Friday 3/4/2011

Right-click here for hands.

Board 2: An aggressive not-vul vs. vul matchpoint 3D call (we use 2D for other things) went for -1100 after double, all pass. (The 1110 appears to be a typo; the Bridgemates quit qorking at some point.) N/S have 27 hcp but would do well to stop at 3NT, the only game likely to make.

Over a 2D opening, North starts with a double, South leaps to 3H, North shows his "too strong to overcall" hand with 3S, and South bids 3NT. North has not shown his complete shape but South points appear to be in the red suits and pass will be the winning choice.

Board 9: North opens 1C; this hand is an average 14 count, the five card suit compensating for poor intermediates (no tens or nines), so not worth an upgrade to a 15-17 notrump. South counts five losers and should smell a possible slam if a fit can be located, but his hand is poor in controls and 1S is a reasonable first move.


If West passes, N/S should reach 5S after a 1NT rebid, New Minor Forcing 2D gadget, jump to 3S by North, and 4NT discovering two key cards are missing. But West jumps to 3D and most N/S pairs land in 4S, making six on the trump finesse.

Board 10: East's 1S should be followed by two passes to North, though some Wests may raise or respond with 1NT forcing despite the limited high cards. North has 18 hcp but the queen of spades will probably be useless except in notrump; still, North is rather strong for a simple 2H balancing bid and likely doubles first. South leaps to 3H, leaving some room in case North has a strong minor-suited overcall or strong balanced hand. North has a good hand but does not know about South's void or the ten card fit, so I would expect a simpe raise to 4H.

The opening spade lead is ruffed in dummy, and to make 12 tricks North must ruff three more spades and so cannot afford two rounds of trumps. Instead, North leads a low diamond toward his Queen; if West has the King, a club can be pitched later, while if East has the King, he cannot attack clubs. West grabs his King and switches to a club, but declarer grabs the Ace, ruffs another spade, crosses to the Queen of diamonds, ruffs a third spade, pitches his club loser on the Ace of diamonds (praying for a 4-3 split), ruffs a diamond to hand, ruffs his last spade, and finally draws trumps.

If West raises spades, North doubles, East re-raises to 3S preemptively (he could redouble to show a good hand), and when South bids 4H freely, North can infer he has at most 1 sapde. Still, gettng to slam looks like a stretch, and it isn't a lydown or easy to play.

Board 15: South opens 3C which should end the auction -- neither West nor East has enough high cards to bid on power alone, and neither is short in clubs to justify bidding on "shape". Obviously several players did bid, trading a plus score for a minus.

Board 18: East can expect his hand to produce 9 1/2 tricks if he can lead toward his hearts twice, but that requires entries in partner's hand; I think I 'd settle for a heavy 1H opening. Some Souths may indulge themselves with an Unusual 2NT at the favorable vulenrability, but bidding on such weak hands generally hands the other side a "road map" to the correct bidding and play. Wst raises to 2H (don't trot out those spades with such a weak hand, there's no bonus for finding a second major suit fit.) North, unaware of East's powerhouse, "pre-balances" with 3C to push the enemy off the desired two level for part-scores. East can picture 12 tricks opposite two kings and perhaps a club finesse; it's hard to construct a reasonable hand for 13 tricks, and he does not need any key cards, so a direct 6H seems in order. Ordinarily you'd go through RKCB to make sure you're not missing a key card and the queen of trumps, but with this trump holding missing the KQ of trumps still gives you a 75% chance at only one loser. The slam rolls on the successful trump finesse.

Board 19: South opens 3H and West basically has a guess between 4S and 6S -- there is no clever bidding sequence likely to reveal whether partner has a club control and two more tricks. With 24 hcp in the other three hands, each (including the preemptor) will average about 8; it seems a fair bet that East will have the Ace or King of clubs or a singleton or North will lead a heart, and all East could easily provide two high card tricks and a heart ruff. No luck today, North cashes two clubs and gives partner a ruff.

Board 22: South opens 1D and West glances at the vulnerability before his prudent pass. North has obvious slam interest; South must have four diamonds or four hearts or both. This is the sort of hand where strong jump shifts help the most; 1D-2H; 2S-3D; 4NT-5S (two key cards plus the queen of trumps)-6D. don't worry about whether you should be in 6H, only one pair bid either slam. Declarer claims 14 tricks after West cashes his Ace. The jump shift lets opener evaluate his hand in terms of slam controls, and his mere 12 hcp turn into gold.

For those who have saddled themsleves with weak jump shifts, or who lack the imagination to see a slam with only 14 hcp as North, the bidding begins 1D-1H-1S. No heart or diamond rebid does justice to North's powerhouse, so he must resort to 2C, fourth suit artificial and forcing (to game, or North will continue to have problems the next round.) South rebids his diamonds, North rebids hearts. Even if you mark your card "fourth suit forcing one round", when responder bids the fourth suit and then makes a bid which would have been non-forcing a round earlier, such bid is now forcing. However, if you're not sure partner gets that, North jumps to 3H, which South probably raises without giving a thought to slam, and completely unaware of the big diamond fit. See how much easier strong jumps make things?

Back to the expert treatment, 4th suit forcing to game or 4th suit and rebid forcing to game, South raises 2H to 3H -- no need to leap, he has excellent controls if North is contemplating slam. This leaves room for 4D by North, finally revealing his slam interest but only showing a diamond control, not a fit. South has minimal trumps but three quick tricks, a singleton in the fourth suit and a source of tricks which the cue-bid should solidify, so 4NT (key card for hearts this time) - 5S (two plus the Queen)-6H.

Board 27: East opens a near-maximum 1S after three passes and forces to game with a jump to 3H over West's 1NT response.West has 9 hcp, a fit, and two big spade honors but his minor suit honors are of doubtful value (partner has shown 9+ cards in the majors) and so simply raises to 4H. East counts five losers and it isn't reasonable for partner to cover four of those on this bidding, so 4H should end the auction. Both majors behave well for a lucky 12 tricks.

Our "step Precision" auction proceeded 1C-1H (16+ artificial, 8-10 artificial); 1S-1NT; 2H-3H (all natural);
3S (control cuebid, as hearts were agreed.) At this point I signed off in 4H, but move the Queen of clubs over to the heart suit and I would've cooperated with a 4S cue-bid, which would lead to an excellent slam. The two artificial bids established a game force and left extra room for natural bidding and exploration.