Comments on hands played on Tuesday, 25th February.

Pre-emptive bidding can work well but as with all sabotage there can be dangers and the occasional backfire.

Board 23 is such a potential backfire case.

After an opening bid of 1S by West should North come in with 3D, a weak jump overcall?  When I played the board North did bid 3D and East made the final bid of 3NT.

Now South was on lead and led the D5.  Now, instead of the defence making 3 club tricks (the C6 is the natural lead for South) and so restricting East to 1 overtrick, East had an easy plus 2 and a good score.

Tip: an overcall does have a lead directing aspect so be a little careful if you have a bad suit, particularly if you have to come in at the 3 level.

Now let’s look at some card play from Board 7.

It is the club suit which merits attention.  When you lead towards West’s KJ83 should you play the king or the jack?

The ace and queen are the important cards.

If North has both then it doesn’t matter which you play, North gets 2 tricks.

When North has just one honour then it is a guess.  If he has the ace then the jack is best as the king will win next time around.  However, if he has the queen the king is best as it will win the trick.  As North just just as likely to hold one as the other, it is a 50/50 guess.  So should you play the king or the jack?

It is the final situation when South has both ace and queen which answers this question.

If South plays low and you put in the king then South has 2 club tricks.  However, if you put in the jack it will take the trick and by playing low again later towards the king you will get a second club trick.

In the lay out on this board East plays the C9 and lets it run; one trick to East.  East is still in hand and so continues with the CT.  Whatever South does he has only 1 club trick and East has 3.

Tip: the finesse situation where you are missing 2 high cards turns up quite frequently in a number of different guises.  Do look out for it.

Finally, on Board 15 there were 12 tricks available but should the slam have been bid?

To make 12 tricks in hearts you need the hearts to divide 3/2 (68% of the time) and the clubs the split 3/3 (only 36% of the time).

Your tricks are:  1 spade; 3 hearts drawing trumps; 3 top clubs; the 13^th club discarding a diamond; 2 diamonds; a diamond ruff and a spade ruff.

What are the chances?  As you need both hearts and clubs to be kind the chances are 68

x 36 = 23%.

So if you bid a slam on a hand like this while everyone else stays in game then you will get a top one time in 4 and a bottom 3 times in 4.  This is not the path to consistently good scores.

Board 30 illustrates well the destructive effect of getting into the bidding with a weak distributional hand.

The bidding starts routinely enough: a weak 2D opening bid; a 2NT enquiry and a 3D response to show a minimum weak 2D.  West now bids 4D, asking how many key cards East holds;  4H = 1 key card;  4S = have you the queen of trumps?  5S = yes, and something worthwhile in spades.  The 6D slam is bid with confidence.

Now let’s see what happens if North comes into the bidding.  The bidding starts as before but this time North bids 3S.  It is a general rule of bidding that if your opponents have shown strength (and West has shown strength with her 2N bid) then your bids should be weak and distributional.  North’s hand fits that description.  At my table, East elected to rebid 3D but perhaps this should have been reserved for a stronger hand.  However, East does have a good diamond suit and first round control of spades so 3D is certainly a reasonable bid.

South reasoned that partner must be weak so, having only 3Bhcp (2 hcp), went without hesitation to 4S.  Now West was on a guess as to what to do.  In the event she bid 5D and made plus one.

The point is that if you make your opponents guess then sometimes they will guess incorrectly.  That has to be good for you.

Tip: when your opponents bid strongly, get into the bidding when you have a weak distributional hand.  If you have a strongish hand, keep quiet.

Now for Board 33.

Would you open that East hand?  If you open 1C you have a 1S rebid so you are quite safe.  However, I don’t like the structure of the hand with its singleton king.  I would pass.

West has a 4 loser hand and a decent 5 card major, I would open 2C.  East needs to make a positive reply.  I don’t fancy that 5 card club suit and bidding spades would show a 5 card suit so it comes down to a no trump bid.  In fact, East has marginally too many points for a response of 2NT but I would downgrade the hand because of the singleton king and bid 2NT.

