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It’s Fri   Day for JIN CLUB players… and others, too!

Decision Time.

Bridge is not always a straightforward game. Sometimes there are decisions to be made even when your partner puts your side to game. Take a look at the hand and bidding sequence below. North has bid 3NT. Is that to be the final contract?

 

After you opened a 12-14 1NT, your partner showed at least 5 spades by using the “transfer” bid 2. You had to bid 2. 3NT now said North had enough high card points to play game. Oh, is that OK with you?

One advantage of the transfer system is that North can offer a choice of games by bidding as above. 3NT is not a “we must play there” but asks you the opener to pass or bid 4, depending on your hand.

Decision Time!

With four spades, you would bid 4 as you had a 9-card fit in spades.

With two spades, you would pass as you do not want to play 4 with less than 8 trumps between the two hands.

 The interesting decision comes when you have three spades. You do have a fit in spades (8 trumps) but if your hand is really flat (say 1x 4-card and 3x3 card suits), it may well be correct to play 3NT. However, the South hand above is not that flat…and a possible danger might eventuate if you played 3NT:

 

The play in 3NT

West led K. Suddenly clubs was a problem. South could only duck for one round before being forced to win A. The best way to play the deal would be to play A and assuming Q did not appear, play low to the J, hoping for a successful finesse. Even if this finesse worked, South would still need to take a successful finesse in one of the red suits to come to 9 tricks.

However, when East turned up with Q, the defence quickly took that trick and 4 club tricks to defeat the contract.

Could South have anticipated that problem? The answer is “yes” as South had only two clubs and North had 2 or 3 (had they 4 clubs, they would have bid 3 not 3NT). South’s holding in the black suits suggested that bidding 4 might be a good option.

The play in 4

Let’s look at the play in 4. Same lead but South can win the lead and play a club back… because they intend to ruff the third round of clubs in their own hand. Even if West does not play clubs immediately, South can get to dummy in diamonds to play a third round themselves. 

South will still need to have one successful finesse out of three (finesse for Q, K and K) but if one does not work, then it is really your unlucky day!

Meanwhile, in 3NT, South needed the spade finesse and one other to work. 4 was a better, much safer contract. South’s cards suggested, did not guarantee, but suggested that this might be the case.

So, South had to realise they were being given a choice of game contracts and then decide which would be the better game to play. Not straightforward but pretty satisfying when you get it right!

Richard Solomon  

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