TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

Points of interest from the July 2015 duplicates

1       Transferring with weak 5-5 in the minors

Board 7 Monday 13 July – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

¹           While some would open a weak 2 Hearts this is not ideal holding such a strong four card holding in Spades as a Spade contract might be missed.

When West opens a 15-17 no trump the East hand is very unhappy to play in no trumps holding 5-5 in the minors.  Clearly he should transfer into a minor but which minor?  East wants to ensure that the partnership end up in a minimum of an eight card fit. 

The answer is that when holding a weak 5-5 in the minors you should always transfer into Diamonds by bidding 2NT.  The reason is that as explained in Tip No 3 September 2014 when opener has a fit for the minor (defined as Qxx or better) he completes the minor suit transfer by bidding 3 Diamonds over 2NT (or 3 Clubs over 2 Spades if responder has transferred into Clubs).  If opener does not have a fit for the minor then he simply bids the next step ie 3 Clubs over 2NT (or 2NT over 2 Spades if responder has transferred into Clubs).  Therefore in this case if opener does not have a fit for Diamonds he will bid 3 Clubs and this will almost certainly result in the partnership playing in at least an eight card Club fit.

The play is straightforward and 10 tricks in Diamonds result when the Clubs split the expected 3-1.  (A 2-2 split is 40% and a 3-1 split is 50%).

2       Minor suit Stayman after a 2NT opening

Board 7 Tuesday 14 July – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer South

When responding to a 2NT opener if responder has at least 4-4 in the minors and slam-invitational values he should bid 3 Spades as minor suit Stayman asking opener to bid a four-card minor.  If opener has a four card minor he bids it.  Otherwise opener bids 3NT.

When East hears West bid 3 Spades he immediately knows that the partnership is probably headed for slam.  He has a choice between bidding 4 Clubs or 4 Diamonds.  You might think that as he has more Clubs that he should set Clubs as trumps.  However there is a possibility of a Grand Slam and if opener sets Clubs as trumps he would never be able to find out about the Queen of Diamonds through Roman Keycard.  However by setting Diamonds as trumps opener can find out about both the Queen of Diamonds and the King of Clubs. 

Responder cue-bids 4 Hearts over 4 Diamonds showing a Heart control (Ace, King or singleton).  Opener now bids RKCB for Diamonds.  Responder now shows one keycard.   Opener now needs to know if opener has the Queen of trumps before looking for a possible Grand Slam.   Accordingly he bids the lowest non-trump suit to ask.  In this case because trumps are a minor suit the 5 Heart bid has already committed the partnership to a minimum of a Small Slam.  If responder does not have the Queen of trumps he would sign off in 6 Diamonds.  However because he has the Queen of trumps he bids 5NT.  This conveys the message that West has the Queen of Diamonds but no other King.  If West had both the Queen of trumps and the King of Clubs he would bid 6 Clubs.  If this were the case then East would then be able to jump to the Grand Slam in Diamonds.  On this occasion on hearing West bid 5NT then East knows that the King of Clubs is missing and settles for the laydown Small Slam in Diamonds.

3       No room for science

Board 14 Wednesday 15 July – Vulnerability White – Dealer East

There are times when the opposition crowd the auction to such an extent that there is no room for scientific exploration of possible slam and you simply have to bid what you expect to make.

South jumps to 4 Hearts over 1 Diamond with his strong eight carder and West bids 4 Spades with his strong six card suit.  East has no room to explore and if he were to bid 5 Hearts this would be taken as a void showing cue-bid agreeing Spades.  However holding eight Diamonds East should surely only want to play in Diamonds.  In order for 6 Diamonds to be a good contract East only needs his partner to hold either of the black suit Aces and not to be void in Diamonds.  Accordingly he should jump to 6 Diamonds.

Only two out of eight pairs managed to bid the Diamond slam.  Moreover the two that did received a naïve Ace of Hearts lead from South and all thirteen tricks were made.  The bidding was strongly suggestive of a Heart void in the East hand since East had not used RKCB.  Therefore South should lead the unbid suit Clubs against 6 Diamonds rather than fruitlessly trying to cash the Ace of Hearts.  This would prevent the overtrick and it is even possible that East West might have two losers in Clubs on some occasions.