Spades can be established in a 5 Diamond contract.  Thirdly if West has either rounded King (Hearts or Clubs then 5 Diamonds is almost certain to make).  This is because if West has the King of Clubs then on a Club lead the King will immediately become established to deal with any possible Heart loser.  Finally if for instance West’s Hearts were originally Qxx then on a Club lead to South if the King of Hearts is in the South hand the defence will not  be able to attack Hearts before the Spades are established.

Had the eight East pairs correctly judged to bid 5 Diamonds then South would need to bid 6 Clubs which East would of course double and take the absolute par of +300 to East West.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the February 2018 duplicates

1       Spotlight on North and West

Board 4 Monday 19 February – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

This hand caught my eye for two reasons.

The first reason it caught my eye is that only one East West pair out of eight judged correctly to sacrifice in 7 Clubs against 6 Spades by North South.

The above is what I consider to be a sensible auction.  When North having opened 2 Clubs finds that the bidding is at the five level he has a choice between bidding 5 Spades and 6 Spades.  The reason why 6 Spades is a practical choice is because if South has as little as Q10xxx in Hearts then the Spade slam is almost certain to make.  If this were the case and North bid only 5 Spades then South would hardly find a raise to the six level on such a hand.  When 6 Spades comes back to West it is fairly clear to sacrifice.  This is because North’s bidding strongly suggests a void in Clubs and in addition West knows that it is impossible for the cost of the sacrifice to be greater than the score from 6 Spades making.  In other words the target is only eight tricks in 7 Clubs Doubled.   A further point of interest is that against 7 Clubs Doubled after North cashes his three Aces that he should then lead a low Spade at trick four which promotes South’s Queen of Clubs into a fourth defensive trick and a score of +1100 to North South.

The second reason it caught my eye is that for the seven pairs who played in Spades they all made only 12 tricks.  You might think that with the Diamond finesse wrong that North has to lose to the King of Diamonds but that is not the case.  After ruffing the opening lead of the Ace of Clubs North should draw trumps and then play out every remaining Spade discarding six of the seven Diamonds in the Dummy.  Now at trick nine Declarer cashes the Ace of Hearts and continues with Hearts at tricks ten and eleven.  The last Heart forces East to bare his King of Diamonds because the Queen of Clubs in the Dummy is a threat.  Now at trick twelve Declarer plays a Diamond to the Ace dropping the King from East making all thirteen tricks.  The bidding makes it a near certainty that East has the King of Diamonds because he has made an overcall at Amber at the three level which is most unlikely on just AKxxxx and a bust.

2       Minor suit game missed

Board 26 Monday 19 February – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer East

Only one pair out of eight managed to reach the laydown 5 Club contract on this hand.  (In fact a small slam in Clubs is available but that is very tough to bid).

When East raises West’s opening bid in Diamonds the best bid for South to make is Double.  This implies that he has values in the unbid suits and almost certainly denies three cards in Hearts.  The spotlight now turns to North.  What should he say after the value showing Double?  Although North has only 14 points his hand has improved dramatically.  It is almost certain that game is available in one of the black suits.  If for instance South has as little as ♠A10xx♥xx♦Qxx♣QJxx then four Spades is a near certainty to make while if South has ♠Axx♥xx♦Qxx♣QJxxx then 5 Clubs is unbeatable.  Accordingly North should cuebid 3 Diamonds.  This conveys the message “we are going to game partner but the strain is not yet known”.  South bids 4 Clubs which suggests that he has 5 or 6 Clubs but only 3 Spades since he would bid Spades in preference if he held 4 Spades.  North then goes to game in Clubs.  Indeed if North were feeling super optimistic he might even repeat cuebid with 4 Diamonds which might lead to the unbreakable 6 Club contract being reached.

3       14 top tricks

Board 16 Thursday 22 February – Vulnerability East West – Dealer West

The East West bidding on this hand was truly woeful.  At the eleven tables only two tables managed to reach 6 Spades and not a single one managed to get to a Grand Slam which has 14 top tricks.

West jumps to 3 Spades over 2 Clubs which is game forcing after a two level response and promises a minimum of six Spades.  It would be very lazy for East to just raise to game in Spades as he knows that a slam is quite likely and so continues with 4 Clubs as a cuebid agreeing Spades.  West now cuebids 4 Diamonds and East cuebids 4 Hearts.  Roman Keycard Blackwood is now wheeled out.  East’s response of 5 Diamonds can only be showing 3 keycards since it is not possible for him to have zero given his earlier cuebid.  At this point West knowing that all the keycards are now present is now only concerned with the quality of East’s Clubs.  Accordingly he cuebids 6 Clubs to ask “have you got third round Club control (the Queen).  East confirms that he has by bidding 7 Clubs and West can thus count a minimum of 13 tricks (14 actually with East’s sixth Club).

It is true that at a couple of tables North may have made a Weak Jump Overcall of 3 Hearts given the favourable Green Vulnerability.  While this would make it difficult for East West to bid a Grand Slam there is absolutely no excuse for their missing a Small Slam.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the March 2018 duplicates

1       Moysian fit is the best game

Board 14 Thursday 8 March – Vulnerability White – Dealer East

As previously noted in Tip No 1 January 2013 The term Moysian fit means playing in a 4-3 trump fit.  It is named after the American Alphonse Moyse Jr (1898 – 1973) who was said to love playing in 4-3 fits often at the game level.

Only two pairs out of ten managed to reach 4 Spades.  After South opens a weak two in Hearts West doubles and East bids 3 Diamonds.  This shows 8 to 11 points and denies a four card major.  If East held fewer than 8 points with Diamonds he would start off with a Lebensohl 2NT bid.  West now expects game to be on with 19 points opposite East’s positive bid and accordingly bids 3 Hearts which generally asks partner if he has a stop in Hearts.  East has no Heart stop but he does have three good Spades and so bids 3 Spades.  West is delighted to raise to game in Spades.  Even though this is only a seven card trump fit as long as Spades do not split worse than 4-2 it is certain to make and indeed makes an overtrick when the Club finesse is working.  Refer also to Tip No 1 October 2013 for further clarification of how Lebensohl works.

2       Minor suit game missed

Board 4 Monday 12 March – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

Only two pairs out of twelve managed to reach the laydown 5 Diamond contract on this hand.

East has a routine takeout Double of North’s 2 Heart overcall and West is happy to bid 3 Diamonds.  East should not pass 3 Diamonds.  He has a fifth trump, no wasted honours in Hearts and only 6 losers on the Losing Trick Count.  Accordingly he should raise to 4 Diamonds.  West is delighted to then go to game because he has a singleton Heart, two Aces and four good trumps.

Assuming that North starts off  with two rounds of Hearts the safest way to make 11 tricks is as follows.  Ruff the second Heart.  Queen of Diamonds wins followed by nine of Diamonds to the King.  Ruff a third round of Hearts, discard Dummy’s fourth Heart on the Ace of Spades.  Now ruff a Spade, draw the last trump which still leaves a trump in the Dummy and play a low Club to the Ace at trick nine and the 10 of Clubs to the King at trick ten.  If you do not play the cards in this order there is a danger of South’s 10 of Diamonds being promoted.

3       Rectifying the count followed by positional squeeze against North

Board 13 Monday 26 March – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer North

A nice brief auction.  East opens 1NT and West goes directly to 6NT.  Opening lead Jack of Spades.

However despite a combined point count of 34 HCPs there are only eleven top tricks and only one declarer out of eight managed to make 6NT.

The Golden Rule in such situations where you only have eleven top tricks is to give up a trick in a suit in which you are certain to lose a trick in order to create a situation where one or both of the defenders may have too much to look after towards the end of the hand.  Such a process is called Rectifying the Count.  Here Clubs is the suit in which a trick should be lost immediately.  Accordingly after winning the Ace of Spades at trick one Declarer plays a Club at trick two and allows South to win the trick with the 9.  South continues with Spades at trick three.  At tricks four and five Declarer continues with King and Ace of Clubs discovering that North still has a Club winner.  The Ace and King of Diamonds are cashed at tricks six and seven followed by three rounds of Hearts from tricks eight to ten.  At trick eleven we have reached:-

The Queen of Spades is now played from the Dummy.  North is forced to concede the twelfth trick.  Knowing that Declarer still has a small Club he discards a Diamond.  East now throws his Club and makes the last two tricks in Diamonds.

This is a positional squeeze and only works because East is discarding after North at trick eleven.  If the North and South hands were reversed (with North holding length in Spades) the squeeze would not work because South can discard after East plays at trick eleven.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the April 2018 duplicates

1       Slam only biddable with Kokish

Board 8 Thursday 12 April – Vulnerability White – Dealer West

Playing traditional methods there would be no way to reach 6 Spades on the above hand.  South would open 2 Clubs, North would respond 2 Diamonds and South would jump to 3NT showing 25 to 27 points.  This would end the auction.

We have previously seen in September 2014 Tip No 2 and January 2015 Tip No 1 how the Kokish relay allows very powerful balanced hands to be bid. The problem with jumping to 3NT to show 25 to 27 points is that it makes life very difficult for responder if he has modest values which cannot be described at the four level.

The Kokish Relay was invented by the Canadian International, Eric Kokish.  After the bidding starts 2C – 2D then a rebid of 2H by the opener is artificial and requests that the responder bids 2S.  After this start a 2NT rebid by opener shows 25+ points (no maximum) and is game forcing even if responder has zero points.  The principle is that with a huge balanced hand worthy of game, opener does not have to eat up bidding space by jumping to 3NT.  He can Puppet to 2S (via 2H) and then bid 2NT.  Responder can use Stayman and Transfers in the usual way after the Kokish relay.

Here after opener finally rebids 2NT responder shows a five card Spade suit by bidding 3 Hearts.  As we are in a game forcing situation there is no need for South to jump in Spades so he simply contents himself by carrying out the transfer request.  North now rebids 3NT showing that he is balanced or semi-balanced.  South now bids 4 Clubs.  The message this conveys is that South has at least three good Spades and is highly suitable for slam.  North now cuebids 4 Hearts showing the King of Hearts.  South can now count 12 tricks in Spades because as long as the King of Hearts is in a three card holding it does not matter in which minor suit North has a doubleton as the King of Hearts will provide a parking space for one of South’s minor suit losers.  In other words if North has a doubleton Club then we will discard the Diamond loser on the King of Hearts.  If North has a doubleton Diamond then we will discard a Club loser on the King of Hearts.  Note that as North South are known to have a 10 card Spade fit that there is no need to ask for the Queen of trumps since the odds of a 2-1 split are 78% and as we have the Jack of Spades the odds of bring in the suit with the Queen of Spades missing  rises to 89% when Qxx in the East hand can be easily picked up.

