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For Juniors, Intermediates and Novices…and others! It’s Fri   day!

A Game Decision…or who gets the coffees?

When our side has enough high card points to bid to game and one player bids to a game contract, it is normally right for their partner to pass, unless perhaps they are strong enough to try for slam. So, is that the situation below:

 

We have a very minimum opening hand and our partner jumped to 3NT after we had bid our long suit twice. So, shall we pass and leave the declaring to our partner or do we bid again? Would it have made any difference if our second bid had been 2 rather than 2?

Our partner should have at least 13 hcp, maybe a bit stronger. They should have at least one honour card in each of the other three suits and somehow will hope to make at least 9 tricks.

They would not have more than 3 hearts because with your bid of 2, you have shown at least 6 hearts. In an ideal world, they would have 2 hearts though they may be forced to bid the same way with less.

With such a distributional hand as dummy, 3NT may prove difficult to make. It is unlikely that your partner can run 7 heart tricks without losing the lead. If they have to lose the lead, then the defence may be able to profit. While nothing is certain and because your hand is so distributional, it is usually wise to persist with your long suit as trumps especially if it is a major.

There will be days when your partner has no hearts but even then, you may be able to make 4 for the loss of just three heart tricks. With a weak distributional opening hand, it is usually better to over-rule your partner and bid 4. This would be even more the case when your second bid had been 2 (an option) since you have 2 more hearts than you had then shown.

Let’s look at the four hands:

 

Playing in 4, West might choose a low club (leading either ace is speculative - no king- with A working out a little better than A: do not lead low away from an ace. Look what would happen if you led a low diamond!).

Here, 10 tricks should be made whichever suit is led. South has a loser in spades and diamonds and trumps but there would be no club loser, as long South leaves the Q in dummy. Win the club lead in hand, play 2 rounds of trumps and then J. South’s club loser can then be discarded on the K, assuming West takes A. If not 10 tricks are assured anyway.

What then of 3NT by North? East is more likely to lead the unbid diamond suit than a low spade, as North bid spades. West wins and may continue diamonds. North has 3 diamond tricks, 3 certain club and 2 certain heart tricks. Maybe it is unlucky for North that neither hearts nor clubs broke. A 3-1 heart break is very common while a 3-3 club break only yields 1 extra trick, +600, still an inferior score to +620 for making 4.

On the second round of hearts, West has the opportunity to say they like spades ( discard say 3 if your method is “low like” or “odd encourage”). East will win the third round of hearts and the defence can take the last 4 tricks (Q and 3 spades or 2 spades and J) for down one. Remember West won A. 

The worse is North’s heart holding, the harder it is likely to be to get 9 tricks in no-trumps. Thus, North should always insist on making their 7-card suit as trumps, as the best chance of recording a making game or a higher scoring game if both games made. 3NT maybe game but it’s no time to get the coffees! That’s partner’s job!

Richard Solomon

 

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