All News

The Art of Diving

Two boards offered East-West the chance of diving at perhaps uncomfortable levels but few achieved the optimum results on the two boards. Certainly, one required North-South to take mildly aggressive action before the “dive” was necessary but what is your feeling holding:

-

 J543

 109752

9543

and with only the opposition vulnerable, as East, you see a sequence like the following:

West          North         East            South

                                                          1 (maybe, 2+, maybe 3+ clubs)

1              1              ?

“The Law” says you should bid 3 but, really, you do not want to give them any space and so go straight to game. South and West pass that but North tries 4NT, presumably key card in support of the last bid suit by the opponents, spades. You could intervene again but it would not matter as South can comfortably show one or four key cards and North jumps to 6. What now? How much defence does your partner have? Only one East-West pair thought “not enough”. When you see the West hand below, you might wonder if West could have moved to the 5 level over 4 before North took action but:

1. West’s spade holding was hardly ideal.
2. if West did and North jumped to 6, would either defender know that the dive was right? There would have been no ace ask and as we will see on the second deal below, aces can be pretty important at the 6 level:

 

At 6 of the 12 tables, North was allowed to play 6. Only Barry Palmer and Neil Stuckey moved on to grand which cost 800, 4 down (South can gain the lead twice to lead trumps twice as long as spades are not led at trick 1) but far cheaper for East-West than defending the cold small slam.

Over an auction where they bid spades, North must hope their partner can produce high clubs (they did open the suit). A direct 4NT over the 1overcall, where clubs would be the trump suit, would confirm two key cards and the Q, making 6 look more than a hopeful punt. Alternatively, an exotic 5 over 1could be bid by North (exclusion key card in support of clubs, a slight risk in that you might just be in slam off 2 cashing aces).

So diving at the 7 level was not a popular choice. Any thoughts on this next deal? Again you are East and again the vulnerability is very much in your favour. You hold:

 T

 T9863

 JT42

AK2 and hear:

West          North         East            South

                   Pass            Pass            1

3 (weak) 3              Pass            4

Pass            Pass            ?

It seems right to move on to the 5 level now but South is there with 5 which is passed around to you. Have you had enough? Are you going to take two club tricks and one diamond?

 

Perhaps the answer lies firstly in partner’s weak jump and then South’s readiness to bid on to the 5 level. If West has only 6 diamonds, then the weak jump at the 3 level should have a bit of shape. If that is true and also of South who was very ready to go against the rule about the 5 level belonging to the opposition, then not only would a bid of 6 not be expensive but it might even be correct.

I have never been a fan of not vulnerable weak jumps at the 3 level with a 7 card suit. To be effective, you are too low. 6-4 shape is, though ideal and as you can see could pave the way for the cheap dive.

So, what happened? 7 pairs sold out to 4. Three more pushed their opponents to the 5 level but still did not get the job done. Twice, North-South, unsuccessfully, tried slam. Let’s presume that the opponents would not let them rest in 5. If 5 were to be beaten by a trick, we would be wrong,but 6x down two would still show a profit against over half the field who remained defending 4. “The 5 level” may in theory “belong to the opponents” but there are a number of situations as demonstrated by the weak jump and East’s shape here where the 5 level is not high enough. The same sometimes can be said as well for the 6 level. Dive on!

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go Back View All News Items