2       25 point slam universally missed

Board 26 Wednesday 25 April – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer East

¹           Responds to RKCB as if he has the Queen of trumps because he knows that the side possess a 10 card fit.

None of the seven North South pairs managed to reach the excellent 6 Club contract.  As we so often see on low point count slam hands the key to getting to slam is through the use of a Splinter bid which at one go gets across the singleton and excellent trump support.

Although South only has 13 working points (ignoring the Jack of Diamonds) his huge support for Clubs warrants him making a splinter bid of 3 Diamonds when North bids 2 Clubs.  Now the focus shifts to North.  While North has “only” 11 points the splinter bid has dramatically increased the potential of his hand.  A Diamond holding of Axxx opposite a singleton is ideal for slam and equally crucially he has the golden King of Spades opposite a five card suit in the South hand.  Accordingly he goes straight to RKCB.  Note that North does not need to worry about there being two losers in Hearts because as a general rule when the opener makes a splinter bid in the third suit he promises high cards in the fourth suit.

I will try and quantify the odds of 6 Clubs making.  It always makes when Clubs break 2-1 (78 per cent).  When Clubs are 3-nil (22%) on half of the occasions you will guess wrong which way to play the Clubs.  In addition when Clubs break 3-0 you will in practice need Spades to break no worse than 4-2 (84 per cent).  Thus the total odds of 6 Clubs making are:-

78% plus 11% x 0.84 = 78% plus 9% = 87%

3       North South go back to school

Board 2 Thursday 25 April – Vulnerability North South – Dealer East

¹           Denying four Spades

Only one of the nine North South pairs managed to reach game on this hand which is truly woeful and the other eight North South pairs should hang their heads in shame.

When East opens 1 Club South has a routine overcall of 1NT despite his shape being semi-balanced.  1NT shows 16 to 18 points ideally with a double Club stop.  What better description could there be of the South hand.  At teams North should go straight to game.  At pairs he might err on the side of caution by using Non-promissory Stayman to invite game.  South is delighted to accept the invitation with 17 points, a double stop in Clubs and a five card suit.

In the play assuming the lead of the Queen of Spades you should win the second round of Spades and cross to dummy by playing a low Heart to the Ace.  Then lead the Queen of Diamonds.  When the finesse is successful you now have nine tricks on top.  You then cash the King of Hearts dropping the Queen for 10 tricks and run the rest of the Diamonds before safely finessing the Club at trick eleven making two overtricks for +660.  (It is impossible for the Club finesse to not be working in view of the opening 1 Club from East.)

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the May 2018 duplicates

1       West or East for Keycard?

Board 10 Wednesday 9 May  – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer East

It ought to be relatively straightforward for East West to reach a Small slam on this hand although astonishingly only three out of eight pairs managed to do so.  However none of the eight pairs managed to reach the laydown Grand slam.  I believe that this was because the wrong hand used keycard.

After East makes an automatic jump to 3 Clubs with his 16 points and strong six card suit several Wests appear to have made the underbid of the year by signing off in 3NT.  Holding three Aces and a King a Small slam is almost underwritten opposite a jump rebid.  Accordingly West should raise Clubs which is forcing.  East should now cuebid 4 Diamonds.  At this point I believe that the three Wests who managed to reach the Small slam then used keycard.  Although all the keycards were present West could not be certain that there were more than 12 tricks available and so had to sign off in 6NT.  The reason why West was wrong to use keycard is that by so doing he then has to guess what his partner holds in terms of side suit Queens.  If on the other hand West lets East do the asking then all of West’s 15 points can be shown in the responses to keycard.  The bidding continues:-

West shows three keycards in response to RKCB.  East’s 5NT bid confirms that all the keycards are present and asks West to show any side suit King or to bid 7 Clubs with a strong side suit.  West owns up to the King of Spades and East can now count thirteen tricks.

2       Bidding lesson for South

Board 17 Wednesday 9 May – Vulnerability White – Dealer North

From an examination of the scores on this board it is clear to me that none of the eight Souths who held this hand had an understanding of the correct way in which their assets should be shown.

After East opens 1 Heart South has to decide whether to overcall in Diamonds or to make a takeout double.  The correct call is to overcall 2 Diamonds.  This is because with such a low point count South cannot Double and then bid Diamonds if North bids Clubs.  After South overcalls it is practical for West to jump straight to game in Hearts.  This is automatic for those playing five card majors and even for those playing four card majors it seems the sensible choice not vulnerable with the singleton Diamond.  When 4 Hearts comes back to South he has the perfect hand to double.  THIS IS NOT A PENALTY DOUBLE.  Rather it implies that in addition to the six card Diamond suit already shown that South has a very attractive hand on which to compete further with tolerance for both the unbid suits.  The most likely shapes for South to make such a bid are 3=1=6=3 or 4=0=6=3 or 4=1=6=2. 

For instance if we give North ♠Kx♥xxx♦xx♣KQJxxx then he can bid 5 Clubs which is certain to make.  If instead we give North ♠QJ10xx♥xxx♦xx♣Axx then he can bid 4 Spades which is almost certain to make.  On the actual hand North is very balanced and is delighted to convert the take out double to penalties by passing 4 Hearts doubled and collecting +300 for North South after the natural lead of the 10 of Clubs.  While it is true that on the actual hand 5 Diamonds does make for +400 this is a poor contract as it requires the Diamond finesse as well as split Club honours.

3       Breaking the transfer

Board 7 Monday 21 May – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

Only one pair out of eight managed to reach game in Hearts on this hand.

There are two ways in which game should be reached.  Although the North hand is within the point range for a 15-17 strong no trump there is a good case for upgrading the 17 point hand with a strong five  card suit and seven controls (Ace = 2 controls, King = 1 control) and treating the hand as if it were 18-19.  In this case the bidding would go:-

1 Club             1 Heart

2NT                 3 Clubs or 3 Diamonds depending on partnership methods

3 Hearts         4 Hearts

After the jump to 2NT South either bids a natural 3 Diamonds promising five Hearts or an artificial 3 Clubs as a major suit checkback looking for either three card Heart support or four card Spade suit.

Alternatively if North opens the top heavy 1NT then after South transfers by bidding 2 Diamonds if North simply bids 2 Hearts then this will end the auction.  Instead North should break the transfer by bidding 2NT.  This implies a maximum 1NT with three or four Hearts.  South then retransfers with 3 Diamonds and raises 3 Hearts to game.

On the Jack of Spades lead careful play should lead to eleven tricks and a score of +650 to North South.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the June 2018 duplicates

1       Game inexplicably missed

Board 9 Thursday 7 June  – Vulnerability East West – Dealer North

Not a single East West pair out of the ten tables managed to bid and make a contract of 4 Spades on this hand which is quite extraordinary.

If North overcalls 1 Diamond then the auction is very quick and simple:-

East doubles to show both majors.  When South raises pre-emptively to 3 Diamonds then it is important for West to jump to game in Spades since if he bids only 3 Spades on his six loser hand and powerful five card Club suit then it would not be clear for East to go to game as West would feel able to bid a major at the three level with any 4=3=1=5 shape even if minimum points.

If instead North passes then the bidding will take a more nuanced route:-

By bidding in this fashion West is showing a good 4=3=1=5 hand.  As we have previously noted in this column (see in particular August 2012 Tip No 3) if you have a minimum 4=3=1=5 hand you must raise Hearts immediately rather than go via the slow route if you are in the 11 to 14 range.  (Refer also to January 2014 Tip No 1).

2       Nul points for West in Milton’s and his Defence !

Board 13 Monday 11 June – Vulnerability White – Dealer North

This hand caught my eye because at five of the twelve tables North South reached an excellent 6 Club contract which should always go one down but astonishingly it would appear that in each case they were allowed to make the contract because each West despite having no points discarded in a suicidal way allowing the contract to make.

A possible bidding sequence would be:-

East leads the King of Spades (King for Count).  West shows five Spades by playing low.  East then switches to the Jack of Diamonds won by Declarer with the Ace. 

The outstanding trump is drawn and Declarer runs off five more rounds of trumps knowing that he needs either for the Diamonds to break 3-3 or for the Heart finesse to be taken (total probability of success 68 per cent). (Note that the last trump cannot be cashed as this would squeeze the Dummy).  Declarer then tests the Diamond break before falling back on the Heart finesse.  One of the Golden Principles of defence when discarding is always to keep the same length in a suit as the Dummy.  Here as long as West keeps all his Diamonds then Declarer will eventually have to take the Heart finesse and go quietly one down.  However each of the five Wests feeling sorry for themselves at not having been dealt any points must have discarded a Diamond on one of the first six rounds of trumps letting the contract succeed, no doubt to much gnashing of teeth from East.

3       Only 33% of the field reach routine slam

Board 17 Monday 11 June – Vulnerability White – Dealer North

This should be a very routine slam to reach but again only four pairs out of twelve managed to get there.

There are two possible routes to get there:-

West transfers into Hearts at the four level and then bids Roman Keycard Blackwood.  On hearing of three keycards opposite he bids 6 Hearts. 

However it could be argued that there is perhaps a 5 per cent chance of East only having one Ace if he has something like:-  ♠KQJx♥Ax♦KQ10♣Jxxx

For this reason it is perhaps safer to simply use Gerber:-

(The responses to Gerber are 4 Diamonds = No Ace, 4 Hearts, = one Ace, 4 Spades = 2 Aces, 4NT = 3 Aces).

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the July 2018 duplicates

1       Splinter bid to slam

Board 19 Monday 16 July – Vulnerability East West – Dealer South

Only one pair out of twelve managed to reach the excellent 6 Club contract on the above hand.  It is also a good example of why it is preferable when 4=4 in the minors to open 1 Club rather than 1 Diamond.

