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Pass out Problems.

An unusual situation to look at from a hand from the Gold Coast Congress Bobby Richman Pairs.

                              

 

You open a rather light 1 and hear a diamond overcall on your left but no-one else has anything to say. Are you going to pass this deal out or do you have anything else to say?

Before we look at the deal, let’s salute those who did well on the first three days of this hugely popular Congress. 
(Kiwis and their partners..top 10 in top sections and otherwise top 5)

Apologies if we have missed any names. 

Bobby Richman Open Pairs
Section A
3rd	Leon Meier		GeO Tislevoll
8th	Michael Ware		Pete Hollands
Section B
1st	Adam Kaplan		Matt Brown
4th	Andi Boughey		Stephen Williams
Section C
4th	Liz Burrows		Sandra Coleman
Section D
4th	William Liu		John Wang
Section E
1st	Graham Wakefield		Niek  Van Vught
Section F
5th	Mindy Wu		Anna St Clair
Section G
1st	Hamish Brown		Johanna Perfect
Section I
1st	Kelvin Tibble		Ian Southen
Intermediate Section
Section A
6th	Brad Tattersfield		Jan Borren
8th	Brent Mandel		Barbara Imlach
Section B
2nd	Rochelle van Heuven		Tim Rigter
5th	Bigi Cameron		Emma Russell
Section C
5th	Fiona Smith		Keith Mabin
Section D
5th	Margie Robbie		Jenni Borren
Restricted Section
Section B
4th	Viv Hurst		Linda Hurst
Reg and Joan Swiss Pairs			Sunday
3rd	Greg Buzzard		Harry Shepherd
4th	Gary Foidl		Yuzhong Chen
Monday Butler Swiss Pairs
1st	Herman Yuan		Usher Zeng

 

Back then to our “pass -out problem”. It seems that one very likely scenario is that your partner is waiting for a re-opening double to penalise 2. However, is your hand really suitable for such an action? You have no quick tricks, barely much sign of many “slow” ones, either. With one’s opponents not vulnerable, your partner will need to produce a lot of winners to make penalising worthwhile.

The alternative is to rebid your heart suit. No doubt that would produce a fairly swift no-trump bid from your partner and your hand is unsuitable for no-trumps, too. However, 2 was the bid South chose and fairly swiftly your side was in game, though not the one you expected:

 

With a high diamond start, South certainly has chances. Ruff and play a trump and when West ducks play a second trump. West wins and only a spade to East and a diamond continuation challenges declarer. They have to ruff and can draw trumps but no-one has any trumps left. Declarer should be able to play clubs correctly for four tricks but when they play Q at trick 12 and as long as East has retained their third diamond, K will take trick 13 to defeat the contract by one trick.

Of course, it was correct for South to bid 2 since 2 would make comfortably, doubled or not. It was strange that East did not find either a 2 or 3 bid at their first opportunity. Neither happened. 4 is indeed a save over a 3 contract if East bids the suit and occasionally was a very profitable one when the precise defence found above did not occur.

We love to re-open at a low level for our partner to penalise an opposition contract. However, some hands, like the South hand above, just do not merit that action. Our South did not record a plus score though the small minus justified South’s balancing action in the pass-out seat.

Richard Solomon

 

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