Card Tables needed for Brunton?

We were asked to discuss hand 6 from Monday. In the expert view on the website we have given one possible auction and here we give another but both assume that East does not open 2♠ on a 3 count.

We would NOT recommend this auction as, for us, the diamond suit is not good enough. Just think, if you overcall in diamonds and partner has one he WILL lead a diamond. Do you want partner to lead a diamond or his best suit? 

You will note that all of the pairs in 3NT made the optimum 10 tricks.

Today's question. If 2♦ is overcalled what is North's alternative action to 3NT?

This is hand 4 from 5/9/2022 and is so interesting that we could really make it into 2 articles.

After the bidding the 2♦  bid shows a raise to 2 or more hearts and double is for takeout of hearts. After 3♥  is passed around the double is still for takeout and says, "Please bid partner and now East/West really should bid 4♠. Notice that the West hand while only an 11 count is getting better and better as the bidding progresses.

On Monday most players played in 4♥ and made it so we first should talk about that because it made more than half the time.

With a singleton in partner's bid suit there is no reason for East not to lead it.

If you diagnose this as a singleton you win and give partner a ruff BUT that is only two tricks, where are the other two coming from?

We have a play where the card we return for partner to ruff will tell partner where your entry is. So when you continue a diamond, a low card says lead the suit below (ie a club). A higher card would say lead the suit above the one that we are leading (ie a heart). For those of you that like names this is called a suit preference signal. Do not use this signal often!

So the play goes ♦A , ♦4 returned which is clearly a low diamond asking for a club. Now East ruffs, cashes the ♣ A and play a club to the Knig. One off.

Now what is the best contract?

With East/West silent, North opens 1♣.

South now looks and says is game on, "Yes, No, Maybe? Well the answer to that is certainly "yes". However, we should take our time and bid a simply 1♦ . We wait for North's rebid.

North rebids 2NT showing 18-19 points and balanced. This is better than bidding the 4 card spade suit because if partner has spades and an unbalanced hand he will bid them now.

South should now add their points to partners and get 35 or 36. Certainly a small slam and unlikely to make the grand. So, 6NT.

We bid it, now how do we make it?

For such a simple idea the 4,3,2,1 count for honour works remarkably well in notrump contracts. However, it does not work in trumps. Much better and quite simple is the losing trick count. It goes like this -

• ONCE YOUR HAVE FOUND A FIT count losers
• For every Ace, King and Queen you are missing in each suit count a loser.
• Do not count more losers than cards in the suit.
• Total the losers in your hand.
• If you are responding to your partner's opening bid, remember you MUST bid with 6 points
  • The Opening bidder will have 7 losers or fewer.
  • Add your losers to partners and subtract from 18 and that is the level you bid
  • There are some fine adjustments but we will add them here.
• If you are going to raise the responder, a response at the 1 level has 9 losers or fewer. A response at the 2 level shows 8 losers or fewer.

Example. You hold ♠ K 8 6 5   ♥ A J 9 8 7   ♦ 8   ♣  6 3 2

Partner opes 1♠  and you are going to raise. With 8 points it looks like a raise to the 2 level, but count your losers.. 2 spades, 2 hearts, 1 diamond and 3 clubs. 8 in total. Partner has 7 losers (or fewer) and you have 8. 18-15 = 3. Bid 3♠ 

Now to this week's hand. 2.

What is your rebid?

It is no good bidding a hand well and then misplaying it.

Look at this hand from this week.

We have shown you the bidding at one table and first let look at the bids.

3♥ is not perfect in that you should not hold the ♠K but it is not a crime to open this

North has options. they can show the hand as a two suiter or make a takeout double. Showing the two suiter with 4♣ (non-leaping Michaels) shows the good hand with clubs and spades and will work well if partner has a fit in one of the black suits. Double gets my vote as it shows 4+ cards in every unbid major and 3+ cards in every unbid minor.

