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go quickly….or not at all!

A Quick Approach?

Many South players made the same bid on the following board from last weekend’s Inter-Provincials but not all at the same time and not with all the same degree of success.

So, what’s your bid here with East-West vulnerable?

 

At most tables, South overcalled 1 (maybe 2 if you were playing Intermediate Jump overcalls) and West either bid 4 or else 4, a splinter agreeing hearts. East either passed or signed off in 4 and South decided that, despite any action from their partner, that they might find a good sacrifice in 4 or might even push their opponents higher than they wanted to be.

In fact, the 4 bid was a warning that South should quietly defend 4 but we will return to that shortly. For the winning Auckland- Northland Open Team, Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin bid 4 very quickly, over 1 hoping to put maximum pressure on West….and indeed he did. Who could blame West for bidding 5 and very soon wish they had not:

 

From West's point of view, if Jeremy held 7+ spades, chances were good that East was short in the suit. As you can see, that was not quite the case. Against 5, Jeremy took the first two spade tricks and the defence still had a diamond trick to come, down one.

At the other table, East was left to play in 4 for a 12 imp pick-up for Auckland-Northland.

Where South bid 4 after having initially bid 1, they could still profit by their opponents bidding on but West now had added information that East did not want to proceed above game…and therefore, it became less likely that East was short in spades. Also, South had many potential side-suit losers, as was the case.

While it pays to be suspicious of an opponent who overcalls at the 1 level and then bids on at the 4 level by themselves (they may well have a freaky shape), West has defence of their own to 4 and a partner not willing to go above game. Double of 4 now seems to be a good option for West.

Another reason for South not now to bid 4 (after a 4 splinter) was that unless North held the A, South could anticipate that West could score club ruffs against 4 x. While that was the actual situation, only one East-West pair got full value out of 4x.

A club lead and ruff can be followed by a heart to the king and a second ruff. With another heart trick and two top diamonds to come, that would be -800 for North-South. The defence has the luxury of leading top diamonds first and then switching to clubs.

In the Open event, 4 out of 6 Easts played in 4 and the 6^th table saw South undoubled and just two down in 4. In the Seniors event, 4 was made 3 times and 5 was bid and failed once. The other two tables played in 4x but the defence only scored 300 and 500.

Only one Intermediate table ventured past 4 and there East failed in 5. The Women South players were pushier with one table seeing 5 as the contract and 4 others with 4 played, twice undoubled. The only East- West pair to record + 800 were Christine and Jenna Gibbons of the all-conquering Waikato Bays Women’s Team. Christine did start with a high diamond but switched to her club…and the tricks kept rolling in! At the other table, West did not get their ruffs and the defence only collected +300.

 

Jeremy…fast to arrive.

Jeremy’s leap to 4 (the only one in the 4 fields) gambled -800 but was a big winner when West made the wrong decision with far less information to know that defending was correct.

Richard Solomon

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