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BEAUTY WHERE YOU LEAST EXPECT IT.

You have only a 12 count. You opened the bidding and partner responds with a change of suit in which you have a doubleton.. You have a decent looking 6 card suit, indeed one which will often play for just one loser opposite a singleton. What do you bid next? Seems obvious, doesn’t it? Or does it?

 

 You are playing a natural system where partner's 2 is just a one round force. It does not matter whether you are playing 4 or 5 card majors. What bid would you make now?

A beginner’s textbook would have no problems: 2. What’s the problem? Oops, I had better not put words into our Panel’s mouths:

Nigel Kearney “2. Can't imagine bidding anything except 2.”

Matt Brown “2. Seems reasonable whether or not we are playing 2/1.”

We will come back to Matt’s last two words later. For now, we are playing 2 as a one round force.

Kris Wooles “2. Not good enough to bid 3 or 3 so slowly does it. That’s a pretty nice suit which I’d like to get across.  No problems so far!  I’d be a little wary if partner now bids 2NT but would probably then bid 3.

Wanting to go part way to the next level was:

Peter Newell 2.5 for me….Most of the time I would bid 2 rather than 3 but more likely to bid 3 at Teams and when vulnerable.  Am I more worried about missing game by bidding 2 versus getting too high by bidding 3?

Sometimes by bidding 3 the fact that I have cramped the auction means that it is harder to get to the right contract, e.g. clubs, or 3NT. So, I’m more a 2 bidder….more flexible, and prefer a slight underbid to an overbid.

Clubs..oh, we do have four of them..but is that in issue?

No “half” measures for Bruce:

Bruce Anderson “3. It is a stretch but the very strong suit and the  Kx in partner’s suit makes 2 an underbid in my view.”

That K is certainly a great asset but if, for instance, the defence took three club tricks in your 4 game in the first three tricks, then it is a wasted asset. The deep heart loser would confirm your negative score.

Negative talk, you may say but 3 does seem to overstate the strength of your hand and could cause your partner to drive on to a possibly unmakeable slam. If you cannot bear to risk 2 being passed out, then I think 4 is a better action than 3 as it promises no more high cards than you actually hold. It would, though, usually promise a 7-card suit.

A number of players did bid 3 on the above hand and were greeted by 3NT from their partner. I believe they should have retreated to 4 after that though there were many 3NT contracts played with varying degrees of success.

Michael Cornell 3 reluctantly!  “Not playing 2/1 we have 3 unpalatable choices: 3 a giant overbid which I discard immediately ,2 an underbid (could be a motley 11 count with 5 hearts ) or 3 6+card suit invitational ( the K figures to be a very good card ) - the least of the evils.

If partner has  eg.Jxx  x  AQxxx  AKJx, we will miss a great 6."
Note Michael's view that 3 here is invitational after a "2 over 1 sequence", not what the original textbook said.

Clubs?

Did North forget that it was not all about their hand? Had they just bid 2, their partner would have made an interesting second bid:

 

3! Oh, yes, we have four to the queen. They were still in our hand. All we had to do on this board was to bid 2 and raise 3 to the 4 level. With a singleton spade, 3NT was becoming less and less likely as a good contract. Note that the raise to 4 did not preclude 4 from being the final contract if South wished. They did not so wish this time.

With a void in hearts and a decent hand, our partner would close the auction swiftly in a contract far superior to 3NT or even 4. Matt Brown (and by inference Michael Cornell) mentioned how the auction might go if one was playing “2 over 1 game force”. North must bid 2. There is no pressure to bid otherwise. Yet, the bidding should go the same way under other systems where 2 had only been a limit bid. Just occasionally, you might miss game by bidding 2, though partner is allowed to make a game try after your 2 level response. Any bid other than 2 would have caused the excellent slam to be missed.     3 by North would not be an option unless one was playing Precision where the North hand is limited to under 16 hcp.

The play

So, a sensible bid reaped its reward. 6 is no worse than one of 2 good things happening. Declarer can win the likely spade lead, ruff a spade and drop a spade on the A (or cross to dummy with K and throw 2 spades on the top hearts). When the club finesse works, the slam is cold…also pretty cold with clubs 2-2 and even when they are 3-1 as long as that potentially dangerous 9 is not still in a defender’s hand.

Even a low club lead from East should not threaten 4, making normally with an overtrick. However, those in 3NT would not feel that good on a spade lead. Playing Teams, they would certainly duck a couple rounds of spades before winning the ace. A couple of high diamonds might precede the then inevitable club finesse. If the Q dropped, they would have 9 tricks without need of the club finesse, though losing out playing Pairs to those who made 10 or 11 tricks in hearts or 12 tricks in 5.

Some were not even that lucky when they took a diamond finesse. Even if they took it the right way, they would still need the club finesse for nine tricks. A diamond finesse through East spelt immediate defeat.

All that pressure could have been avoided if North had rebid 2 and supported their partner’s second suit. They would then be dummy and could watch their partner wrap up the slam.  

"Tomorrow is another problem..."

 

A competitive auction sees you reach 3. East’s 2 was either weak in a major or 20-22 balanced. After your overcall, West’s double was competitive asking their partner what they held. It looked like the opponents were about to declare in 3 when your partner finally emerged from their silence, perhaps feeling that thy owed you a bid!

“Great trump support, partner” you thought when you saw dummy. West led the 3 to East’s king. East followed with the A which you ruff. Which card do you play to trick 3?

See you tomorrow…

Richard Solomon

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