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for Junior, Intermediate and Novice players....and others. It's Fri day. 

Worth a mention?

You have not got much of a hand….but your partner has! They opened a Game Forcing 2C. So, you had better co-operate. What should you bid as North in this situation?

 

It’s questionable whether you should bid at this point. You have almost got a positive response to 2. You are not sure what partner will say if you pass. Pass is OK for now but so is 3. That A could prove rather useful.

If you pass, you should get a second chance:

 

Come on. You must show some life now. “3”. Whether you make this bid now or earlier, your partner should  use an ace – asking bid…4NT. That’s great if you play Roman Key Card Blackwood but your response even if you do not is 5 showing one ace or key card. If you play "Key Card", partner then bids 5 asking you if you have the Q. There are differing ways of answering “yes, I have.” Be honest, now. Answer the question. Your partner’s the boss!

Say you bid 5NT to say you have (5 would have denied it), then suddenly you hear 7 from your partner. You may freeze at the thought of playing a grand slam..but then a little relief when you notice your partner bid clubs first (2). You just hope they will like your dummy. They will:

 

South needs to play this grand-slam very carefully. Let’s say West leads Q. South wins in hand and draws all three of West’s trumps. (You can see what would happen if they play a top spade before doing so.) As long as both opponents have at least one spade each, declarer can virtually claim even if they need to ruff a spade in dummy.

However, when West discards a small heart on the A, South must be very careful. They must play J in dummy on the first round of spades  or else they will be unable to take the necessary finesse against East. If J is left in dummy and with only one entry back to hand, the contract will fail. Try the play if that happens.

However, after playing J under A, South plays their last trump to Q in dummy. Then comes 7 to 8 in hand (East will play low) and South can then play a third spade ruffing in dummy. A diamond to the ace and all the remaining spades in the South hand will be high, Q falling under K.

That’s tricky. It would be so sad reaching 7 and then failing because of the bad spade break.

Most North-Souths failed to reach 7, playing in 6 or even 4 instead. You can make all 13 tricks in spades but only by taking the very anti-percentage play of winning the heart lead with A (you can crush K as you do not need any discard from the South hand) and running J on the first round. Imagine if West had singleton or doubleton Q!

Certainly worth a mention!

Once you cash a top spade in the South hand, 12 tricks is the limit. However, it would be really great and not too complicated bidding to bid the grand slam in clubs. A nice time to be declarer there, too, as long as you threw that J under the ace.

Richard Solomon

p.s. If you play simple Blackwood, South would have to gamble on their partner holding Q. If North had given a positive response to 2 (i.e. bid 3 directly over 2), the risk would be worth taking. 

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