Leslie Geraghty drew my attention to an interesting hand which appeared in the Irish Times recently. Playing against him one night, he asked had I heard of 5 NT as a Grand Slam force. As it happens I had, though I didn’t really understand it. I had been watching internationals playing on Realbridge (I think it was last year’s Lady Milne) and the 5 NT bid had appeared out of nowhere. I thought there had been a mistake and the player meant to bid 4NT, but when I asked Eamon about it a day or two later, he told me it was a grand slam force. I intended to look up what it meant, but promptly forgot all about it, until Leslie mentioned it.
This is the hand and the way the bidding went……
North 3 hearts
South 5 NT
North 7 hearts
5NT is asking North to bid 7 hearts if they have 2 of the top trumps.
Very clever!
Because this was a short ‘interesting hand’ I decided to make a few, what I hope are helpful, comments about the recent Captain’s prize events. Colette Moreau (Tuesday night Captain) and myself, set up our competitions for the Captain’s Prizes the same way. In general N/S’s were all A’s and Master’s and E/W’s were B’s and Novices, with all sections and both weeks being merged at the end, to produce one overall winner, with category prizes for best A, B, Novice etc. I thought it was fair, though on reflection, it may not have been the best set up (It’s very difficult to know what IS best in these situations, but I digress…..) however it did give me the opportunity as member development officer to see some basic errors, that newer players mightn’t be aware of…..
1. If the opponents have opened and you have an opening hand but no 5 card suit…..you double, asking your partner to bid their best suit. You do NOT overcall with only 4 cards in a suit. It is asking for trouble.
2. Bidding NT after the opps have called a suit 100% promises a stopper in that suit. So your partner opens and the opps overcall hearts (for example)…. if you now bid NT you are GUARANTEEING you can stop the hearts. If you have 6 to 9 points but no heart stopper (and no support for partner’s suit) you double. You don’t bid at the 2 level and you definitely don’t bid 1NT.
3. Reverse. A reverse by opener shows 16 plus points. You can not go above the barrier with less than that. What is the ‘barrier’ you may well ask….the barrier is created by your own opening bid….example below.
If you open 1 club, with 14 points, the barrier is 2 clubs, (unless you can support the suit your partner bids). Suppose partner bids 1 heart….you can bid 1 spade, 2 clubs or 2 hearts. Any other bid is giving your partner incorrect information and it is highly likely you will end up in a contract that has no chance of making. I know this is a difficult enough concept and it is frequently challenging to find a 2nd bid; this is why we are told when you open, you need to have a rebid more or less ready. So with 5 clubs, 4 diamonds, 2 hearts, 2 spades and 14 points, as tempting as it is to bid 2 diamonds after partner’s heart response, it is totally incorrect to do so. Your rebid is 2 clubs.
4. Going to the 2 level….if your partner opens a heart and you bid at the 2 level and change the suit….you are guaranteeing at least 10 points. I saw people bidding at the 2 level with 6 points and this is a surefire way to find trouble.
Sometimes these errors resulted in people falling into the correct contracts accidentally and getting a good percentage, but that is not the point. Overcalling with 4 cards or going to the 2 level with 6 or 7 points might occasionally yield a good score, but more often than not, will result in disaster. So try to bear these tips in mind.
Another small item I noticed was a lot of people themselves announcing ‘having none’. This is fine for your partner to ask you, but you do NOT say it yourself. If you do, you are drawing partner’s attention to the possibility of a ruff. It is up to your partner to notice this themselves. If they do notice, they can of course ask you ‘having none partner’, to prevent a renege before it is established. But you yourself do not call attention to it. Somebody told me that they had been taught they must say this and I understand when you first start bridge, it is useful so you check on yourself, but once you start playing in the club you need to stop
saying it. I guarantee you John Murray or Pat Cassidy or Rosemary O’Brien already know you have none anyway!!
Finally I also saw some really good play and indeed my own Captains prize was won by an A2 and a B player who tore through the field the first week with a phenomenal score of 73% or thereabouts. They followed up the 2nd week finishing in 7th place, proving the first week was no fluke at all. This was in a field of 60 pairs! Their score over the 2 weeks was 65.63%. So really well done Fran Daly and Helen Waugh.
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