Right-click here for hands.
Competition Corner -- Board 21: Three voids in one deal make for wild bidding!
South opens 1C after two passes; West overcalls 1D. North has just enough to bid 1H -- you would certainly bid had West passed, and may as well compete for the part-score. East can raise diamonds but may as well show his major suit on the way, 1S. South has a huge hand for hearts; grand slam could be on opposite xxx KQxx xxxx Ax . South can best describe his hand with a splinter jump to 4D or even a void-showing jump to 5D (some would play that as Voidwood, RKCB for hearts but exclude the Ace of diamonds.) North may not have much so it's risky to go past game; 4D by South. North can expect to ruff several diamonds in South's hand but slam requires South to have 4 key cards or 3 plus the Queen; 4H seems prudent. East has defensive tricks in hearts but also a great offensive hand; with no worries they can make slam, uncertain about setting 4H, and chances 5D could make, may as well push them to the five level with 5D. South takes the push, seeing good chances for 5H and uncertain whether partner can provide any help on defense. (If the 4D bid seemed a compete description, South would pass the decision to partner, but here the diamond void and seven card club suit are unknown to partner.)
The auction sounds good for West -- partner has help in spades and diamonds, the clubs are located over the club bidder, and West is void in hearts. Partner already knows about the diamonds, may as well show the spades (5S.) Partner is unlikely to expect more than 3 card support for such a delayed bid. North expects to set either 5S or 6D and so doubles 5S. East ponders, but the good spots in diamonds argue for 6D, with the chance of pitching a spade loser on a heart. South has done enough; after two passes North doubles 6D. At the club, all three N/S pairs bought the contract in hearts, managing only 8 or 9 tricks with against the extremely bad breaks. At diamonds, best defense is for North to play the Ace and another trump, but the holding looks ideal for a club lead and West should manage to score a spade, heart, club, and eight ruffs.
Better Bidding -- Board 10: South has 20 hcp with 1444 shape including the stiff Ace of spades. Strong 4441's can be awkward; one solution is to open 2NT, treating the singleton ace as a doubleton. Another would be to open 1C or 1D and jump to 3NT over partner's 1S, but that bidding usually indicates a long running minor suit. On this hand I'd open 1C, reverse to 2H over partner's 1S (portraying 4-5 shape, but the clubs are fairly sturdy.) Responder rebids 2NT, either natural (a good description on this hand) or "lebensohl", a puppet to 3C preparing to sign off at three of a suit. Either way, opener raises to 3NT.
If the initial response is 1D; opener jump-shifts with 2H, responder bids 2NT, and opener can bid 3D, forcing since the jump shift created a game force. But responder is unlikely to bid notrump again and the final contract is apt to be 5D down one. With help in spades opener does better to raise 2NT to 3NT at the risk of missing a diamond slam.
Slamarama
Board 2: Is South's hand worth a vulnerable 2S opening in second seat? I'd pass, and with a like-thinking partner prefer to play "Features" over responder's 2NT; but with those who like to open such hands, Ogust makes sense so responder can find out something about suit quality. North can count 9 running tricks only of partner has the KQ of spades and a side Ace, and even so there should be extra chances at a spade contract, so I'd raise straight to 4S, expecting some play for 10 tricks opposite almost any vulnerable weak two. 12 tricks roll in if South guesses trumps correctly, but that's mostly due to a 3-2 break and successful finesse in diamonds.
Board 7: South opens 1D, North responds 1H, South raises to 2H. North counts 5 losers (King of spades, KQ of hearts, AQ of clubs) and partner could easily have four of those cards for his opening bid, but more likely has something wasted in diamonds. North can bid 2S, ostensibly a game try; South has a ruffing value there along with good trumps and controls, and so should accept by jumping to 4H. North reveals his slam interest with a 5C cue-bid; this suggests some reason for avoiding 4NT, such as two diamond losers or a void. South cue-bids his diamond control, which doesn't help, and North retreats to 5H. Twelve tricks can be made by taking the losing spade finesse early, pitching a club from dummy, and ruffing both a club and the fourth spade, but a lot of luck is required.
Note: the 2D result at our table was a mistake, as was the 660; I actually played 4H making 5, +650. This should be corrected sometime tomorrow.
Board 11: South opens 1D, West overcalls 1S, North responds 2C, and East competes with 2S. South has only 12 hcp
Board 20: East opens 1D, South overcalls 1H, West passes and North has a huge hand in support of hearts. A 4C splinter seems the best description and South, with half his values in clubs, signs off at 4H. As it happens North can make 6S or 6NT with the King of diamonds protected from East's lead and two finesse working. That's no great surprise given East's opening bid, but North cannot be sure how strong South is for his overcall.
No comments:
Post a Comment