Pass from East is interesting you should bid to the level of the fit. 7 cards from partner 3 in your hand. 7+3 = 10 bid 4♥ 

Now  South has an easy 5♦ which should be more than 4 cards and North raises to 6.

This hand requires you to make a plan or as Dave will tell you keep CALM

^{But first we must talk about the bidding. First 2NT - as partner has bid at the 2 level and promised 10 or more points 2NT is 15-19 and forcing.}

3♣  is a simple forcing bid to find a fit West is delighted when East shows 3 diamonds.

^{West knows that he is playing this hand in diamonds or notrumps and needs to establish whether or not there is a fit.}

^{Once East admits to 3 diamonds we can cue bid 3♥ , A spade cue bid then allows Blackwood. Whether you got to 6♦  or the higher scoring 6NT is, at this level immaterial}

Another reminder if you make a plan you must remember what that plan was.

So you get to a super slam 6♦.

Now keep CALM when dummy goes down:

Count your tricks by power:

Spades - 2

Hearts - 3 BUT you must remember to play the ♥ K early to untangle the suit

Diamonds - 6

Clubs 1

WOW how many times do you bid a slam when you see that it will make before playing a trick?

Add tricks from other sources - not needed!

Loser check this is very important on this hand. We have said that we have 12 tricks BUT on a club lead you have the potential to lose  a club or perhaps a spade BUT we have 12 tricks!

It relies on you playing the ♥ K early and taking discards on the hearts. Remember honours from the short suit first!!

Manage the hand:

Win opening lead (assume ♣ ) with ♣ A

Play ♥ K

Play trumps (this will take three rounds) ending in DUMMY

Play ♥ A & ♥ Q - discard two clubs from your hand

Play ♠ A

Ruff a club 

Play a spade  to the ♠ J this loses

CLAIM

The auction takes a normal course BUT what, if anything, do you bid with East's hand when North opens 1NT?

Well most, if not all, of you will use a convention called Landy.

You can only use this convention when an OPPONENT has opened 1NT.

Hand 8 is a good example to demonstrate the use of Landy.

So you will remember from your lessons that after a 1NT opening you as a defender can:

1. Double - PENALTIES and will have a hand with 15+ high card points and A GOOD LEAD

2. An overcall of 2♦, 2♥, 2♠ natural with a 6-card suit and 10-15 points but might be down to 8 at favourable vulnerability..

3. 2♣ is CONVENTIONAL and shows at least 5/4 in the MAJOR suits.

Response from partner:

2♦        same number of cards in each major suit

2♥        preference for ♥ 

2♠        preference for ♠ 

So now try and plan the bidding on hand 8 from 2/8/2022.

Here we show hand 9 from this weeks hands. We hear a lot of stuff about what a player can and cannot open with hands like the East hand here. The question to ask is if I open my longest suit at the 1 level (1♣ here) and partner without 6 points passes can I miss game. here the answer is "yes". Then open 2♣ . Remember 2♣ says nothing about clubs and simply says, with one exception partner you cannot stop bidding until we are in game.

The auction on the travellers shows the auction if North/South then just pass but here we have shown how much more difficult it is for East/West if  the opposition bid.

Notice that After 4♣ and without a spade cue bid they just bid game.

Finally, a question. What is the best contract on the hand by each side?

When partner opens the bidding we must ask ourselves:

1. Is the bid:

FORCING or

NON-FORCING

2. What does forcing and non-forcing mean?

FORCING - you WILL bid

NON-FORCING with less than 5 points you can PASS

3. If a bid is FORCING how far is it forcing to?

GAME or

Until opener has limited their hand and RESPONDER can answer the question:

Is GAME on

YES

NO 

MAYBE

4. 2♣  opening bid

Is this FORCING?

If YES to what level?

Is there any sequence that responder can PASS below game?

5. What are game bids?

1. Is East  good enough to open the bidding?

2. What does West open?

3. How does the bidding progress?

Questions:

1. What does South open?

2. What should North be asking himself?

3. If South opens 1NT what does North bid?

4. What happens if North bids 2♦ is this a forcing bid?

5. Who is in charge of the auction North or South?

6. Assuming South bids 2♥ what does North now bid?

7. What should the final contract be?

8. How many tricks do you make?

Well a very interesting hand. 

