TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the September 2014 duplicates

1       Slam on 24 points

Board 2 Wednesday 3 September – Vulnerability North South – Dealer East

Only one pair bid to the almost certain 6 Diamond contract with only 24 points in the combined hands.  Note that even if West had started with Kx in Diamonds that on a passive Club lead Declarer could generate a third Heart trick thanks to the 10 of Hearts in the Dummy to discard the Club loser.

When South rebids 3 Diamonds showing at least six cards in Diamonds and a non-minimum hand North should realise that holding three Aces and three trumps that there is a possibility of a slam.  He starts the ball rolling by bidding the opposition suit to get more information from South.  South bids 3NT showing a stop in Hearts.  North now confirms that he is interested in a Diamond slam by supporting Diamonds.  Although South only has 11 points he should be delighted to co-operate given that he has an eight card Diamond suit.  South’s 4 Heart cue-bid is clearly showing the King (since North has the Ace) which is all the information which North needs to justify jumping to slam. 

If the Defence start off with the best lead of a Club then the Ace of Clubs wins the first trick.  Trumps are drawn and rather than trying for the overtrick by taking a Heart finesse through the overcaller (which you would have to do if there were a trump loser) Declarer should seek to develop the Spades.  The Ace of Spades is played at trick three followed by a Spade ruff (but not with the 2 of Diamonds).  The Queen drops from West on the second round.  The six or seven of Diamonds is now played to Dummy’s eight of Diamonds.  At trick six the Jack of Spades is covered with the King and ruffed but again not with the 2 of Diamonds.  At trick seven the carefully preserved 2 of Diamonds is played to the 5 in the Dummy and the eight of Spades is played from the Dummy.  There is now a ruffing finesse against East’s 10 of Spades.  Assuming East covers with the 10 then this is ruffed and finally the Dummy is entered with the Ace of Hearts and the winning seven of Spades is played on which the losing Club is discarded for the overtrick.  Score 1390 to North South.

2       Introduction to the Kokish Relay after a 2♣ Opener

When players are first taught how to bid very strong balanced hands after a 2 Club opening bid they are taught that:-

2♣ – 2♦ – 2NT shows 23 or 24 balanced and

2♣ – 2♦ – 3NT shows 25 to 27 balanced

The problem with the latter bid is that to jump to 3NT showing 25 to 27 points makes life very difficult for responder if he has an unbalanced hand as he has to start to describe his hand at the four level.

It is for this reason that for well over 10 years many good players have added the 2 Heart Kokish relay to their bidding toolbox.

Board 20 Tuesday 9 September – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

¹ and ²              Kokish relay

³                       RKCB for Clubs and Spades

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.

What does opener do with an actual Heart suit?  The answer is that he bids something other than 2NT !  If he repeats his Hearts it shows 6+ Hearts.  If he bids a new suit, it shows that suit and Hearts.  So for example, 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ - 2♠ - 3♣ shows 5+ Hearts and 4+ Clubs.  It cancels the message of the Kokish relay.  In other words if opener bids anything other than 2NT it is natural and the 2 Heart bid becomes natural.

Using this method 2♣ - 2♦ - 3NT would show a running minor something like:-

♠Ax  ♥Ax ♦AKQJxxx ♣Kx

So on Board 20 above West with his 25 point rock crusher rebids 2 Hearts after the 2 Diamond waiting bid.  This forces responder to bid 2 Spades after which opener can clarify whether he has a balanced rock crusher or a single suiter with Hearts or a two suiter with Hearts and another suit.  When West rebids 2NT this shows 25 plus points and is completely game forcing.  East now transfers into Spades and over the 3 Spade completion of the transfer he bids 4 Clubs.  This is a second suit showing at least five cards in Spades and four cards in Clubs.

When responder bids 4 Clubs West wants to bid RKCB.  As explained in Tip 1 June 2014  “When after a 2NT opener responder transfers into a major and then bids a second suit at the four level the lowest off suit by opener is RKCB for BOTH of responder’s suits”.  (This is because if opener bids 4NT over 4 Clubs this would of course be a sign off denying either three cards in Spades or four cards in Clubs.)

Responder shows one Keycard in the black suits and now West with his monster nine controls and the Queen of Clubs can make a practical jump to the Grand Slam in Clubs.  If responder has only four cards in Clubs he will surely have the Queen of Spades to make a slam try while if he has five Clubs you can practically count 13 tricks. 

3       Minor Suit Transfer with only five cards

Board 14 Monday 29 September – Vulnerability White – Dealer East

Not a single pair managed to bid beyond game on the above hand from the Monday Duplicate.  In fact a Grand Slam is available with both Hearts breaking 3-2 (68%) and the Diamonds coming in for five tricks (85%).  The odds of the Grand Slam making are thus approximately 0.68 x 0.85 = 58%.

However while it is almost impossible to bid a Grand Slam nevertheless good bidding does allow a Small Slam to be reached which has approximately a 95% chance of success. 6NT is only likely to fail when Diamonds do not come in and Hearts are not 3-2 ie failure is 0.15 x 0.32 = 5% failure rate.  When South opens a Strong No Trump North should start off by bidding 2NT – Transfer to Diamonds.  This is because although North only has 14 points he has fantastic controls – 6 in total (counting two controls for an Ace and one for a King).  As a generalization balanced slam hands invariably require a minimum of 10 controls between the two hands.  If the responder is weak then a minor suit transfer ought to show a six card suit.  However when responder is strong then it is sufficient to have only a five card suit in order to begin to show the nature of responder’s hand.

Over the 2NT transfer bid opener has a choice between bidding 3 Clubs or 3 Diamonds.  Although some partnerships play it the other way round I would strongly recommend that if you complete the minor suit transfer ie by bidding 3 Clubs over 2 Spades or 3 Diamonds over 2NT then opener is showing a fit for responder’s minor.  A fit is defined as Qxx or better.  If you do not have a fit for responder’s minor suit then opener simply bids the next step ie 2NT over 2 Spades or 3 Clubs over 2NT to convey the message “I do not have a fit for your minor suit”.  In the above hand South bids 3 Diamonds in response to the Transfer of 2NT to say “I like Diamonds”.  North now makes a Quantitative bid of 4NT saying “I have a balanced slam try with no singleton”.  South is happy to accept and as there is unlikely to be any advantage in playing in Diamonds due to the balanced nature of both hands South should jump to 6NT.  Thus by diagnosing the good 5-3 Diamond fit together with North’s control rich hand then it is possible to bid to slam with only 31 points between the two hands.