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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

A Grand Journey.

Recently, in an A Point Tournament, among 24 pairs who sat North/South, only two pairs reached any slam and only one reached grand-slam. 13 tricks were easy to make. I thought it would be instructive if the Panel gave some guidelines on the approach to take in the bidding.

This was the problem I gave to the Panel:

Bridge in NZ.png nz map.jpg

 

A 8 6

A K Q 10 2

10 6

Q 10 2

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

Pass

1 ♣

Pass

1 

Pass

3 ♣

Pass

?

 

 

North has a good-looking 15 count, with club support. The main danger to a making slam must be the diamond suit as even with a total of 30-32 hcp, there could still be two top diamond losers.

Although most of the Panel came up with the same bid, there are differing meanings for that bid:

Bruce Anderson “4Club-small: Minorwood: over the most likely response of 4Heart-small-(3 key cards: Club-smallAK and Diamond-smallA (partner has a hand in the 16/18 point range with a good suit) I will bid 5Diamond-small, a specific king ask. If partner has 1 king, I will bid 7Club-small.”

Andy Braithwaite “4Club-small: either minorwood or suit setting inviting cues depending on your methods. A 4Diamond-small cue would be followed by key card and a 3 key card response to key card would be followed by king ask.”

Minorwood is a useful convention, perhaps less so when you are missing AK of a suit. Michael is no lover of this convention:

Michael Cornell “4Club-small: ( not silly Minorwood!) literally demanding a diamond cue, which I will follow with 4NT Roman Key Card.

I want be in 7 opposite Club-smallAKxxxxx and the Diamond-smallA – that is 12 tricks on top and partner can have more. Opposite a heart doubleton, there are 4 heart tricks nearly 55% of the time and any high spade honour  increases my squeeze chances. Easy hand!”

 

It is interesting that Michael quotes an 11-count for the jump to 3Club-small. Normally, the jump will show more than that though a good 15-count as South held is surely enough for the 3Club-small jump.

What is important, and so sensible, is that 4Club-small is game-forcing, never invitational.

 

Stephen Blackstock “4Club-small: In any sensible system, this is forcing. We do not structure our methods to allow stopping on a tiny target like four of a minor. Being able to set trumps with clarity is a valuable asset. 

 I understand 3Spade-small. This works well if South then bids 3NT, since a 4Club-small bid shows the nature of our 3Spade-small. However, if South bids 4Club-small, there is no convenient way to proceed.  I would probably then resort to Blackwood, which gets us to 7Club-small opposite three keys, but not 7NT. In a weak field, any making grand will do, but in a strong one, we will need to reach a sound 7NT if available.

 

More of looking for 7NT later. In the meantime, we do have a vote for 3Spade-small:

Anthony Ker “3Spade-small: I anticipate a 3NT response when I’ll continue with 4Club-small showing support and slam interest. If partner instead supports hearts, I’ll raise to 5Heart-small pinpointing the diamond problem. And if partner rebids 4Club-small, I will simply raise to 5Club-small. I am not expecting partner to have four spades on this auction so bidding a 3-carder should be safe enough.”

Using Key Card is:

Nigel Kearney “ 4NT: A simple approach looks best here. It's highly unlikely partner lacks a diamond control so I can use Blackwood and bid 7Club-small if we have three key cards and 6NT otherwise. In a very strong field, 7NT would be worth considering, but we might need to set up the fifth heart by ruffing and any making grand is usually a good score.”

 

However, an immediate 4Club-small seems the popular choice…and it is not ace-asking:

Wayne Burrows “4Club-small: easy! I cannot really imagine a second choice without some specialised agreement.
4Club-small should be a quite serious slam interest (or lack of interest in 3NT) otherwise I choose 3Diamond-small, 3Spade-small or 3NT instead.
Partner will cue and I imagine I am bidding Blackwood (RKCB) next and choosing between clubs and no trumps depending on how many key-cards partner has and how partner responds to a grand try if we have all the key-cards.”

Peter Newell “4Club-small: Forcing - time to show my excellent club support. Hopefully, South will cue bid diamonds and I will use Key Card. If South does not cue diamonds, it is either because South launches into Key Card themselves or has no diamond control in which case we will settle for 5Club-small.”

and with a South hand close to the actual:

Leon Meier “ 4Club-small: a slam try in clubs. Probably we have no major losers and we can sort clubs and diamonds for 1 or fewer losers. Give partner  

Spade-smallxx

Heart-smallxx

Diamond-smallAKx

Club-smallAKxxxx

   which is pretty marginal for a 3Club-small bid and we are nearly cold for grand.”

 

   Let’s see all four hands:

 

East Deals
None Vul

A 8 6

A K Q 10 2

10 6

Q 10 2

K Q J 5

5

9 7 5 4 3 2

9 8

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

10 9 3

J 9 8 6 4 3

Q J

7 4

 

7 4 2

7

A K 8

A K J 6 5 3

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

Pass

1 ♣

Pass

1 

Pass

3 ♣

Pass

4 ♣

Pass

4 

Pass

4 NT

Pass

5 

Pass

5 NT

Pass

6 

Pass

7 ♣

All pass

 

The Panel are recommending 4Club-small as suit-setting to be followed by a 4Diamond-small cue-bid. 5Diamond-small shows 0 or 3 key cards. In avoiding 5Heart-small (responder’s suit, to save confusion),5Spade-small would ask for the trump queen and 5NT side-suit kings, either number or specific, by choice. With South showing one (or Diamond-smallK), 13 tricks in 7Club-small would seem just about assured.

7NT seems dubious and is here a bid too far. However, the only pair to bid grand, Liz and Blair Fisher, had that covered too.

Blair upgraded his 15-count South hand by a point (just as South can do by bidding 3Club-small in a natural auction) and then relayed to find his partner’s shape and controls. He even got to ask if she held the Heart-smallJ and with the answer, “no”, settled for 7Club-small.

One’s natural system may not be able to do that but with the clear agreement that 4Club-small is a slam try (maybe even “minorwood”), the route to 7Club-small should be reasonably straightforward.

Only in one’s worst nightmare, and certainly not at the bridge table, could West hold 7 diamonds and only one club, allowing East to ruff the second round of diamonds. Declarer will here win Spade-smallK lead, play 2 rounds of trumps and claim.

Next time, perhaps, for the other 23 North-Souths!

Richard Solomon

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