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Fortune favours the brave.

Well, you do not need to be too brave with as there are various ways to achieve a good result with today’s deal. It is complicated by the fact that it was played in the Pairs environment which means the top score may not be the best contract. What, then, would you bid as East after the following sequence:

 

Your partner has a good hand with spades. You have potentially an even better one with hearts. Will they blend well together? What do you bid next?

Key Card problems

If your partner’s assets contained one of the top diamonds, you would want to bid a minimum of 6…but which should be the trump suit? Then, as we are playing Pairs, there is the chance that no-trumps is the best score.

Asking for key-cards, with spades as trumps, is certainly one approach though you could still make grand-slam with one ace missing while you could go down in small slam were your partner to be missing the top two (cashing) diamonds.

So, Key Card is not the best approach, at least not initially. Why not try a 4 cue-bid, pretending (well, you may yet make spades trumps) spades are the agreed trump suit? If partner can cue the A or K, you are in better shape to continue, once more with a club cue and if partner’s response was 5 (showing both diamond top honours), you could try an immediate 7 (they have far more than AK for that 3 jump).

That was not the story today and ironically, Key Card after 4 would have worked out rather well as partner’s response would be 5 showing 0 or 3, obviously the latter. A king ask would show one, maybe 6 if it was specific king ask and the absence of the K may well make East nervous about grand slam.

It might be better if you can sign off in 6 though your partner might view that bid suspiciously and bid their suit again. Knowing partner has K, you should be safe to try 6NT.

These then were the four hands with the bidding sequence described above:

 

Of course, knowing your partner has A may well encourage East to try 7 though the absence of J would be another concern for East before they saw dummy.

At some tables (it would be interesting to know how many. Have vulnerable pre-empting standards slipped that low?!), South might start with 3 which does give East a problem after West’s 3 bid. It would be a very sad day when West could not produce either diamond honour. Trust South to have their high cards in clubs! No further comment!

The play

7 is a good contract especially if South starts with a black suit. Declarer then can cross to J (after unblocking A after a club lead) and ruff a spade, a certain make when there is a 3-2 spade break and requiring the diamond finesse if the suit breaks 4-1. (Hopefully, the heart break is not 5-0..we have already played one round of trumps and will discover that bad break early.)

If South can find a red suit lead, East will need a successful diamond finesse to make all 13 tricks. If the finesse fails, you might really wonder what South had for their club preempt. 

The diamond finesse will be needed in 6 or 7NT as spades can only produce two tricks without a loser, most of the time. There are 7 top heart tricks, AK of both black suits and at least 2 diamonds whether the finesse fails or succeeds. (If the finesse fails, 6NT is a better spot!) Meanwhile, there is an obvious trump loser in 6 where an initial heart lead is rather annoying though by no means terminal. 

However, this is a good day where the diamond finesse worked and whatever the lead, in hearts or no trumps you can make all 13 tricks. If you can bid and make 7, that’s great. Pay out to the one or two who go for 7NT. You still will have an excellent result.

Richard Solomon

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