Even for those playing 5 card majors North should make a splinter bid of 3 Spades in response to 1 Club showing at least five Clubs and a singleton (or void) Spade.  The South hand immediately knows that the hand should not be played in No Trumps as South has only one Spade stop.  Accordingly South cuebids 4 Diamonds which leads to North employing RKCB.  On learning that one keycard is missing North settles for the small slam.  Note that the correct line in 6 Clubs is to win the Spade lead and run the Queen of Clubs losing to the King.    East returns a Spade ruffed in the Dummy.  Now declarer draws the remaining trump with the Jack, plays the 9 of Diamonds to the Queen and a low Diamond to the King at trick six before cashing the Ace and King of Hearts at tricks seven and eight.  Now the three remaining Clubs are run at tricks nine to eleven on which Declarer discards the Jack of Hearts at trick eleven.  If either defender started with five Hearts and four Diamonds he will be automatically squeezed.  Otherwise declarer has the option at trick eleven of finessing the eight of Diamonds at trick twelve which would be the correct line if West originally started with either 10x or Jx in the suit.

There was a further point of interest in that at four of the twelve tables the contract was 3NT by South.  The two pairs who went down on a Spade lead correctly ran the Queen of Clubs losing to the singleton King and so were defeated.  However they can console themselves that they played the Club suit correctly.  The two pairs who dropped the singleton King of Clubs urgently need to read a book on suit combinations as it is very inferior odds to play for the drop of the King with ten cards.  (When the suit is divided 2-1 it is twice as likely that the King is in the two card holding rather than singleton while when we add in the possibility of West having started with three Clubs it becomes even more clearcut to finesse).

2       Intermediate jump overcall in fourth seat leads to game

Board 7 Wednesday 18 July – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

Only one pair out of eight managed to reach 4 Spades on this hand which is almost certain to make whenever the trumps split 3-2 (68 per cent).  If South opens 1 Heart then a sensible sequence would be:-

In fourth seat jump overcalls should not be played as weak because there is no longer any need to pre-empt the opposition.  Rather a jump to 2 Spades should show a strong six card suit with about 6 ½ or 7 tricks with Spades as trumps.  West bids 2NT having a good Heart stop.  East now bids his second suit and West cannot insist on No trumps because he has no honours in the unbid suit Clubs.  Accordingly he jumps to game in Spades as he knows this in an eight card fit.

Alternatively for those North South pairs who are playing a weak Notrump then East West would reach game by employing the excellent Multi Landy defence to 1NT as follows:-

¹           Showing a six card major suit

²           Implying a good fit for Hearts

Usually after a Multi Landy bid if responder bids 2 of your major denying a fit the Multi Landy bidder would pass.  However as East has a very attractive 6-4 shape he is entitled to make a further bid.  When East bids 3 Diamonds he is implying six Spades and four Diamonds since if he held Hearts he would either bid 3 Hearts if minimum or 4 Hearts if maximum.  Although West has only 10 points he is delighted to jump to game in Spades as all of his points appear to be working.

3       Minor suit transfer followed by showing shortage

Board 17 Wednesday 18 July – Vulnerability White – Dealer North

Only one pair out of eight managed to reach the excellent 5 Club contract.  Several pairs ended up in the ridiculous contract of 3NT which would normally have at least six losers but due to the extremely fortunate blockage in the Spade suit there was no way to defeat this contract.

West transfers into Clubs by bidding 2 Spades.  When replying to a minor suit transfer it is important for the opening bidder to be able to indicate to responder whether he has a fit for the minor suit.  A fit is defined as Qxx or better.  When opener does not have a fit for responder’s minor suit he just bids the next step ie 2NT over 2 Spades or 3 Clubs over 2NT showing Diamonds.  Here East breaks the transfer by bidding 3 Clubs.  Continuations by responder now show shortage.  So 3 Spades by West shows a singleton Spade.  East now knows that the partnership cannot play in No trumps and so cuebids 4 Diamonds in case West is interested in higher things.  West signs off in 5 Clubs.   There was a degree of poetic justice on the score sheet in that the pair who reached 5 Clubs were dubiously doubled by South and this made +550 so getting a better score than the agricultural bidders who ended up in the ridiculous 3NT.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the August 2018 duplicates

1       The vanishing overtrick

Board 4 Thursday 2 August– Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

This hand caught my eye because at first sight it appears easy to make eleven tricks in the routine 4 Spade contract with apparently five Spade tricks, four Heart tricks and two Club tricks.  Note that in the bidding East transfers at the four level after West rebids 2NT showing 23-24 points because if he instead simply transfers at the three level and then bids to game in the major suit this should be played as a mild slam try.

However appearances can be deceptive and accurate defence prevents the overtrick.

The most sensible opening lead is the Queen of Clubs.  On the lead of the Queen of Clubs South must play the TEN to indicate that he also has the NINE.  Otherwise North will be reluctant to continue the suit when he gains the lead.  West starts to draw trumps by playing the King of Spades.  It is essential for North to duck this trick.  He then wins the second round of Spades with the Ace and continues Clubs.  Now although Declarer appears to have eleven tricks he has no means of drawing the last trump because the simple action of ducking the first round of trumps by North has severed the link with the Dummy.  At trick five Declarer would have  to choose between settling for ten tricks by exiting with the King of Diamonds to create a route to the Dummy to draw the last trump or live dangerously in trying to make an overtrick by playing his winning Hearts in the hope that the hand with the last trump held four Hearts.  However this would risk the contract being defeated if the third round of Hearts were ruffed.

2       Textbook demonstration of why 4-4 fit beats 5-3 fit

Board 16 Thursday 2 August – Vulnerability East West – Dealer West

East is forced to bid a 3 card Club suit in response to the opening bid of 1 Spade until the eight card Heart fit comes to light.

If the final contract were in Spades with the 5-3 fit there would be three inescapable losers, one Spade, one Diamond and one Club.

However playing in Hearts with the 4-4 fit provided that the major suits both break 3-2 there is an easy overtrick available.  It does not matter which minor suit North elects to lead.  Let us suppose that he chooses his fourth highest Diamond.  This runs to the 10 and Ace.  Trumps are drawn in three rounds and Declarer continues by giving up the first round of Spades.  Diamonds are continued and declarer ruffs the third round with his last trump.  When the Spades break he now has eleven tricks because two Clubs are discarded from the Dummy on the fourth and fifth round of Spades.

The result is the same if the opening lead is a Club rather than a Diamond the only difference now being that two Diamonds are discarded from the Dummy on the long Spades.

3       Par contract missed at all eight tables

Board 15 Wednesday 15 August – Vulnerability North South – Dealer South

I was astonished that at none of the eight tables did North South reach the par contract of 3 Clubs.  This is remarkable because this contract should be reached regardless of whether North South are playing a strong or a weak no trump.

If North South are playing a strong no trump then the bidding should go as follows:

¹           Showing Clubs usually a six card suit if weak

²           Denying a fit for Clubs

A fit for Clubs is defined as Qxx or better.  Thus when South effectively denies having the King of Clubs then North knows that 3NT will be a poor contract and settles for a part score in Clubs which makes exactly losing just four tricks after the lead of the King of Spades.

If North South are playing a weak no trump with four card majors then the bidding should go as follows:

When 2 Hearts comes back to West he balances with a protective Double.  East’s Hearts are not strong enough to risk defending 2 Hearts doubled and so he bids 2 Spades.  North is now able to compete further with 3 Clubs which implies six Clubs and three Hearts.  South passes because he does not have a fifth Heart and so again North is left as Declarer in 3 Clubs.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the September 2018 duplicates

1       Game inexplicably missed

Board 7 Monday 3 September– Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

Only one pair out of eight managed to reach 3NT on the above hand which I found quite remarkable.  At four of the eight tables West played in 4 Diamonds plus one.  3NT should be reached regardless of whether South opens a weak 2 Hearts or passes because he is vulnerable and considers his hand a little weak.

If South opens a weak 2 Hearts then the auction should be very brief:

With a Heart stop and twelve points opposite a vulnerable three level overcall East expects to make game in notrumps.

Should South pass if he feels he a little weak for a vulnerable weak two then the bidding is likely to go:-

East starts off by cuebidding 2 Spades to promise at least four card Diamond support and 10 plus points.  West holding only 12 points initially signs off in 3 Diamonds.  East is worth a further move with 3 Spades asking if West has a Spade stop and West is happy to oblige  The only difference now is that West is the Declarer.

With East the Declarer the likely lead is the King of Hearts.  Declarer wins the second round of Hearts and cashes the Ace and King of Diamonds (best technique is to unblock the 10 on one of the first two rounds to ensure that there is no danger of the Diamond suit subsequently being blocked).  With eight tricks on top Declarer has a choice between the Club finesse and playing a Spade to the Queen.  It is correct to play a Spade to the Queen because while South might have the King of Clubs it is unlikely that he has the Ace of Spades since that would make him a little heavy for a 2 Heart opener.  When the Queen of Spades wins Declarer then runs off the rest of his Diamonds.  North’s discards will give declarer a good clue as to whether he can risk an overtrick by finessing the Queen of Clubs at trick ten.  Result either +600 or +630.

With West the Declarer the likely lead is a Spade from North.  Now when the Queen of Spades wins the first trick you can run all the Diamonds and if you watch North’s discards like a hawk (who will have to make five discards on the run of the Diamonds) you will be able to judge whether it is safe to finesse the Clubs for an overtrick.  Again the result is either +600 or +630.

2       Keycard at the second bid !

Board 9 Thursday 6 September – Vulnerability East West – Dealer North

I consider that the South hand is so strong that it is one of the extremely rare occasions on which it is correct to launch straight into Roman Key Card Blackwood on the second round of the bidding.  In some respects the South hand is worthy of a 2 Club opener.  However experience shows that with such a shape it is better in the long run to start off with a humble 1 Heart and accept the very rare occasions on which 1 Heart might be passed out.

