Tip No.9

This week I would like to talk about a hand which shows how playing in an 8-card major fit when available is usually better than playing in 3NT.

                                          ♠    9 8 5                                Dealer South

                 ♡   Q 6 2                                All vulnerable

                 ♢   J 7 5 4  

♠  J 3 2                              ♣   K J 10                   ♠    K Q 10

♡  9 4 3                                                               ♡   A K 10 7 5

♢  K 10 2                                                            ♢   A 3

♣  A Q 5 2                        ♠    A 7 6 4                ♣   9 8 7

                 ♡   J 8

                 ♢   Q 9 8 6

                 ♣   6 4 3

Playing in a recent county competition there were three passes round to me as East.  I opened 1H showing 12-19 points and 4 or more hearts.  Our opponents were silent throughout and my partner, John, responded 2C showing 10 or more points and 4 or more clubs.  I rebid 2NT showing 15-19 points and a balanced or fairly balanced hand.  John knows now that we have enough points for game and is also balanced so could bid 3NT.  However, he also knows that I could have 5 hearts for my no trump rebid and so he bid 3H which is forcing and shows 3-card support (he has already denied 4-card support on his first bid as his first choice would be to support my major).  I am now able to bid 4H and play there.  It turned out that 4H made exactly giving us a score of 420 points and if we had played in 3NT that too would have made exactly and given us just 400 points.  When playing Duplicate Bridge an extra score of 20 points is worth a great deal because the result is all about comparisons with others playing the same hand.  However, if playing Chicago scoring (which is usually used when playing at home) if would not be worth very much at all, just the 20 points added to the overall total.  This means your tactics should change depending on the situation in which you find yourself playing.

Contact June Booty on 07846 397875 or junetaplin@live.co.uk for information about Bridge classes.