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 A “No Go” Area?

When the opposition show a flat 20-22 hcp hand to open the bidding, it is normally a “no go” area for the opposition. You would need something special to bid at the 3-level when 2NT is opened on your right. Is the following hand “that special”?

 

The answer is that it surely depends on two “ifs”.

The first is “if” the contract remains in no -trumps because just for once, you do not have a difficult lead.

The second is “if” either declarer or dummy has  four diamonds headed by the jack or 10. That would spoil your enjoyment of defending!

However, it does seem quite likely that East will transfer to spades. You will still be on lead, or should be, but your trick-taking potential has reduced.

So, you decide that bidding now might prove better in order to gain a plus score. You try 3 and the bidding proceeds as follows:

 

You are playing Teams and both sides are vulnerable. What now? 3 was presumably a 5-card suit.

Perhaps there are times when you just have to bow down to an opponent’s strength. You have really shown your hand by bidding and if your partner has something really freaky, they could still bid on. It is not that you have pushed them into 4 as they were likely to have done so anyway. At the table, North bid 5 and was faced, not surprisingly, with the task of making it doubled. That proved too hard:

 

 

Had partner a void club, then 5x would be close to making, defeated by a heart ruff. As it was, three rounds of hearts (a ruff on the third round) were followed by a club trick for the defence, -500, 2 down. Meanwhile, the unpleasant spade break meant that 4 was about to be defeated: two trump tricks, a diamond and a losing club finesse. 5x was close to being a successful sacrifice but not on this day.

Had North passed 2NT, East would transfer to spades (3) and would probably pass 3 if their partner did not jump to game. That would leave it for North to make a brave balancing 4 bid in order to record a plus score (unless East scored their heart ruff and West did not continue to the spade game).

At other tables, contracts ranged from 3 through to 4 (all major suit contracts), all being or should have been defeated. With East being declarer in spade contracts more than once, it seemed other North players had overcalled 2NT.

It takes a special hand to overcall a strong 2NT opening. Our North above had that. Taking the bidding to the 5-level was perhaps just a little too optimistic.

Heading Upwards

 

You are lucky enough to be playing a system where 2 is a one – round force. Where to from here?

Richard Solomon

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