Each table played in 3NT but the question is why?

1. Is East's hand balanced?

2. What is East's opening bid?

3. What does West respond?

4. What should the final contract be?

The question here is did you get to the Grand slam?

So as South what are you thinking when partner opens 2NT?

Normally we start with is game on - YES.      NO.       MAYBE!

On this occasion definitely.               YES

BUT

Is there another question?

Is slam on?

                                                       YES.     NO.   MAYBE?

Answer                                            YES

BUT

Is a Grand slam on?

                                                        YES.     NO.     MAYBE

Answer                                            A very definite MAYBE so how do we find out?

First we need to start with a transfer into our longer suit so we bid 3♦ 

Next after partner bids 3♥  we bid 3♠ just in case partner prefer spades.

When partner bids 4♥  we have an easy 4NT Blackwood (either standard of Roman Keycard)

4NT

Standard response                              5♥      two Aces

Roman Keycard                                  5♣     three or nought of five keycards (these are the four Aces and the King of the trump suit) So partner has 11 HCP with ♦ A ♣ A & ♥ K. Wow he has extras.

If using RKC partner will also be aware if you don't ask about the ♥Q, by bidding 5♦,  - that you hold that card.

Between you you hold all four Aces and the King & Queen of hearts.

What next?                                                             5NT now you are telling partner you have all the key cards

As opener I am now happy that my ♠ Q is a useful card. My hand looks very powerful and I bid 7NT. 7♥  is also good.

So how do I play this hand?

1. Do you open the North hand?                                                           NO

You have 11 HCP you do have a singleton BUT that will only work if you have a FIT with partner so we do not add points for shortage.

For those who do open which suit do you bid with 4-4-4-1 shape?       1♥ 

With a singleton AND opening values we open the suit below the singleton - EASY but not with this hand!

With a singleton club,  as here, we open the middle of the other three suits i.e. hearts

2. South opens the bidding with                                                                  1♥ 

3♠ & 4♣   are cue bids showing first round (ACE or void) or second round (K or singleton) control . 4NT is RKC Blackwood and the response of 5♦ is either four or one keycard. A keycard is any Ace and/or the King of the trump suit.

3. What happens if North does open  1♥ ? 

Our advanced players may already have heard of Jacoby which is used where partner opens one of a major and you have at least four card support for that major AND an opening hand. So game, at least, is on.

The bid then is 2NT. So on this hand the bidding will go:

4♣  I have a splinter! That is a singleton losing club.

So you reach the same contract but in a different way.

Hand 8 was interesting.

1. It is West's turn to bid, do you open or pass?

With two tricks and a hand of little substance - PASS

2. If West passes then the hand will be passed round to South. What is South's opening bid?

a. Is South balanced.                                                                                                                      YES

b. What is his point count.                                                                                                               20

c. With a balanced hand & 20 HCP does this fall within any opening No Trump range?                YES

d. Open                                                                                                                                            2NT

3. What does North do now?

a. Is game on?                                                                                                                                YES/NO/MAYBE

b. 20 + 6 = 26 HCP                                                                                                                         YES game is on

c. At this point who is in charge of the auction North or South?                                    North - i. partner (South) has limited their hand to 20-22 points and

                                                                                                                                          ii. South has no idea of North's values anything from 0 -10

d.  Is the game in No Trumps or a suit contract?                                                                             North must investigate

e. What convention can North use with this hand?                                                                         Stayman a question bid asking South if he has 4 or more cards in a major suit i.e .♠ ♥ 

As you can see the two hands prepare the bidding sequence and go to ANSWER

4. What happens if West opens 1♦ ?

It is likely that this will be passed round to South who is in the pass out seat so a bid of 2NT shows 20+ and again you can now return to 3 above as you will use the same responses.