Stick Your Neck Out
Bridge, as we know is a bidders game. Experts will argue how much of their result they get from the bidding, but they will all agree that it is a lot more than 50%. It makes sense as it is hard to get a good result if you’re in the wrong contract! To prevent the opponents to get to their best contract it is important to throw spanners in their wheels!
Board: 12
Dealer: West
Vul: N/S
North
♠ AKQ107
♥ A763
♦ J104
♣ J
West East
♠ 93 ♠ 62
♥ QJ109854 ♥ K2
♦ 962 ♦ KQ7
♣ 3 ♣ 1097542
South
♠ J854
♥ -
♦ A853
♣ AKQ86
Only one pair - John Holland & Jackie Pye managed to bid their way to the laydown grand slam in spades.
South West North East
pass 1♠ pass
2NT pass 3♥ pass
4♣ pass 4♥ pass
4NT pass 5♣ pass
5♦ pass 5♥ pass
7♠ All pass
Tis is an impressive sequence by all means. 2 NT was 4 card support and forcing to game. 3♥ was natural. 4♣ & 4♥ was cue bids and John used RKCB to find 3 key cards and when he asked for the queen, Jackie admitted that she held it and the Grand was reached.
At all the other tables East/West stuck their necks out, not many as much as at our table!
South West North East
2♥ dbl 3♥
4♥ pass 4♠ 5♥
6♠ All pass
2♥ is a good opening on that 3 counter. It might overstate the hcp count by a point or two and lie about the length, but it takes a lot of space. East’s 3♥ takes away more space. I asked for Janet’s suit, and she showed her spade suit. I was about to pull 4NT out of the bidding box on BBO, but East threw even more spanners into the wheels with 5♥.
At the time, I could not think of anything better that to bid 6♠, but in hindsight I have realised that to bid 6♥ in this position must be a grand slam try of sorts in spades? Never the less, Tomi Komoly & Mark Gomme deserves praise for how difficult they made it for us to get to 7♠ . A lesson in Sticking Your Neck Out!
Espen Gisvold
PS
If you see a hand you think is worth mentioning please leave me a note at: Espen
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