1st December 2025
This week saw players competing for the club championships which ran alongside three tables of non-qualifiers playing the same hands.
I am going to look a board 5 which saw South with a long spade suit.
North will start the bidding with a pass and East will swiftly follow.
South now looks at his 7 card spade suit which is doing a good impression of the proverbial weak kitten and has to consider if they
want to get those spades into the auction probably with a bid of 3 spades.
Before bidding this, South should consider the following factors.
On the negative side they have a terrible spade suit, they are vunerable against non vunerable and they have defensive tricks if the opposition bid to game.
On the plus side they are opposite a passed partner so there is no danger of bidding togame, they are pre-empting West who may well have a very big hand,
most pairs can’t double 3 level pre-empts for penalties
and it is pairs so if they go for a huge score they can pick it back up by playing the next board well.
The final plus factor is that you are pre-empting in spades which means any overcalls have to be a level higher.
Looking at the travellers it appears that most pairs chose to bid their spades as 7 of the pairs ended up playing in that denomination.
The play is fairly straightforward. After the K of diamonds lead South will be able to throw the losing heart onto the 13th club (they break) for 10 tricks
but if the hearts are led by E when they get in with the AS it looks like West will make the KH leaving declarer on 9 tricks.
However rising with the Ace of hearts and playing on the clubs still allows S to throw the JH on the last club which can then be ruffed with the KS which is a natural trump trick anyway.
Tip of the week.
When pre-empting consider the table position, the vunerability and the quality and denominationof the suit being bid.
The analysis is my own opinion and you may well disagree. Always make sure you know your own system before you play.
Mark Rixon
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