One of my former bridge partners (Annette McAvoy) once said to me, “What do you call an eight-card suit?  Trumps”.  This advice was useful on Board 1 this week.

North opens 3H and East finds a Club overcall.  South bids 4H, bidding Hearts to the level of fit.  Then West has to decide what to do.  The point about having an eight-card suit headed by the top three honours is that it is reasonable to expect that the suit will run.  So, what do you make of partner’s 4C bid?  East should certainly have the strength to make an opening bid.  The principle is, that if the opponents make a weak bid, such as North’s 3H bid, you should not bid on a weak hand.  East should have a decent Club suit.  As you have four Clubs yourself, you should expect to have at most one Club loser.  There is also a good chance that East has the AD.  Otherwise, maybe you will be able to discard your Diamond loser on one of East’s winners, either the AH or a Club.  There is no guarantee that 6S will make, but there must be a good chance.  Moreover, if 6C is making then almost certainly 6S will also make.  I think that West should jump to 6S.

In the event, the fortuitous Club layout means that 7S is cold, but as South could easily have the guarded KC, clearly it would be foolish to bid the grand slam.  Three E/W pairs bid and made 6C+1, but my Player of the Week is the only West player who bid 6S, David Townshend.  

There is a guiding principle in bidding, which is that if you have opening values and NT distribution (5332, 4432 or 4333) you should plan to bid NT on the first or second round of bidding.  (You might not do so, depending on the other players’ calls).  Conversely, if you don’t have NT distribution, you mustn’t bid NT on the first or second round.  Two hands this week illustrated this idea.

In a way this is a difficult hand to bid, as the best contracts are 6C or 6D.  But 3NT is always likely to be the final contract.  South opens 1D and North responds 1H.  South should probably rebid 2C.  It seems tempting to rebid 3C, to show the strength of the hand, but with no guarantee of a fit, South cannot be sure that game is making and therefore should not make a game force.  North will show preference for Diamonds and South, liking partner’s Heart bid, suggesting (a) that North has a Heart stop and (b) that West will not lead a Heart, will probably leap to 3NT, which North will Pass.  On a Heart lead there are eleven tricks available in NT, but it is almost certain that West will lead a Spade, in which case South will make 3NT+3, which is what happened at six tables.  Notice that South only bid NT on the third round of bidding.

At my table, the second bidding sequence occurred, and South bid NT on the second round of bidding, despite not having NT distribution.  This made it hard for North (yours truly) to find the best continuation.  I decided to bid 3H, to show my fifth Heart, in case South had three Hearts and 4H was a better contract than 3NT, but partner did not think that 3H was forcing and Passed.  (I am surprised that he did not bid 3NT at this juncture.)  I made 3H but we scored 0%.  It occurred to me retrospectively – always the easiest way to play bridge! – that after partner’s 2NT bid, I could have bid 3C.  The point about this bid is that it would have shown my fifth Heart whilst also it would have been forcing to game.  What could go wrong?  If partner had supported Clubs, I would have been able to correct the trump suit to Diamonds.  If partner had bid 3NT, I could have Passed.  The one thing that could have gone wrong is that partner might have supported Clubs when 3NT was the best contract.  This means that, if partner had bid 4C or 5C, I would have had to bid not 5D but 6D, on the principle that if you bypass 3NT when you have a minor suit fit and you think that 3NT will be a popular contract, then you should venture the minor suit small slam.  On the actual layout this would have given us a score of 100%, as no pair reached the laydown 6D contract.  But it would have been an easier hand to bid had South not bid NT on the second round!

On Board 15, East had opening values and NT distribution.  Sometimes, when your distribution is 5332 and your five-card suit is very strong, it is hard to notice that it is a NT sort of hand, but really that is no excuse!

Playing a Strong NT system, East opens 1NT.  Playing Acol, East opens 1D and rebids NT.  In either case, E/W can reach 3NT.  With only a combined 25 Hcp and playing pairs, E/W might prefer to stay below game.  At the club two pairs bid and made 3NT, each scoring 96%.  Two pairs played in 1NT making the available nine tricks and each scoring 81%.  One pair played in 3NT but only made eight tricks and consequently only scored 8%, which illustrates why it is a good idea to be a cautious bidder at pairs scoring!  The pairs playing in NT therefore scored on average 72%.  The E/W pairs who played in a suit contract scored on average 37%.