West now bids her 5 card heart suit and without heart support East repeats no trumps.  East should not bid 3S.  She can’t have 5 of them or she would have bid them at her first turn.  Therefore, a bid of 3S should be taken by West as agreeing hearts and showing first round control in spades.

West, not being too keen on no trumps and strong enough to go on, bids 4C to show her second suit.  East agrees clubs by cue bidding first round control in spades (4S).  The 5D and 5H bids are cue bids and a slam is reached.  As it is duplicate, an adventurous West might finish up by bidding 6NT but bidding either slam would get you a good score.

Cheers, Alan

The Hands from 25^th March 2014.

Let’s look at Board 21 where there were opportunities for a fairly uncommon system bid and also for a good judgement on a sacrifice bid.

After a pass by North, East has to decide what to open.  With 4 losers the hand is just below what is needed for a 2C opening bid.  East opens 1C but is prepared to reverse into 2D at her next turn.

South can now trot out that Michaels cue bid she has been keeping in her locker all these years; she bids 2C.  This overcall of opener’s suit shows at least 5 cards in each of the majors and is usually pre-emptive in nature.

West can happily bid 2H, a bid showing decent strength (15Bhcp/10hcp) and 5 or more hearts.

North bids to the level of fit by going straight to 4S.  The weaker you are the more important it is to bid to the limit straight away.

East now has a real problem.  I expect most Easts would refuse to be bullied and bid the making contract of 5C.

Looking at the vulnerability, N/S should not compete to 5S.  They will be doubled and 2 off doubled (the likely result) is -500 whereas 5C making is only -400.

Board 24 is a good example of splinter bids at work.

West has 14 hcp but the B point count is 22, too strong for a weak 1NT opening bid.

So West, being modern, opens 1S and North passes.

East has an ideal hand for a splinter bid.  Let me explain.  A splinter bid is a bid between a raise to the 3 level but below the 4 level of the suit opened.  So in this case, a bid of 4C, 4D or 4H would be a splinter bid as all these bids lie between 3S and 4S.

What the splinter bid indicates is not only game values in the suit opened (4S here) but also a void or at most a singleton in the suit bid.

Here, with game values and a singleton heart, East would jump straight to 4H.

Looking at the West hand we can see just how useful this bid can be.  West now knows East has lots of points (game values) and that they are not in hearts.  Therefore, they must be in the other 3 suits just where all of West’s points are lurking.  In effect, E/W are playing in a 45 Bhcp (30 hcp) pack because the heart suit is discounted.  All the honour cards are crammed into the other 3 suits and so are all working together.  West must reason that slam is a good prospect.  So the bidding can continue:

W         E

4N        5C        4N = RKCBlackwood;    5C = 1 key card.

5D        6C        5D = have you the SQ? 6C = yes and the CK.

6S

Every declarer was in 4S.  I know that splinter bids are a little advanced but a fair number of you do play them. 

Now for a delightful tailpiece from Board 35.  I’ll leave it to you to look at the hands in bridgewebs but 13 tricks are available when diamonds are trumps.  Four declarers only reached game contracts.  One declarer reached 6D so well done there.  However, one bold pair bid on to 7D.  They were doubled.  Nothing daunted, they redoubled.

When was the last time you bid a grand slam?  When was the last time you made a doubled grand slam?  Have you ever?  But to bid and make a redoubled grand slam must be as rare as hens teeth.

Well done Bill and Barry K.

Now for something a little simpler: earlier in the week I was put into a rather improbable 3NT contract.  I needed 3 tricks from this diamond suit.

♦  K7632

♦  459

What do I need the diamond distribution to be?

I played a small diamond from both hands.

Later, when in again I played another small diamond towards the king.  West played the jack, I played the king and East played her last remaining diamond, the queen.  I then played another diamond to establish the last 2 little cards in the suit.  Three tricks made.

So, what did I need?

The suit had to split 3/2 (68% or 2 times in 3).

The ace had to be with West (half the time).  Therefore, my chances of making 3 tricks were one time in three.

There are 2 thing illustrated in this example.  The first is that if the cards out against you must to be arranged in a certain way, then play as if that is the way there are; it is your only chance of making your contract.

