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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

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Make the best of a bad bid!

Well, you have got to, haven’t you? The bidding is in the past. You have reached the wrong game contract and you could be heading for a disastrous result. That is no reason to give up.

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North Deals
Both Vul

Q

K Q 7

Q 9 6

A Q 7 5 4 3

   

N

W

 

E

S

   
 

A 5

A J 9 8 5

4 3

J 9 8 6

 

West

North

East

South

 

1 ♣

1 ♠

2 

2 ♠

3 ♣

Pass

3 NT

All pass

 

 

 

The game is Matchpoints and those overtricks do count, a lot! After opening a natural 4+ 1Club-small, North paused after hearing 2Spade-small on his right and rebid his club suit. With club support and a spade hold, you decide to chance on 3NT.

Diamonds? No-one leads diamonds especially when they have bid and supported spades!

You are correct, too! West leads Spade-small4, but not before North gave another long thought before passing 3NT. You play Spade-smallQ from dummy and East contributes Spade-smallK. There really is no point in ducking and so you take your ace.

2 Questions

What was North thinking about after the 2Spade-small bid and over your 3NT bid?

How are you going to play this contract?

North, indeed, misbid. They should have realised that 2Heart-small after the 1Spade-small overcall, always promises at least a 5-card suit. With only 4 hearts, you would make a negative double. So, with 3-card heart support, North should have bid 3Heart-small, even really 4Heart-small (13 working hcp and a very useful singleton) not 3Club-small. 3Club-small shows a reasonable hand and after your 2Heart-small and the 2Spade-small bid, showing at least 10hcp, should not end the auction. Yet, it would have been wiser for North to have told you about their heart holding. You would then never have bid 3NT but 4Heart-small if partner had only bid 3Heart-small. Even with only 10hcp, you knew about the double fit and that alone makes game worth a shot.

That was why North was pondering over 3NT. Should they have bid 4Heart-small even then? The answer was definitely “yes, please”.

Yet, they did not! At least West led a spade and not a diamond. How to make the best of this? You have Spade-smallA, and 5 heart tricks. All depended on bringing home the club suit without loss. Where is Club-smallK?

South proceeded to cash 5 heart tricks before playing Club-small8. It was South’s turn to err, not just practically but psychologically, too. We will see that North-South scored very well on this board because South inserted Club-smallQ in dummy and all was very well:

North Deals
Both Vul

Q

K Q 7

Q 9 6

A Q 7 5 4 3

J 9 7 6 4

4 2

K J 7 5

K 10

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K 10 8 3 2

10 6 3

A 10 8 2

2

 

A 5

A J 9 8 5

4 3

J 9 8 6

 

West

North

East

South

 

1 ♣

1 ♠

2 

2 ♠

3 ♣

Pass

3 NT

All pass

 

 

 

5 heart tricks, 6 club tricks and Spade-smallA making +690, beating almost all in 4Heart-small. A diamond lead restricts those in hearts to 11 tricks. After a spade lead, South can win, ruff a spade in dummy and via the club finesse make all 13 tricks, as long as the club suit is played correctly.

The club suit does pose a little problem if you lead Club-small6 to Club-smallQ in dummy. Next you play Club-smallA and suddenly you find you have blocked yourself from getting to dummy to cash the last 2 clubs as dummy’s next highest club was Club-small7 and South would be left with Club-smallJ8. To avoid this, South must either lead Club-smallJ or Club-small8 on the first round. Club-smallJ is better and we will soon see why.

Finding the king!

Back then to 3NT and our South did at least anticipate a possible blockage in the club suit by leading Club-small8 after cashing 5 rounds of hearts. However, their play of first cashing the hearts was wrong on two counts. Say West held all three missing clubs. The correct club card to play on the first round is Club-smallJ.

Then, West would almost certainly play Club-smallK and you would need to get back to the South hand to take a second club finesse, of Club-small10. If you had started with 5 rounds of hearts, there would be no way back.

The psychological game!

So, at trick 2, South plays Club-smallJ and not just for the above reason. Remember, South had not shown any club support. It might well be the correct defensive play even above for West to cover with Club-smallK. That would give East a club trick if they held Club-small 982. West could not tell.

Also, many defenders cover Club-smallJ in this situation even when there can be no gain. It would take a very good defender, holding Club-smallK10, to play Club-small10 at trick 2. When the king appears, your problems will be over. And if they play Club-small10 and you try to drop the singleton Club-smallK in the East hand, pay West the compliment of their “in tempo” Club-small10…and at the bar afterwards suggest to North that next time they do not just “think” of bidding hearts but actually do so! A lot less stress on you if they do!

Richard Solomon

 

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