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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Life on the Wild Side.

There are times when we get a little tired of trying to restrict overtricks in an opponent’s 1NT or 2H contracts, especially playing Pairs when it is really important. “Something more exciting, Mr. Card-Dealer, please.”

Your request has not fallen on deaf ears:

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South Deals
N-S Vul
 
N
W   E
S
   
 
A K J 8 6 4
K Q J 6
8 7
8
West North East South
      1 
5  6  Pass ?

 

 Three bids and already at the 6-level.Maybe not that wild!

You did not expect to have such a decision a few seconds earlier…but is this the end of the bidding or are you going to introduce your second suit? Oh, it is Teams....could be a lot of imps at stake!

Our Panel are rather in one mind:

Kris Wooles “Pass. I have to trust partner and I don’t have a compelling reason to bid.”

Bruce Anderson “Pass: Not too much to think about here; partner wants to play 6Club-small opposite an opening bid, which could be worse. I am not going to try and find a fit in hearts at the 6 level; so 6Club-small it is."

Peter Newell “Pass: A very straight forward pass for me - can’t imagine anything else ...I haven’t promised any clubs and can’t see any reason why I would want to bid anything.”

Nigel Kearney “Pass: Definitely. Partner had double or 5NT available if doubtful about strain.”

What options did partner really have? Double normally shows values but is not a penalty double. It is often converted by the opener who has nothing particular to say. 5NT would be “pick a slam” with clubs certainly an option or else responder could bid 6Diamond-small indicating hearts with spade tolerance. 6Club-small? It looks like a single suiter.

There was, though, one bidder:

Matt Brown “ 6Diamond-small: I think 6Diamond-small is best showing probably this hand shape and asking partner to choose... If partner has a hand with 8 or so clubs, we could still be making 6Spade-small anyway.”

Not much room to move, therefore, over 5Diamond-small while even less over 6Club-small. 6Heart-small from South would show almost certainly 6-5 or more distributional shape in the majors, 6Diamond-small, a 4 card heart suit.

Before we show all four hands, we can say that it would not be wrong to move towards 6Heart-small. At the table, it was played by South:

South Deals
N-S Vul
2
A 10 8 3 2
3
A K Q 7 6 4
   
N
W   E
S
   
 
A K J 8 6 4
K Q J 6
8 7
8
West North East South
      1 
5  6  Pass 6 
All pass      

 

South did not follow Matthew’s exact recommendations but bought himself quite a decent dummy. West led a high diamond (they had plenty) followed by a second one. You ruff with dummy’s Heart-small10, East showing what would almost certainly be a doubleton diamond. What is your plan for making the next 12 tricks?

Just while you think about that, what action would you have taken with that North hand over 5Diamond-small? Maybe 5NT at least offering two possible slams, but who is to say you definitely have a slam at all? While 6Club-small looks rather a one-way guess (unless you are lucky enough to have Matt Brown as your partner), is anything really better? Certainly double would have worked better if South had then bid 5Heart-small ( not so easy with that doubleton diamond) but sometimes bravery pays…and next time South might have more clubs.

So, to the play. At the table, declarer tried a couple of rounds of hearts (East had Heart-small754) before starting on a cross-ruff.

South Deals
N-S Vul
2
A 10 8 3 2
3
A K Q 7 6 4
Q 10 9 3
9
A K Q J 10 9 6 4
 
N
W   E
S
 
7 5
7 5 4
5 2
J 10 9 5 3 2
 
A K J 8 6 4
K Q J 6
8 7
8
West North East South
      1 
5  6  Pass 6 
All pass      

 

One thing was absolutely certain was that 6Club-small was not going to make! However, what about 6Heart-small?

A lightner double by West would have defeated 6Heart-small played by North (unlucky for Matt Brown and his 6Diamond-small bid).

Played by South, two rounds of trumps can be followed by three top clubs, club ruff, two top spades and a spade ruff, another club ruff, and at trick 13, the Heart-small8 beats the Heart-small7…a fortunate singleton that Heart-small9. (You had to play high hearts in the South hand when you played trumps.)

Alternatively, declarer can play Spade-smallA, ruff a spade, return to hand with a trump and ruff another spade high. Then draw the remaining trumps, play three top clubs discarding Spade-smallJ8 and that’s 12 tricks with declarer still having one trump and Spade-smallK to come.

More exciting that defending 2Heart-small? Certainly, as long as you made 12 tricks.

excitement.jpg

How about making, though, just 10 tricks? You are in 4Spade-small and overs are a bonus. Count to 10 first.

North Deals
N-S Vul
3
K J 10 7 5
A 6 2
A J 10 6
   
N
W   E
S
   
 
A K Q 8 7 2
4 2
K 10 3
K 4
West North East South
  1  Pass 1 
Pass 2  Pass 2 
Pass 2 NT Pass 3 
Pass 4  All pass  

 

2Diamond-small was 4th suit forcing and 3Spade-small  a slam try though North had no appetite beyond game.

West led Diamond-smallQ. Declarer won and laid down their three top spades with West discarding a diamond on the third round.

Where did you win the first trick?

Which two cards did you discard from dummy?

What do you play at trick 5?

Answers on Sunday.

Richard Solomon

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