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Is silence a good idea?

Don’t Stay Silent Forever.

There are a few interesting points from today’s deal.. but firstly, would you take any action with the following hand:

 

Not much except 4 spades. Anything to say? You are playing Pairs.

If your answer is “no” and there is nothing wrong with passing at this point, is your answer still “no” at this next point in the bidding:

West              North             East                South

1                   2                   Pass                2

3       `           3                  ?

No guarantees but the opponents seem to be enjoying themselves but they are still in part-score land. So, you pass but South now bids 4H and it is passed round to you. Well, the time for action surely has arrived. The vulnerability is in your favour. Time for a sacrifice, or so you think. All you have to do is bid 4S and your partner will do the rest.

West              North             East                South

1                   2                   Pass                2

3       `           3                  Pass                4

Pass                Pass                4                   5

5                   All Pass

This is what West saw:

North led 2 rounds of clubs with West ruffing the second round. They played top spades but South held J72 . So, playing a fourth round of spades to dummy was really dangerous as if the diamond finesse failed, the defence would likely score the rest of the tricks!

Thus, West laid down A … and the world became a very happy place for East-West:

There are number of interesting points here.  

The Opening Bid

Firstly, there is West’s choice of opening bid. It is usually fine with 5 spades and 6 diamonds to open one’s longer suit first. The exception would be if North pre-empted to a high level in clubs. That did not happen here but in the auction we gave, where East remained silent for a long time, it meant that West could not be sure that bidding over 4 was correct.
East’s silence certainly helped North-South. Some play a jump to 3 over 2 from North as pre-emptive and that would be a great action for East here. West would not stop bidding below the 5-level now.

Yet, East could have jumped to 4 over North’s 3 bid. Q was not a bad card for their partner and realistically most of the time South would bid 4. Again, therefore, East’s silence would have helped the opposition.

5’s all round

We have seen that 5 should be made. The play in 5 would be similarly successful, West having to lay down A as soon as they gained the lead. 5 by North-South is very straightforward while 5 also is an easy make. Thus, 11 tricks in every suit, though not in no-trumps!
 North-South pairs needed to find the vulnerable 6 level sacrifice (would you?) which would require South having shown club and North heart support, much less realistic if East had used up their bidding space at an early level.Silence is not always golden. 

How to begin

 

What is your opening bid?

Richard Solomon

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