Friday, August 27, 2010

Friday, 8/27/10, continued

Right-click here for hands.

Board 4: West opens 1S, East responds 2C, game-forcing or not. West likely rebids 2NT, showing a balanced minimum. Those who play 2C as an absolute game force can simply rebid 3C, showing an unbalanced hand with interest in some contract other than 3NT. Standard bidders, or those who play the Mike Lawrence "except when suit rebid" style, have to manufacture a forcing call or guess to leap past 3NT. 3D looks reasonable; it's a suit partner skipped over so there should be little risk he'll insist on playing there. West assumes East is probing for notrump and may have a singleton heart; with a double stopper, 3H looks right and East can retreat to the matchpoint contract of 3NT, scoring a top with 10 easy tricks.

At a team game you'd be more interested in slam and 4C over 2NT would express that directly; 5C should be OK and the 30-60 extra points you could get at 3NT will tanslate into only a 1 or 2 IMP loss while a slam could be worth 13. West cue-bids 4H -- always dangerous to cue-bid a major, but as West skipped over the suit to bid 2NT this should clearly be a heart control and support for clubs. East has no diamond control so he retreats to 5C, passed out. Unfortunately South is apt to bang down the Ace of diamonds after that auction and the defense grabs the first three tricks. If South leads the "normal" Queen of hearts, East dumps his spade loser quickly.

Board 10: An advertisement for Precision, where the bidding would go 1C-1D-1NT all pass, making or down 1 depending on the defense. A standard auction would be 1D all pass, also making or down 1. (in practice all five declarers at the one level made their contract.) Those employing a special gadget for 19 point hands and those who stretch a 2NT opener are down an extra trick. Those who strain to respond with the South hand cringe when partner jumps to 2S (game-forcing), landing in 3NT or 4S, down 2.

Board 20: Another slam! North opens 2C, South responds a "waiting" or "semipositive" 2D or a 7-9 hcp "steps" 2S, North rebids 2NT showing 22-24 over the waiting bid and simply 22+ if South has shown values. South does the arithmentic: 9+22 = 31, normally not enough to give a good play at 6NT, so Gerber won't answer the crucial question "Do we have a play for 12 tricks?" Instead, South jumps to 4NT, quantitative (4NT isn't Blackwood when Gerber is available.) North raises to 6NT with 23 and a good suit. (North could bid 5C, natural, exploring for a fit, but that could be misinterpreted and, in any case, a useful ruff does not look likely.) 12 tricks on any lead.

If South bids an old-fashioned positive 2NT (8-10 balanced), North may blast into 6NT or invite with 4NT, which South might pass.

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