The other is less obvious because you haven’t been shown the rest of the hands.  In No Trumps, tackle you long suits to establish tricks with the small cards.  The diamonds were my only 5 card suit so I had to concentrate on them.

Board 16 gave N/S a chance to make a name for themselves.  West dealt and E/W were vulnerable.

With a 4 loser hand North is just not quite strong enough to open 2C because she has a long minor suit.  Had that club suit been spades an opening bid of 2C would have been in order.

North has to be content with opening 1C.

East had a 6 card diamond suit headed by the KQ but nothing else, not even as much as a T.  Despite the adverse vulnerability and minimum strength, see what trouble you can cause if you come in with a bid of a weak 2D.

What is South going to bid now?  Hope that by now most of you will immediately say, bid 3D.  This is a strong bid and forcing to game.

North should now bid 3H.

If South decides to bid 3NT then North should think of a slam and bid 4C, a bid which cannot be passed since the 3D bid is game forcing.

I recommend that the 4C bid is conventional key card asking but if you don’t do so then South cue bids 4D to show the DA.  There follow cue bids of 4H and 4S so North knows that all suits have first round control.  She bids 4NT RKCBlackwood and South shows 3 key cards.

Now for a clever little wrinkle, North bids 5H, a second cue bid in the suit to show second round control.  South responds with 5S, again second round control.

North can now count 12 top tricks and, with South showing a strong responsive hand, surely there is a 13^th trick somewhere.  To be on the safe side, North might bid 7C rather than 7NT but both make.

It is good to report that the electronic scoring system worked smoothly.  After that good news,  let’s look at Board 23.

South dealt and it was game all.

After 2 passes North opens a weak 2H.  What should East bid?  An overcall of 2NT is 22 – 26 Bhcp (15 – 17 hcp) and course, something in hearts.

West now has to decide whether to go to game.  If East is maximum, then there are game values but if she is minimum then the combined total is just short of the points wanted for bidding game.

Is West’s hand worth an upgrade and so a game contract?  The HK is excellent as it will certainly be combining with East’s heart holding.  Two 4 card suits is positive as it offers 2 chances of combining with length in partner’s hand to establish tricks with small cards.  All in all, it is probably just worth going to game. 

West therefore bids 3C, Stayman.  You should play the same conventions opposite a No trump overcall as you do when partner has opened in No Trumps.  East bids 3H despite the opening bid.  It can be useful as West can now deduce that South has exactly 1 heart.  West bids the makeable 3NT.

If North does not lead a heart, declarer has to be careful that the first play of hearts comes from the East hand.  South’s singleton heart is revealed as the jack.  Now declarer merely has to cover any heart played by North to take the next 2 heart tricks.

You might be wondering where declarer’s 9^th trick is coming from.  Well, what is South going to discard on the second round of hearts?  Whatever suit it is in allows West to set up a trick in that suit with its 13^th card.

Let’s start with a look at Board 20: West dealt and it was game all.

               N                              

            ♠  AQ43                                   

♥  2                 

♦  AT875                                 

   W      ♣ T74        E                

♠  J98               ♠  T652            

♥  643               ♥  J87              

♦  KQJ94          ♦  32                

♣ Q3       S       ♣ J862             

            ♠  K7                           

♥  AKQT95                              

♦  6                             

♣  AK95

Bidding

W         N          E          S

P          P          P          2C

P          2N        P          3H

P          3N        P          6H/6N

It doesn’t matter what the opening lead is, or the final contract, the play is essentially the same.

Declarer needs the hearts to split 3/3.  She wins the opening lead (let’s say a diamond).

She now plays off the top 3 hearts and gets the good news.

Now for the squeeze to work declarer needs not only the clubs to split 4/2 and the spades 4/3 but also both 4 card suits to be in the same hand.

Declarer plays 3 more rounds of hearts.

East has followed to 3 hearts and a diamond.  He has discarded a diamond and a club to leave him with 4 spades and 3 clubs.   What is East to discard on the last heart?

If he discards another club then the outstanding clubs split 2/2, playing the CA and CK will establish the suit for 13 tricks.

If he discards a spade the outstanding spades divide 3/3 and North’s little spade will be the 13^th trick.

All declarer has to do is get the CT out of the way.

