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“Never” put an 8-card suit down as dummy. (well “almost never”.)

There are certain bids, conventions you learn in your early days of playing Bridge and then you may as well forget them because they never happen at the table. Take the specific ace ask 4NT opening bid. Oh, it did happen several months ago. If you had the hand, how long have you been waiting?

Another reared its head last weekend in the National Pairs. I was well prepared for it. The only snag was that I held the opposition’s cards! Oh well, another 50 years!

For a few “lucky” Norths, the wait was over. They might have wished it was not!

 

Firstly, what would you have bid as North had your partner opened a Gambling 3NT? (long solid minor with no outside ace or king).You are playing Pairs.

Secondly, you reach 6as South and West leads K for count and switches accurately to a heart at trick 2.  Plan the play.

One North player found a very quick and effective Pairs solution and one which should not have worked out well. 6. Well, it’s the major suit and will make on any good day. Certainly, preferable to playing in partner’s minor so we can play for the higher points’ score.

Aye, but there’s the problem if you dig out an old convention. You are meant to always to be able to tell which minor partner holds. Looking at the North hand in isolation, you would think it was clubs, the suit with no honour! So, were North to jump to 6, we must hope the partnership were playing a pass or correct sequence..or else!

Yet, this is where science comes in. It has been a long time coming. You bid 4 and that is not “pass or correct”. It is a strong bid asking partner for their side-suit singleton. In theory, you know which is partner’s long minor. I believe if you have not got a shortage, (7222 shape), the response is 4NT with the 5 level minor bids being natural and showing a shortage in the other minor.

There are two things wrong. Firstly, when partner bids 4 to show the spade shortage, poor North would still not know which minor South held. Secondly, how do you show two shortages? Have you ever discussed that? Really!

The second problem would not, or should not, be a problem for the actual North hand. The spade shortage would not be good news. So, especially playing Pairs, you would pass to make a surprised South the declarer in their shortage. North could not envisage two club losers… but 420, maybe 450 as against a likely 400 in 5 of the minor.

Useful convention? Maybe when it next occurs though you really ought to discuss how you show two singletons…or maybe not!

                                    years!

However, not everyone started with the Gambling 3NT opener. Some started with 1 and at some tables, North got the feeling their doubleton support in diamonds might be more useful than the number of spades their partner could produce.

So, 6 it is and West starts with two top clubs. All will be well if the Q pops up in no more than three rounds as you can draw trumps and play two high spades and a ruff out the Q returning to dummy with a heart to the ace.

However, if West knocks out that entry, it seems you should take a different route. Ruff a club to hand and then ruff a heart in dummy, before drawing trumps. You still have AK to discard your remaining heart and are left with just a bunch of trump winners.

 

Interestingly, 6 out of the 9 declarers who tried 5 or 6 only made 11 tricks, including both who were in 6. One of the other 3 made all 13 tricks.

To beat a slam

So, what happened to the declarer who jumped to 6? There is an interesting defensive lesson here. With nothing really to guide them, East, sensibly, led the K taken by North who would have felt sad when West discarded on the second round of trumps, asking for a club. How did they ask, beg, demand, cry out for a club? They played 3, low encouraging. West had obviously not got the heart message across at trick 1 as East tried to cash the queen.

Yes, West might have been sacrificing a defensive trick but (they were not!) the A would be a pretty loud discard… and East might just have had second “heartless” thoughts.

Well, someone had to put their 8-card suit down in dummy. Would you have been declarer with the North hand in your suit or in your partner’s! And lock that convention away until the next time.

The Best You Can

 

 

 

You reach 4and West leads Q. 2 showed a 6+ card suit and 0-5 hcp. Plan the play.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

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