Of course, looking at the hands, it is easy to see that the position of the AS is key.  If North has this card, it is likely that N/S can defeat 3NT.  But if South has the AS, then E/W can make nine tricks, with one Spade, one Heart, five Diamonds and two Clubs.  West’s Heart suit, combined with East’s AH, probably mean that whatever the distribution of N/S’s Hearts, it won’t be possible for a Heart lead to prevent 3NT from making – as long as South has the AS.

But E/W’s weak Spade holding makes me think that the best contract for E/W is 1NT, so I’m making the two E/W pairs who finished in 1NT+2 my Players of the Week, namely Ben Thomas & Sam Oestreicher and George Blair & Yasemin Brett.

Vulnerability is an important part of bridge, perhaps especially when you are non-vulnerable with a weak hand with a long suit and the opponents seem likely to make a vulnerable game, as these are the right conditions to consider a sacrifice.

Non-vulnerable, I would certainly open 3C as dealer with West’s hand.  In fact, with a seven-loser hand, I would probably open 3C if vulnerable too.  North will overcall 3S and, if possible, South will raise to 4S.  East can bid 4C or 5C at the first opportunity.  With a six-loser hand, East might expect 4C to make.  But if East bids 4C then they will intend to bid 5C if the opponents bid 4S.  In the event 4S and 5C are both making contracts, so clearly E/W should get into the auction.  At my table East chose to overcall 2H after West Passed as dealer and North opened 1S.  This might have allowed E/W to reach 4H, which also makes, but of course South leapt to 4S and E/W failed to find their Club fit.  It works better if, after Pass by West and 1S by North, East Doubles.  Then West can bid 5C (as East must have tolerance for Clubs) probably as a sacrifice – but a sacrifice that has the benefit of making!  With a partner who has opened the bidding and with two aces, South must be right to Double 5C.  Three of the four E/W pairs who played in 5C were Doubled and of course scored very well when 5C made, but I wouldn’t criticise N/S for the Double!

There were no slam hands this week, despite East once having a hand with 28 Hcp!.

East has a monster of a hand.  The hand has NT distribution (i.e. 4432, 4333 or 5332), so East’s plan is to open 2C and to rebid 4NT, showing a balanced hand with 27-28 Hcp.  After East’s 4NT bid, West’s 5H is a transfer to Spades.  If East then obediently bids 5S, then West will Pass.  East would no doubt be frustrated by this outcome – until dummy goes down, as there are two “unavoidable” losers, a Heart and a Club.  I put the quotation marks around “unavoidable” as at the club, five Easts managed to make twelve tricks in Spades, but this can have been only the result of generous defending.  My Players of the Week are Robin Vicary, Richard Gay and Jurek Czuprynski, the three Souths whose partnership managed to defeat 6S, meaning that they probably (although North failed to record the lead at their tables) avoided the lead of a Heart.  The TH lead was popular at the tables where 6S made – as long as East managed to play the JH at trick one, the Heart lead allowed East an easy route to twelve tricks.

J. Alfred Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons.  For me, it is more a matter of poor bidding decisions!  As an example, have a look at this week’s Board 14.

Let us say that East opens 3C.  South will probably Pass.  The Spade suit is a bit weak to introduce at the three-level, and a Double will very likely result in North bidding Diamonds.  West will Pass.  This is how the auction started at my table and I then jumped to 5D, which was one off.  The app says that 5D can be made, but I cannot see how.  Surely there must be two Diamonds and one Heart lose?

I didn’t Double because I didn’t want to hear my partner’s likely major-suit response.  But I should have realised that partner would have other options, i.e. 3NT or Pass.  Also, in the event that partner did bid 4H or 4S, I could still bid 5D.

If North Doubles, then either Pass or 3NT would work out acceptably from the N/S point of view.  3CX should be two off, giving N/S a score of +300 and 3NT should make with an overtrick, giving N/S +430, both noticeably better than the -100 that I achieved! 

