TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the July duplicates

1       Classic Morton’s Fork

Board 5 Thursday 18 July – Vulnerability North South - Dealer North

North opens 1 Club and although East has only 7 points he should overcall 1 Spade not vulnerable.  It is always important to get into the auction at the one level whenever possible especially when not vulnerable.  South might venture 2 Clubs as he is not strong enough to bid 1NT which should show 8 to 10 points with a good Spade stop after an overcall.  West should bid 3 Clubs to show a good raise of Spades.  East has no interest in game and so signs off in 3 Spades.  The best lead for the Defence is a doubleton Heart from South to the Jack and King.  Counting his losers East should be aware that if the trumps split 3-1 (the most likely scenario as a 3-1 break is more likely than a 2-2 break) that there is a danger of losing two Spade tricks, one Heart trick, one Diamond trick and one Club trick.  East should start off by playing a low Diamond to the Jack which wins followed by a Spade to the King and Ace.  At trick four East continues with a second Diamond.

Here South is placed in the classic Morton’s Fork dilemma.  If he takes his Ace of Diamonds then there are now two Diamond winners in the Dummy which will park Declarer’s Heart loser resulting in +140 while if he ducks the Ace a second time Declarer also makes +140 as Declarer now loses a Heart trick instead of the Ace of Diamonds.

The term Morton’s Fork is derived from Cardinal Morton, King Henry VII’s Lord Chancellor, because of his method of extracting taxes.  If a merchant lived ostentatiously Morton averred that it was obvious that he could afford to pay for his King’s upkeep.  Alternatively, if the merchant lived frugally, he argued that he must have saved enough and similarly could afford to contribute to His Majesty’s Treasury.  Either way he was impaled upon “Morton’s Fork”.

2       North’s silence is deafening

Board 12 Tuesday 23 July – Vulnerability North South – Dealer West

East opens 1 Spade third in hand.  West has a choice of responding 1NT or 2NT.  The recommended bid is 1NT because it is better to play 2NT even by a passed hand as a good raise of partner’s major suit.  The other thing to consider is that third in hand at Green is the most common time for East to open on sub-minimum values.  Note that it would be completely wrong for West to respond 2 of a minor because this GUARANTEES A FIVE CARD SUIT IF ALREADY A PASSED HAND.  East rebids 2 Hearts to show his 5-4 shape.  West now has a choice between 2 Spades and 2NT.  While at teams he might bid 2NT with his maximum 11 count at pairs it is probably wiser to just give simple preference to Spades.

South’s opening lead is the 2 of Clubs.  Dummy plays low and North wins with the Queen.  A low Heart to the King and a second Heart to the Ace follow at tricks two and three.  At trick four North continues with a third round of Hearts.

Already after four tricks an alert Declarer can be 95% certain that South has both the Queen of Spades and the Queen of Diamonds !  Why is this.  Well North has already shown up with the Ace of Hearts and the Queen of Clubs and he also has by inference the Ace of Clubs since it is poor defence to underlead Aces at trick one against suit contracts.  Therefore 10 of North’s points are accounted for and yet he did not open the bidding.  If he had either of the pointed Queens he would have done so.  Therefore at trick five declarer confidently runs the Jack of Spades which wins as expected.  A second Spade to the Ace follows at trick six and then a Club is trumped at trick seven.  The outstanding trumps are now drawn at trick eight followed by the thirteenth Heart at trick nine.  At trick ten Declarer now turns his attention to Diamonds.  Knowing that South has the Queen of Diamonds he takes a BACKWARD FINESSE by running the Jack of Diamonds.  If South covers with the Queen then now Declarer plays a low Diamond to the 8 finessing against the 10 in North’s hand.  Result 10 tricks for +170.

3       In a competitive auction a 1NT bid by Advancer is a constructive bid and not the “dustbin” response

Board 8 Tuesday 30 July – Vulnerability White – Dealer West

East opens 1 Diamond in third seat and South overcalls 1 Heart.  West bids 1 Spade (showing five cards as Double would show four Spades).  Some North’s were tempted to bid 1NT but this is wrong.  Why is this?  South has only overcalled and not opened the bidding.  He might have as few as seven or eight points.  Therefore if North were to bid 1NT this would be a constructive bid showing in the region of 8 to 11 points.  The maximum for an overcall is generally about 17 points so there is no danger of missing game if North passes, especially as West’s 1 Spade bid allows South a second bite at the cherry if he is maximum.

For those North’s who wrongly bid 1NT then South could hardly bid less than jump to 3 Hearts to invite game.  This contract was certain to go down with the obvious five losers regardless of whether West made the opening lead in Spades or Diamonds.  Thus the 1NT bid by Advancer caused North South to go minus quite unnecessarily.

A bid of 1NT is only called the “dustbin” bid in circumstances where your partner has opened one of a major and you feel obliged to respond on 6 points as opener might have up to 20 points.  Eg respond 1NT to 1 Spade on ♠x ♥Kxxx ♦Qxxx ♣Jxxx so that you can still reach for instance 4 Hearts when opener has ♠AKJ10x ♥AQxx ♦J10x ♣A.