At one table Board 13 threw up an interesting point about the laws of bridge.  North dealt and it was game all.

               N                              

            ♠  652                          

♥  AKQT73                  

♦  QT54                                   

   W      ♣  -            E                

♠  J74               ♠  AQ8             

♥  4                  ♥  98               

♦  K986             ♦  AJ73            

♣ KJ974   S      ♣ A653                        

            ♠  KT93                                   

♥  J652                        

♦  2                             

♣ QT82

N/S had agreed to play weak 2 openings.  North is clearly too strong for a weak 2H opening bid but chose to do so anyway.

South bid 4H, raising to the level of fit.  East doubled.  The doubled contract made and E/W were naturally feeling a little aggrieved.  I was called.

Both North and South agreed that they were playing weak 2s.  South was as equally surprised by North’s strength as were East and West.  There is nothing in the laws of bridge to prevent you from making a bid which deviates from your agreed system and just so long as your partner is just as surprised as the opposition then there is no penalty.  The score of 4H doubled making stood.

HOWEVER, if one member of a regular partnership does from time to time make bids which are outside their system, then this must be part of the explanation of the bid.  So if N/S had been a regular partnership and South had known that North did occasionally open a weak 2 with too strong a hand, then his announcement must be along the lines of ‘weak but may be stronger than the 9 hcp which is our normal upper limit’.  So had it been a regular partnership, and had North been in the habit of occasionally bidding with a hand which was too strong AND had South NOT communicated that fact, then I would have ruled against N/S and adjusted the score.

Board 28 was my last board of the evening.  You would have thought that by that time I would have sorted out with my partner what conventions we were playing.  Not a bit of it!

   W                       E                

♠  742               ♠  AKJ85                     

♥  QJT5            ♥ A7                

♦  AKJ9            ♦  T75             

♣ J6                 ♣ AK5              

As West I opened 1NT and partner jumped to 4C.  I was asked what the bid meant.

Well, it could have been Gerber or a slam try in clubs.  I decided to treat it as the slam try and said so.

I bid 5C to which partner now bid 5S.

I thought ‘Oh well, it’s the last hand of the evening’.  I bid and made 6NT – an undeserved top.

Cheers, Alan

Pre-emptive bidding can work well but as with all sabotage there can be dangers and the occasional backfire.

Board 23 is such a potential backfire case.

After an opening bid of 1S by West should North come in with 3D, a weak jump overcall?  When I played the board North did bid 3D and East made the final bid of 3NT.

Now South was on lead and led the D5.  Now, instead of the defence making 3 club tricks (the C6 is the natural lead for South) and so restricting East to 1 overtrick, East had an easy plus 2 and a good score.

Tip: an overcall does have a lead directing aspect so be a little careful if you have a bad suit, particularly if you have to come in at the 3 level.

Now let’s look at some card play from Board 7.

It is the club suit which merits attention.  When you lead towards West’s KJ83 should you play the king or the jack?

The ace and queen are the important cards.

If North has both then it doesn’t matter which you play, North gets 2 tricks.

When North has just one honour then it is a guess.  If he has the ace then the jack is best as the king will win next time around.  However, if he has the queen the king is best as it will win the trick.  As North just just as likely to hold one as the other, it is a 50/50 guess.  So should you play the king or the jack?

It is the final situation when South has both ace and queen which answers this question.

If South plays low and you put in the king then South has 2 club tricks.  However, if you put in the jack it will take the trick and by playing low again later towards the king you will get a second club trick.

In the lay out on this board East plays the C9 and lets it run; one trick to East.  East is still in hand and so continues with the CT.  Whatever South does he has only 1 club trick and East has 3.

Tip: the finesse situation where you are missing 2 high cards turns up quite frequently in a number of different guises.  Do look out for it.

Finally, on Board 15 there were 12 tricks available but should the slam have been bid?

To make 12 tricks in hearts you need the hearts to divide 3/2 (68% of the time) and the clubs the split 3/3 (only 36% of the time).

Your tricks are:  1 spade; 3 hearts drawing trumps; 3 top clubs; the 13^th club discarding a diamond; 2 diamonds; a diamond ruff and a spade ruff.

