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A No Trump Link.

We left you on Friday with two bridge hands and asked you the link between the two of them. A little unfair question, really, considering the lack of information given. Hopefully, you have not spent too much of the weekend worrying about the answer. All, now, will be revealed!

 

These two hands have much in common, some of which you will never guess. What is the link?

 

 

You are North and are dealer.

 

We told you both hands were the dealer and that they did not occur at the same time (check out the club suits).

 

Here goes…..

 

 

Our hero was North and opened 1. The bidding was soon to escalate as East, with both sides vulnerable, emerged with 3. South did not seem to mind this interference and produced 4NT which was interpreted correctly by North as Blackwood, not Key-Card in those days.

With West silent, North showed their three aces with 5. East passed and South raised this to the spade slam! Yes, North got to be declarer in their void suit. They had to trust their partner!

East led K and these were the four hands:

 

 

North, the late Olga Kerr, a strong tournament player in the late 20^th century, ruffed in dummy in order to try and draw some trumps. East won their ace and fell from grace. Well, would you have found the club switch to beat the slam?

East actually exited their diamond which had no gain for the defence…and Olga was able to draw trumps and claim.

That proved to be a very good result for North-South as the game was Pairs and making the spade slam beat all those in 6. All 13 tricks could be made in clubs though the interference made the spade void hard for South to identify.

However, even 7 would have been an excellent sacrifice for East-West, probably 5 down (-1400) on the lead of K ruffed and trumps drawn or on the lead of either minor king.(Well, not a great sacrifice against 6 -1390!)

 

And then there was:

 

 

Now, our East got a little inventive with their choice of opening bid. Some might consider this a 1 opener but not this East. He “borrowed” a club, put it into his spade suit, and opened a Multi 2! With the opposition silent, West enquired which option East held. Well, East hardly had a bad hand and so had to call it a good weak 2 in spades… and the bid for that was 3! So far, East had bid his void twice.

3 was actually an either/or option. The other option was a strong hand in diamonds with West’s next bid (3) asking their partner to clarify which option they had. East did that (3) though might have wondered what he had done when West jumped to 6! Had East misdescribed his hand? He did not think so and thus had to trust his partner by passing…. and had more than a passing interest in the dummy because, of course, East was declarer!

 

 

This East is still very much alive and well even though this deal occurred some time ago. Auckland’s (that is not Marlborough’s) Chris Marshall received a heart lead. Despite a rather impressive trump suit in dummy, only a spade lead would allow Chris to discard both clubs from dummy and make his contract legitimately.

However, where there is no way, there is still a way! Chris won in dummy (standard fare when as declarer, you are void in trumps!) Chris would have felt reasonably confident of success until South discarded on the second round of diamonds.

No worries, though, as at lightning speed, he crossed to the K in hand and produced the J (well, one down or two down would not make much difference!). South did not give this strange looking card much thought… and ducked, even though they had the evidence of two certain tricks had they covered. The A was next and Chris was soon writing down +1370.

However, Chris did receive a telling off from his partner. “If you open and rebid a suit and dummy produces 9 card trump support headed by the AK, you should not have a trump loser!”

 

The similarities

Both contracts were played by the declarer who was void in trumps.

Both were played in a small slam.

Both contracts should have been defeated.

Both made!

Both were played at the Franklin Bridge Club.

It’s getting harder…

 

“Would someone offer West the “pass” card, please?” So thought South during the following bidding sequence. Two questions for tomorrow.

 

Do you agree with your 2 bid? If not, what do you prefer?

 

What now?

 

(That may sound like three questions…or not?!)

 

The game is Pairs.

 

Richard Solomon

 

 

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