When North responds 1 Spade the South hand is absolutely huge.  While some might argue for a splinter bid of 4 Clubs this will not achieve anything.  Given that as little as Qxxxx Spades in the North hand and a singleton Heart makes a contract of 6 Spades almost ironclad and as the South hand only has 3 losers the chances of a 5 Spade contract not making if the North hand is unsuitable for slam is quite low.  North shows one keycard and now South bids the next step asking for the Queen of trumps.  The reason why South asks for the Queen of Spades is that if North had both the Queen of Spades and the King of Hearts he would respond 5 Hearts which would allow South to bid a grand slam in Spades.  North denies the Queen of Spades by signing off in 5 Spades.  However despite this denial South goes on to the slam.  Why is this?   Well for one thing if North held a 5^th trump then the chances of bringing in the Spades would be at least 78% (since the odds of a 3-nil trump split are 22%).  Secondly even if there is a Spade loser then the Heart finesse is still available.

We can quantify the approximate odds of 6 Spades making.  If the Spades come in the contract makes.  This is 52.5 % (2-2 split plus singleton Queen = 40% + 12½ %.  If the Spades do not come in then the contract will still make when the Heart finesse is working.  So we can add in one half of the remaining 47.5% or 23.75%.  The total odds of the contract making are therefore 76.25%.

However the play of 6 Spades does have something of a sting in the tail.  Five pairs out of eight reached the slam but two of these five pairs went down after receiving a Club lead.  As the Club lead takes out the only quick entry to the North hand it is crucial to make use of this entry by finessing Hearts at trick two.  The Heart finesse works and now the Ace and King of Spades can be cashed.  The Queen does not drop but this matters not as declarer can continue with the Ace of Hearts and easily set up the Hearts even if they break four one.  However note the difference if Declarer carelessly starts to draw trumps at trick two.  When the Ace and King of Spades fail to drop the Queen Declarer is forced to continue with a third round of Spades.  West wins and forces Declarer’s fourth trump by continuing Clubs.  Now Declarer is forced to hope that East started off with only two Hearts by playing his last trump to the Jack in the Dummy and finessing in Hearts.  When the finesse wins but the Ace does not then drop the King declarer goes at least one trick down depending on whether East has any Clubs left.

3       Autosplinter paves the route to slam

Board 18 Monday 10 September – Vulnerability North South – Dealer East

Twenty years ago the East hand would have started off proceedings with a strong 2 Spades opener showing at least eight playing tricks in Spades and the bid was forcing for one round ie it could not be passed.  However now that  strong two bids in a major have gone out of fashion largely because of the low frequency with which they occur a method has to be found to catch up later in the bidding.  The answer is that whenever partner responds 1NT to the opening bid of one major the opening bidder is able to describe his hand accurately on the second round by use of the Autosplinter.  If East had a game going hand with Spades and a minor he would jump to the three level in the minor suit to insist that game be reached.  Thus a jump to the four level in a minor cannot possibly be natural.  Instead it is an autosplinter setting his original major as trumps and inviting the responder to cue-bid in case a slam is available.

¹           Autosplinter setting Spades as trumps

²           A jump to the five level after cuebids have been exchanged in two suits says “I have no control in the fourth suit (Hearts), have you got the Ace or King?”

³           I have the Ace of Hearts in case you are interested in a Grand Slam.

West cuebids in Diamonds and as East has the King of Diamonds he knows that West must therefore have the Ace.  However East is still worried about the Heart suit.  By jumping to the five level over 4 Diamonds he is asking West to look exclusively at his Heart holding.  If West held the King of Hearts he would jump to 6 Spades.  By bidding instead 6 Hearts he is showing the Ace of Hearts.  In fact if East were desperately in need of a top he might consider bidding 7 Diamonds which only needs a 3-2 break in Diamonds.  However this is very risky as West might have only 3 Diamonds in say a 1=4=3=5 or 2=3=3=5 shape.  Only one East West pair out eight reached 6 Spades.  Clearly the others need to learn Autosplinters!

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.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the December 2018 duplicates

1       East West go back to school

Santa Claus Pairs – Session 2

Board 20 Sunday 16 December– Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

The East West bidding on this hand from the second session of the Santa Claus Pairs was absolutely woeful.  With a Grand Slam in Clubs available only one East West pair out of the ten tables who bid the hand managed to even reach a Small Slam.  There are two reasonable auctions to the Grand Slam:-

First of all East should respond in his longest suit Clubs rather than bidding Spades as he has a game forcing hand and in such cases the suits should always be bid with the longest shown first.  West then agrees Clubs by making a splinter bid in Spades promising four card Club support and a singleton or void in Spades.  At this point East has a choice.  My preference is for the first auction where East cuebids 4 Spades.  This promises the Ace since there is little point in  cuebidding a King opposite known shortage.  West now bids RKCB and hears three keycards opposite.  With the very powerful six card Heart suit it is now sensible for West to jump to the Grand Slam in Clubs expecting any Diamond losers to disappear on his Hearts.  The only time when this is likely to misfire is if East were to have a 2=2=4=5 shape where a 4=1 Heart split might then not provide enough discards from the four card Diamond suit in the Grand Slam.

Any competent pair from Division 2 of the Manchester League ought to be bidding the Grand Slam.

2       Takeout double by opener to ensure the best game

Board 27 Monday 17 December – Vulnerability White – Dealer South

Only one pair out of seven reached the par contract of 5 Clubs by North South.

¹           If West bids 4 Spades then North is likely to go to 5 Clubs himself because he can visualize a Spade void in South’s hand since opposition almost certainly have a 10 card Spade fit to be sacrificing.

East raises his partner’s overcall to the 3 level.  This shows four trumps and a fairly weak hand since with more East could either cue-bid 2 Clubs or in the modern style bid 2NT to show a good hand (10 plus points with four card Spade support).  When not vulnerable it is almost always correct to “raise to the level of the fit” ie with 9 trumps combined raise to the three level and with 10 trumps combined raise to the four level.  When vulnerable it is sometimes prudent to exercise a little more caution.

The spotlight turns to South.  He knows that game is a near certainty for his side but does not know in which denomination this should be.  Accordingly he doubles which implies that he has a strong hand but without four cards in Hearts.  North can then bid Hearts should he have a five card suit or alternatively give preference to Clubs or possibly even bid Diamonds if he has for instance a 3=4=5=1 shape.  Finally if North held a trump trick in a balanced hand he might choose to convert the takeout double to penalty.

Two crazy East West pairs went on to 5 Spades which should of course be doubled and accurate defence would defeat this contract by four tricks for a penalty of 800.  (While the absolute par on the hand is for North South to double 4 Spades for +500 it is difficult for North South to judge that a penalty of 500 would result).

3       Jumps in new suit after Jacoby

Board 23 Thursday 20 December – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

West opens 1 Spade and East should employ the Jacoby 2NT response.  In response to an opening one of a major this shows at least 12 points with four card support for opener’s major and is the best way to suggest the possibility of getting to a slam and allows a jump to four of the major by responder to show a more distributional hand with fewer points.

Even though West has only 10 High Card Points the playing potential of the hand is enormous.  He knows there is a 10 card trump fit and he has only five losers.  Since a typical Jacoby hand by responder will have about seven losers there is a high likelihood of a slam unless East has Kings opposite the singletons.

The mainstream way of opener responding to Jacoby is to jump to four of the major with a bad hand which is basically telling the Jacoby bidder to forget all about a slam.  With a singleton West bids the singleton except that if West has a strong 5-5 with two of the top three honours in his second suit he should jump to the four level in his second suit.  If West has a better than minimum hand but with no singleton he simply rebids his suit as the three level.  On the above hand it is clearly more descriptive for West to jump to 4 Clubs rather than show a singleton in a red suit.

When West jumps to 4 Clubs East knows that his partner must have AK to five Clubs since he has the Queen.  Accordingly he can go straight to keycard and on hearing of one keycard opposite he jumps to 6 Spades.  Note that while East could check that opener has the Queen of Spades by bidding 5 Diamonds there is really no need because West would hardly jump to 4 Clubs if his Spades were Jack high.

Refer also to August 2013 Tip No 2 for a further example of using Jacoby in this situation.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the January 2017 duplicates

1       Learn your safety plays !

Board 22 Monday 9 January – Vulnerability East West – Dealer East

Three pairs out of eight bid to the best contract of 6 Hearts on the above hand.  However they went down because they failed to play the trump suit correctly.

Assuming the Queen of Clubs lead the only danger to the contract is losing two trump tricks.  Accordingly after cashing the Ace of trumps on the first round you should then continue with a low Heart towards the Jack.  This restricts East to only one trump trick when he started with Q10xx.  The odds of East having started with such a holding are 14 per cent – one half of the 28 per cent odds of a 4-1 trump split.

While it is true that by playing the trumps in this way you give up any chance of making all thirteen tricks nevertheless in a modest field you are almost certain to score above average whenever you bid and make a slam contract in a major suit (with 6 Hearts making scoring better than 6 Diamonds plus one).

2       Landy or Multi-Landy to reach game

Board 15 Thursday 19 January – Vulnerability North South – Dealer South

Only one pair out of nine managed to reach the laydown 4 Spades on the above hand.  Whether you play the simple Landy defence or the more comprehensive Multi-Landy defence to 1NT reaching game should not be a problem.

By overcalling 2 Clubs East is showing at least nine cards in the majors (some authors recommend making the bid not vulnerable with only eight cards) and a point count in the range 9 to 16.  What should West respond?  Well knowing of the minimum nine card Spade fit and holding a side suit Ace he should jump to 3 Spades to invite game.  East holding only six losers and a non-minimum hand (even if the Queen of Diamonds does prove to be wasted) is delighted to accept the invitation.

Even against those pairs playing weak no trump who open 1 Heart on the North hand it is still possible to reach game.  When 1 Heart comes round to West he should bid 1 Spade not vulnerable even though he only has 7 points as he has an Ace and a King and it is quite likely that East has passed the opening bid on account of Heart length.  East has a comfortable raise to 4 Spades because assuming that West has at least three Diamonds the hands are likely to fit extremely well together.

3       Slam missed at nine out of ten tables

Board 15 Thursday 26 January – Vulnerability North South – Dealer South

Only one pair out of ten managed to reach the excellent 6 Club contract on this hand although they they failed to play it correctly and went down.