What are the chances?  As you need both hearts and clubs to be kind the chances are 68

x 36 = 23%.

So if you bid a slam on a hand like this while everyone else stays in game then you will get a top one time in 4 and a bottom 3 times in 4.  This is not the path to consistently good scores.

There were a number of slam hands.  On some of these it seems to me that the key was to evaluate the hand properly, to recognise its trick-taking potential.  The four hands I have discussed below were played six times each on Tuesday but in total only two slams were bid, which is a bit disappointing.  Congratulations to Katherine and Annette!

On Board 12 East-West both had strong hands and they also had a big fit in Diamonds.  So a slam should not have been hard to reach.  But can the grand slam be bid?  West opens 1D and East responds 1H.  With 18 points West is strong enough to reverse.  A bid at the one-level is not a reverse, so she should bid 2S.  With 12 points and a fir for partner’s first suit opposite a reverse East is now thinking of a slam and can bid 3C (fourth suit forcing).  West might then bid 3NT showing a stop in Clubs.  East should now bid 4D.  This must be a slam try.  Both partners have bid strongly earlier in the auction so it wouldn’t make sense for 4D to be either to play or to be an invitation to play 5D.  If West then bids 4NT (RKC Blackwood) then East will respond 5S showing two Aces and the Queen of Diamonds.  This bid shows that all the gaps in West’s hand are covered and she can bid 7D with some confidence.

On Board 13, West had a two-loser hand.  This means that with no help from partner she should expect to take 11 tricks.  It doesn’t take much in partner’s hand to make a slam a reasonable proposition.  So why not bid it?  If North and East pass then South might open with a weak 2 in Diamonds.  West should Double and North would bid 3D, raising partner to the level of fit.  East can then Pass to show her weak hand.  What should West do then?  She could Double again but she knows that partner is weak and she can guess that the response to the Double will be a Spade bid.  I think she should reason that as both opponents have shown relatively weak hands with long Diamonds, partner might have enough to provide the twelfth trick.  But it seems unlikely that partner will have the Ace of Diamonds.  And so she should simply bid 6H.

On Board 26 South has a four-loser hand with a strong major suit – a 2C opener.  North has a positive response.  If South regards her Heart suit as self-supporting then it should be easy enough to bid to 6H.  In fairness the lie of the cards is favourable to South, but I am surprised that no one bid the slam on Tuesday.

On Board 31 the bidding might start with three passes.  East would then open 1H and once West shows her Heart support it should be easy for the bidding to reach 6H at least.  By using the 5NT grand slam force it might be possible to reach 7H.

If you play weak 2s – and most of us do nowadays – then you have to open 2C on a number of hands that would have been opened with a strong 2 bid in earlier days.  These are hands with four losers (if your main suit is a major) or with three losers (if your main suit is a minor).  This of course commits the partnership to a game contract.  There were three such hands last night, all of which had fewer than the 23 points traditionally needed for a 2C opener, which didn’t work very well for the 2C opener.

Playing Board 5, at my table South opened 2C and finished in 4S going 2 off.  At all the other tables N-S bid to a successful part-score, one South making 10 tricks in Spades.  Should 10 tricks be made?  Not according to the print out of hands which says that 2S is the maximum number of Spades that can be made.  Suppose the defence starts with three rounds of Clubs.  South ruffs the third round and leads three rounds of Diamonds.  West wins the third round and leads another Club.  South ruffs and now had one fewer trump than East.  South plays out her Spades and leads a Diamond winner.  East ruffs and has to lead a Heart.  South wins and still has a Diamond winner to play, so South makes five Spades, one Heart, three Diamonds making nine tricks in total.  So it seems to me that 4S is out of reach.

On Board 23 all Easts played in game and most made 12 tricks.  So the 2C opener, if used, works well on this hand.  It is perhaps surprising that no one bid the slam.  Given the helpful 3-2 split in the opposition Spades 6S is cold and 6NT makes if played by West.   At my table the bidding started 2C-2NT-3S-3NT and then stopped.  This gave us a top as +690 was 10 poi8nts better than the +680 achieved at most other tables.

