All News

  is it worth one more?

Good Insurance.

Part-score deals can yield a surprisingly large number of imps in a Teams’ match but it is the freak deals which seem to be the ones which create most conversations after an event. So, with that in mind, put yourself in the North seat and decide if you have bid enough on this deal, which occurred in last weekend’s Inter-Provincials:

 

Both sides are vulnerable. 2NT shows the minors, at least 5-5. East has already stated they are not following the guideline that “the 5-level belongs to the opposition”. Have you bid enough yet?

Were you to bid on, you would have to ask yourself why. Are you bidding as a sacrifice, bidding to make or maybe some combination of the two, meaning you are not really sure why! What seems to be the case here is that you have very little defence to 5, too many clubs, and nothing like a trick in either major suit. Meanwhile, you may be off a couple of major losers but -200 would be cheap insurance.

The ”insurance” was well worth taking when the opposition did double 6. East must have been hopeful for two cashing aces but their “hope” did not last long:

 

The above was the sequence in many of the matches including when the Otago-Southland Open Team were North-South against Wellington. Brad Johnston was North and ruffed the A continuation at trick 2 after a high spade started the defence.

Not one East-West pair bid to 6 over 6,  correct only if 6 was making. Of the 24 tables in the 4 events, 6 was the final bid at 14 and was doubled 9 times. 8 tables saw East play in 5, 6 times beaten by one trick. (There are, of course, three tricks for the defence.) One table never reached higher than 4… and then this was the bidding at the other table in the Wellington-Otago-Southland Open Match:

West                          North                         East                South

Miller                         Newell                          Stout                 Reid

                                                                      1¹                   2NT   (minors)

X                                  5                             Pass                 Pass

5                               Pass                            6                   Pass

Pass                            7                               x                      All Pass

¹ 16+ Precision style (well, it looked like 16+!)

Note that 6 was not bid over 6!

Graeme Stout passed the decision about whether to bid on or double to his partner. When Jeff Miller chose to bid, Graeme bid the heart slam, to make. Peter Newell believed him and took some insurance at the 7-level but there was none. Graeme decided wisely that one of his aces had to be cashing and collected 17 imps for doing so.

Of course, even 6 x down two would still have cost Wellington 14 imps. So, the 7-level insurance did not in reality cost that much. 

A hard decision perhaps for the Norths to bid 6 and a much harder one for the East players in knowing it was correct to bid 6, not to make but “as insurance” against the making club slam. Would you?

It’s still your bid…

Nothing appeals but the clock is ticking…

 

1 promises 3+ and had you opened 1NT initially, you would hold 15-17 hcp.

Pairs.

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items