Note that although West has 17 points his correct rebid is just 2 Clubs rather than 3 Clubs.  This is because a jump to the three level in a new suit is 100% game forcing and as East’s response of 1 Heart might have as few as 6 points this would be completely unsound.  Thus a rebid at the two level in a lower ranking suit than opener’s can be anywhere in the range 11 to 18 points.

After East then jumps to 3NT showing 13 to 15 points with a good Spade stop West is worth a slam try of 4 Clubs showing a strong 5-5 and knowing that if the East hand is unsuitable for slam (ie with poor controls) that East can sign off in 4NT.  However here East is delighted to cuebid 4 Spades.  RKCB is wheeled out and 6 Clubs is the final contract. 

The play is interesting.  Say North opens with a low Heart.  Declarer wins with the Ace in the Dummy and immediately takes a Club finesse.  If North wins to return a second trump the appearance of the 9 of Clubs from South on the second round means that it is relatively safe to leave the last trump outstanding and instead ruff the third round of Diamonds in the Dummy with the 7 of Clubs.  Then you can return to hand with the King of Spades, draw the last trump and two Diamonds left in Declarer’s hand disappear on the Queen of Spades and the King of Hearts.

However alternatively suppose that North defends more strongly and allows the first Club finesse to succeed.  Declarer should now turn his attention to Diamonds.  As North does not have the nine of Clubs it does not help him to ruff the third Diamond in front of the Dummy and so after ruffing the third Diamond in the Dummy, Declarer now repeats the Club finesse.  Even though the second Club finesse loses Declarer is still safe because North having no more Diamonds cannot cash the Defence’s Diamond winner and later on Declarer’s two remaining Diamonds disappear on the Queen of Spades and the King of Hearts.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the February 2017 duplicates

1       Don’t concede the contract with the opening lead !

Board 10 Thursday 9 February – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer East

I was astounded to see that all seven North South’s who played in 4 Spades were allowed to make the contract.  In three cases South was the Declarer and in four cases North was the Declarer.

South would be the Declarer after opening a strong no-trump and North transferring into Spades.  For South to make the contract West must have started with a low Heart which is a very poor lead from Kxxx into a strong no-trump.  He should start off with a Diamond as the safest lead (preferably the middle card MUD – middle up down).  In fact on any lead other than a Heart South must lose four tricks.

When North was the Declarer East must have made the opening lead of a Diamond.  While this is not such a bad lead as a Heart from West nevertheless the safest lead is for East to lead the suit in which he has a run of two honours, namely the Jack of Hearts.  After the Jack of Hearts from East then North must again lose four tricks.

Strangely enough the eighth pair managed to arrive in 3NT which cannot be beaten making nine tricks on any lead.

2       Don’t be a slave to showing your shape if it is not the most descriptive rebid available

Board 3 Thursday 16 February – Vulnerability East West – Dealer South

I was fascinated to note that nine pairs out of ten played in Hearts (six in partscore and three in game) and only one pair correctly played in Spades although they still failed to reach game.

The only explanation for this outcome is that having opened 1 Heart and received a 1 Spade response from East that all the Wests must have rebid 2 Diamonds.  While it is true that this shows the 5-4 shape it is not a very sensible choice for several reasons.  Firstly West’s Hearts are so weak that he does not particularly want to end up in a 5-2 Heart fit.  Secondly only five of West’s thirteen points are in his two suits.  Thirdly having A10 in each of the black suits it only needs Jxx in Clubs and 9xxx in Spades in the East hand for each suit to have a second stop for notrump purposes.  Therefore despite the 5-4 shape the sensible rebid for West is to rebid 1NT.  This makes East’s second bid easy as assuming that West has at least two Spades then 4 Spades is highly likely to make and even if West were to have made an off centre rebid with say the singleton Queen of Spades then the contract would still be playable.

Note that in the defence the Club suit is what is termed a “frozen suit”.  That is to say neither defender can lead the suit without surrendering a trick.  Therefore on a neutral Diamond lead Declarer can win, draw trumps and play Hearts at every opportunity to make an overtrick for +650.

3       Don’t invite game with points in the short suits

Board 5 Thursday 23 February – Vulnerability North South – Dealer North

South opens 1NT and North has to decide whether to take any action.  While he might be tempted to invite game due to holding eight points one should not push for borderline games at pairs and in any event it is not good for your points to be in your short suits.  If the majority of the eight points were in the long suits then it would be acceptable.

Six of the eight Norths wrongly invited game and four of the six Souths who received the invitation then went on to game.  On competent defence this contract has absolutely no chance of making.

Note that on the lead of the fourth highest Heart from West to the Queen winning in East’s hand that on the return of the 8 of Hearts that West must duck in order to keep communication with his partner.  West can tell from the return of the 8 of Hearts that South originally started with J109.

When South wins the second trick with Dummy’s King of Hearts he has quite a dilemma at pairs.  He can either run for home with four Diamonds, two Clubs and a Heart or he can play a Spade to the King hoping that the Ace of Spades is in the East hand thus making eight tricks.  However note that if he plays a Spade and the King loses to the Ace should West have been dealt this card then now South will not even make 1NT because he will lose four Heart tricks and three Spade tricks.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the March 2017 duplicates

1       The modern way to play 2C – 2D – 3NT

Board 23 Thursday 9 March – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

Until the introduction of the Kokish convention (which I have covered previously in September 2014 Tip No 2, January 2015 Tip No 1) the sequence 2♣-2♦-3NT showed 25 to 27 points.

However playing Kokish there no need to jump the bidding on such a hand.  Rather a jump to 3NT shows a running minor suit.  As only one pair out of eight ended up in 3NT on the above hand it would appear that the rest have not taken on board the advantages of Kokish.

Here although West has only 18 points with nine clear tricks it is not unreasonable to open 2 Clubs.  After a response of 2 Diamonds from East then West now jumps to 3NT to show a running minor suit in a semi-balanced hand ie 7-2-2-2 or 6-3-2-2.

There are nine tricks on top but after a Heart lead from North if West wins and cashes all his Diamond winners then the North hand is inexorably squeezed on the last Diamond winner and declarer can make an overtrick for +630.

2       Support Double by opener helps to get to sensible contract

Board 4 Monday 13 March – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

¹           Support double showing three card Spade support

²           Takeout suggesting six Diamonds and four Hearts

There were a whole variety of contracts on this deal.  However only one East West pair out of eight played in a sensible Club contract making 11 tricks for +150 and a 100% score.

The recommended auction is as shown above.

The key to the auction is West making a support double after the overcall of 2 Diamonds.  This shows three card support for responder’s major suit whereas if West raised Spades in competition it would promise four cards.  Thus East is not tempted to play in Spades with only a combined seven card fit and instead supports Clubs.  South now makes a takeout double of 3 Clubs suggesting 6-4 in the red suits and North goes back to 3 Diamonds.  East is happy to bid 4 Clubs with a singleton Diamond.  Game in Clubs is actually a reasonable bet needing only the Clubs to come in for no loser (52%) but is almost impossible to bid due to West having nothing wasted in Diamonds.

Support doubles were invented by Eric Rodwell (one half of the greatest American partnership of the last 30 years Meckstroth and Rodwell) in the early 1990’s.  Rodwell proposed the use of a double in competitive auctions to be able to distinguish between having 3 card support for responder’s major suit and 4 card support. This allows responder to be much better able to decide how high to bid in a competitive auction because he knows whether his side have a 7 card, 8 card or 9 card fit. There are 10 situations in which this support double could arise:-

In each of the above 10 cases if West has 4 card support for partner’s major suit he raises the suit immediately.  If West has only 3 card support for partner’s suit he doubles.

Refer also to September 2013 Tip No 3 for the use of a Support Redouble in a similar vein.

3       Unusual No-trump overcall points the way to game

Board 24 Monday 27 March – Vulnerability White – Dealer West

Only two pairs out of eight managed to reach the excellent 5 Diamond contract on the above hand and of these only one was with North the declarer.

After 1 Club from East the South hand is best described by a jump to 2NT showing 5-5 or 5-6 in the two lowest ranking unbid suits.  With the exception of the vulnerability being Green I would suggest that this shows a hand with not more than six losers.

West passes and although North only has six points he should jump to 4 Diamonds.  This is because he knows that the partnership possesses a 10 card fit in Diamonds and the Ace of Spades is sure to be invaluable.  South is happy to raise to game with two Aces and only five losers.

Note that when North is the Declarer if East makes a passive Spade lead then the contract should make an overtrick for +420.  This is because after the Ace of Spades wins the first trick Declarer then leads the 10 of Hearts.  If this wins then a second Heart to the King and Ace follows.  Now the Ace of Diamonds is cashed at trick four.  As West has four Hearts he has to follow helplessly when the remaining Heart winners are cashed and all North’s Clubs disappear on the Hearts.

The contract requires the Heart finesse plus a 2-1 trump split.  In view of the opening bid by the East hand the Heart finesse has at least a 70% likelihood of success.  Therefore the approximate probability of the contract making is 0.7 x 0.78 (2-1 trump split) = 55%.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the April 2017 duplicates

1       Good game on 24 points missed

Board 23 Thursday 13 April – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

Not a single one out of the nine East West pairs managed to reach 3NT by West on the above hand.

The East hand is too strong in playing strength to open 1NT as well as the shape being somewhat off centre.  After opening 1 Diamond and then receiving preference to Diamonds (which could show anything between 6 and 9 points) East should make a game try by bidding 3 Clubs.  Despite West having only seven points he should accept with such a strong Club holding and the Queen of Diamonds is sure to be extremely valuable.

Strangely enough this bidding sequence has actually “wrong-sided” the contract.  By this I mean that on a Heart lead from North if the Dummy plays low and South manages to diagnose to play the 10 then now North South will take five tricks.  If East is the Declarer the contract is unbeatable.

However the natural lead on the North hand is to lead Dummy’s second suit Spades as North’s holding in the fourth suit (Clubs) is not very attractive from which to lead.  On a Spade lead Declarer simply wins in the Dummy and immediately plays the Jack of Clubs to drive out the Ace.  Now North needs to switch to a low Heart to stop the overtrick.

2       Too strong to overcall

Board 5 Friday 28 April – Vulnerability North South – Dealer North

¹           Cannot sacrifice at Red as this will cost 500.