Meanwhile, notice that East’s Club suit lacks the two top honours and East has a four-card Heart suit.  Also, East has a Rule of 19 hand, i.e. 1 Hcp short of a Rule of 20 opening bid.  If West has an opening hand with a Heart suit, then 4H might be making – or even 6H!  On the other hand, if West has a weak hand, as here, then opening 3C will put useful pressure on N/S and may make it difficult for them to find their best contract.  So maybe East should Pass as dealer?  In that case it would be easy enough for N/S to reach 3NT, as shown in the fourth suggested bidding sequence.  Having said that, if South bids 3NT as suggested, then it would be very tempting for North, with a four-loser hand, to jump to 6NT.  If the Diamonds break 3-2, then 6NT would be cold.  And if E/W are silent tin the auction then there is no reason to expect an uneven distribution.

At the club, two pairs bid to 6NT, which couldn’t make, but I feel that they were in a good but unlucky contract.  One pair bid 7NT, which was, I think, an overbid.  Three pairs bid and made 3NT.  But eight N/S pairs played in Diamonds, clearly the wrong denomination!

It was perhaps difficult to find the best bids on Board 14 this week.  South had a balanced hand with 26 Hcp and must have expected an uncontested auction, but East had the opportunity to be disruptive!

With a balanced 26 Hcp hand the standard bidding plan is to open 2C and to rebid 3NT, showing 25-26 Hcp.  Some players are intimidated by an opposing 2C opening bid and Pass automatically, but my view is that whenever possible you should try to get into the auction to annoy the opponents.  With East’s hand it is surely correct to overcall.  With an eight-card Diamond suit, 4D is the obvious overcall.  This has the considerable advantage of by-passing 3NT, which might be a makeable contract for N/S.  For this reason, I can’t see much point in overcalling with 2D or 3D.  South would probably bid 3NT, giving North the opportunity to bid 4C, Stayman.  I suppose this would be less clear than the Stayman sequence suggested below, where West remains silent, so maybe if West overcalls 2D or 3D, N/S are more likely to finish in 3NT?

If West does bid 4D then North will Pass and South will Double.  North will then have to decide whether to Pass or bid 4H.  On this particular hand the app says that E/W can make seven tricks with Diamonds as trumps, so 4DX should give N/S a score of +500; N/S can make eleven tricks with Hearts as trumps, so 4H should give N/S a score of +450.  Therefore, North’s best action would be to Pass.  Bearing in mind that South might have nothing in Hearts, Pass must be the best choice.

If West fails to enter the auction, then N/S should reach 4S.  South rebids 3NT and North responds 4C, Stayman.  (If South responds 4D, denying a four-card major suit, then the final contract would be 4H.)  I find it strange that at the club, seven Souths played in 3NT, with only one declarer making the contract, but only one South played in 4S.  Maybe at all seven of those tables, West overcalled with 2D or 3D?

3NT can always be made, but after a Diamond opening lead, South needs to make a lucky guess in which suit West has an entry and attack that suit first.  If South wins the opening lead and leads the QS, then West will win and can clear the Diamond suit, but will have no subsequent entry.  But if South leads any other suit at trick two then sooner or later East will win and lead a Diamond.  Then West can wait to win the KS and will have enough Diamond tricks to defeat 3NT.

At two tables, the final contract was by South with Spades as trumps.  4S seems to be the best available contract.  Where you have two major-suit fits, one 4-4 and the other 5-3, it is generally best to play in the 4-4 fit as there should be discards available on the five-card suit.  One South played in 3S, making ten tricks.  One South played in 4S, making nine tricks.  So, on this hand, nothing worked out very well!  My Player of the Week is the one North played who steered her partnership into the best contract of 4S, who was Catherine Corry.

I missed a slam this week.  At the time, I thought it was difficult to bid, but looking at it after the event (which is of course always much easier), I realise that I could have used the Losing Trick Count (LTC) to good effect.