On Board 28 all Easts played in Spades.  One was in 3S, three were in 4S and, at my table we played in 5S since I (sitting West) made a slam try following my partner’s 2C opener.  At four tables East made 11 tricks.  I imagine the play was the same at all four tables: South starts with two rounds of Hearts and East makes 11 tricks in Spades and Diamonds.  It is not easy for N-S to find their three Club tricks.  Unfortunately this is what happened at my table and, with the Ace of Hearts, we were two off.  Partner understandably bemoaned his luck – three Club losers facing three Club losers.  Whether or not this example suggests that the 2C opener was over-ambitious I will leave to your judgement.

But I think that the example of Board 5 suggests the lesson from these examples: when using a 2C opener with fewer than the traditional 23 points, be prepared to play below game if responder is very weak.

There were two hands last night that illustrate the principle that it is better to play in 3NT than in 5 of a minor.

On Board 2 only one pair played in NT.  They were in 1NT making 11 tricks.  Three of the E-W pairs played in Clubs making 10 or 11 tricks.  So one pair was fairly successful by making 5C for +400 and on the night they scored a top.  I made 5C-1 for an annoying score of -50.   But how much better to be in a safe 3NT contract, in which any overtrick will guarantee a better result than achieved by any pair playing in 5C.   At my table I opened the bidding with 1H and the bidding was 1H-1NT-3C-4C-5C.  Partner’s 1NT bid denies Heart support (but might include a Heart honour) and shows 6-9 points.  I think that I should have said to myself that, as I had so many points in the other suits, it was quite likely that partner would have something in Diamonds.  I should have bid 3NT on the second round.  Partner would have thanked me for my dummy and we would have scored a top!

Board 12 was played give times with five different results.  The best N-S scores were achieved when the contract was 3NT or 4H.  When the contract was 5D the comparative score was 38%, illustrating the general point that minor suit games should be avoided where possible.

Board 19 provided an interesting example of a type of hand where each side is strong in one suit and the question is who can make what?  At my table South (my partner) opened with a (very) weak 2 in Hearts.  West doubled and I raised to the level of fit, i.e. to 4H.  East naturally bid 4S which was passed around to me and, thinking that I had little defence to 4S I correctly bid 5H.  With a four-loser hand opposite a take-out double and with the King of Hearts favourably placed in the likely event of a Heart lead, East ignored the maxim “the 5-level belongs to the opponents” and competed with 5S.  Again this was passed around to me.  I passed and 5S made, giving us a joint bottom.  I should have repeated my judgement of the previous round and thought that I had very little defence to 5S.  My partner could not be expected to have more than one defensive trick.  The bidding suggested that there might be a Heart void somewhere.  I should have bid 6H which would have given us an excellent result whether or not E-W had chosen to bid 6S.  Tip: Don’t be afraid to sacrifice.

Board 23 illustrates a point that Alan has made in the past, which is that in the pass out seat only bid a weak hand if you have Spades.  Here South and North each have 11 hcp and will pass on the first round.  If East also passes then she achieves a good result.  If East opens 1D then N-S will probably play in 2H or 2S, both of which make.  On Tuesday the Easts who passed had a joint top.

Board 26 illustrated the value of using a method to escape from 1NT* (especially when playing the 12-14 1INT).  The bidding probably starts 1NT – Pass – Pass – Double – Pass – Pass.  If West then Passes then E-W will get a bad result.  On Tuesday this happened at three tables and E-W scored -1100 once and -800 twice.  The standard escape mechanism for West is to Redouble asking her partner to bid her best suit.  On this hand this might not work very well as 2D* would also give a bad result for E-W.  But the chances are that the Double of 2D would be regarded as for take-out and that N-S would finish in a Spade part score contract.  Although this would succeed, it would give E-W a much better result.   Annette has taught me a method delightfully called the “Helvic Wriggle” whereby West’s Redouble would show a five-card suit.  East would bid 2C and West then has to Pass or correct – in this case Pass.  The advantage of this system on this particular hand is that 2C is a makeable contract.  (Of course in reality North would Double 2C and again N-S would play in Spades.)  Tip: If you are very weak, don’t allow partner to play in 1NT*.