All the East West pairs failed to reach the excellent 4 Spade contract which requires only the Heart finesse to make.

After North opens 1 Club note that South should respond 1NT.  This shows 8 to 10 points with four Clubs.  If South has Club support with only 5 to 7 points he would respond 2 Clubs.

While West could overcall 2 Hearts he is too strong for this action with his powerful 6-4 shape in the majors and only four losers on the losing trick count.  Accordingly he starts off with a double.  When East bids Spades West goes straight to game since as little as the Queen of Hearts in the East hand is enough for game to be laydown.  If instead East were to bid Diamonds then the West hand is strong enough to bid 2 Hearts showing a minimum of 18 points with at least five Hearts.

Assuming South leads the Ace of Clubs and then switches to a Diamond, East  can win the second Diamond in the Dummy, draw two rounds of trumps ending in hand and play a Heart to the Jack and Ace for +420.

3       West accepts the second invitation

Board 18 Friday 28 April– Vulnerability North South – Dealer East

All the East West pairs failed to reach the excellent 6 Spade contract which is cold against Spades 2-1 (78 per cent).

East reverses at his second bid with 2 Diamonds showing a minimum of 17 points with at least five Clubs and four Diamonds.  West owns up to having at least five Spades by rebidding the suit.  East now makes a splinter bid of 4 Hearts showing a singleton or void in Hearts and agreeing Spades with a strong interest in slam.  At this stage West cannot co-operate as his King of Hearts is of dubious value and so he signs off in 4 Spades.  East now makes a second slam try of 5 Hearts confirming that his shortage in Hearts is actually a void.  Now West must accept the invitation since his Spades might have been as weak as J109xx rather than the actual Q109xxxx.

Note that if North were to lead his singleton Club that West should take the precaution of discarding his second Club by cashing the Ace and King of Diamonds before starting to draw trumps by playing a low Spade from the Dummy.  Now even if South had the singleton Ace of Spades and North started off with Jx then there would be no danger of running into a Club ruff because West could ruff the second Club with the Queen of Spades and draw the outstanding trump.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the May 2017 duplicates

1       Ruff & Discard is the correct defence !

Board 7 Wednesday 3 May – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

Several North South pairs were allowed to make 4 Hearts Doubled because East failed to recognize that the correct defence is to concede a ruff and discard at trick three.

Assuming the 9 of Diamonds lead East wins the first two rounds of Diamonds and then has to decide what to do.  Given that East has 16 points it is almost certain that South has 1=5=2=5 distribution rather than 2=5=2=4 because it would be somewhat dubious to accept the invitation to game if South only held ♠xx♥A9xxx♦Qx♣AKJx.  By playing a third round of Diamonds the presence of the 8 of Hearts makes it 100% certain that East will win two Heart tricks.  If Declarer ruffs in the Dummy then after two rounds of Hearts have been played (East splitting his honours on the second round) East will remain with ♥Q8 and South with ♥9xx, thus guaranteeing two Heart tricks for East.  Alternatively if Declarer ruffs in Hand then after two rounds of Hearts the Dummy will have ♥10, East ♥Q8 and South ♥9x.  Now if South plays a third round of Hearts then East will continue with Diamonds and the contract will go two down.  Note that even if South has aggressively bid to game on the example above of ♠xx♥A9xxx♦Qx♣AKJx then giving a ruff and discard will also guarantee two trump tricks even though the Spade loser now disappears from the South hand.

2       Game on 21 points

Board 1 Wednesday 17 May– Vulnerability White – Dealer North

Only one pair out of six managed to reach the excellent 4 Heart contract.  In fact none of the other pairs even managed to play in Hearts ! ! !

When North doubles the overcall of 2 Clubs it is a good idea for East to redouble.  This is best played as showing a tolerance for Clubs typically Honour x but may be two small since to overcall at the two level in a minor suit almost certainly guarantees a six card suit.  West now bids 2 Hearts.  Even though East has only seven points he is delighted to raise the Hearts because all of his points are working.  West with his five loser hand goes to game.

On the lead of Ace and another Diamond, Declarer ruffs and then plays Ace of Hearts and a Heart to the Jack expecting the Hearts to be 4-1 after the negative double of the 2 Club overcall.  It is important not to continue with a third round of Hearts at this point as otherwise Declarer will eventually run out of trumps later in the play.  Declarer continues at trick five by playing Clubs.  North ruffs the third round of Clubs at trick seven with the 10 of Hearts overtrumped with the King of Hearts in the Dummy.  This leaves:-

Now a Spade from the Dummy at trick eight ensures that the Defence can only take two more tricks.  (If South rises with the Ace of Spades to continue with Diamonds, Declarer simply ruffs with his last trump and continues with Clubs).

3       Looking for an alternative to 6NT

Board 4 Tuesday 30 May– Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

Many years ago Boris Schapiro writing in the Sunday Times Bridge Column recommended that after the auction starts 1NT – 4NT or 2NT – 4NT that the opener if he is non-minimum but with two four card suits should bid his lowest four card suit with a view to reaching slam in a suit contract rather than in notrumps.

The above hand is an excellent example of why this is a good idea.  If the contract is 6NT then this either needs a 3-3 Club break or for East to have Jx or 10x in Clubs and for Declarer to finesse on the third round.  However a contract of 6 Diamonds is excellent and almost certain to make as long as the Diamonds are not five nil (4%).  Thus after the 4NT quantitative raise from South, North bids 5 Clubs showing at least four cards in Clubs, South bids 5 Diamonds and North raises to 6 Diamonds.

Should no 4-4 trump fit come to light then the partnership can sign off in 5NT.  In other words if North’s second suit were in Hearts then the bidding would continue 5 Clubs – 5 Diamonds – 5 Hearts – 5NT – Pass.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the June 2017 duplicates

1       How to play the trump suit for the overtrick

Board 4 Wednesday 14 June – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

¹              Although minimum in points any hand with a 5-4-3-1 distribution should almost always accept a game invitation.

Every North who declared this hand on the lead of the 9 of Hearts played it on autopilot without stopping to think about the distribution of the East hand.  Ten tricks are certain but in order to make an overtrick it is necessary to diagnose which of the two defenders is more likely to have been dealt the singleton Ace of Spades.  Clearly the lead of the 9 of Hearts is either a singleton or doubleton.  If East had been dealt a singleton Ace of Spades then this would mean that he would have started with 10 or 11 cards in the minor suits and would presumably have made some noise in the bidding.  Therefore the only defender who might have started off with the singleton Ace of trumps is West.  Accordingly after winning the first round of Hearts, Declarer should then cross to Dummy by playing a low Diamond to the Ace.  Now a low Spade from the Dummy at trick three sees the Ace appear and when East still has to follow suit to the second round of Hearts then an overtrick is made for +650.

2       Which suit to return at trick four ?

Board 20 Wednesday 14 June – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

The above is the agricultural sequence.  Alternatively South might bid 2NT as an enquiry and then follow with a forcing 3 Hearts over 3 Diamonds.

Let us assume that the contract is 3NT and West leads a fourth highest Spade to the Jack and King.  Declarer then leads the Queen of Diamonds which wins the trick as East follows low smoothly.  Now Declarer plays a second Diamond to the Jack and King.  How does East decide whether to return his partner’s suit Spades or switch to another suit (Clubs clearly being more promising than Hearts in view of the shortage in the Dummy).

The answer lies in having agreed with your partner that you are playing Smith Peters.  A Smith Peter can be defined as follows:  “Against no trumps, a defenders first spot card, unless it is essential to give the count should indicate attitude to the opening leader’s suit”.  By petering in the first side suit played by Declarer West is conveying the message to East that he wants Spades continuing.  If West fails to peter then he wants a switch to another suit.  Here in following suit in Diamonds West plays the 3 followed by the 5 to say to partner “Do not return my suit, I want you to switch”.   Having interpreted the message conveyed by the absence of a Smith Peter then East knows not to return a Spade.  Accordingly he simply has to decide which Club to switch to.  Whenever South started with either A10x or K10x it is essential to switch to the Queen of Clubs.  With the Dummy now dead East later wins a Heart trick and continues Clubs defeating the contract by two tricks (four Club tricks, one Diamond trick and one Heart trick).

Note that South made a crucial error on the hand.  When the Queen of
Diamonds won the second trick then South should have switched to Hearts guaranteeing nine tricks via four Heart tricks, two Diamond tricks, two Spade tricks and one Club trick.

3       Successfully avoiding 3NT

Board 6 Wednesday 21 June – Vulnerability East West – Dealer East

On the above hand the secret is to avoid playing in 3NT which has no play provided that South is not careless enough to discard a Diamond on the fifth round of Clubs which happened at one table.

Playing 5 card majors West has little alternative but to bid 1NT after the 1 Heart overcall even though one would prefer to have a double Heart stop for such action.  East reverses into Spades and West’s 3 Club bid is game forcing having shown 8 to 10 points with his 1NT bid.  East now bids out his shape by bidding 3 Diamonds to suggest a 4=1=3=5 distribution.  With only one Heart stop West now judges well to take out 3NT back into Clubs and the best game is reached.

One pair reached 5 Clubs and easily made 11 tricks.  However at another table after the above auction East made an indisciplined raise to 6 Clubs.  This was because he assumed wrongly that making 11 tricks in a minor suit would score badly.  It is true that if 3NT is making 10 tricks then 11 tricks in a minor suit would score badly.  However East should have considered the significant possibility that 3NT would not make 9 tricks if West had only one stopper in Hearts.  Thus he was wrong to raise to slam.  However the East in question justified his optimism with first class card play.  At first glance it appears that 6 Clubs has no chance of making (unless the Queen & Jack of Diamonds are doubleton or South holds a singleton Quack (a quack is the recognized term for a Queen or Jack).  However by reversing the Dummy East was able to create an end position where North was squeezed at trick ten.

