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BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

So you thought 15-17 was a range in respect of strong no trump openings or overcalls? That maybe but at Akarana Bridge Club, it spelt out some boards which attracted some rather hefty scores.

Board 15 was fairly tame at all bar 2 tables. Most played the no trump game with optimistic Wests giving them their third overtrick with a do or die J lead:

 

Two pairs played 6NT with a 50% success rate but there was action of a different kind at another table:

West          North         East            South

                                                          1NT (12-15)

Pass            2 ¹                   Pass            3 (maximum, both majors)

x                 xx                All Pass

¹ range-finder

West was always going to score 4 trump tricks and East the A but when East managed to score their singleton trump on the third round of spades, the hand disintegrated with the contract 3 down for -1600. Imagine if it had been Teams and teammates had brought back -1440… a 3040 difference!

On then to Board 16 where 4 North-South pairs paid the price big time for their phantom dive:

 

If you ignore the North-South cards, then 4by West is a fair contract but likely to fail. On the actual lie, it has a slim chance, well let’s say minute chance on a low trump lead from North but has zero chance once the defence start their cross-ruff. West would be very unimpressed to not even score their singleton A. Deal Master Pro has East West making 2 and 2NT but not even 1! Despite this, 6 tables saw North-South venture to the 5 level, either where they had a fit, in hearts (2 pairs escaped the lash!) or else where South insisted on their less than robust 8 bagger. Four North-South pairs recorded -800 or worse.

On then to Board 17 where it was much nicer to be East-West.

 

 

 

Above is one way to reach the best spot. 3 showed at least one 4 card major with 3 showing 4 spades. After 3, the next three bids showed either 1^st or 2^nd round controls in the suits bid. East knew his partner had at most one heart (4  cue without either top heart )and after confirming his partner had the top 2 spades (5), he made a grand slam try looking for extra help in clubs (6). West might not have had any but with plenty of undisclosed assets elsewhere, bidding grand was easy.

An alternative approach over the 4 cue-bid would be for West to jump to 5, exclusion key-card Blackwood. The response would show two key cards with the trump queen…and again 7 would be reached easily. Only 4 pairs out of 16 reached this contract though two more played 7NT with only one pair making it.

In fact, this contract is cold even without taking the diamond finesse. Win the major suit lead (say a spade) and start on the top diamonds (a claim if the J appears) to be followed by four rounds of spades finishing in the East hand. Notice even before the top hearts are played North has to discard a club to keep 4 hearts.

 

A diamond and a club are discarded from dummy on the top two hearts. South has to throw a club on the third top heart to keep the J and suddenly declarer has 3 club tricks. Nice.

However, we did mention the word “blood” at the start and at one table, there was an extremely ugly contract. A few North’s decided they had paid their table money and were not to be confined to silence. At one table, North opened a Multi 2 and South replied 2. A take-out double from West ended the bidding. It is doubtful whether South actually thanked their partner very loudly for dummy but South was not to be denied three tricks, -1100 and a mere 1 imp loss on the datum -1080 score. If only more than 5 pairs had made grand slams.

Richard Solomon

 

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