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Grand’s Over the Horizon.

Well, it may be but you would like to get close. While at times we have to acknowledge that pre-empts do work, we would still like to make a decent effort at what is “our hand”.

Take the following:

 

This problem would likely have faced all East players in two recent side-by-side tournaments as North had a standard 7-card pre-empt. How well the East players handled their powerful hand can be reflected in the range of final contracts. Four intermediate players would have satisfied themselves with a 3 overcall which certainly did not get the job done as that was the final contract.

Let’s hear from the Panel:

Kris Wooles “4:  Immediately which is reflective of the quality of the spade suit and the strength of my hand. The alternatives are to double or bid 4 but the disparity in suit quality between spades and clubs lead me to reject the latter option.

Michael Cornell “Double: An immediate 4 shows a decent suit, too strong to bid 3. However, I believe this is too strong for that and so I will x.

I would not be unhappy if partner passed. I have a ton of defence but I will bid spades over anything else except a bid in clubs.

I will probably bid 4 over a 4 bid.- Slam is huge opposite Kxxxx or  KQxx.”

Not so happy if the double is passed out is:

Stephen Blackstock “Double. I won’t be happy if it goes all pass, but very little in the right place makes a club slam and 4 now pretty much removes the club option.”

Nigel Kearney “Double, then 4. An immediate 4 is strong so double then 4 suggests a hand that is equally strong but more flexible. I would also bid this way with AKQxx Kx x AQxxx.”

Showing two suits is:

Bruce Anderson “4: I think an immediate 4 should show a single suited hand too good to bid 3, and that doubling and then bidding 4 would show a very strong single suited hand.”

Leaping Michaels after the opponent’s pre-empt is a convention some including Peter Newell use.

Peter Newell “Double: I’m assuming a 4 Leaping Michaels showing +major is not in one’s bag of tricks as that would be my first choice.  In the absence of that I double. I prefer Double to 4 given the amount of strength and length outside spades and having a good second suit.  If partner passes the double, I do have reasonable defence. I would be worried that we are getting say 500 off 3x when we could be getting 620 in 4, but other times it will work out pretty well.”

So, double is the majority choice, perhaps because they the immediate cue-bid of 4 to show the type of hand East has but with both major suits.

The Panel’s fear of 3 x being passed out was not the issue today as South would have raised the double to 4 and after that, your partner, West, made a free bid of 4. So, after the following auction:

                        West              North            East                South

                                                3                   x                      4

                        4                   Pass               ?

I am assuming that East would bid 4. I queried the Panel as to what we have now shown by our bidding so far, merely a hand too strong to make an immediate jump to 4 or whether the club suit had now been brought into the picture? Peter is happy with the auction to show:

Peter Newell “a hand unsuitable for a direct 4, i.e. either too strong and/or 2 suited and strong.”

Kris Wooles “I am not sure that I have conveyed the relative strength of my spade suit but have at least conveyed I am more than single suited which a direct 4 tends to suggest.”

Stephen Blackstock “And, of course, this shows black suits, if all I had was spades, I would have begun with that suit.”

Bruce Anderson “showing a strong distributional hand with spades and clubs. Bidding in this way gives us a chance to play a club slam if partner holds A and a club suit. Otherwise 4 is likely to be the final contract.”

So, it seems we might have shown clubs as well as spades which may not have been the case at all tables as 4 was a frequent final contract:

 

West had no liking for spades but it seemed that their hand was too strong just to pass 4. South’s 4 bid should have given West the confidence that their partner was unlikely to hold two losing diamonds.

We could have asked the Panel where West should go after the above auction…and 5NT pick a slam might be a good approach as East can now bid 6 to offer a choice of slams.

Playing Pairs, you would love to be in 6 (anyone who found an auction to 7 could call themselves a little unlucky). However, even 6 scored well on the day with only 6 out of 25 pairs in the Open/Intermediate events reaching a slam.

As for, 7, just too hard but it would be worth having agreements as to handle that East hand and subsequently what West should when at any stage, their partner bid 4.

If a direct 4 shows a reasonable hand as it should, maybe West can raise to 5 asking partner to bid slam if they have any type of control in pre-emptor’s suit.

Then, the top scoring small slam would be reached, whether East started with a double or a direct jump to 4.

Choices

 

 

 You have to bid something....but what?

Richard Solomon

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