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Easter Madness at Auckland

The two day Teams event at the Auckland Bridge Club brought out the bizarre in the card dealer…and where the cards were not wild, the players contrived to make them so. This is not really an article about good play, or bidding, or defence…. But it is not all bad either.

Take this.

The “Sun” Shines on George’s partner

Have a peep at the North-South hands below. Where would you like to play?

North                            South

  43                              AKQ62

9                                  A843

 A7542                         K83

 AKQ83                        2

For the very conservative minded, taking 9 tricks in 3NT would not extend declarer. In this world of monstrously bad suit breaks, this contract is cast-iron. Maybe 10 tricks in spades, 11 in diamonds. Come on now, 6 looks huge. 6 less so. 7? Like it or not but that’s where George Sun and Jeter Liu finished up. There is also the small matter that East opened a weak 2 and that to have any chance of making this contract, you need each opponent to have 3 spades. If East had 3 clubs as well, you could play A and ruff a heart, A and ruff a club…draw trumps, and pitch a diamond and two hearts on the established clubs.

That was not Jeter’s plan. You have to believe, have hope. Jeter tried a different tack:

 

 

He won the Q lead and did ruff a heart and then drew trumps before cashing three top clubs, throwing a diamond and a heart. He returned to hand with a diamond at which point these cards remained:

                                      North

                                       –

                                       –

                                       A75

                                       8

          West                                       East

           –                                       -

           –                                       KJ

           9                                       QJ

           1097                                –

                                      South

                                       62

                                       8

                                       8

                                      –

On the first trump, East discarded a heart…but on the second?

They Can Bid Too!

So, you would not have bid or made the grand? Don’t worry. You will live to be old and successful. No stress and no overbidding. Talking of high level contracts, try this one.

You and Sam Simpson hold:

 Q92

 A4

 KQ652

  AKQ

You open a Precision 1. Your partner shows a positive with spades. You conduct a very good auction with your partner bidding 6.

1. What is your bid?
2. Would it make any difference if your right- hand opponent doubled?
3. Would it make any difference if your right-hand opponent doubled and you did not notice the double?

We think the answer to “a.” would be to pass. Probably, that should be the answer to “b” with redouble a possible option. However, Sam faced option “c” or says he did. Although the opponents had been silent up to this point, Sam may have thought that the double was for take-out and that they could make a 7 level contract. Sam had the answer. He “dived” in 7. After all, the opponents were vulnerable and Sam and partner Jo were not. The “dive” cost only 300 with the opponents' best contract of 7X going a mere 6 light.

Enough! Sam reckons that unusual unexpected doubles should be made big, even alerted so that opponents can see them. The double of 7 was indeed made very big. Well, not really as bidding boxes were in use.

.

 

 Most pairs found it hard to stay out of slam. Yet, the double of 6 gives East-West an opportunity to star. After a 2NT opening from East, East can convert to 6NT. Now, unless South finds the spade lead, this slam will make. Unfortunately, not even that would have saved Sam and Jo had they converted to 7NT.

          “Grand” Decisions

It’s a more serious bidding problem for you now. Once more, we are at rather a high level. You hold as North:

 1052

 –

 KJ98532

 854

and hear the following auction:

West          North                   East            South

1              Pass                     2NT¹           4

5              5                      6              6

x                 Pass                      7              Pass

Pass            ?

¹ game force, heart agreement

Routine? If it helps, East, who rather likes his hand, is Ian Berrington. You have 4 choices but of those 7NT is not likely to improve partnership morale or longevity while double really has no justification. So, it’s a case of pass or 7. West’s double does indicate the possession of a small spade but what about the 7 bidder?

I took insurance by bidding 7 which was doubled (are you watching, Sam?) and secured 500 for East-West. Was that Ian’s intention? He too must have realised that 6 was a very cheap sacrifice and maybe looked for something a little more substantial. He won 7 imps when the other table played 6x.  

 

 

 Surely East has an obvious(Key Card) Blackwood ask directly over partner’s 1 opening? If partner has no aces, do not buy a Lotto ticket!

          Over and Under  Bidding

Finally, we analyse the bidding of Jonathan Westoby and Grant Jarvis.

West (Jonathan)          North         East (Grant)        South

1 ¹                              Pass            2 2                  3

3NT                               All Pass

1 2+ clubs 

2 8-9 with long spades

In a minute, you will see their hands and may wonder whether they bear any resemblance to the above bidding. Before we do, we can say that there are two slams to be bid on this board in suits not mentioned by the side that can bid them. Observe:

 

 

 Jonathan was guided into an over-bid, a strange bid, by his heart cards. Grant is accepting any offers going for an abacus in thinking (he assures me he did "think") his hand was worth upgrading.

Now, had North followed the rule about leading partner’s suit, Jonathan would have made at least 8 tricks. A little lax discarding by South could even see 9. However, North was not falling for that one and led one minor to be followed by the other. As you can see, there were 11 defensive tricks though they only managed 10..down 6 for -300…and a mere 3 imp gain to the “over-bidders” when their teammates did manage to reach 5 of a minor.

Votes please for who made the worse bid…Jonathan or Grant..and maybe slightly more seriously, whether it should have been North or South who should have stopped this nonsense by bidding a minor?

There were some part-score hands too this week-end…but, sorry no time to mention them…this time. I hope you enjoyed boards played at slightly higher levels.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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