Playing Acol, South opens 1NT.  Sitting North, I responded 2C, hoping that we had a Spade fit.  South bid 2H, so, slightly disappointed, I bid 3NT.  But partner then bid 4S, showing that he had four cards in each of the major suits.  Happy to hear that we had, after all, a Spade fit, I then Passed.  We made eleven tricks, but I suspected that had we played in 6S, partner would have been able to find a way to make the twelfth trick.  And indeed, with the Spades and Diamonds both breaking evenly, twelve tricks are available.  It is possible to discard a Diamond from the South hand on a Club and ruff the Diamonds good.  Declarer makes three Spades, one Heart, four Diamonds, three Clubs and one Diamond ruff.  The only loser is the AS.

At the table, I wondered how I could have made a slam try after partner’s 4S bid?  I couldn’t see how to do so.  The Heart void meant that a RCKB enquiry wouldn’t have helped very much.  But I shouldn’t have needed a slam try, I should have simply used the LTC.  An opening bid is usually based on at worst a seven-loser hand, but a weak NT opening bid is often made on an eight-loser hand.  Let us assume that South has an eight-loser hand.  North has a four-loser hand.  Using the LTC, this tells us that N/S can expect to be able to make twelve tricks with Spades as trumps (once the Spade fit has been uncovered), as 18 – (8 + 4) = 6.  Also, North has first or second-round control of all four suits, meaning that there is no danger of there being two quick losers.  I should have bid a direct 6S over partner’s 4S bid.

My Players of the Week are the two North players who bid 6S, Giles Ridger and Barbara Cohen.

There was a slam available for N/S on Board 10 this week.  My partner and I successfully bid the slam using Jacoby and Splinters.  But if I had been sitting in my partner’s set, the slam would have been a bit harder to reach. 

With me sitting North, we reached 6H using the first suggested bidding sequence.  After South opened 1H, 2NT was Jacoby, showing opening values and at least four Hearts.  South then bid 4C, a double jump, which was a Splinter showing a Club singleton or void.  With an ace-less hand, I might then have signed off in 4H, but my 4D bid did not prevent us from playing in 4H and I thought that maybe partner was interested in a slam.  4D was a cue bid.  It is important to remember that below the game level a cue bid can be made with first or second-round control.  I bid 4D rather than 4H partly because my values were almost entirely outside the Club suit, so apart from the JC, none of my high cards were wasted.  Partner clearly liked my 4D bid as he jumped straight to 6H.  6H is cold.  There is a Club loser but the Spade loser in the North hand can be discarded on South’s fourth Diamond.

If I had been sitting South, I would have opened 1D, intending to reverse by bidding 2H if North responded 2C.  Of course, North would have responded 1H, in which case maybe 6H could be reached using the second suggested bidding sequence.  Again, South uses a Splinter by bidding 4C, which inferentially agrees Hearts as the trump suit, and again North can bid 4D.  Now to show slam interest South bids 4S.  As this bid is above the game level, it must show first-round control of Spades.  North now uses RKCB.  South responds 5C showing one or four key cards.  Considering South’s bidding up to this point, South must have four key cards.  South has showed a Club shortage and first-round control of Spades.  If South has a singleton Club and a void in Spades, then it would be very much a freak hand.  It must be that the 4S shows the AS.  If that is South’s only key card, then they would be much too weak to make a slam try over North’s 4D bid.  Therefore, South must have four key cards.  North can thus bid 6H with some confidence.

Board 1 this week illustrated the idea that if you think that 3NT might make but you bypass that contract and head towards a minor-suit game, then you should bid a small slam, the reason being that, if 3NT and 5C/D are both making, then 3NT will nearly always outscore the minor-suit game.

In the suggested bidding sequence North, without a Club stop, is entitled to give preference by bidding 4D over South’s 3H reverse, thereby bypassing 3NT.  South should consider that South might be able to make 3NT, in which case 5D might score poorly.  Therefore, South should call 6D.  With the Spade finesse working – and pretty much signalled by West’s overcall – 6D is cold.  South’s Heart losers can be discarded on North’s Spades.

At the club, six Souths played in 3NT, scoring on average 79.5%.  Two Souths played in 5D, both making twelve tricks and scoring 42%.  6D= would have scored 100%.  I rest my case!

Board 5 showed the importance of Doubling.  Players are often reluctant to Double “into game”, but sometimes it is essential to do so if you want a decent score.