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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Big hand: little hand.

There are frequent discussions about how forcing a sequence is when one partner opens 2Club-small. I have already stated that I think 2Club-small is best treated as forcing to game and that the partner with less than nothing just has to keep going until a game is reached.

Today’s responding hand has a little more than “less than nothing”. Game has been reached but the onus appears to be on this weak hand as to whether the bidding goes any further.

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10 7 5

J 7

A J 10 7 6 3

6 5

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

Pass

2 ♣

Pass

2 

Pass

3 ♣

Pass

3 

Pass

3 ♠

Pass

4 

Pass

4 ♠

Pass

?

 

 

2Diamond-small was negative or “waiting” and 3Diamond-small and 4Diamond-small were natural. Partner seems to be almost “all black” with 4Spade-small showing 5 spades and 6+ clubs. Where to from here?

Note that South has gone out of their way to show their longer suit first. 

The question is how forcing is 4Spade-small? Opposite a weak hand with mainly red cards, there is a case for passing, though even with 2 cards in each black suit, 5Club-small should be the bid since partner went out of their way to emphasize club length.

Yet, with any kind of spade support, 4Spade-small should be forcing. That bid was the only way partner could express their shape and they might be massively strong. So, with an ace which may or may not be useful and a handy trump holding, you are certainly worth a move…but which move? I showed some interest in slam by raising to 5Spade-small and partner duly accepted.

East Deals
E-W Vul

10 7 5

J 7

A J 10 7 6 3

6 5

9 8 6

9 8 6 4

K 9 5

Q 9 4

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

Q 3

K Q 5 3 2

Q 8 4 2

8 7

 

A K J 4 2

A 10

A K J 10 3 2

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

Pass

2 ♣

Pass

2 

Pass

3 ♣

Pass

3 

Pass

3 ♠

Pass

4 

Pass

4 ♠

Pass

5 ♠

Pass

6 ♠

All pass

 

 

 

West led Heart-small9 and the deal seemed to be about black suit queens…and finding a way to dummy to dispose of the heart loser on the Diamond-smallA. There are two ways to get there, firstly if the Spade-smallQ falls in one or two rounds and if not, then by ruffing the third round of clubs, successful if the defender with Spade-smallQ held at least three clubs.

This day was a nice day as the Spade-smallQ fell doubleton. Unless you found your way to grand slam (a very bad contract), you would now secure your contract by playing a third round of trumps to dummy to reach Diamond-smallA. Then, you can take the club finesse not caring if it fails. Of course, if you needed all 13 tricks, the lay-out is extremely kind and you must reach dummy via a club ruff after cashing the two high spades.

The South hand is extremely powerful and well worthy of a 2Club-small opening. An example of what can happen if you only open 1Club-small occurred at one table:

West                    North             East                South

                                                      Pass                1Club-small

Pass                      1Diamond-small                   1Heart-small                2Spade-small

All Pass

North really should have bid again, 3Diamond-small perhaps (they had their 6hcp, after all) but they could never imagine their partner was so strong. Some fault there on both sides of the table.   

So, the deal was a reward for sensible bidding and careful play. In the Open Field at the Gold Coast, out of 144 tables,  24 slams failed while a further 64 pairs failed to reach slam. Food for thought.

Richard Solomon

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