The play went as follows:-  The King of Hearts was won with the Ace and a Heart immediately ruffed.  Then East exited with the King of Spades which South won with the Ace and played back the 10 of Spades at trick four.  Declarer now played Ace of Clubs and the 10 of Clubs to the Queen drawing the trumps.  At trick seven the third round of Hearts was ruffed with the King of Clubs.  At trick eight the Queen of Spades was cashed.  Now a low Club was played to the 8 at trick nine leaving the following ending:-

At trick ten the play of the last Club from the Dummy inexorably squeezed the North hand who had to choose between discarding the winning 9 of Spades or discarding a Diamond which would allow Declarer to make the last trick with the 9 of Diamonds.  The beauty of reversing the Dummy is that this allowed Declarer to make six trump tricks without having to ruff a Spade in the Dummy.  Then because North had started with four Diamonds and at least four Spades he had too much to look after when the last Club was played from the Dummy.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the July 2017 duplicates

1       Slam try after sign-off accepted

Board 1 Tuesday 11 July – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

After transferring into Spades East then signs off in 3NT.  At this point West knows that he is going to play in Spades but rather than lazily bidding 4 Spades it costs him nothing to cue-bid 4 Clubs.  This conveys the message “I have three good Spades and a control in Clubs, there might be a slam on if you are maximum for your sign-off”.  East now cue-bids the King of Hearts.  West bids keycard just in case East has only ♠98xxx♥KQx♦xx♣KQx and the excellent slam is reached.  The 4-1 Spade break means that there is a Spade loser.  However an opening Heart lead would end any worries about where the Queen of Hearts is.  On a Club lead to the Queen, King and Ace, declarer would also have the option of the ruffing finesse in Clubs to generate the 12^th trick.

2       Smith Peters solves the problem !

Board 4 Thursday 20 July – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

¹           Not recommended to use Stayman on a 4-3-3-3 shape.

Every single North who declared 3NT on a Club lead was allowed to make the contract.  This can only have been because East West were not playing Smith Peters (see Tip No 2 June 2017).

As we saw last month a Smith Peter can be defined as follows:  “Against no trumps, a defenders first spot card, unless it is essential to give the count should indicate attitude to the opening leader’s suit”.  By petering in the first side suit played by Declarer East is able to convey a message to West as to whether he wants Clubs continuing.  If East fails to peter then he wants a switch to another suit. 

North wins the first Club trick with the King of Clubs and plays the Queen of Hearts at trick two.  East plays the three of Hearts his lowest card to indicate to West that he has no interest in his original Club suit being returned.  If on the other hand East had started off with A9xxx in Clubs he would want Clubs continuing and would therefore play the nine of Hearts his highest card to request a continuation of Clubs.  West thus switches to his fourth highest Diamond.  East wins the Ace of Diamonds at trick three and continues with the 9 of Diamonds.  North can then cash all his Heart and Club winners ending in hand but is forced to take the Spade finesse at trick ten.  When this loses West can cash two more Diamond tricks to defeat the contract by one trick (West will probably have discarded one Diamond on the last rounded winner in order to not bare the King of Spades).

3       Scientific sequence to slam

Board 15 Monday 24 July – Vulnerability North South – Dealer South

¹           Showing slam interest with an undisclosed singleton

²           Where is your singleton?

³           In Clubs

Only three pairs out of twelve managed to reach the excellent 6 Heart contract on the above hand.  It makes when the Hearts are 2-2 or singleton Queen (Total 52.5%).  When the Hearts are not favourable it also makes when the Spades are 3-3 allowing the Diamond loser to be discarded from the South hand.  Thus we add 36% x 47.5% = 17%.  Total probability of making the contract the contract is thus approximately 69.5%.  (There would also be the very small probability of the Queen and Jack of Clubs dropping in three rounds allowing a second Diamond to be discarded from the North hand after ruffing a Club.)

The recommended bidding sequence to reach slam is as above.  After using Stayman and receiving a positive response a bid at the 3 level in the other major is best played as showing slam interest with an undisclosed singleton.  South enquires where the singleton is by bidding the next step ie 3NT over 3 Spades when Hearts is the agreed suit or 3 Spades over 3 Hearts when Spades is the agreed suit.  North shows a singleton Club.  However South is worried about there possibly being two losers in Diamonds so he cue-bids the Ace of Spades.  North having control of Diamonds then bids RKCB and hears 3 keycards opposite.  He does not enquire about the Queen of trumps with a view to a Grand Slam because he knows that South does not have the King of Diamonds.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the August 2017 duplicates

1       Opening lead critical

Board 8 Monday 7 August – Vulnerability White – Dealer West

Several North South pairs allowed 4 Spades doubled to make on the above hand when South made a poor opening lead.

South initially made a negative double after East’s 1 Spade overcall and then doubled 4 Spades for penalty having two Aces and eleven points.   Those South’s who made the opening lead of a Diamond were soon to regret it.  Declarer wins the Diamond with the King and continues with Ace of Diamonds and a Diamond ruff at trick three.  He then plays the 8 of Hearts from Dummy, low from North, low from East, won by the Queen with South.  Belatedly South switches to a Spade at trick five won with the King in the Dummy.  Now a second Heart is played from the Dummy.  North has to rise with the King in order to play a second round of trumps.  However Declarer wins in hand and draws the last trump at trick eight.  At trick nine East now applies the Coup de Grace by playing the Jack of Hearts, pinning North’s 10 and promoting the 9 of Hearts as the 10^th trick.

While it is not generally recommended to lead a singleton trump here the indications were that it was the correct lead on this occasion.  North South clearly had the balance of the high card strength while East must surely have a six card Spade suit and a very shapely hand to go straight to game after the single raise from West.  Therefore the only way in which East West were likely to have a chance of making 4 Spades doubled would be if Declarer were able to score two ruffs in the Dummy.  Note the difference which an initial trump lead makes.  This has to be won in the Dummy and Ace of Diamonds, King of Diamonds and Diamond ruff follows.  Now when a Heart is played from the Dummy at trick five North can rise with the King in order to play a second round of trumps.  The difference now is that the remaining Hearts are 10x in the North hand, J96 in the East hand and AQ5 in the South hand.  Declarer has to make the second lead of Hearts from his own hand and thus the 10 of Hearts is certain to make a trick so Declarer loses four tricks for +100 to North South.

2       Superior Grand Slam

Board 21 Tuesday 8 August – Vulnerability North South – Dealer North

¹           Cue-bid agreeing Clubs

When North opens 2NT South knows that the partnership is heading for a minimum of a small slam as he holds 14 points and the partnership therefore possess a minimum of 34 points.  However in order to give the partnership a chance of reaching a Grand Slam he should start off by bidding 3 Clubs, Stayman.  North denies a major suit and now  South rebids 4 Clubs showing a slam try in Clubs with at least a five card suit.  If North did not like Clubs he would sign off in 4NT.  Thus when North bids 4 Diamonds this is a cue-bid agreeing Clubs as trumps.  South return cue-bids in Hearts.  Now North wheels out Roman Key Card and on hearing that all the keycards are present bids 5NT asking if South has any extras.  Holding the King of Diamonds and 14 points South is happy to bid 6 Diamonds and this is sufficient for North to gamble on the Grand Slam in Clubs.

7 Clubs is a significantly better contract than 7NT.  This is because let us assume that the defence lead either a Heart or a Club (since a Diamond or Spade lead would immediately concede the thirteenth trick).  On say a Club lead, trumps are drawn in three rounds followed by the unblocking of the Ace of Hearts.  Now the King and Ace of Diamonds are cashed at tricks five and six followed by cashing the King of Hearts at trick seven on which the third Diamond is discarded from the South hand.  Now the third round of Diamonds is ruffed at trick eight.  When the Queen appears we now have the thirteenth trick.  Only if the Queen has yet to make an appearance would we have to rely on the Jack of Spades dropping.

3       Fourteen top tricks

Board 15 Monday 28 August – Vulnerability North South – Dealer South

Only one pair out of twelve managed to reach 7 Clubs on the above hand and not a single pair managed to reach 7 Notrumps despite there being 14 top tricks (16 given that the Spades are 3-3).

The best way for East to start to describe his hand after West opens a 15-17 Notrump is to transfer into Clubs.  Over the 2 Spade bid West has a choice between bidding 2NT and 3 Clubs.  In previous issues I have recommended that by opener bidding the minor directly this promises a fit for the minor which is defined as Qxx or better.  If West did not like Clubs he would bid 2NT.

East should then bid 3 Hearts which as previously explained in Tip No3 September 2015 shows a singleton in that major.  West might then bid RKCB but it is better for West to cue-bid 3 Spades.  The reason for this is that by waiting for East to bid Roman Key Card West is able to show where 14 of his points lie.  Thus in responding 5 Diamonds to show 3 keycards, East knows that all the keycards are present plus the King of Spades shown on the previous round of bidding.  Thus there are a minimum of 13 tricks (6 Club tricks, three Diamond tricks, three Spade tricks and one Heart trick).

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the September 2017 duplicates

1       No one reaches par !

Board 3 Thursday 14 September – Vulnerability East West – Dealer South

There were an astonishing NINE different contracts at the eleven tables on this board but not one of them reached what I consider to be the par contract of 5 Hearts plus one for East West.

After two passes North is most likely to open a weak 2 Spades.  While he is too strong for such an action at Green if first or second in hand it is perfectly in order to have 10 points for a third in hand weak two because you know there is no chance of game for North South after partner has passed but equally with very little defence outside Spades a weak two best describes the hand.

East is now able to use a convention called LEAPING MICHAELS.  By jumping to four of a minor over a weak two in a major you are showing at least 5-5 distribution in the other major and the minor suit in which you have jumped.  South takes advantage of the vulnerability to bid 4 Spades knowing that he can afford to go three down doubled for -500.  West should pass because he is too flat to bid 5 Hearts voluntarily.  When 4 Spades comes back to East he should double to show a very strong Leaping Michaels hand.  At teams West should probably take the money from 4 Spades doubled which is 500 but at pairs he expects to make 5 Hearts on the majority of occasions holding four trumps to an honour plus the high Club honour so he should bid 5 Hearts.

5 Hearts makes if either the trumps come in (52%) or the Diamond finesse works (50% of the remaining 48%) – total probability of success 76%.  On this occasion both are favourable and +680 results.

