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Achieving Par.

That’s what we aim to do with every deal: correct? I will answer that question. “Maybe.” Yesterday, we alluded to the fact that (very occasionally) the “master-suit” is the lowly club suit. Normally, of course, it is the spade suit which is often referred to as such and today, we appear to have that suit in abundance. The vulnerability is very much in our favour. So, what can go wrong?

 

2 is a standard game force type hand. Our partner has plenty of spades and East and West would seem to have more than their fair share of high-card points. How are you feeling? You are playing Pairs. Would you bid at this point?

One disadvantage of both the strong 2 opener or indeed the Precision 1 opener is that when pre-emption occurs (and we love to bid on not very much as high as we dare over both bids), setting the trump suit can be very difficult. It looks here that our partner has done very well in making constructive bidding hard for our opponents. It seems unlikely but it is possible that 4x could become the final contract. Any further pre-emption will surely force our opponents into the slam zone. So, with the above wonder collection, you pass.

The 2 opener on your left then bid 4NT to which the reply on your right was 5. Let’s now change the preposition from “you” to “I”. At this point, I made two errors..yes, two in one bid! I did not ask West their system agreement to 4NT and then, confident I knew what it meant, I bid 5. The biggest invitation to slam, ever.

Certainly, West may well have bid slam (though when you see their hand, you may wonder which) without my encouragement. They chose 6. Now, whether that was going to end your bidding (somehow I doubt it!), East had more to say by raising to 7. Yes, you guessed correctly. I now bid 7…and other than East’s double, there was no further bidding. Let’s look at all four hands.

 

There were no defensive slips. A couple of tricks in each minor were followed by 2 rounds of hearts, the first round led by East. Partner’s K fell under the ace. They gained the lead at trick 7 but could not get to dummy and therefore K provided the 7^th trick for the defence: - 1700 for “the good guys”.

As you can see, North-South have zero chance of making a trick in either minor while North’s 10 provides the defence’s only trick against 6. 6NT is a nice option, too, if you are not sure of the 7-level though best East is the declarer!  

So, par was achieved at our table. Nice. Well, not quite. A couple of North-South pairs nationwide (this occurred on X Club) did get doubled in 6 for -1400. That was not even a good result since 6 of either minor scored 1390. Who invented the scoring table! No-one was brave enough to play in the match-point earning 6 or 6NT making slams which both would have outscored that 1400.

However, of the 115 tables in play, only 6 played in 6 of a minor. All the rest, bar one, rested in game. Only one table achieved the par result much to the chagrin of North-South. Par but zero match-points. I could almost go to bed happily.

 
  Clare and Kevin conduct a grand auction in every way. 

However, stand up (they are!) Kevin Whyte and Clare Coles. Kevin’s 2 opening conforms to the hotly debated “rule of 29” (sum of length of 2 longest suits and high card points) and was well rewarded on this deal.

4NT? Well, Clare told me afterwards that they have an agreement that 4NT is always key-card (no misunderstanding there) and 5 showed one ace. Had I known what 4NT was (anyone for the minors?), what action would I have taken?

Then on hearing her partner’s 6 bid, with the key void, massive trump support and a decent heart suit, Clare raised to the cold grand slam. Well bid and rewarded whether or not North took the sacrifice.   

The article’s title was incomplete. It should have read: “achieving par and zero match-points!” As they say, it was only Pairs!

Richard Solomon

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