NZ SIMULTANEOUS PAIRS BOARD 1

Board 1 gave an opportunity to bid a grand slam:

Board 1, N dealer, nil all vulnerability

                             Spade-small Axx

                             Heart-small QT

                             Diamond-small K9x

                             Club-small AKJxx

Spade-small Qxxx.                                                       Spade-small JT98

Heart-small xxx                                                           Heart-small Jxxxx

Diamond-small Qxxx.                                                       Diamond-small xx

Club-small xx                                                             Club-small xx

                             Spade-small Kx

                             Heart-small AKx

                             Diamond-small AJTx

                             Club-small QTxx

 

However the lure of bidding 7NT may have been a trap for many with the QDiamond-small to find whereas 7Club-small is cold. This board shows the advantage for bidding systems that can show exact shape and location of key cards of one of the partnership’s hands.

Acol players are probably bidding something like:

1Club-small         1Diamond-small

2N.          ?

South now has a surprising difficult bid to make depending on system agreements. They are certainly thinking slam but how to get there? For this story we assume 4Club-small at this point is conventional asking for A and North shows 2A and 2K. Certainly enough to then bid 6NT with no other knowledge about partner’s shape except balanced with 4+ Club-small. Bidding 6NT making 6 (or 7 if guess QDiamond-small location correctly or can induce West to cover) is still giving a reasonable pairs board as surprisingly some pairs are only in 3NT and one or two bidding 7NT are going light.

We play an unusual 1Club-small relay based system that allows us to determine the puppets hand shape so our bidding would be:

1Club-small       1N

2Club-small       2Diamond-small

2Heart-small       2Spade-small

2N         3Heart-small

3Spade-small       4Diamond-small

4Heart-small      5Club-small

5Diamond-small      6Club-small

6Diamond-small      6Heart-small

6Spade-small      7Club-small

-

I won’t bother you with the detail but North has learned South has a 4Club-small4Diamond-small3Heart-small2Spade-small shape with KSpade-small, AKHeart-small,ADiamond-small,QClub-small and so stops in 7Club-small planning to discard a diamond on 3rdHeart-small and ruff Diamond-small and Spade-small losers, and recognising there is a potential Diamond-small loser if played in 7NT. There is a systemic positional advantage as if South had opened the bidding with our methods we couldn’t identify North had the QHeart-small. So identifying the potential Diamond-small loser we would probably also stop in 6NT in this instance.

Worth all the extra bidding to obtain the extra shape information? Possibly not in pairs where following the natural systems pack is generally more rewarded. If you were one of the pairs that managed to bid and make 7Club-small well done if you made this bid because your systems allowed you to identify partner’s shape to allow you to recognise the risk in 7NT! 

 

 

Started by SEAN LYNCH on 27 Oct 2018 at 01:45PM

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  1. JOHN O'CONNOR27 Oct 2018 at 07:57PM

    Is this from the event that is due to be played on the 2n of November?

  2. ZACHARY YAN27 Oct 2018 at 11:40PM

    While standard bidding systems also have flaws, playing against strong club systems I will jump overcall on next to nothing if I believe you have slam. 

  3. STANLEY ABRAHAMS28 Oct 2018 at 05:12PM

    Which bid identified that the diamond queen was missing?

  4. Brad Johnston31 Oct 2018 at 06:44PM

    This is from the NZ wide last year.
    7NT isn't that bad of a contract. By cashing 10 outside winners you can figure out that West started with 4 diamonds, making them a favourite to hold the queen.

    I can't remember the percentage we got for 1520 at the time, and the result look-up for these events a year ago is dubious [which is a shame, because I can find the results and hands from 6 years ago at the Otago Bridge Club]

  5. SEAN LYNCH01 Nov 2018 at 01:47AM

    Brad, well done for solving the mystery of when this nostalgic hand was played and for making 7NT last year. Unfortunately there is no prize.

    I think when the QSpade-small appeared it would have been reasonable to chose to finesse the way you did but I don’t think you can be 100% certain West had 4Diamond-small. Consider if you had been sitting West with 5Spade-small to QJ and 3Diamond-smallwithout the QDiamond-small. Would you not have false carded by playing Q on 2nd Spade-small after discarding 2Spade-small earlier if you thought partner might have QDiamond-small?

    Stanley, the answer was the 7Club-small bid confirms the QClub-small and denied having QDiamond-small. 6Spade-small was a relay asking for suit of Partner’s Q after partner had already denied by inference having QSpade-small.  Plan was to play in 7NT if partner bid 7Diamond-small showing QDiamond-small relying on Club-small to break 2-2 or finesse to work.  After 6Club-small bid North can already see 7Club-small will make if Club-small break 2-2 or finesse works.

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