One other point to note is that if East West do choose to defend 4 Spades doubled they need to defend accurately to take +500 rather than +300.  East will make the opening lead of the King of Hearts (King for COUNT).  West plays the 8 (second highest from four cards).  Now East continues with the Ace of Hearts.  The Heart that West plays on the second round will determine which suit East switches to at trick three.  If West held the King of Diamonds he would play the Jack of Hearts on the second round asking partner to switch to the higher ranking suit (ie Diamonds rather than Clubs).  On this occasion West will play the 2 of Hearts on the second round which categorically denies a top Diamond honour and accordingly East will switch to the Queen of Clubs ensuring that the Defence take the maximum penalty available of 500.

2       Game universally missed

Board 27 Monday 25 September – Vulnerability White – Dealer South

All of the eight East West pairs who played this hand failed to reach the laydown game in Diamonds.

South has a routine 2 Heart opener.  West has to pass because he is too weak to take any action at the three level.  North should raise to 3 Hearts because he knows that East West must have at least a ten trick contract available in one of the minor suits (or possibly even 3NT).  As neither side is vulnerable it is fairly safe for East to make a takeout double of 3 Hearts.

The spotlight now turns to West.  Having passed with 11 points and 5-5 in the minor suits it is a near certainty that East West can make game in a minor.   Accordingly he should jump to 4NT to convey the message “please pick game in either minor suit”.  East duly obliges.  In fact this hand is one of the rare breed called a 5 or 7 hand.  That is because on a Heart lead against 5 Diamonds just 11 tricks will be made if the Club finesse fails but all 13 tricks will be made if the Club finesse succeeds as the Heart loser will disappear on the long Clubs.

3       Two different auctions to game

Board 17 Thursday 28 September – Vulnerability White – Dealer North

How should East West get to game on the above hand after:-

A)        South opens 1 Spade after two passes?

B)        South opens 2 Spades after two passes?

In case A West should overcall 2 Diamonds generally showing a six card suit and 10 to 16 points.  North will double to show Hearts and East should raise to 3 Diamonds.  South passes and now West should bid 3NT.  West knows that the Diamonds are almost certain to run for 7 tricks since even if East’s Diamonds are three small the probability of the missing 3 Diamonds breaking 2-1 is 78%.  While it might appear that it is dangerous for West to bid 3NT with no stop in Hearts on further examination of the bidding this is not so.  This is because North is unlikely to have more than five cards in Hearts as he did not open a weak two and equally South can hardly have more than three cards in Hearts as he would otherwise have bid 3 Hearts over 3 Diamonds following North’s negative double of the 2 Diamond overcall.  Accordingly East must have a minimum of four cards in Hearts which is highly likely to include at least one honour.  Therefore West can bid 3NT with every confidence that at least nine tricks will be forthcoming via seven Diamond tricks and two Spade tricks.

In case B West should jump to 3NT over a 2 Spade opener.  This may at first sight seem wild with only fourteen points.  However as North has already passed as dealer it is probable that East has in the region of 7 to 10 points given that South has implied a maximum of 10 points for his weak two.  Note that on this occasion it is perfectly OK for South open 2 Spades at White opposite a passed hand despite having eleven points as he knows that there is very unlikely to be a game on for North South.  If over a weak 2 Spades West chose to just bid 3 Diamonds it would be extremely difficult for East to take any action with just seven points and game in Diamonds looking a very tall order.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the October 2017 duplicates

1       Remarkable trump promotion

Board 5 Tuesday 3 October – Vulnerability North South – Dealer North

This hand caught my eye when I realized that it is possible for East West to make a third trump trick with the eight of Hearts following a remarkable trump promotion.

In the bidding North is not quite strong enough to bid 2NT over South’s rebid of 2 Diamonds especially in view of his poor intermediates and so contents himself with simply giving a preference to Hearts.

West is not keen to lead the unbid suit Clubs as it is headed by the Ace and so instead leads the top of his doubleton Spade.  East wins with the King and returns a Spade won in the South hand with the Queen.  South now starts to draw trumps (he does not need to ruff a Diamond because after trumps have been drawn the losing Diamond will be discarded on a Spade winner in the Dummy).  Say South leads the Queen of Hearts at trick three.  West wins with the King and continues with Ace and another Club at tricks four and five.  East wins the second round of Clubs with the King and plays a third round of Spades.  South ruffs with the nine and following general principles in these instances West discards a minor suit because he sees the possibility of the eight of Hearts becoming significant.  At trick seven South continues with the Jack of Hearts.   West wins with the Ace and now applies the coup de grace by playing a third round of Clubs.  East ruffs with the vital 7 of Hearts which South overruffs with the ten but abracadabra the eight of Hearts is now a master !   Result one down for plus 100 to East West.

2       Trump suit bid for the first time at the six level !

St Titus League Match

Board 4 Wednesday 4 October – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

¹           Sets Clubs as trumps

The above hand had a textbook bidding sequence to 6 Clubs by Byrne/Newman as East West in a recent league match.

As previously explained in Tip No 2 October 2014 a jump to 3 Diamonds over 1NT should be played as showing at least 5-5 in the minors game forcing with possible interest in slam.  Over 3 Diamonds if opener is very strong in the majors and has no interest in playing in a minor suit then he bids 3NT.  If opener wishes to set Clubs as trumps he bids 3 Hearts while if opener wishes to set Diamonds as trumps he bids 3 Spades.  The beauty of this is that responder knows which trump suit has been agreed.

After agreeing Clubs by rebidding 3 Hearts East then cue-bid in Spades and West cue-bid in Diamonds.  Finally when East bid cue-bid 4 Hearts (doubled by South) West knew that there was no danger of there being two losers in Hearts and so was able to bid RKCB for Clubs reaching the excellent slam with just a combined 25 points.  North opened with a Heart lead but there were no problems in the play and a score of 1370 to East West resulted.  (Note that in the play of the trump suit it is important to start off with the Ace in case North started with J10xx which would arise 5 times in 100).  The amusing thing about the auction was that the final bid was the first time that the trump suit had actually been bid!

3       Par not achieved at any table

Board 2 Wednesday 25 October – Vulnerability North South – Dealer East

At the six tables where this board was played not a single one ended in what I consider the par contract of 5 Hearts doubled minus one for 100 to North South.

At the favourable vulnerability West has an ideal hand for an overcall of 2NT showing at least 5-5 distribution in Hearts and Clubs.  North should pass as he only has four points and three of these are in a suit held by West.  East should now jump to 4 Hearts because in addition to being not vulnerable he knows that his side possess a nine card fit in both Hearts and Clubs.  South makes a take out double of 4 Hearts and North is delighted to bid 4 Spades because South should have a minimum of three Spades in addition to a strong hand to make such a bid.  The spotlight now returns to East.  It is extremely unlikely that 4 Spades will not make but what is absolutely certain is that the penalty for going down in 5 Hearts doubled cannot possibly be greater than the value of the opposition making 620 or 650 in 4 Spades.

South now makes a forcing pass over 5 Hearts and North should unquestionably double 5 Hearts.  Although it is possible to make 5 Spades seeing all four hands the correct bid is definitely double because holding the King of Hearts opposite a singleton in the South hand does not make it attractive to bid on.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the November 2017 duplicates

1       Too strong for strong no trump

Board 26 Monday 27 November – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer East

Only two out of eight pairs managed to reach 3NT on the above hand.  I would guess that this may have been because some Souths may have opened a 15-17 No trump and if West intervened to show the majors by overcalling 2 Clubs then North South on several occasions languished in a part score in Diamonds.  The South hand with 17 points, three Aces and a five card suit is too strong for 1NT.  Accordingly South should open 1 Club.  West will overcall 1 Spade and North should bid 1NT.  Note that after an overcall 1NT by North is not a dustbin bid but is a constructive bid showing 8 to 10 points (perhaps a good 7 ½) and at least one Spade stop.  South then has a comfortable raise to game and even if East finds the best lead of the Jack of Hearts North should have no trouble in making nine tricks after losing one Diamond trick.  (Although seeing all four hands the Diamond suit can be picked up without loss Declarer has no reason to play for East having started with K10x and so in practice will lose a Diamond trick, making four Diamonds, two Clubs, two Hearts and one Spade for +600.)

2       Slam on 24 points

Board 11 Wednesday 29 November – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

Only one pair out of six managed to reach the laydown 6 Diamonds.

After the 2 Spade overcall South is strong enough to bid 3 Clubs which should be played as Game forcing.  North emphasises his Diamonds showing a minimum of six cards.  Now South has a choice.  While he might be tempted to rebid his Hearts to show six it is much more sensible for him to jump to 4 Spades as a splinter bid agreeing Diamonds since Qx is excellent support opposite a minimum of six cards in the North hand.  Now North has an easy RKCB bid and on hearing either a response of 5 Hearts or 5 Spades can bid the slam with confidence.

3       Slam universally missed

Board 14 Wednesday 29 November – Vulnerability White – Dealer East

None of the six tables managed to reach the excellent 6 Spade contract.  I suspect that this may have been because East rebid his Hearts over North’s 3 Club bid.  Having opened on just 10 HCPs East is best advised to pass the 3 Club bid since West will bid again if strong enough.  When West bids 3 Diamonds at his second bid then again East should not rebid his Hearts because holding J9 of Spades having not supported Spades on the previous round is excellent support.  The point to appreciate is that if for instance West’s distribution had been say 5=2=5=1 or 6=2=4=1 then he would probably have reopened the bidding with a double rather than showing his second suit so he is less likely to have two cards in Hearts.

Over 3 Spades West cue-bids 4 Clubs and East should cuebid 4 Hearts which should definitely show the Ace opposite known shortage.  Now West can bid the slam with confidence because the Diamond finesse is a heavy favourite to work on the bidding after South’s overcall in Clubs.  On the Jack of Clubs lead Declarer should ruff and then play a Heart to the Ace.  He then finesses the Jack of Diamonds, cashes the Ace of Diamonds and ruffs a Diamond.  When the King drops 12 tricks are assured and now trumps are drawn making all 13 tricks when the Queen of trumps falls.  Even if the King of Diamonds had not appeared on the third round then Declarer could have ruffed another Club before trumping the fourth round of Diamonds in the Dummy again making the contract.

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the December 2017 duplicates

1       Textbook rectification of the count

Board 24 Thursday 14 December – Vulnerability White – Dealer West