On Board 34 all N-S pairs made 13 tricks but the slam (6S) was bid only twice.  (The grand slam depends on the Diamond finesse.  It is not good strategy to bid a grand slam on a 50% chance.)  How can 6S be bid?  South has a four-loser hand and a Spade suit.  Some people would open 2C with such a good hand.  The bidding might be: 2C – 3NT - 4S – 6S.  If South prefers to open 1S then the bidding might be: 1S - 2D - 3C - 3S - 4C (cue bid) - 4D (cue bid) – 4H (cue bid) – 6S.

Cheers

James

There were two hands on which splinter bids could have been used.

On Board 26, assuming that East passes, South will open 1H.  North can then respond 4C, a splinter bid showing a shortage in Clubs, four card support for Hearts and 12+ points.  South’s minor suit holdings suggest that North must have quite a few points in the majors and it should be possible for the partnership to reach a slam.  A Roman Key-Card Blackwood enquiry would result in a 5S response showing two key cards and the Queen of trumps.  6H could be bid with some confidence.  On Tuesday the contract every time the hand was played was 4H, making 12 or 13 tricks.  It was just a question of finding the Heart King, which was not difficult as the cards lay.

On Board 39 slam was reached on four out of the seven times that the hand was played.  Again there was an opportunity to use a splinter bid.  If West opens 1NT then East can respond with a Stayman 2C.  Following the 2S response East could then bid 4C showing a strong hand with four-card spade support and a shortage in Clubs.  This is actually not very encouraging for West, who might then be worried by her doubleton diamond (although she might think that with a singleton Club opposite her Club suit might be established with a ruffing finesse).  She might therefore sign off in 4S.  East however has a stronger hand with eight playing tricks opposite an opening hand and should continue bidding to the slam level.  Maybe on this hand the splinter bid would not have been so useful, basically because it would be East who would determine the final contract rather than West.

Cheers

James

Comments on hands from 14th January

Let’s start with Board 13 where virtually everyone played in a diamond part score but the question is, how does South make 13 tricks?

               N                             

            ♠  2                            

♥  J73                         

♦  87642                                 

   W      ♣ AQJ5      E               

♠  KT9              ♠  QJ6543                   

♥  KQ942          ♥  T8              

♦  Q                  ♦  53               

♣  KT98   S       ♣  742            

            ♠  A87                        

♥  A65                        

♦  AKJT9                                

♣  63                          

We’ll pass over the bidding and just look at the play.

As South, I got the lead of the HK which should be quite normal.

First, try the club finesse – it works.

Return to hand with a trump – the DQ falls.

Now play the SA and ruff a spade.

Cross back to hand drawing the last trump and ruff another spade.

Come back to hand using dummy’s last trump and play another trump.

We have reached this position (East’s holding doesn’t matter):

               N                             

            ♠  -                             

♥  J                            

♦  -                             

   W      ♣ AQ5       E               

♠  -                   ♠  QJ              

♥  Q                 ♥  -                 

♦                      ♦ 3                 

♣  KT9   S        ♣  7                

            ♠  -                             

♥  65                          

♦  A                            

♣  6             

Now South plays the squeeze card, the last trump.

If West discards the HQ then North’s C5 is thrown; declarer finesses again to take 2 club tricks and the 13^th trick is the HJ.

If West discards a club then the HJ is thrown; declarer finesses again, plays the CA to drop West’s CK and makes the 13^th trick with the C5.

Board 1 gave us a variation on a standard card play.

AQT3

63

How do you play this suit?

There are 2 important cards with the defence; the K and the J.

You play the 3 and call for the T from dummy.

Later, you play the 6 and call for the Q.  You only lose 2 tricks if both the K and J are with East – a 25% chance.

Here is the spade layout from Board 1:

            AQ752

KT43                6

            J98

This is the same as the problem I have just gone through except that here the 2 important cards with the defence are the K and the T.

So your plan is to lead the 8 and let it run.  It holds – that’s good news.

Now you play the 9.  Whatever West does, you have 5 spade tricks.

If by any chance you had played the Q on the first play then West would have held KT and on the next play would have covered your 9 and so established a spade trick for the defence.