All News

“Six would”

Welcome to the first Daily Hand of 2022. It would be nice to start on a positive note with a well-bid slam from the first tournament session of 2022. The operative word “would” be “would”. So, before we say whether that is possible, decide what your bid would be as South after this short, sharp sequence:

 

or would or

 

These sequences, certainly the first one, could well have happened at the first

These sequences, certainly the first one, could well have happened at the first New Zealand tournament session in 2022, at the Auckland Bridge Club. 

Would either have got you interested in slam? Hopefully, they would. 

The issue with the first sequence is that we bid a natural 2 and that now confuses what we would like to do next and that is show we are interested in slam and have a top honour in clubs (4). The slam we want to show interest in is the spade slam…and we have a rather useful side-suit which does not need much setting up!

If we can bid 4 in this way, not because we have clubs but as a cue-bid, then our partner will drive us towards slam. Our K is such a useful card. The alternative to bidding 4 would be to use your favourite form of Blackwood, risky in that you might be missing AK of a red suit. These were the four hands:

 

5H showed 2 key cards without SQ.

That seemed fairly straightforward, the play even more so, all 13 tricks being made in most cases when A was not led. Alas, only 7 out the 27 North-Souths made it to slam.

Maybe all the rest had a little interference:

 

A little bit harder now but your partner must hA little bit harder now but your partner must have a good hand to bid this way. They either have a long strong spade suit or else they have a strong hand with club support. Either way, they seem to have diamonds under control.

So, you are worried about hearts? Where are partner’s high cards… not many in the minors. To bid strongly in this way, they must have heart honours as well as 6 or 7 hcp in spades.

So, what would you bid? There seems to be a choice, as you are not really sure which hand type your partner has. You could bid 5 and see what they say, or even 5NT which ought to say “pick a slam”. Either way, you would be hearing a spade call from partner.

Perhaps, though, North could have used key-card themselves directly over the 3 bid. You have shown a good hand by bidding 3 and they have a pretty solid suit of their own. They would be very pleased when they follow up with 6 and see your dummy.

So, we “would” like to have been able to start the year with a nicely bid 6 slam. What’s your New Year’s resolution? Maybe stopping the opponents interfering? Alas, unlikely to happen. However, at least when East did not overcall, you would like to have had a constructive crisp sequence to the small slam.

Happy slam bidding in the New Year.

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items