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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

It’s Friyay 2.png day… for Junior, Intermediate and Novice players….and others!

Know the Question.

It is hard to give an answer if you are not sure of what the question means. That caused an inferior contract to be reached on the following deal. So, straightaway, over to you. Two questions:

·       What does the question, partner's last bid, mean?

·       What is your answer? 
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8 6 2

A K 8 6 2

A J 6 4

8

 

West

North

East

South

 

1 

Pass

1 ♠

Pass

2 

Pass

3 ♣

Dbl

?

 

 

The first point to understand is that we play the bid of the 4th suit (3Club-small) as asking rather than showing. If South had a club suit, they could bid the appropriate number of no-trumps. Either North or South appears to have the other three suits covered and South would have a cover in clubs for no-trumps.

What, though, is the question? At the table, North thought it was simply asking for a club hold for no-trumps. They did not have one and so they simply bid 3Heart-small.
South decided that the heart game was the best option and raised to 4Heart-small, meaning that a rather awkward contract had been reached.

North Deals
Both Vul

8 6 2

A K 8 6 2

A J 6 4

8

J 7 3

5 4

7

Q J 10 9 5 4 2

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K 9

Q J 7 3

Q 10 9 3

K 7 6

 

A Q 10 5 4

10 9

K 8 5 2

A 3

 

West

North

East

South

 

1 

Pass

1 ♠

Pass

2 

Pass

3 ♣

Dbl

3 

Pass

4 

All pass

 

 

 

West had made a good lead-directing double and East obliged by leading Club-small6. 4Heart-small can be made but it is tricky. Declarer wins Club-smallA and plays Heart-smallAK but must not play a third round and must play on spades, not diamonds. (The defence can just score 2 hearts and 1 spade trick.)  In the event, North played a third round of trumps and East played a 4th round before playing Club-smallK. No joy for the declarer as a spade had to be lost and declarer had run out of trumps. :(

South’s 3Club-small was a very good bid because they had a club hold, but 3NT is doomed on a club lead. 3Club-small asked for more information about their partner’s hand, including but not only did they have a club hold? North had already shown 5 hearts and 4 diamonds by bidding 2Diamond-small. What South did not know was that North had 3 spades. North should have bid 3Spade-small showing a three card suit (they had denied 4 on the previous round of bidding.) South could then choose the contract, in this case 4Spade-small. Thus, the bidding should have gone:

West              North             East                South
                        1Heart-small                   Pass                1Spade-small
Pass                  2Diamond-small                   Pass                3Club-small
x                      3Spade-small                   Pass                4Spade-small
All Pass
Note that if South had bid 3Spade-small on the second round, that would have shown a 6-card suit and, by agreement, may or may not have been forcing to game. So, South bid 3Club-small to find out a little more about their partner’s hand before committing to a game contract.

Against 4Spade-small, West might lead Diamond-small7 or Club-smallQ. Either way, South can win in hand and ruff their losing club in dummy. Now, play a spade to the Spade-smallT losing to the jack. Whatever West returns (probably a heart), South wins in dummy (Heart-smallK) and plays dummy’s remaining trump. The news is very good as Spade-smallK appears. The contract is made for the loss of 2 diamond tricks and 1 spade trick. 
question.jpg

Thus, remember that 4th Suit Forcing is not simply asking for a hold in the unbid suit but asks more about opener’s hand….oh and remember it only applies when your side bids all 4 suits, not when one is bid by the opponents.

So, it helps to know the question being asked in deciding on your answer!

Richard Solomon
Next week, something like 190 Kiwi players will be crossing to Queensland for the great Gold Coast Bridge tournament. Next week’s hands will come from that event. 


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