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Diamonds are a girl’s (and boy’s) best friend.

Today we look at a slam hand from the National Teams last weekend. Thanks to GeO Tislevoll, one of the event winners, for providing the deal and his analysis. Firstly, he poses a question as to what one should open with the East hand below:

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Board 14
East Deals
None Vul

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K 9 6 4

A Q 7 2

A K 10 6

A

 

 

“Question 1: What do you open, and what is your plan for the further bidding?

I think opening 2NT is the lesser of lies here, although some would argue this is a 1Diamond-small opening bid.”

One problem with 2NT is that when a fit is found, the East hand is stronger than a flat 20 hcp. Try convincing your partner with a 7 or 8 count that this is the case will be hard. Another, of course, is exposure in clubs in no-trumps where partner is quite weak without a club hold. However, game in a major might be cold opposite, say just Heart-smallK in the West hand but getting partner to bid over your 1Diamond-small might be too tough. 

“Anyway, you should be able to reach slam and both 7Diamond-small and 7Spade-small are good spots. Here are the four hands with a possible auction to 7Spade-small:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Board 14
East Deals
None Vul

10 5 3

10 9 5 3

5 3 2

8 6 4

A Q 8 7

K J

Q J 7 4

J 9 7

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K 9 6 4

A Q 7 2

A K 10 6

A

 

J 2

8 6 4

9 8

K Q 10 5 3 2

             

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

2 NT

Pass

3 ♣

Pass

3 

Pass

3 

Pass

3 ♠

Pass

4 NT

Pass

5 ♣

Pass

5 NT

Pass

6 

Pass

6 

Pass

7 ♠

All pass

 

3Club-small asks about East’s majors with 3Diamond-small showing at least 1 4-card major. 3Heart-small shows 4 spades and 3Spade-small is stronger than a jump to 4Spade-small. 4NT is Key Card with 5Club-small showing 1 or 4 (obviously 4 here in view of the opening). 5NT asks for side suit kings and confirms possession of all the key cards and Spade-smallQ (5Diamond-small would have asked for that card).

6Diamond-small shows Diamond-smallK and 6Heart-small a grand slam try asking for any extras. Having denied the Club-smallK (no 6Club-small bid), East has a big extra in the club suit.

GeO 2021.jpg

Back then to GeO:

“As it was, both 7Diamond-small and 7Spade-small are good spots.

Question 2:

Which is the best slam, and should you be in a grand or a small slam?

Let’s face it, with normal systems it is hard to diagnose that the honours are fitting so well, Heart-small KJ opposite AQ fourth, and the perfect Diamond-smallQJ combined with the 10 under the top honours.

As the cards lie, both 7Spade-small and 7Diamond-small make (as does 7NT), but 7Diamond-small is slightly better because it will easily be made even if the spades are breaking badly, and if in spades you have a trump loser. In a diamond contract, if the spades do not produce four tricks, you only need to ruff one club, and thereby get five trump tricks in addition to three spades (if spades are 4-1), four hearts and one club = 13. The grand in spades makes too but is more fragile, needing for comfort a 3-2 trump break.

However, if we agree it is hard in the bidding to know for sure it is so perfect for a grand, you should play a small slam. In the case, one might argue 6Spade-small for the extra points as even 6Spade-small will make with a possible spade loser for +980.”

While grand is hard to bid, it would seem more achievable if West is doing the asking as they have the very useful red suit jacks.

“In Rotorua, no pair bid grand slam on this board. Most pairs played in 6Spade-small, a few in 6Diamond-small. Four out of 14 teams stopped in game, most of them after a 1Diamond-small opening and a pre-empting 3Club-small by South.

Where Grand Jarvis was South and Malcolm Mayer North, East opened 1Diamond-small. Grant (South) jumped to 3Club-small, and West doubled for take-out. Now Malcolm (North) made what you might like to call a “joke-bid”, obviously to muddy the waters, when he bid 3NT with the North hand! His plan was to pull to 4Club-small if doubled in 3NT, which certainly would not have been cheap if E/W double.

How often have you bid 3NT with zero HCPs and 3-4-3-3? The “fun” joke-bid could have cost N/S -1100 (five tricks) or perhaps even -1400 if the E/W pairs had doubled 3NT and then doubled the pull out to 4Club-small. The declarer may get only four tricks in 4Club-small doubled if the defenders find the perfect defence (uppercutting West’s trump holding). However, the joke-bid confused E/W and they stopped in 5Diamond-small. When 6Spade-small was bid at the other table, the Mayer team won 11 IMPs.”

It would seem whatever East’s opening that East-West are likely to find their spade fit rather than the superior diamond fit. If East opens 1Diamond-small and South is silent, West would normally reply 1Spade-small. If South makes a weak jump overcall (and Malcolm Mayer is not North!), East will force with 4Club-small over their partner’s double and West will bid 4Spade-small, hopefully not ending the auction.

Finally, after a 2NT opening, spades are likely to be found before the diamond fit, unless 3Club-small was Baron. One up possibly this time for Baron (bid your suits up the line after 3Club-small) and the diamond fit will be and the best grand should be found.

Thanks to GeO for his analysis.

Richard Solomon 

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