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Diamonds are a girl’s (and boy’s) best friend.

Today we look at a slam hand from the National Teams last weekend. Thanks to GeO Tislevoll, one of the event winners, for providing the deal and his analysis. Firstly, he poses a question as to what one should open with the East hand below:

 

 

“Question 1: What do you open, and what is your plan for the further bidding?

I think opening 2NT is the lesser of lies here, although some would argue this is a 1 opening bid.”

One problem with 2NT is that when a fit is found, the East hand is stronger than a flat 20 hcp. Try convincing your partner with a 7 or 8 count that this is the case will be hard. Another, of course, is exposure in clubs in no-trumps where partner is quite weak without a club hold. However, game in a major might be cold opposite, say just K in the West hand but getting partner to bid over your 1 might be too tough. 

“Anyway, you should be able to reach slam and both 7 and 7 are good spots. Here are the four hands with a possible auction to 7:

 

 

3 asks about East’s majors with 3 showing at least 1 4-card major. 3 shows 4 spades and 3 is stronger than a jump to 4. 4NT is Key Card with 5 showing 1 or 4 (obviously 4 here in view of the opening). 5NT asks for side suit kings and confirms possession of all the key cards and Q (5 would have asked for that card).

6 shows K and 6 a grand slam try asking for any extras. Having denied the K (no 6 bid), East has a big extra in the club suit.

Back then to GeO:

“As it was, both 7 and 7 are good spots.

Question 2:

Which is the best slam, and should you be in a grand or a small slam?

Let’s face it, with normal systems it is hard to diagnose that the honours are fitting so well, KJ opposite AQ fourth, and the perfect QJ combined with the 10 under the top honours.

As the cards lie, both 7 and 7 make (as does 7NT), but 7 is slightly better because it will easily be made even if the spades are breaking badly, and if in spades you have a trump loser. In a diamond contract, if the spades do not produce four tricks, you only need to ruff one club, and thereby get five trump tricks in addition to three spades (if spades are 4-1), four hearts and one club = 13. The grand in spades makes too but is more fragile, needing for comfort a 3-2 trump break.

However, if we agree it is hard in the bidding to know for sure it is so perfect for a grand, you should play a small slam. In the case, one might argue 6 for the extra points as even 6 will make with a possible spade loser for +980.”

While grand is hard to bid, it would seem more achievable if West is doing the asking as they have the very useful red suit jacks.

“In Rotorua, no pair bid grand slam on this board. Most pairs played in 6, a few in 6. Four out of 14 teams stopped in game, most of them after a 1 opening and a pre-empting 3 by South.

Where Grand Jarvis was South and Malcolm Mayer North, East opened 1. Grant (South) jumped to 3, and West doubled for take-out. Now Malcolm (North) made what you might like to call a “joke-bid”, obviously to muddy the waters, when he bid 3NT with the North hand! His plan was to pull to 4 if doubled in 3NT, which certainly would not have been cheap if E/W double.

How often have you bid 3NT with zero HCPs and 3-4-3-3? The “fun” joke-bid could have cost N/S -1100 (five tricks) or perhaps even -1400 if the E/W pairs had doubled 3NT and then doubled the pull out to 4. The declarer may get only four tricks in 4 doubled if the defenders find the perfect defence (uppercutting West’s trump holding). However, the joke-bid confused E/W and they stopped in 5. When 6 was bid at the other table, the Mayer team won 11 IMPs.”

It would seem whatever East’s opening that East-West are likely to find their spade fit rather than the superior diamond fit. If East opens 1 and South is silent, West would normally reply 1. If South makes a weak jump overcall (and Malcolm Mayer is not North!), East will force with 4 over their partner’s double and West will bid 4, hopefully not ending the auction.

Finally, after a 2NT opening, spades are likely to be found before the diamond fit, unless 3 was Baron. One up possibly this time for Baron (bid your suits up the line after 3) and the diamond fit will be and the best grand should be found.

Thanks to GeO for his analysis.

Richard Solomon 

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