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A Secret on the side: Part 2.

Yesterday, we saw an advantage of disregarding a major second suit when it came to opening the bidding. It rather put the opposition off a relatively easy defence. What then here?

 

2 is a standard Weak 2. Pairs is the game.  What would you feel like bidding now?

If your answer is “nothing”, then North will make a slightly nervous but fairly obvious 3NT call. They might do so after any bid you might make though it is possible then that 3NT will not be the final contract.

At the table, West decided to compete with 3. After all, partner always has a decent suit for their opening Weak 2, don’t they?! That produced a 5 bid from North and that concluded a rather unsatisfactory auction for East- West.

 

Of course, North could still have bid 3NT. Maybe they should have. Against 3NT, East would be hard-pressed not to lead their long suit. As you can see, the lead of either major will give North a very comfortable 10 tricks (though Q switch from West after a spade lead may give North some cause for concern) , with -430 being almost as bad a result as East-West could get. It would be even worse if West had won an initial heart lead and cashed A…- 460.

How bad, therefore, could a bid of 3 by West be? The deal could be a total misfit for East-West and probably 3 should show a 6+ card suit. Yet, we all could have 3 hearts in our Weak 2 opening, even if you "know" your partner will never have 4.

North might still try 3NT but East will have every good reason to bid 4….and then surely one of the defenders could find 5 over their opponent’s 5 bid? If 5 never came, even better, as West can make 10 tricks in the heart game even on a heart lead from North. Ruff a club..back to A and ruff a second club. Ruff a spade or play a diamond and eventually ruff a third club. That means North is out of black cards and with only 2 diamond losers and the K as well, this rather fortuitous game makes.

5 is potentially very easy to make. Let’s assume West starts with A. West avoids playing hearts but switches to a diamond. Now, declarer wins and plays K and even though West ruffs this and exits a trump, South can safely ruff their 2 low spades in dummy and then draw trump for 11 tricks.

It is a little trickier if West switches to a trump at trick 2. After all, they know from East’s opening that South holds 4 spades. Declarer wins and cashes K, ruffed, with West now playing their last trump.

Declarer still has 2 losing spades in hand. They ruff one in dummy and can ruff a heart back to hand before playing off their 4 remaining trumps. With one trump remaining after 5 rounds of trumps in total, a heart ruff and three rounds of spades, these cards remain:

The 6 now squeezes both opponents out of their diamond guard and declarer will be able to cash diamonds for 3 tricks to make their game, against best defence.

So, even if West defends accurately, they should not be able to beat 5. After the Weak 2 opening, West had to call their heart suit just in case their partner had 3..or more!... hearts. It would have been easier this time had East not opened the bidding and West had overcalled South’s 1 opening with 1.

Oh, so you would open 3 or 4 on South’s hand? Maybe you are luckier than me as when I hold such a hand as South, my partner holds 4 or 5 spades and we lose our major fit.

So, perhaps, it is fine to pre-empt with 4 hearts on the side but not 4 spades? Or just keep pre-empting and not worry about the occasional loss.

This board was played at 21 tables. 5 was bid and made 7 times, twice doubled. 4 tables played in a club partial. Only 4 tables played in hearts. One made 4x while two pairs failed in 4 and only 1 reached and failed in 5 for a good East-West score. Two North’s made an overtrick in 3NT and the other tables played in unusual contracts.

Just to emphasise the vagaries of our game, some of the declarers in clubs made 12 tricks after A lead. Presumably A came next though there still seems to be a spade loser. Try the play.  It’s an interesting game is Bridge.

Richard Solomon

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