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Jan’s Day: Bold Bidding..and Play to match.

Today’s deal features some adventuresome bidding and required some excellent declarer play to bring home the contract. If you are going to “bid them up”, at times you will need to play well too.

 

We will not ask the Panel the merits of the jump to slam after 3 showed 10-12 hcp. At least South had all the side suit aces!

 West leads 7 which draws the queen from East. No suit breaks really badly, certainly not trumps. What’s your line for 12 tricks?

Jan Cormack

“The pleasant glow of that first big coup

“I’ve just executed a strip and throw-in.” This excited exclamation with unusual connotations came, in fact, from one of the intermediate members of my bridge club after a duplicate evening.

I suspect she was more thrilled at having recognised the play than actually performing it. As all bridge players know, we would all much rather inflict our major coups on our doting audience than have to listen to their flashes of brilliance.

This young player, however, infected us immediately with her unbounded enthusiasm and we all gathered around to listen to a card-by-card account of her moment of glory.

 

The basic system being played was Acol with 3 by North showing 10-12 hcp with spade support. South obviously felt it was her lucky night when very optimistically, she bid 6.

7 was covered by dummy’s jack, East’s Q and South’s K. AK were then played and then a spade to the king with North’s remaining heart being trumped in hand. A came next followed by the remaining three club winners, declarer discarding a diamond on the fourth round of the suit. The position  was then as follows:

 

South exited with a trump throwing West in with 10. A diamond had to be led away from the king giving South the last three tricks and their contract.

The way this young player floated out of the club left me in no doubt that like the frustrated golfer who suddenly scores a hole-in-one, she would be a devotee to the game of bridge for life.”

It is arguable as to whether in a vacuum the line taken is better than the 50% diamond finesse but when West showed up with four clubs, it became a no cost line and of course the only way to make the slam. The key was in ruffing the third round of hearts thus reducing West to diamonds and the high trump.

 

Passing Away: For less experienced players..and others.

There will be no “floating” or end-playing opponents tomorrow. The question for tomorrow is whether you will be ending the following auction with a pass with your next bid.

 

It’s Pairs and it’s your turn as East. 1NT was 12-14 and 2 a transfer.

Richard Solomon

 

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