All News

Jan’s Day: A “Freaky” Day.

There’s nothing very balanced about the two deals featured today. Indeed, of the 8 hands, the closest to being balanced had two doubletons! The two deals include 4 void suits and 5 singletons. So, fasten your seat-belts but just before you read on, it’s you on lead…

 

 

The bidding started high and accelerated quickly to the 6-level. That’s a fine place to introduce a new suit, and it became the trump suit… and it’s your lead?

Jan's Day

 Jan Cormack

“It was one of those nights, at the Auckland Teams Club, where the cards decided to have an early New Year’s Party (here, in 2021, it is St Patrick’s Day, an ideal opportunity for some “wild” events). The deals were wild and a lot of scary decisions had to be made at rather high levels.

The following deal presented a huge imp turnover, luckily for my team.

 

 

The above was the bidding at my table. Although 4 might seem a trifle conservative, North reasoned the bidding would not stop there and, of course, he was right.

East led the A and switched to a heart. My partner, Alec Moore, (North) made quick work of cashing up 12 tricks.

At the other table, the bidding was a little different and the final contract was, once more, 6, this time played by South.

 

            West              North            East                South

 

            3                   4                 5                   5

 

            6                   6                   All Pass

 

As West, Lorraine Boyd was on lead. She made the excellent choice of the K (with the intention of retaining the lead and then working out what to do next). After observing dummy and partner’s play of the 2, Lorraine switched to her singleton club to give her partner a ruff.

It is not often you can give your partner a ruff holding a singleton in that suit yourself. Lorraine told me later she was reluctant to do so but she had to trust her partner’s signal, the 2 requesting a switch to the lower non-trump unplayed suit.

So, were you in the above lead problem up to leading the 2 at trick 1, underleading your ace? You had to do so to tie the board. Only in the most horrible of nightmares would dummy put down the singleton K and you had two original cashing tricks including the A! “Great lead” your partner should say, with sincerity. Shame about the 14 imps in the out column!

 

When did you last pick up a 10-card suit, if ever? Look at this one in the East hand.

 

East opened 4 which was passed around to North who doubled. East passed and South bid 4NT, requesting partner to bid a suit. North chose 5. After East’s pass, South bid 5.

West passed this (I think as West I would have taken some action at this point). When West could not double 5, East pushed on to 5 which was duly doubled by South.

Happy day for East-West

 

East was rewarded with a golden dummy, trump support, ruffing value and a doubleton heart for + 650."

It is nice to remember two former top New Zealand players, Lorraine Boyd and Alec Moore, who sadly are no longer with us.  

 

For Less Experienced Players and others

 

 

After passing initially, North felt they had some catching up to do when their partner showed a 20-22 point balanced hand. 4NT was invitational to slam and with 21, South took up the challenge. West led 10. Plan the play to make 12 tricks.

Richard Solomon

 

Go Back View All News Items