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(well almost!)

Too Low, Jo(e).

The title is no attempt at personalising a poor score: hence, the bracketed letter! We are all capable of over and under bidding a particular board! Some hands are, like the problem we gave you yesterday, very hard to bid: others, less so.

We also realise that when there is a slam for the opposition to bid that almost always, you will get a below average result in a Pairs competition if it is bid against you. You did nothing wrong, except choosing or being assigned the wrong seat to start your round. It’s hard to blame anyone for that! There were, though, too many lucky East-West pairs defending at the game level when the following North-South deal arose:

Maybe the problem was with the opening bid? We will see the South hand shortly and discover that had South not opened the bidding, slam could/should still be reached. For now, we will assume they do open.

Valuing our assets

We have a 16 count which is by no means enough to underwrite a slam after some of your/my partner’s openings. Some like sound opening bids. Then, there are those who try to slide off quietly to the coffee machine with the 13 cards with which they did open the bidding, rather than expose them as dummy.

However, we do not just have a 16 count. We have a side-suit singleton which in itself allows us to add 3 points on to our hand as we have a known trump fit already. We have also a very nice- looking side spade suit, playable for most of the time for at least three tricks no matter what partner’s holding in the suit is.

16+ 3 and more and give partner a minimum 11 hcp for their opening. We are in the slam zone. As we have at worst second-round control in all three side-suits, slam depends on the number of aces partner holds. There is also the question of the K and because we like to know about that card’s location before we head to slam, we use Roman Key Card.

The world of the pessimist!

What, though, if we use 4NT to ask for aces and partner says they have none? We are too high, doomed, defeated even at the 5-level. If you are so worried about that possibility and have no other use for 4 after a 1of a major opening, then please use Gerber and you can stop in 4. (Before you rush to protest, I am not advocating its use but if you do not use 4 for anything else in this sequence, then it seems fair enough to use it this way.)

The "real" world (or the world
of the optimist!)

Such talk, though, is really pessimistic. Partner will have at least one ace, today, tomorrow, any day. You can bide time, bid 1, even jump to 4 to show trump support and a singleton (that’s a good reason not to use Gerber, as tomorrow, your shortage will be in clubs.) and even if your partner signs off to show a minimum or perhaps unsuitable hand for slam, you are going ace-asking. Therefore, do it straightaway. Keep your singleton a secret.

Their response to simple Blackwood is 5 (2 aces).Well, are you prepared to gamble that partner has the K?  An ace is missing. Without the K, partner will have to take a trump finesse. So, perhaps take a gamble and bid slam and while you are dummy, see if you can find a book at your club on Roman Key Card Blackwood. Take up this convention and you will never have to worry about the trump king again.

Playing" key card", their response is either 5 or 5, whichever you use to show 0 or 3 key cards. Normally, after that response,with only one key card yourself,  you bid 5 of the trump suit and expect partner to raise with three (the assumption is that one never asks for aces/key cards with 0 aces/key cards in one’s own hand). So, technically, you bid 5 though you know you are too high when partner has 0. So, turn a poor score into a disaster and bid 6 yourself! It saves the agonising wait while you hope partner remembers to bid 6 with their 3 key cards. Yes, of course, they have three.

Say, they had only two key cards and the Q? Most packs have only one Q and you are looking at it! So, no worries about an awkward response to your 4NT ask.

So, time to put down dummy….and since you are not on BBO, you will not be able to see what partner holds. However, you would very soon as the play was very swift. They had their three key cards…and nothing else!

 

Whether or not they led the A at trick 1, there was one diamond loser but 12 tricks to the declarer. Easy to bid?

Slams are not that easy to bid, normally. At our table, West stuck in a cheeky 2 overcall. That probably helped the decision to go “looking” rather than hindered it.

Yes, that South hand conforms to the Rule of 20 for opening bids. The total high card points and number of cards in the two longest suits just makes it to 20. So, you should open 1. If you want other reasons, then the controls are good (AAK). The two doubletons could well be valuable if you find a fit. Finally, if it is not your hand and your partner is on lead, then it would rarely be bad for them to start with a heart.

Despite all that, if South passed initially and North started with 1, South must now bid 2 (10/11 hcp with at least 5 hearts). It seems then a great idea for North to wheel out your version of Blackwood.

With this deal being played recently on X Club, we can report that only 18 pairs out of 67, 27% of the field, reached slam. Wait until we get a hard one to bid.

So, Jo (e), why were you not in slam? “Next time, promise.”   

 

A Deal for all.

Our deal for tomorrow is one for everyone, whether you like a serious challenging bridge problem or maybe just a touch or more of humour as you read a bridge article.

So, the serious stuff first. It's your bid. You are playing Pairs.

It is your bid as West?
Richard Solomon

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