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Potential…and Possibilities.

Are you tired of those flat 3 counts? Then, today is your day. We have a different kind of problem…and we are going to be nice to you and say you are playing Pairs. What then is your next bid and what is your ultimate destination?

 

5 shows 0 or 3 key cards. Would your bidding differ if you were playing “2 over 1 Game Forcing” as opposed to Standard American or Acol?

You have a nice hand and although you are not over the moon at your partner’s jump in spades, the great potential of your hand is still there. It would be a sad day when partner’s jump to 3 did not contain one of the top two club honours, indeed a very sad one if you committed to slam and a club was led successfully. Hence, a Key Card Ask in spades seems justified, though a 4 cue-bid first might resolve the club position.

Surely here the 5 response shows the 3 missing Key Cards. One’s next move may depend on system. Where 3 merely shows a strong hand, it would be wise to check for the Q. Is your partnership comfortable with 5, your initial suit, being that ask? It should be. Partner is fixed on their spade suit being trumps. You cannot expect them to read 5 as to play. The response is that they do have the Q but no outside kings.

Where to then? Surely the same place when East had bid 3 in a 2 over 1 situation. There, the jump should show a solid or almost solid suit (some partnership agreement there for the precise meaning) but were they not to hold Q, then they should have extra length to compensate. Really, with that system, there is no need for further questions.

The question to yourself

And that is which grand slam? A choice of 3. You have a pretty good suit playable opposite a void for no losers. Partner has the same or close to with the other major. Whether the game is Pairs or Teams, there seems little merit in playing in a suit.

No trumps scores more if all slams make. If the hearts produce 7 tricks, then opposite AKQ A, we have 13 on top including AK. The same could be true counting spade length when there is a bad heart break. On a really bad day, each opponent will have a deep winner in a major suit. To cater for a bad break in just one, 7NT seems to outweigh 7 of either major.

The only reason to try 7 of a suit would be 7 if East held AQ and needed a finesse there for a 13^th trick. That’s rather unlikely. 7NT it is and now is the time to find out whether partner gave you the correct Key Card response. Of course they did!

 

A day of good breaks with West being able to claim at least 13 tricks after a minor suit lead when both opponents followed to the first round of hearts. There were 17 tricks in total!

Yet, in an Open Pairs event, only 6 out of 16 pairs bid to grand and only 3 of them in no trumps. 6NT only received 2 votes from the rest. Surely an easy hand for those who play 2 over 1 but also quite biddable by the rest, too.

The deal demonstrates the problem of strong jump shifts where 3 over West’s 1 cramps the bidding though even there East will do the key card asking in hearts.

Thus, opportunity lost for the majority of the East-Wests. Back to those flat 3 counts!

Richard Solomon

Remember the on-line Swiss Pairs events this Good Friday raising funds for this year's NZ International Teams. 
There's an Open and an Intermediate/Junior event. See this web site for further details. 

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