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Two Different Points of View.

It was not truly a level playing field but there were two very different points of view expressed when our two South players were faced with a troublesome piece of pre-emption in a recent Teams match. What they had in common was that with the sight of dummy, both declarers anticipated losing imps, though they were playing at different levels with different trump suits.  

What would you do when your partner opens a 15+ Precision style 1 and your annoying right-hand opponent jumps all the way to 4?

 

Precision style systems do not shine in such auctions. South knows their partner holds at least 15 high card points but has no idea where and how! It looks like you are in the slam zone but it is hard to gauge whether one should be aiming for small or for grand. Our South took a very pragmatic approach and bid what they could see, with a fistful of clubs, 6. Hearts were, to put it mildly, a problem. Hopefully, East would not be too well off in that suit. Unless East held AK and North at least two hearts, there was the chance that North could survive an opening heart lead. The 1 opening had made North the declarer.

Meanwhile, at the other table, South had the advantage of a natural 1 opening from their partner. East also pre-empted but one level lower, 3. Where to go? They knew their partner had an opening hand with spades but the high card point count was unclear. It could be down to 11 or even less! And then there was that heart position. So, they took a rather conservative view that slam was unlikely. They signed off in 4.

The two bids (6 and 4) had one thing in common in that they made it very awkward for their partners to go any higher, something they both would like to have done at the sight of dummy:

The 4-1 spade break meant small slam was the limit with spades as trumps. Both North players were eyeing their total control in hearts and were wondering if they should move higher. At our first table, North knew their partner had had very little room for investigation over 4. North felt their partner might have bid the same way,  missing one of those two key spade honours.

 7 was a wonderful contract but was never an option when South failed to bid 4 given the opportunity in the second auction. South’s caution re the heart position was wise and as we can see, even the spade suit presented problems. However, South was able to show their suit at the 4 level and if their partner just signed off in 4, they could then call it a day.

Even then, there was a bid South could make, an option over 3 or a 4 sign-off from North. That is 5 which in a competitive auction asks their partner to bid slam with a control in the enemy suit, here hearts. The only danger of that bid here would be in getting too high in spades, given North’s total control of hearts.

If South felt that was too aggressive over 3, they had the option of bidding a natural 4 at virtual no cost. Here, it would have been a big winner. North’s problem would be the spade suit. Key Card would confirm the presence of A and AQ though that 5 response (2 key cards +Q) would preclude much further investigation with 5NT looking for outside kings. It would then be left for South, looking at KQ and knowing the partnership held all the key-cards (why else would North bid 5NT?) to jump to grand slam. A reward for optimism from both partners.

So often, a partnership bids to grand slam only to fail by one trick and to find the opposition had not made it past game. Our first North could not take the risk over 6. They were eventually to be duly rewarded with the imp gain.

Richard Solomon

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