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Learning The Hard Way.

For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players….and maybe a few others too…. It’s Fri day.

Sometimes we make the right bid and it does not work out for us. On other occasions, we make the wrong bid and yet get lucky. Then, there are the times we make the wrong bid…. and are not so lucky!

Here’s hoping that last statement does not apply to you, here.

 

Can you feel the pressure? There is a bid here that could turn out very badly. What bid would you make? 1 promises at least 5 hearts.

This is a sad tale. There was no reprieve for South. They certainly had enough hcps (15) to bid but what to bid? South thought that they should tell their partner that they held a 5 card diamond suit and called 2.

West was not kind enough to bid and North was left with a really ugly bidding problem. After considerable thought and worried looks, they passed with 2 becoming the final contract. How bad could that be? The answer was “very”!

 

South managed two diamond and two spade tricks and A for down 3…-150. Certainly, the trump break could have been kinder but what could North have done?

It is common for a bid of 2 in North's situation to be asking more about their partner’s hand, certainly forcing and showing a stronger hand than the one held. It would not show 6 hearts.

 2 from North would have shown a 5+ card suit and would also be forcing. While both bids would have found the spade fit, there was the very real possibility of either taking the bidding to an uncomfortably high level, with no guarantee of a fit. With or without a trump fit, North’s void diamond is a big drawback for the partnership.

Similarly, North was not strong enough to bid 2NT, their only other possible bid. Thus, North’s pass was very reasonable. East certainly thought so!

South’s best action

So, what should have South bid at their first turn? The answer is “double”. With 6+ diamonds and 4 spades, there is more of a case for bidding diamonds and hopefully find a spade fit if there was one. With only 5 diamonds, 4 spades and 3 clubs, double offers far more opportunity of finding a fit in any of 3 suits. Here, North would have chosen to bid 1, maybe even 2S…or would they?

Another advantage of double is that it gives the doubler’s partner the opportunity of penalising opener’s suit, even at the 1 level. With 6 reasonable hearts, North might well take up that offer. +500, even +800 should be the reward.  That does not mean that 1 x would be the final contract.

East might not like the prospect of putting down their dummy in 1 x. They could either bid 2 or maybe redouble (which since they have already passed 1 must surely be for rescue). Either way, East is likely to play 2 and that may be South’s turn to make a penalty double. That contract can/should be beaten and even if that is only by one trick, that is better for North-South than for South playing 2.

However, if North-South can find their spade fit, they will score plenty of tricks. It seems North- South can make 10 tricks with spades as trumps (losing just 2 hearts and a club..setting up the North hand) though just playing in spade part-score making 140 or 170 will be a better than average result for North – South.

So, the best action for South was a take-out double, whether it produced +420, +170, +200 or even +800. The worst was 2. Certainly, an unlucky lay-out for any South who bid 2 and played there. North might have saved the partnership by calling a major suit. That would have fallen into the “wrong bid: get lucky” category. It is better to make the right bid first time, if you can.

 

Richard Solomon

 

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